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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Monday, October 20th, 2014.
Israeli settlers take over Palestinian homes in Jerusalem and troops kidnap civilians from West Bank communities. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.
Dozens of armed Israeli settlers and soldiers occupied, on Monday at dawn, two apartment buildings and a land, in the Batn al-Hawa area, in Silwan town, south of the al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem.
The two buildings consist of 10 apartments; the attack took place around 2 a.m., the Wadi Hilweh Information Center reported. It added that groups of settlers invaded the Central neighborhood in the town, and took over the two vacant buildings, and the land.
The Center said settlement groups, in cooperation with the Israeli government, are trying to fully control all Arab buildings in the Central neighborhood in Silwan, under several claims, including “state land” claim, and under Israel’s “Absentee Property Law,’ while a few individuals have sold their residencies to the settlers.
In related news Israeli soldiers demolished on Monday midday seven homes in different areas of the Jordan valley, local sources reported.
According to local sources the homes demolished were located in al Fasayel and Jiftlek Palestinian communities.
Elsewhere, scores of residents were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation when Israeli troops stormed on Monday midday the village of Taqu’a near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem.
Witnesses said that soldiers stormed the village and fired tear gas at school children and nearby homes. Local youth responded by hurling stones at them. Troops left the village.
Earlier on Monday at dawn, Israeli soldiers invaded various communities in different parts of the occupied West Bank, and kidnapped seven Palestinians, including a journalist, after invading their homes and ransacking them.
Local sources said dozens of soldiers invaded Ni’lin village, west of the central West Bank city of Ramallah, and kidnapped a journalist working for the al-Aqsa Satellite TV.
The journalist has been identified as Mustafa Abdul-Razeq al-Khawaja. Other invasions and kidnappings were reported in the cities of Hebron and Jenin, local sources reported.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Monday, October 20th, 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.
