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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org for Tuesday July 16, 2013.

Israeli settler attacks reported in Jerusalem, while soldiers invade West Bank communities. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.

On Tuesday at dawn, Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian homes and cars close to Lions Gate at Jerusalem old city.

Local sources reported that Israeli settlers also attacked a group of Palestinian youth near the old city. Three Palestinian youth sustained light wounds during the attack.

The settlers’ attack on residents’ cars and homes in Jerusalem’s old city left two homes and three cars damaged.

Later in the day a group of settlers tried to invade al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem old city. According to witnesses, the Israeli police stopped the settlers from going inside because the worshipers inside the mosque gathered at the gate to protect the holy place.

Elsewhere, Israeli troops invaded on Tuesday morning the town of Yatta near the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

Soldiers searched and ransacked a number of homes in the town before kidnapping two brothers. The troops gave no reason for the attack.

In other news the Israeli newspaper Haartez reported on Tuesday that the European Union has recently issued a directive forbidding member states from funding or cooperating with organizations or individuals that are from the West Bank settlements and East Jerusalem.

According to the report any new deal with Israel will include a clause that confirms that the settlements are not part of Israel and that those agreements do not apply to the settlements.

According to Haartez the new directive will be implemented on all agreements between the EU and Israel that will be signed between the years of 2014 and 2020.

All Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem are considered illegal under international law as they are built on occupied land.

And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Tuesday July 16th, news round-up from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our website at www.imemc.org. Today’s report has been brought to you by Shamus Slaunwhite and me, Ghassan Bannoura.

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