Police ordered Arab workers to cease construction on a new Arab marketplace, or casbah, inbetween the Jewish town of Kiryat Arab and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hevron. Jewish residents of Hevron protested in front of the construction vehicles. The protest was lead by the mayor of the Jewish quarter, Malachi Levinger. Noam Arnon, a spokesman for the Hebron Jewish community said the new marketplace construction has an ulterior motive of cutting off Jewish access to the Cave and bringing terrorist elements closer to the Jewish community.