 HEBRON, West Bank (AP) - In the most violent Palestinian protest yet against cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, crowds smashed windows and threw stones Wednesday at the headquarters of international observers, prompting them to quit this volatile West Bank city.
The hundreds of rioters in Hebron, most of them youths, overpowered a Palestinian police detail at the compound of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron, or TIPH. The police were stationed at the building after the Danish cartoons began sparking protests across the Muslim world more than a week ago.
| Just overpowered them, they did, the police were helpless. |
Protesters threw bottles and stones at TIPH's office building and tried to set it on fire. A few forced themselves inside, where observers waved clubs in an attempt to drive them off.
| The notion of fixing bayonets never occurred to them ... |
The protesters had smashed nearly all of the windows in the mission's three-story office building, and damaged three TIPH cars.
Eleven Danish members of TIPH left Hebron more than a week ago, but after the attack Wednesday, all 60 members of the mission's foreign staff who were inside the building decided to leave for their own safety, mission spokeswoman Gunhild Forselv said. Departing mission staff hugged and kissed Palestinian staffers as they took leave. "It is a very sad day, and we hope to return as soon as possible," Forselv said.
| Call us when the coast is clear!" |
TIPH's mandate is to observe and report on tensions between Palestinians and a small group of Jewish settlers in the city, protected by the Israeli military. |