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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Wednesday December 11, 2013.
Israeli settlers stab a Palestinian youth in Jerusalem and the military kidnaps six Palestinians in Bethlehem, these stories and more, coming up, stay tuned.
Palestinian media sources state that a young Palestinian man was moderately hurt after being stabbed by an Israeli settler in Jaffa Road, in West Jerusalem, the Milad News Agency has reported.
The sources said that Mohammad Marwan, 20 years of age, was heading back home from work when an Israeli settler stopped him to ask for a cigarette and, when the settler made sure that the young man was an Arab, he stabbed him.
The young Palestinian man, from Ras Al-’Amoud in East Jerusalem, was stabbed in the arm as he tried to fend off the attack, upon noticing the knife.
His family said that, after Mohammad was stabbed, around nine more settlers who were apparently hiding in the area gathered around him, and one of them was striking him on the head with a baton.
Mohammad’s cousin, who was shopping at a nearby store, said that he noticed one of the settlers placing a knife on his cousin’s neck, however the settlers fled the scene when he started screaming and running towards them.
In other news, dozens of Israeli soldiers have invaded the Aida Refugee camp, north of the West Bank city of Bethlehem, kidnapping six Palestinians, including two brothers, and serving two residents with warrants ordering them to head to a military base for interrogation.
Local sources have reported that the army broke into several homes and conducted violent searches, causing excessive property damage before kidnapping the six Palestinians.
The kidnapped have been identified as Khalil Abu Aker, 21, his brother Mustafa, 24, Hamdi Ali Ayyad, Mohammad Adel Jado, Jawad Mohammad, 20, and Akram Abu Khdeir, 18.
The army also served warrants to residents Ahmad Amer Odah, 24, and Saed Khalil Abu Aker, 21, ordering them to the Etzion military base, south of Bethlehem, for interrogation.
On Tuesday, soldiers invaded the nearby Deheisha refugee camp, south of Bethlehem, searched several homes and kidnapped five Palestinians, including three brothers.
In political news, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to arrive to the region, today, in order to push the last of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Palestinian sources expect a round of talks to be conducted by Kerry, with Palestinian and Israeli officials, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, talks which are crucial to the fate of negotiations between the two sides.
The sources confirmed, again, disappointment on the part of the Palestinians, in regard to the new U.S. proposals on security measures, stating that Washington had already adopted the Israeli position.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Wednesday December, 11, 2013 news round-up from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our web site at www.imemc.org. Today’s report has been brought to you by Ghassan Bannoura and George Rishmawi
