JERUSALEM - A teenage Jewish settler was arrested by Israeli police Sunday on suspicion of vandalising property in a Palestinian village near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, police said.
The 16-year-old youth from the settlement of Yitzhar is suspected of throwing stones at soldiers and defacing property in the village of Asira al-Qibliya with friends late Friday.
Police said the teenagers got drunk at celebrations for the Jewish carnival of Purim before clashing with the soldiers, accusing them of behaving like Nazis and puncturing tyres of police jeeps.
On January 3, Israeli forces made a dozen arrests as they came under attack from stone-throwers while trying to dismantle the nearby unauthorised outpost of Mitzpeh Yitzhar, which consists of two mobile homes.
The Israeli military said later Sunday it would hold talks with Israeli police to ensure extremists living in the West Bank in general and Yitzhar in particular are dealt with adequately.
The army said it expected "community leaders of Yitzhar to condemn this type of behaviour and act in order to ensure that they will not be repeated".
Israeli security forces are bracing themselves for a wave of civil disobedience led by ultra-nationalists and religious extremists in a bid to derail the government's plan to evacuate the Gaza Strip later this year.
03/27/2005 14:34 GMT