WEST BANK: Hills set ablaze near Nablus, following stone-throwing clashes between Palestinians and Jewish settlers

Record ID: 561222

  • Title: WEST BANK: Hills set ablaze near Nablus, following stone-throwing clashes between Palestinians and Jewish settlers
  • Date: 3rd June 2010
  • Summary: ASEERA ALQIBLIYAH, NEAR NABLUS, WEST BANK (JUNE 2, 2010) (REUTERS) PALESTINIAN WHEAT FIELDS IN FLAMES VARIOUS OF ARMY STOPPING VILLAGERS FROM REACHING FIELDS SMOKE BILLOWING FROM FIRES ON HILLTOP SOLDIERS WALKING BY PALESTINIANS GOING TO FIELD AND TRYING TO PUT OUT FLAMES VARIOUS OF ISRAELI FORCES STANDING BY AS PALESTINIANS REMOVE WHEAT FROM BURNING FIELDS VARIOUS OF MASKED JEWISH SETTLERS, HOLDING BATONS, STANDING AT TOP OF BURNING HILLS FIELD ON FIRE / PALESTINIANS ATTEMPTING TO PUT OUT FIRE PALESTINIAN AND SOLDIER POINTING LOCAL PALESTINIAN VILLAGERS ARGUING WITH THE ISRAELI SOLDIERS SOLDIERS CHASING AWAY PALESTINIAN STONE-THROWING YOUTHS / FIRING TEAR GAS BOMB VARIOUS OF SETTLERS AT HILLTOP STANDING WITH SOLDIERS SOLDIERS PUSHING PALESTINIAN POLICEMAN SOLDIERS DENYING PALESTINIANS ACCESS TO HILLTOP MAN HOLDING BURNT WHEAT MASKED SETTLERS AT HILLTOP MORE SETTLERS JOINING SETTLERS AT HILLTOP FAST MOVING FIRE WIDE OF WEST BANK HILL
  • Embargoed: 18th June 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA3HR5C38VLZN7Q86IWU95CLKYN
  • Story Text: West Bank hilltops were set ablaze on Wednesday (June 2) after a brief stone-throwing incident between Jewish settlers and local Palestinian villagers, the Israeli army said.
    A Reuters cameraman said the hilltops were burning upon his arrival and villagers from Aseera Alqibliya near Nablus were prevented for a time by Israeli soldiers from climbing the hilltop to collect hay and wheat from fields which were on fire.
    The Israeli army told Reuters that both sides had been engaged with stone throwing and the fire had been burning prior to the arrival of the army.
    Masked Jewish settlers, armed with batons, stood atop burning hilltops as Palestinians attempted to extinguish fires burning across some 50 dunams (12.5 acres) of land.
    The fields belong to Palestinian villagers from the near by village of Aseera AlQibliyah who have often complained about nearby Jewish settlers setting their fields ablaze and on occasion carrying out attacks against their village.
    An army spokeswoman confirmed fire was set following "mutual stone throwing between Palestinians and settlers". There were no casualties reported during the incident and the spokeswoman said soldiers used riot control arms to disperse the crowd.
    Last month, a fire damaged a mosque in a neighbouring Palestinian West Bank village and a mosque official blamed Jewish settlers.
    Settlers who live near the Nablus area tend to be religiously motivated, claiming a biblical link to lands occupied by Israel in a 1967 war.
    A month before that, Palestinians blamed settlers for vandalising a mosque in another neighbouring village of Hawara, also near Nablus, further fuelling tensions in the area. The settlers who live in hilltop enclaves have grown ever bolder, Palestinians say.
    The Israeli police arrested one teenager from a Jewish settlement in connection with the Yasuf mosque attack. He was questioned and released without charge.
    Some 500,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank and areas near Jerusalem annexed by Israel after the 1967 war.
    Major world powers view the settlements as illegal and an obstacle to any Palestinian-Israeli peace deal.
    Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official who monitors settlement activities in the Nablus governorate, said the rate of settler attacks has increased in the first quarter of this year compared with 2009.
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