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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Wednesday, February 17, 2016.
Two Palestinian civilians injured, 13 others kidnapped as Israeli troops invade West Bank communities. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.
A Palestinian worker from Nahhalin town, west of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, has been injured, earlier Wednesday, after falling from a high point as Israeli soldiers were chasing him.
The wounded worker, Wajdi Najajra, 30, was heading to work in Jerusalem through Wadi Abu al-Hummus road, near al-Khass village, in Bethlehem district, but some Israeli soldiers, stationed on a nearby military roadblock, chased him until her fell from a high point, and suffered fractures in his legs.
The soldiers did not proceed to abduct the man, and left the area; locals called for an ambulance, before he was hospitalized suffering moderate wounds, and fractures in his legs.
Also near Bethlehem, Israeli soldiers shot and injured, on Wednesday at dawn, a young man in the al-Khader town. Eyewitnesses said several military vehicles invaded the town, after surrounding it, and clashed with dozens of local youths, who hurled stones and empty bottles on them.
The army fired several live rounds, wounding a young man in his thigh, in the an-Nashash area in the town, before local medics moved him to a hospital. Similar clashes took place near the main entrance of the Deheishe refugee camp, south of Bethlehem.
In related news, the soldiers invaded various districts in the occupied West Bank, including in Jerusalem, violently searched homes, and kidnapped 13 Palestinians.
In other news, Palestinian Authority security forces, on Wednesday, detained 22 Palestinian teachers who took part in a strike demanding the guarantee of teachers’ rights, sources in the Palestinian Teachers’ Union said.
The sources said that the teachers, two of whom are principals, were detained in raids across the occupied West Bank. As part of the strike, an estimated 20,000 Palestinian teachers demonstrated in Ramallah, on Tuesday, to call for the implementation of an 2013 agreement guaranteeing teachers’ rights.
Most schools in the occupied West Bank shut down completely in protest, while other establishments closed before noon, as teachers gathered in front of the PA cabinet headquarters to demonstrate. The teachers called for the resignation of the head of the teachers’ union, Ahmad Sahwil, and for the organization of elections within the teachers’ union.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Wednesday, February 17, 2016, news round-up from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. From more news and updates, please visit our website at www.imemc.org Today’s report has been brought to you by George Rishmawi and me Ghassan Bannoura.