The laws are not being enforced sufficiently and promptly in Hebron, especially with regard to Israeli settlers, Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh (Labor) said yesterday during a visit to the city.

Sneh's scheduled visit was widely covered following last week's broadcast of a video showing a female settler swearing and attacking an Arab family in Hebron's Tel Rumeida neighborhood. Palestinian residents said attacks by this woman and other settlers have been going on for a long time.

The woman, Yifat Alkobi, was questioned by police yesterday on suspicion of several violent attacks on Palestinians, including the attack on the house of the Abu Aisha family that was broadcast on television last week.

In one case, Alkobi was charged with attacking Yusuf Aza, a 10-year-old boy. He told Yesh Din, a human rights organization, that Alkobi had pushed rocks into his mouth and closed his jaws forcefully on them, breaking some of his teeth.

Alkobi was released under restrictions after questioning and the police will consider whether to press charges against her. She filed a counter-complaint against the Abu Aisha family, saying they had provoked her.

Sneh and Peretz's political aide, Hagai Alon, visited the Abu Aisha?s house, which is surrounded by iron bars like a cage, in an attempt to protect themselves from the settlers? attacks. They were accompanied by Hebron Brigade Commander Colonel Yehuda Fuchs.

"We cannot allow the fact that people live in cages because someone is harassing them in an area we control," Sneh said. The ministerial committee set up on Sunday to deal with the settlers' law violations in Hebron will have its hands full, Sneh said.

Sneh was received with curses by radical right-wing activists in Hebron.

He and officers of the IDF and the police serving in the area discussed the justice system's slow and ineffective handling of the settlers' rioting in Hebron.
Abandoned homes

The officers told him of the settlers' taking over Palestinian homes surrounding the Jewish community?s area. Some of these houses had been abandoned by their owners following the settlers? ongoing attacks and harassment, while others were purchased in dubious ways.

The officers said that one of the complaints regarding Alkobi's harassment of Palestinians, for which she was questioned yesterday, had been filed already in 2001. They said that the State Prosecution has difficulty obtaining evidence against settlers who attacked Palestinians, and that in most cases the judges release suspects very quickly.

The settlers' committee in Hebron said the video of Alkobi had been made about half a year ago and was being used now as part of the ongoing propaganda of foreign and Israeli left-wing organizations intended to undermine the Jewish hold on Hebron.