Illegal Israeli Settlers Set Palestinian Homes on Fire, in Al-Qurmi Neighborhood, in East Jerusalem

[ 11/05/2010 - 05:17 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)--

Dozens of savage illegal Israeli settlers set fire to Palestinian homes in Al-Qurmi neighborhood in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem on Tuesday which led to the outbreak of clashes between the residents and the assailants.

Eyewitness said that dozens of the illegal Israeli settlers holding burning torches and escorted by Israel occupation soldiers stormed all of a sudden the neighborhood and threatened the residents to burn down all houses over their heads if they did not leave the area.

The Palestinian residents tried to defend themselves in an attempt to protect their homes, but some of the settlers set some windows of the homes ablaze before fire trucks arrived one hour late to extinguish the fire.

Al-Qurmi neighborhood connects between the areas of Al-Saraya and Aqabat Al-Khalidiya inside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem and many settlement institutions have been trying for decades to lay their hands on the Palestinian real estate.

In another incident, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) burned hundreds of lash pastures in the foothills of Umm Al-Quba in the Jordan valley during a military drill in the area.

Eyewitnesses said that the scorched lands are pastures used by nomadic herders living in the area, affirming that the troops during their drill deliberately burned the grazing lands in order to keep the nomads, who are regularly harassed, out of the area.

For its part, the Palestinian ministry of agriculture reported Tuesday that the Israeli settlers and troops recently bulldozed and burned hundreds of dunums of agricultural lands in the West Bank and its villages.

The ministry said that the latest of these violations was in the village of Jet located between Nablus and Qalqiliya, north of the West Bank, where dozens of settlers torched five dunums of agricultural lands owned by Palestinian citizens.

It added that the IOF troops prevent many West Bank farmers from entering and working their lands, while the settlers wage daily attacks on the Palestinian citizens and farmers living near the settlements.

The ministry also affirmed that the Israeli armored bulldozers destroy on a daily basis the agricultural lands located on the eastern and northern borders of the Gaza Strip.

In separate incidents, different Palestinian local sources reported that the IOF troops kidnapped one citizen from the village of Husan in Bethlehem and two others from the village of Dura in Al-Khalil at dawn Tuesday.

They also said that Israeli settlers threw stones and sprayed paint on Palestinian cars in the village of Tekoa, east of Bethlehem, without any reported injuries.

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