Published yesterday (updated) 03/01/2010 11:36

Qalqiliya - Ma’an -

Brothers were attacked in their car by rock-throwing settlers near the illegal Israeli settlement of  Yakir in the northern West Bank on Friday.

Brothers from Immatin, east of Qalqiliya, were injured when settlers threw stones at their car as they passed a junction serving the nearby settlement. Their family reported that one of the boys was in serious condition.

Israeli forces confirmed reports of what they said was “mutual stone throwing,” between settlers and Palestinians in the area, but could not confirm any injuries.

The brothers were later identified as Osama and Ziad Suan, who were driving home from Ramallah at the time of the attack, head of the Immatin local council Haytham Suwwan said.

Suwwan said Ziad, the elder brother, sustained injuries to his hand, while his younger brother Osama was hit in the head and face.

The young men continued driving despite their injuries until they reached the village of Al-Fundoq, where they received first aid and were transferred to the Darwiesh Nazzal Hospital in Qalqiliya, then onto a hospital in Nablus for further medical treatment.

A Qalqiliya resident filed a suit Saturday, against Israeli border police he said stole his horse and handed it over to a kibbutz.

Sulaiman Ghannam from Suffin, east of Qalqiliya, said the incident began at midnight on Tuesday when several Israeli military jeeps entered the village. His property was among those targeted and soldiers entered the home after looking through his barns.

The soldiers asked about a horse in the barns, which Ghannam confirmed as his own.

“The soldiers left and came back minutes later saying they wanted to take the horse for checks,” Ghannam said. He was told he could go to Checkpoint 109 south of Qalqiliya the following day to ask about the animal.

The next morning, Ghannam said, “I headed to that checkpoint and soldiers asked me to wait.” He was questioned for an hour and a half, and asked to provide papers for the horse and proof that it was indeed his. According to Ghannam, he told the soldiers to get a blood sample from the horse so he could provide samples from its mother, still boarding at the family farm. “But they refused,” he said.

Ghannam said he also provided soldiers with vaccination records for the horse, but he was told they were not valid.

“At 10am, an Israeli woman came in a truck with an animal trailer attached and soldiers said it would be taken to a Kibbutz for further checks.”

Ghannam filed a suit through the Palestinian liaison department, but said he was told by his lawyer that he would not be able to get the horse back without sufficient proof of ownership.

IOF troops detain 6 Palestinians, settlers assault woman in O. Jerusalem

[ 03/01/2010 - 11:14 AM ]

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)--

Israeli occupation forces (IOF) rounded up six Palestinians at dawn Sunday three of them in Al-Khalil's Arub refugee camp and three in Bethlehem city.

Local sources said that the IOF soldiers searched the detained young men's homes in the refugee camp before taking them away.

The IOF soldiers on Saturday prevented farmers from tending to their lands near the Beit Ummar village, Al-Khalil district, and arrested a youth in Edhna village in the same district.

Meanwhile, Jewish settlers on Saturday assaulted a Palestinian woman in occupied Jerusalem and brutally beat her.

Local sources said that Nadia Al-Kurd was hospitalized after the savage attack in her home.

The Israeli occupation authority had seized a section of Kurd's home and handed it to Jewish settlers two months ago.

Settlers in Qalqilia also attacked a Palestinian car with stones seriously wounding one of its passengers, who was injured in his head and face, and lightly wounding the other.

Tens of settlers attacked Palestinian lands also on Saturday in Qarawat Bani Hassan village west of Salfit, locals said, noting that IOF troops escorted the settlers on their rampage in the village lands.

Army Bombards Northern Gaza

Friday January 01, 2010 00:01 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Israeli occupation soldiers fired, on Friday evening, a number of shells at the Izbit Abed-Rabbo area, east of Jabalia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

Local sources also reported that at least one surface-to-surface missile was fired into the area.

Local rescue teams rushed to the scene to search for casualties; no injuries were reported until the time of this report.

Meanwhile Israeli sources reported that Palestinian fighters fired two shells from northern Gaza into the Western Negev region.

The sources added that a shell hit an open area that belongs to the Sdot Regional Council, while another shell struck a Palestinian area, close to the Kerem Shalom crossing.

The Salahuddin Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, said that it fired five shells into adjacent Israeli areas.