IDF troops on the Israeli side of the Erez crossing into Gaza fire warning shots at some 80 Palestinian and international activists staging a nonviolent march to the border to protest Israel’s imposition of a buffer zone; no injuries are reported. Israeli naval vessels fire on Palestinian fishing boats off the n. Gaza coast, forcing them to return to shore. In the West Bank, the IDF patrols in Birzeit and 2 nearby villages and in Tulkarm and 1 nearby village. Jewish settlers block Palestinian traffic on the Tulkarm-Nablus road nr. Bayt Lid, marking the 2d anniversary of the shooting death of a settler there. Jewish settlers guarded by the IDF hold religious services at the fmr. Homesh settlement site (removed by the IDF in 2005 as part of the Gaza disengagement). (OCHA, PCHR 5/12)
Tuesday, May 10, 2011