Palestine: Women rounded up in settler killing
RAMALLAH, West Bank – Palestinians in a West Bank town say Israeli troops have rounded up some 200 women as part of a search for the killer of five Israelis in a nearby settlement last month. Kais Awwad, the mayor of Awarta, says the women were taken into custody in an overnight raid. He says troops fingerprinted them and took DNA samples from their mouths. He says that as of Thursday morning, about 100 women remained in custody, along with about 50 village men arrested in earlier raids. The Israeli military had no comment. Details of the investigation are under a gag order. Israel has been carrying out arrests Awarta since a young Israeli couple and three of their children were stabbed to death in the neighboring Jewish settlement of Itamar.