RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Israeli army deployed large numbers of troops in the West Bank the morning of Aug. 8, turning it into a military zone after the discovery of the body of an off-duty Israeli soldier, Dvir Sorek, 18, in the Gush Etzion settlement near Bethlehem. Sorek had been stabbed to death.
Following the discovery of Sorek’s body, the Israeli army scoured the town of Beit Fajjar, south of Bethlehem, combing agricultural lands and going through surveillance camera tapes from the town entrance in an attempt to identify the perpetrators. The army raided several areas in Bethlehem and Hebron and closed the main roads between the southern West Bank cities Aug. 8.
Meanwhile, settlers launched sporadic attacks in various areas of the West Bank, most notably on the Gush Etzion roundabout where they hurled stones at Palestinian vehicles and near the village of al-Laban, north of Ramallah, where Palestinians' cars were damaged. A Palestinian was injured in Hebron after his car was stoned. In the most recent such attack, on Aug. 10, settlers attacked the family of Shaker al-Tamimi east of Hebron. No casualties were reported.
On the same day the Israeli army arrested four Palestinians, including a woman from Beit Kahel, in the west of Hebron. The army also seized one of the suspect’s vehicles. After a few hours, the Israeli General Security Service (Shin Bet) said two of the arrested Palestinians — Nazir Saleh Khalil Asafra, 24, and Qasem Araf Khalil Asafra, 30 — were behind Sorek’s murder and that investigations were ongoing.
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