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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Thursday, October 23rd, 2014.
Israeli settlers take over Palestinian lands in the west Bank and clashes continue in Jerusalem. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.
On Thursday the Israeli military confiscated 20 dunams (approximately 5 acres) of Palestinian-owned land, located near the illegal settlement bloc of Ariel, in the northern occupied West Bank.
Israeli bulldozers in the Palestinian village of Haris, near the Barqan settlement, on Thursday, began razing some 20 dunams of agricultural lands, while dozens of Israelis from nearby Ariel came to participate in destroying the fields.
A statement from the Salfit governorate said that the land, located in the village of Bruqin, had been under threat since its owners were served with an evacuation order, in 2013, which stated that the land was Israeli state property.
According local news sources, the seizure and destruction of Palestinian agricultural resources comes on the same day that Palestinian officials working in coordination with the local Committee Against Israel’s Separation Wall and the Settlements announced that they had succeeded in saving 15 dunams of land from confiscation, just a few kilometers away, in the southwestern part of the Ariel settlement bloc.
In related news, UN’s OCHA agency official James Rawley stated, Thursday, that the ongoing settler violence, in conjunction with recurring access restrictions imposed by Israeli authorities on Palestinians, continues to negatively impact their lives and livelihoods.
Elsewhere, Dozens of Israeli settlers attacked, overnight, several Palestinian homes in Sheikh Jarrah, in occupied East Jerusalem, and attacked residents, cars and homes with stones, sticks and sharp objects.
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan said settler groups hurled stones at cars, homes and property, causing excessive property damage, before attacking and wounding several Palestinians.
The center added that clashes, lasting all night, took place between Israeli soldiers and local Palestinians in various neighborhoods, alleys and towns, in occupied Jerusalem, especially in Silwan, south of the al-Aqsa Mosque, Shu’fat refugee camp, Mount Of Olives, and the Suwwana neighborhood.
Silwan is the town were Abdul-Rahman Shalloudi, 20, was shot and seriously injured, on Wednesday, by tram Israeli guards, and died from his wounds, shortly after midnight, at the Israeli Hospital. Shalloudi was shot by three rounds of live ammunition, one directly in his liver. He reportedly tried hit Israeli settlers at the tram station with his car.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Thursday, October 23rd, 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.
