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Five American tourists attacked in West Bank city of Hebron

Xinhua, September 4, 2015 Adjust font size:

Five American tourists were pelted by stones and firebombs after accidently entering a Palestinian neighborhood in Hebron on Thursday evening, a police spokesperson confirmed to Xinhua.

The five American Ultra-Orthodox Yeshiva students were making their way to the tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron's old quarters in the West Bank on Thursday evening, when they accidently entered the Palestinian neighborhood of Jabel Johar.

A mob gathered, throwing stones and a firebomb and setting the tourists' car on fire.

A local resident took the tourists in until Israeli police and military arrived and evacuated them. Two of the tourists suffered light to moderate wounds.

Stone hurling has become a popular resistance method against Israeli control of Palestinian territories, starting with the first intifadah, or armed uprising, in the late 1980s.

In response to rising rock throwers and firebomb incidents, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday ordered to increase security presence in Jerusalem and on the highway leading to it.

Officials will study legal procedures against stone-throwers along with firebomb instigators, with new minimum sentences for such behavior to be determined.

Hebron, situated 30 km south of Jerusalem, is the largest city in the West Bank, home to around 200,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Jewish settlers who concentrated mainly around the old quarter.

The city has been a site of conflict for many years since the establishment of the Jewish settlements, following the 1967 Mideast war. Endit