Israelis and Palestinians clashed near the West Bank settlement of
Itamar on Saturday but the two sides gave conflicting accounts of the
incident.
Palestinian security officials said that settlers attacked
Palestinian shepherds from the neighbouring village of Yanun, south
of Nablus, and stabbed five of their sheep to death.
They said that Israeli troops who arrived at the scene joined the
settlers in opening rifle fire on the Palestinians, wounding one
seriously and two moderately.
An army spokeswoman said no Palestinian was wounded by live fire,
adding that soldiers employed "riot dispersal means" to separate the
sides, usually a reference to tear gas or rubber bullets.
"There was a clash between Israeli civilians and many Palestinians
that broke out and included mutual rock-throwing," she told AFP.
"We know that during this confrontation one Israeli civilian and one
Palestinian were injured by rocks."
The UN Human Rights Council has set up a panel to probe Jewish
settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
