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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Tuesday September 28th, 2010.
Israeli settlers attacks in a number of locations in the West Bank as navy commandos capture aid boat heading to Gaza, these stories and more coming up stay tuned.
Israeli settlers attacked on Tuesday morning some areas in the village of Qaryut south of Nablus and broke into some houses, local sources reported.
Residents of the nearby Sara village told media that they have seen settlers riding horses carrying blades and clubs heading to Qaryut. The residents said, that the settlers threatened to kill them all.
Abu Bashar, resident of Sara village, said that settlers broke into two houses, however, some youth from the village clashed with them and forced them to leave. Najla’a Abdelfattah told media that three settlers broke into her house and threatened her.
Also near the northern city of Nablus, another group of settlers trespassed into the olive orchards in the village of Awarta, near and stole olives. The villagers told media the settlers came form the nearby settlement of Yitzahar, adding that this is not the first time they invade the fields and steal the olives.
In the meantime, thousands of settlers rallied near Damascus gate of the old city of Jerusalem. The Palestine News Agency WAFA reported that settlers chanted anti-palestinian slogans calling for expelling all the Palestinians from Palestine.
Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli police closed the road that leads to Silwan that is very close to the old city. They added that shop owners closed their shops to avoid an expected settler attack, which is according to eyewitnesses, a typical action by the settlers.
In Hebron, an Israeli court released 12-year-old Karam Khaled Da’ana on bail after spending eight days in jail.
Da’ana was abducted by Israeli troops after being assaulted by Israeli settlers near his school on September 21. The kid’s family paid 2000 Israeli shekels to get their son released,.
Head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society in Hebron, Amjad Najjar condemned the abduction of the lad, and said it is against the law to jail a 12-year-old child.
In other news, Israeli commandos captured the boat Irene which was heading to Gaza coming from Cyprus. The boats is loaded with International supporters, mainly jewish people and was aimed at entering the Gaza Strip to provide food and medical supplies to the population there.
Israeli sources said the boat was boarded by Israeli navy officers and was towed to Ashdod port without any violence.
The 10 foot catamaran, bearing the British flag, left Cyprus on Monday with the desire to reach the coastline of Gaza, and was taking passengers from the U.S., U.K., Germany and Israel, all of whom are Jewish, including two journalists. All the passengers were arrested and interrogated by the Israeli police.
As soon as the boat stopped in Ashdod, dozens of Israeli peace activists, including families of the Israeli passengers gathered at the port to protest their arrest.
According to the international campaign to end the Gaza siege, more boats will be sailing to the Gaza strip in the coming couple months.
In the Gaza Strip, three Palestinians were killed when Israeli aircrafts bombarded an area close to Al-Bureij refugee camp, in the central part of the coastal region.
The three were identified as Ala Abu Zneda, Awni Abdul Hadi, and Muhammad Eid. Israeli sources said the three are members of the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine.
Another house was damaged as a result of the Israeli shelling, however, no casualties were reported.
By this we come to the end of our report for today, thank you for joining us form occupied Bethlehem, you have been listening to Palestine Today, from the International Middle East Media Center. For more updates, please visit our website at www.imemc.org. This report has been brought to you by, Hussam Qassis, and George Rishmawi.
