In the West Bank, the IDF issues 2 military orders confiscating 140 d. of Palestinian land in Bardala village in the Jordan Valley (reportedly for “settlement activities”) and 22 d. nr. Yatta outside Hebron (to build a wall near Miskadot Yehuda settlement); sends troops into Ramallah, where they occupy a previously abandoned observation post, withdrawing later in the afternoon; makes a rare daytime incursion into Dahaysha r.c. to arrest a Palestinian teenager; conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches nr. Bethlehem, Jenin. Jewish settlers attack 2 Palestinian homes in Hebron, claiming that Palestinians threw stones fr. the area; the IDF, accompanied by settlers, evacuates and searches the homes. Some 20 masked, armed Jewish settlers fr. Talmon and Harsha settlements nr. Ramallah attack a Palestinian home and car, causing heavy damage. Jewish settlers fr. Yitzhar stone Palestinian cars driving nr. the settlement, causing no reported injuries. Later in the day, the same settlers close the Nablus–Ramallah road to Palestinian traffic. (OCHA 9/24; PCHR 9/25)
Thursday, September 18, 2008