Hundreds of Palestinian Authority Arabs are rioting at this hour between Kiryat Arba and Hebron following the death of PA Minister Ziad Abu Ein in clashes with the IDF in Samaria.

Rioters are hurling rocks and firebombs at soldiers and burning tires on the road between the two communities.

No injuries have been reported as of 9 a.m. Thursday.

Video footage of Wednesday’s protest show segments of the standoff between Abu Ein, who led a protest march towards the Jewish community of Adei Ad, and soldiers.

The Palestinian Authority claims soldiers beat Ein, but the only physical contact that can be seen is a soldier shoving him.

The IDF is on high alert for riots throughout Judea and Samaria on Thursday, when Abu Ein is to buried near Ramallah.

Pikud HaOref asks residents of Gush Etzion: Efrat, Kiryat arba, Beitar Ilit and surrounding communities to get to their bomb shelters within sixty (60) seconds from when the siren goes off next time. Previously residents had a minute and a half to get to safety.

Jerusalem time remains the same.

Pikud Oref says this isn’t an official change at this point. Just a review of the current instructions.

Palestinian Authority Arab terrorists are using new hi-tech methods in their efforts to murder Israelis on the roads in Judea and Samaria.

A Jewish driver reported Sunday he nearly became the first victim of the new technique on Highway 60 in Samaria. The incident occurred near the Jewish town of Ofra.

According to the driver, an Arab vehicle pulled up alongside his own car. The Arab driver then pointed a laser at his eyes, trying to blind him and force him to lose control of his vehicle.

“He tried to divert my view from the road so that I would crash,” the driver told the Arutz Sheva website. “By a miracle I managed to escape… it’s clear that he tried to kill me.”

The number of road terror incidents has risen over the past year, since the start of the dead-on-arrival ‘framework talks’ forced on Israel and the Palestinian Authority by the United States.

Despite the risk, road blocks that prevented terrorists from scooting into Arab villages after an attack were removed from major hot spots along Highway 60 in Judea and Samaria.

Since the start of the talks, a sleek new traffic circle and intersection – funded by USAID — has replaced what once was a blocked entrance to the city of Hevron along Highway 60 in Judea, and the village of Shuyukh on the opposite side.

Today, instead, the entrance to the village is now a brand new road with a new sign bearing the name ‘Al-Shuyukh.’ On the other side of the road, a large, gated entrance to Hevron is protected with electronic fencing and security in place. It’s not clear who controls what there.

A massive traffic circle plus the free passage of pedestrians across the road slows the traffic on Highway 60 – a major artery – to a trickle, often causing traffic jams during the busiest hours.

Such traffic jams can be deadly for Jewish drivers on such a road; vehicles with Israeli license plates become sitting ducks for hostile Arabs and PA terrorists on the hunt for victims.

Even slowdowns can be lethal; in September 2011, Kiryat Arba resident Asher Palmer paid the price with his life and that of his one year old toddler Yonatan. Palmer was killed in a drive-by road terror attack after Arab terrorists hurled a huge rock at his windshield while driving by his car on Highway 60. The rock hit Palmer square in the face; he lost control of his car, which then crashed, killing both him and his baby son.

Only through the persistence of medics who had been on the scene, activists and media coverage did the circumstances of Palmer’s murder become clear. Initially police and other officials believed Palmer’s car had crashed by accident.

U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Martin Indyk is on his way back to the region today (Thursday) to officially revive the talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

State Department spokesperson Marty Harf told reporters at a briefing that both sides have told Secretary of State John Kerry they want to continue negotiations beyond the current April 29 deadline.

Neither side was willing to meet after the terrorist attack in Judea on Monday that killed senior police officer Baruch Mizrahi, a father of five, and wounded his wife and 9-year-old son. The attacker or attackers were standing on the side of the road on Highway 35 near Hevron, shooting at vehicles with Israeli license plates, a witness said. One arrest has allegedly been made but no details were released. Mizrahi was on his way with his family to a seder in Kiryat Arba to celebrate the Passover holiday when he was murdered.

Talks that were scheduled for Wednesday night were cancelled. Both sides were unwilling to negotiate in the face of another Arab terror attack on Jews using an AK-47 – a weapon supplied to PA police by the U.S. military, among others – ostensibly to strengthen its forces so they could ‘fight terror.’

On Thursday, those talks are set to resume with Indyk, Israel’s Justice Minister and chief negotiator Tzipi Livni and negotiator Yitzhak Molcho, and the PA’s chief negotiator Saeb Erekat.

PA spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudaineh told a media briefing in Ramallah that an agreement is already in place to extend the talks.

“The Palestinian commitment is clear to the Israelis and the Americans, and this commitment is that the talks will continue until April 29, and that Israel should release the fourth group of prisoners,” Rudaineh told reporters. “This is the basic Palestinian demand. This is not a Palestinian condition, but it is a Palestinian demand, which was agreed upon with the U.S. secretary of state according to which 104 pre-Oslo prisoners would be released, and in return we would not go to the United Nations organizations for nine months… Now the talks with the Israelis and the Americans are continuing to the end of this month to discuss the basis that could lead to an extension of the negotiations,” he said.

