A Jerusalem court Wednesday freed a Jewish settler suspected of firing on Palestinians at point blank range in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron.
Zeev Braudeh from the settlement of Kiryat Arba on the city's outskirts turned himself into police Saturday after video footage released by a human rights group showed him firing at a group of Palestinians.
Two Palestinians were injured by the gunfire and Braudeh suffered light wounds after a Palestinian crowd threw stones at him.
The judge ordered the immediate release of Braudeh and criticized Israeli police for failing to arrest any of the stone-throwing Palestinians.
"Police are treating the Palestinian behavior in this incident extremely light-handedly," the ruling said. "We cannot take part in this blatant discrimination."
Last Thursday, a mob of Jewish extremists went on the rampage in Hebron and across the occupied West Bank in retaliation for the forcible eviction by Israeli police of some 250 settlers from a Hebron house.
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