Settlers fired warning shots on Saturday at a large group of Israeli human rights activists and the Palestinians they were helping to harvest olives in the hills near Yitzhar and Itamar in Samaria. One Israeli was lightly wounded.

The incident was the latest in a series of incidents this month in which settlers have verbally harassed, stoned, and shot at Palestinian olive harvesters as well as the activists that are helping them.

Israeli Amiel Vardi said he was picking olives near Yitzhar with five Palestinians when a number of settlers arrived and starting shouting at them. They did not respond. "Then the settlers started shooting," Vardi said.

The Palestinians fled, but Vardi remained. He came out from under the tree where he had been working and shouted at the settlers, "I am an Israeli. If you go on shooting, you will hit an Israeli," Vardi said.

"During my army service I was shot at several times. I was always scared. This time I wasn't. It was crazy. I was just furious. I stood there and shouted again, 'I am an Israeli.' One of the settlers shouted 'dirty leftist' and shot at me. It hit the ground a meter and a half away from me. I shouted to the settler, 'You got it, you hit me.'"

In truth, Vardi said, he was hit in the stomach by a piece of debris from the ground.

Adam Keller, a spokesman for the activist group Gush Shalom, said that 250 activists from a number of groups such as Peace Now, Ta'ayush (Jewish-Arabic partnership), and the Women's Peace Coalition arrived in the area around 11 a.m.. They were split into small groups.

Keller said he was picking olives with a Palestinian family when he heard gun shots. Everyone ran for cover near some stones. "We looked back and we saw four settlers wearing black trousers and white shirts. They were in their best clothes with guns pointing in our direction." The shooting seemed to go for 10 minutes, Keller said.

When the army arrived they tried to send the harvesters home, but in the end agreed to allow them to continue in limited areas.

In a conversation with the Jerusalem post internet staff, one of the Israeli activists, who would only give her first name, Liora, said her group had arrived at an olive grove near Yitzhar, at around 1 p.m. local time.

"They (the settlers) started shooting at us when we were there for only about ten minutes," she said. Even though they were most of the fire was shot in the air, she said they could not know that at the time." We just ran away." She says the fire lasted for some 10 minutes.

Later, she said, the activists resumed their work, but were moved by the IDF to a grove some 300 meters away, in what she termed "an attempt by the IDF to minimize 'friction' with the settlers." The olive-picking work, once resumed, lasted three hours.

Referring to Vardi's account, Liora said "they kept shooting even though he was calling out to them that he was an Israeli." "They just kept shouting obscenities at him," she added.

Police spokesman Gil Kleiman said there were two confrontations in which shots were fired. Four settlers were detained by police and then released. Kleiman said that when questioned, the settlers said they opened fire because they feared for the settlement's security.

Military sources said the shots were fired because the olive pickers were working in areas closed to them. They added that settlers have the right to fire warning shots to protect themselves.

Kleiman said that in recent weeks there has been a great deal of trouble between settlers and Palestinian olive pickers, mostly in Samaria. The most serious incident was on October 6, when a 24-year-old Palestinian, Hani Yusaf of Akraba, was killed while harvesting olives near Hirbat Yanun and Itamar. The bullet is being tested and a number of settlers have been questioned concerning the murder. One was arrested and then released, Kleiman said. The matter is still under investigation.

He said he does not condone violence against Palestinians, but the settlers have also been under attack for the last two years. He noted that from September 28, 2000, to September 28, 2002, there were 1,285 terror incidents in Judea and Samaria, of which 334 were shooting incidents and 846 incidents involved explosive devices.

A spokesman for Itamar, Ya'acov Hayman, said he was away over the weekend and knew nothing of the incident. But in an earlier interview about previous incidents in the area he said that 11 people from Itamar have been killed by Palestinian terrorists.

"We are not going to let them get anywhere near us," Hayman said. "It might seem like they are innocently picking olives but it does not take very long to climb the hill and attack the settlement. We are not willing to take any chances."

In another case allegedly connected to settler brutality, six Palestinian families on Friday set out from the tiny village of Hirbat Yanun, near the settlement of Itamar, leaving it completely abandoned.

Sobbing as they filled a truck with furniture and piled themselves into dusty cars, members of the Sobih clan said they were fleeing the village -- once home to 25 families -- after four years of worsening attacks by settlers, who have set up illegal outposts on nearby hilltops. The attacks have become increasingly frequent in recent months, they said.

"Our life here is more bitter than hell," Kamal Sobih, a thin, bearded man of 40, said Friday. Groups of masked Jewish settlers have charged into the village, coming at night with dogs and horses, stealing sheep, hurling stones through windows and beating the men with fists and rifle butts, Palestinian residents said.

An electricity generator has been scorched by fire, knocking out power to the village. Three large water tanks were tipped over and emptied.

An IDF spokesman, who insisted his name not be used, said soldiers try to prevent conflict between settlers and Palestinians, but that forces are primarily in the area to protect Israelis from attacks by Palestinian militants.

Police and the civil administration, as well as the Yesha Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, could not be reached for a statement Friday evening, because of the Shabbat

The nearby settlement of Itamar, about six miles west, was attacked by a Palestinian gunman June 20. Five Israelis were killed and eight were injured before the gunman was shot dead The residents of Yanun have not been linked to that attack or other violence.

More than 200,000 Jews live in about 150 settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip -- lands that are home to 3 million Palestinians, who hope to establish a state on the territory Israel conquered in 1967.

"Death would be easier than leaving," Kamal Sobih said, describing his attachment to the land where generations of his family have lived. "But there is no choice". He said he often spent nights keeping watch for attackers from his windows.

The Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip could not be reached for comment.

To hear Jerusalem Post Radio interviews with Peace Now spokesman Yariv Oppenheimer, as well as Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza spokesman Ezra Rozenfeld about the altercation, go to: www.jpostradio.com.

The Jerusalem Post Internet Staff, Itim and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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