Various proposals are being advanced by Israel in order to wrestle with the issue of the Israeli Arab prisoners among the fourth and final group that was held back due to lack of progress in the talks.

The Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) party has threatened to leave the government if those prisoners – Israeli citizens who are all Arab terrorists – are freed.

One option would be to revoke their citizenship and deport them. Another would be to simply send the entire group to Gaza or abroad. In either case, resistance from the PA is expected – as usual.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu blamed Palestinian Authority incitement for the terrorist attack that left a 46-year-old police officer dead, and his 28-year-old pregnant wife and nine year old son wounded.

A terrorist opened fire at Israeli civilian vehicles traveling along Highway 35, near the western edge of Hevron. Israeli soldiers closed off the area in search of the perpetrators but have yet to make arrests.

Netanyahu issued the statement to media following the murder of Israel Police Chief Superintendent Baruch Mizrahi, of blessed memory. He and his family were traveling on the road to a seder to celebrate Passover in Kiryat Arba at the time of the attack.

Mizrahi is to be laid to rest at 1:00 p.m. local time Wednesday at the military cemetery in Jerusalem, Mount Herzl, in the section reserved for the Israel Police.

Mizrahi served as director of Technology in the SigInt Unit for the Intelligence division of Israel Police since June 2011. He served in various roles in the IDF for 25 years, ending his military career as a Lieutenant Colonel in the 8200 Intelligence Unit.

“Baruch z’l devoted his entire life to two great loves – his family and the State of Israel,” said his commander. His entire unit and Israel Police released a statement expressing their joining the grief of the family and their wishes for a speedy recovery for his wife.

The terrorist responsible for the murder was standing by the side of a road, waiting for targets, armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, also known as a Kalashnikov. He also shot at other cars passing on the road, according to the Tazpit News Agency, which received reports of attacks from other drivers.

The AK-47 is the same weapon supplied to the Palestinian Authority police force by the U.S. government, via Jordan, during military training at an American-funded base in Jericho during the Bush administration under the supervision of U.S. Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton.

“This reprehensible murder of a man who was traveling with his family to a meal for the Festival of Freedom is the result of the incitement for which the Palestinian Authority is responsible. The Palestinian Authority continues to constantly broadcast – in its official media – programs that incite against the existence of the State of Israel,” he said.

“Last night this incitement was translated into the murder of a father who was traveling with his family to celebrate the first night of Passover. The incitement of the Palestinian Authority continues in that it has yet to see fit to condemn this abominable and reprehensible act,” Netanyahu pointed out.

Government Minister Uri Ariel (Bayit Yehudi) released  a statement warning that every PA prisoner release emboldens the terrorists, and demanded the government cancel all future releases. Ariel said the government should require the PA to cancel any unilateral steps at the United Nations as a precondition to continuing any final status talks.

The United States has supplied more than $161 million dollars to the Palestinian Authority for paramilitary training for its security forces. This includes provision of assault rifles, ammunition and other military supplies. There have been a number of terrorist attacks on Israeli citizens committed by so-called “PA police officers” using this equipment.

Although the United States has had the fantasy that the PA security forces would enforce agreements made by its government to abandon violence and restrain terrorist groups in order to “enable” a “two state solution” — that has not worked out. Instead the PA paramilitary force has simply continued along its traditional path of enforcing the corruption of its leaders. Moreover, some of its members have joined – or returned to — terrorist ranks, bringing along with them new knowledge, training and equipment gifted to them from the American government.

These new police terrorists are more dangerous than the garden-variety operatives because they often appear to be security personnel, while being the very opposite.

A military court has convicted the second of two Arabs who killed Asher Palmer and his two-your-sold son by throwing a huge rock at their vehicle near Kiryat Arba in 2011.

Last July, the court sentenced Waal al-Arjeh to a double life sentence plus 58 tears in jail for the murder, the first time military judges have recognized rocks as murder weapons. Ali Sa’ada, convicted on Monday for the same crime, now faces a similar sentence.

Both terrorists smashed Palmer’s windshield. Palmer, who was hit in the head by the rock, lost control of his car and overturned. Israeli insisted that Palmer and his son died in a traffic accident and did not tie the deaths with  rock-throwing until the publication of photographs that clearly showed a bloodstained rock, the size of a cinder block or small boulder, and a hole in the car’s windshield.

The attorney for Michael Palmer, Asher’s father, said that al Arjeh, who worked for the  Palestinian Authority security force, was the ringleader of a terrorist cell that attacked Jewish motorists several times.

A Palestinian Authority Arab approached the Kiryat Arba security gate on Thursday evening. An alert IDF soldier from the Givati Brigade noticed something unusual about the man and the way he was moving.

The IDF solider raised his rifle, just as the PA Arab was approaching the gate and some nearby Jewish children.

The terrorist dropped his weapon and was arressted.