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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Monday August 20th, 2012.
Israeli settlers try to control a land near Bethlehem by building a mock chicken farm, meanwhile Israel claims it has arrested a Palestinian group planing to kidnap soldiers, these stories and more, coming up, stay tuned.
A number of Israeli settlers set up a mock chicken farm on a privately-owned Palestinian land, in Ein Natour area, in the town of Al-Khader in the Bethlehem district.
Ahmad Salah, head of the popular committee against the settlements said the land belongs to farmers from Sbeih family, with an area that is equal to 30 thousand square meters.
The settlers came from the nearby illegal Neve Danial settlement. According to Salah, settlers brought a big cage, and installed it 40 meters away from the fence of the settlement, and put five chickens inside it, and claimed they have a chicken farm.
Salah said this is a new way to confiscate privately owned Palestinian land in order to grap more land and expand the settlements.
On the other hand, Israeli media sources said that Israeli police is investigating the terror attack by Israeli settlers against a Palestinian family last Thursday in which six Palestinians were wounded when a settlers threw a fire bomb against a taxi the family was riding causing them serious injuries.
The sources said, a Palestinian taxi driver filed a complaint at the Israeli police station claiming that settlers attacked his car with stones. The police, according to the source, arrested one settler from Alon Shufit settlement near Bethlehem and interrogated him as they believe there is a link between the stone throwing incident and the fire-bomb attack.
In related but separate news, Israeli magistrates court in Jerusalem prolonged the detention of five Jewish Israelis suspected of being involved in the attack that targeted three Palestinian youth on Friday in Ben Yiuhuda street in Jerusalem.
One of the victims, Subhi Joulani was severely bitten by young Israelis and suffered serious injuries to the chest and other parts of his body.
The three Palestinian men were attacked while shopping in Beh Yihuda street in Jerusalem by some extremist jewish settlers who were screaming “Death to all Arabs” and other anti-Arab slogans.
A-Joulani was treated on the site by paramedics, but was taken to Hadassa hospital and was checked into the Intensive Care Unit for further treatment.
Israeli Radio revealed on Monday that the Israeli security service captured a Palestinian cell that was planning to abduct Israeli soldiers to exchange them with Palestinian prisoners.
The Radio claimed the cell belongs to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Israeli military found weapons with them when arrested last May.
By this we come to the end of the news for today, This was the Monday August 20, 2012 round up of news from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our website at www.imemc.org. Today’s report has been brought to you by Husam Qassis and me, George Rishmawi
