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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Wednesday, November 26th, 2014.
Troops invade West Bank communities and kidnap civilians and the Israeli PM approves settlement constructions. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.
Israeli soldiers invaded, on Wednesday at dawn, various Palestinian communities in different parts of the occupied West Bank, broke into homes and ransacked them, and kidnapped twelve Palestinians.
Local sources in Bethlehem have reported that several armored military vehicles invaded Wadi Fokkin village, west of Bethlehem, and kidnapped three Palestinians.
Soldiers also invaded the al-Fawwar refugee camp, south of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and kidnapped three Palestinians after breaking into their homes and ransacking them.
Also in Hebron, soldiers installed a roadblock near the Beit Hagai settlement, stopped and searched dozens of Palestinian cars and searched them while interrogating the residents, and inspecting their ID cards.
In occupied Jerusalem, soldiers kidnapped four Palestinians, including a young woman who was assaulted by the soldiers.
In related news, soldiers invaded the central West Bank city of Ramallah, in addition to al-Biereh and Betunia towns, and kidnapped two Palestinians.
The latest violations are part of daily invasions, arrests and assaults carried out by the army against the Palestinians and their property in different parts of the occupied West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.
In other news, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has given orders for the allocation of $18.1 Million in expansion funds for 300 units of Beit El settlement, illegally built near Ramallah, according Israeli media sources.
Netanyahu ordered Finance Minister Yair Lapid to allocate this money to move an Israeli army base, while making room for the construction of 300 settlement units in Beit El.
Lapid has reportedly refused to do so, noting that the transfer of such a large amount of money needs to come with a cabinet’s vote.
Additionally, Israeli Minister of Housing Uri Ariel said that the settlement expansion project was “on his desk”, and that he has demanded Netanyahu to order Lapid to fund the relocation of the base, which the latter refused to do.
Head of the Anti-wall and Settlement Commission, Ziad Abu Ein, stressed that this secret deal sabotages the prospect of a future Palestinian state.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Wednesday, November 26th, 2014, news round-up from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our websiteatwww.imemc.org. Today’s report has been brought to you by George Rishmawi and me Ghassan Bannoura.