Right-wing settlers from the West Bank have been holed up in the Maoz Hayam hotel in the illegal Jewish colony of Gush Katif in the occupied Gaza Strip. Some 30 families have moved in the past few weeks to fortify resistance to the expected pullout of Jewish settlements. Among them are key Kach militants. Some Jewish militants residing in the hotel went on a rampage Saturday night, June 18, beating and wounding four Palestinians, residents said, in the neaby Muassi area, near the beach. One of the victims was shot. The settlers tried to claim the Palestinians made them attack them, in self-defense, but one unnamed IDF officer was skeptical:
"It is clear that the hotel occupants were the provocateurs here. This is what they do at their homes in Judea and Samaria [settler argot for the West Bank] ... They feel their Sabbath is incomplete if they have not attacked Palestinians.(Ynet, Jan. 18 [1]; Haaretz, June 21) [2]
