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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Tuesday March 1, 2011.
On Monday, Hundreds of Israeli settlers blocked a Nablus road, and dozens more tried to block a main road in Jerusalem, calling for the Israeli government to allow the expansion of a settlement colony located in the northern West Bank. The protest came after a group of settlers tried to expand the settlement of Havat Gilad as the government dismantled a caravan constructed on Palestinian land that the settlers were trying to seize.
Angered by the Israeli army for demolishing four homes at the Gilad illegal settlement outpost near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Israeli settlers carried out several attacks against Palestinians, and vowed further attacks in coming days. They said that they marked down several Palestinians targets, and that they might also conduct attacks against mosques in the Nablus area.
The Israeli police arrested, on Monday evening, twenty three settlers who initiated violence during the protest.
A group of extremist settlers set fire to a Palestinian home near Nablus Monday night, Palestinian media sources reported. According to the Ma’an News Agency, the groups threw Molotov cocktails at houses in Huwara village, near Nablus, which set fire to one home that belongs to a resident identified as Rabee’ Taha.
An Israeli settler hit a Palestinian boy with his car in Hebron, on Monday evening, Ma’an News Agency reported. The boy was taken to the al-Mizan Hospital to receive treatment. Medics said the youth sustained moderate wounds.
Settler violence continued on Tuesday as settlers attacked several Palestinian neighborhoods in the southern West Bank city of Hebron. Dozens of settlers led by extremist settler-leader Baroch Merzel, conducted a provocative march in the Old city, and the area around the Ibrahimi Mosque, to protest the evacuation of some homes at an illegal outpost near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
Israel has announced plans to legalize a total of 96 settlement outposts. According to Israeli NGO Peace Now, there are a total of 99 settlement outposts, of which the government is planning to dismantle three. However, as part of the same decision, the government is planning to legalize the remaining outposts as they are located on ‘state lands’
In Gaza news, on Monday, Israeli radio report that the Israeli Army intends to carry out specified and targeted attacks against certain areas in the Gaza Strip without conducting a direct confrontation or ground invasions at the current stage. The attacks will include targeting resistance groups, weapon storage facilities, the siege-busting tunnels in Rafah.
Also on Monday, The Israeli army killed a man who entered the 300m ‘buffer zone’ in Gaza
That sums up our news for today, thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today, from International Middle East Media Center. For more updates, please visit our website at www.imemc.org. This report has been brought to you by Husam Qassis and Ramona M.
