WEST BANK-TEENAGERS/PATROLS Israeli settlers continue to hitchhike as West Bank crackdown escalates

Record ID: 565496

  • Title: WEST BANK-TEENAGERS/PATROLS Israeli settlers continue to hitchhike as West Bank crackdown escalates
  • Date: 17th June 2014
  • Summary: RESENDING WITH FULL SCRIPT. Israeli youths continue to hitchhike across the West Bank despite last week's kidnapping of three seminary students, as Israel surges troops into Hebron in a crackdown on the Islamist group accused of abducting them. SHOWS: GUSH ETZION, WEST BANK (JUNE 17, 2014) (REUTERS-ACCESS ALL) 1. CAR PULLING UP TO ROADSIDE 2. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WAITING ON ROADSIDE 3. SOLDIERS STANDING GUARD AT ROADSIDE 4. WOMAN EXITING CAR AS OTHERS WAIT 5. MAN CATCHING A RIDE WITH PASSING CAR 6. GIRL WAITING AT ROADSIDE 7. WOMAN CATCHING A RIDE WITH PASSING CAR 8. SETTLEMENT RESIDENT DAVID MORDECHAI ON ROADSIDE WAITING FOR A RIDE 9. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI SETTLER DAVID MORDECHAI, SAYING: "We live and we should continue, we need to continue to live here, there's no way I'm going to stop to catch a ride here." 10. MORDECHAI WAITING FOR A RIDE 11. MORDECHAI GETTING INTO CAR 12. ROAD SIGN READING (Hebrew, Arabic, English): 'HEBRON' 13. OUTSKIRTS OF HEBRON AS SEEN FROM GUSH ETZION HEBRON, WEST BANK (JUNE 17, 2014) (REUTERS-ACCESS ALL) 14. VARIOUS OF ISRAELI TROOPS MARCHING IN HEBRON 15. ISRAELI TROOPS TAKING UP POSITIONS AT ENTRANCE TO APARTMENT BUILDING 16. RESIDENTS PEERING DOWN FROM WINDOWS 17. TROOPS IN POSITION OUTSIDE BUILDING 18. VARIOUS OF ISRAELI SOLDIERS ENTERING GATE OF RESIDENTIAL COMPOUND 19. TROOPS PULLING GATE CLOSED 20. VARIOUS OF ISRAELI TROOPS SURROUNDING BUILDING 21. PALESTINIAN WOMAN WATCHING 22. ISRAELI SOLDIER ON BALCONY PULLING CURTAIN CLOSED 23. VARIOUS OF ISRAELI SOLDIERS AND BOY WALKING UP STAIRS OF BUILDING
  • Embargoed: 2nd July 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: West bank
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA687HQTN023S4D0KFA6CU99PE2
  • Story Text: Israel expanded a crackdown on Palestinian militants on Tuesday (June 17), arresting more than 40 Hamas Islamists and wounding half a dozen people in confrontations sparked by a dragnet military search for three missing teenagers.
    Naftali Bennett, a far-right member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet said Israel's goal was not just finding the seminary students who disappeared on Thursday (June 12), but also "turning Hamas membership into a ticket to hell."
    Israel says Hamas, which signed a unity deal with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in April, kidnapped the two 16-year-olds and one 19-year-old, who were last spotted near a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank as they were attempting to hitchhike. Hamas has not claimed responsibility for the abductions. Western-backed Abbas has condemned the kidnappings, as well as Israeli raids and arrests in the West Bank.
    Near West Bank settlements on Tuesday, Israelis continued to hitchhike. Many said they had no alternative, citing a lack of public transportation.
    "We need to continue to live here," said David Mordechai, an Israeli who lives in the nearby Jewish settlement of Alon Shvut.
    "There's no way I'm going to stop to catch a ride here," he said while he waited for a car to pick him up.
    The Israeli military said more than 40 Hamas militants had been arrested in overnight raids raising to more than 200 the numbers arrested since Friday (June 13), among them Palestinian Parliament Speaker Aziz Dweik.
    The Israeli raids have spread from house-to-house searches though darkened homes in Hebron, a Hamas stronghold, to other parts of the West Bank.
    Soldiers and police wounded five Palestinians reported in confrontations in the Ramallah, Jenin and Nablus areas, Israeli and Palestinian security sources said.
    Israel said it shot and wounded a Palestinian trying to breach a settlement fence near Ramallah, and another who threw stones in the Nablus area.
    Three others were wounded in clashes with Israeli troops in Jenin, Palestinian officials said.
    In Gaza, Israel bombed four militant targets early on Tuesday in response to rocket fire at southern Israel. There were no reported casualties in these incidents.
    With little progress reported in the searches, Netanyahu's security cabinet was scheduled to convene again to weigh further measures. Officials said the raids were intended to weaken Hamas in the West Bank, not only to find the missing Israelis.
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