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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Monday September 19, 2011
Intensive settler attacks and Israeli soldiers kidnap nine Palestinians in the West Bank, the details and more are coming up, stay tuned.
A number of armed Israeli settlers invaded on Monday morning an olive orchard in the village of Deir Istia, near Salfit, in the northern part of the West Bank.
Nathmi Salman, head of the village council, confirmed that settlers chain-sew around 500 trees that belong to Daoud Harb. The farmer told media that settlers destroyed all his 6 acre farm and cut all his olive, figs and almond trees.
The villagers said that they believe the settlers came from Revava settlement, less than one mile away from the land.
The Palestinian News Agency, WAFA, reported that Israeli settlers opened their automatic machine gun fire at residential areas in the town of Bureen near Nablus in the early hours of Monday morning, however, no injuries were reported. Ghassan Dughlus, in charge of the settlements file in the northern West Bank said that settlers also attempted to invade the nearby village of Awarta, but failed.
Settler violence has increased during the past month, especially after the Palestinian Authority declared its intention to go to the United Nations to ask for international recognition of a Palestinian state.
In the meantime, the popular committee against the wall and settlements in the village of Beit Oula, near Ramallah organized a civilian night watch to protect the village from possible settler or military attacks.
Coordinator of the committee Issa al-Amlah, said the unarmed guards will be on duty 24 hours a day, especially after the Israeli authorities handed evacuation warrants to some of the villagers.
The effort is part of a larger campaign organized by a number of villages in the Ramallah area to protect the villages from settler attacks. The campaign is called “We refuse to die silent”.
In the meantime, Israeli troops kidnapped 9 Palestinians in three West Bank locations. Palestinian media sources said that an Israeli military force invaded Hebron area in the southern West Bank and kidnapped five residents.
Eyewitnesses said that troops broke into a number of houses in Al-Arroub refugee camp, north of Hebron and kidnapped three residents and took them to unknown destination.
Troops also kidnapped two others from the town of Dura and from Hebron city. Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers kidnapped another resident in Al-Shawawra village near Bethlehem and three other residents in Jenin.
That was just some of the news from Palestine Today, for more updates, please visit our website at www.imemc.org. Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. This report has been brought to you by Hussam Qassis and me, George Rishmawi.
