Rabbi pelted with rocks in West Bank

YASUF, West Bank, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- A senior Jewish rabbi on a peace mission to an occupied West Bank village was pelted by rocks Monday, witnesses said.

Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger was in the village of Yasuf to hold talks with Palestinian leaders in the wake of an incident last week in which right-wing Jewish settlers, angry over a 10-month settlement freeze imposed by the Israeli government, burned an Arab mosque, Ynetnews.com reported.

The newspaper said the rabbi had entered the village under the protection of the Israeli Army and Palestinian police, but that on their way out, the contingent was pelted by rocks, and troops responded by firing two shots in the air and a tear gas grenade.

Israeli military officials and the Border Guard denied Palestinian reports that clashes broke out in Yasuf Monday as a Palestinian member of the Knesset, Talab El-Sana, visited the scene of the torched mosque. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz cited reports from unnamed Palestinian sources indicating that residents hurled stones at soldiers, who allegedly responded with rubber bullets and tear gas.

But military officials said that protesters threw rocks at a patrol jeep, and soldiers responded only by firing shots into the air.