11 arrested for stoning police guarding murder evidence

Police guarding a car used in a drive-by shooting on Sunday were attacked by protesters hurling stones who apparently hoped to destroy the vehicle and any evidence it might yield.

Eleven residents of the Bedouin village of Hura in the Negev near Beersheba were arrested, including a minor, for throwing rocks at the officers. One of the assailants reportedly tried to set fire to the car.

The arrests came after an Israeli man was killed earlier in the day when his vehicle was riddled with gunfire south of Hebron in the West Bank in what police described as a criminal incident, not a terror attack.

The 45-year-old man was taken to Beersheba’s Soroka Medical Center for emergency surgery in critical condition, rescue services said, but later died of his wounds.

The shooting, which police said was a drive-by attack, took place near the Meitar crossing in the southern West Bank.

Initial reports speculated that the incident might be a terror attack, but authorities said an initial investigation indicated it was likely a revenge attack in an ongoing feud between criminal groups.

Police said in a statement that the incident was believed to be linked to a murder that took place in Hura, three miles from the Meitar crossing, on Friday.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Arabic media reported that an IDF jeep overturned in the same area, injuring one. There was no immediate indication that the two incidents were related.