Palestine Today 122607

Wednesday December 26, 2007 19:06 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC - Audio Dept.

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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org, for Thursday December 20th, 2007.

The Israeli army kidnaps 13 Palestinian civilians across the West Bank and settler attacks leaves four injured in the northern part of the West Bank, those stories and more coming up stay tuned.

The news cast

In pre-dawn invasions that targeted several parts of the West Bank the Israeli army kidnapped 13 Palestinians on Wednesday morning. Palestinian sources stated that the kidnappings took place in Nablus, Qalqilia and Ramallah; meanwhile local sources added that the invading troops had clashed with local resistance men in the town of Qabatiya and the Balata refugee camp, in the northern part of the West Bank.

Israeli army sources said that those men kidnapped on Wednesday were on the army's wanted list for being part of the Palestinian resistance; Palestinian sources said that those kidnapped were civilians. Palestinian sources reported on Wednesday that a group of farmers in their fields near Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank, were badly beaten by a group of Israeli settlers living illegally in the area on Tuesday.

The settlements in the Nablus area are illegal under both international and Israeli law, but Israeli authorities allow the settlements there, deep within the Palestinian West Bank territory, to continue to expand on stolen Palestinian land. Local sources reported that four farmers, including one fifteen-year old boy, were badly beaten with sticks and sprayed with pepper gas by Israeli settlers. Israeli police were called, but did nothing about the incident, and the assailants were not apprehended.

Of the four who were attacked, two of the injured had to be treated at a local hospital in Nablus

Internally, the ruling Hamas movement in Gaza accused its rival Fatah party on Wednesday of attempting to further tighten the siege being imposed on the Gaza Strip, where Hamas has wrestled control for the past six months. In a statement faxed to the press, Hamas's spokesperson, Fawzi Barhoum, criticized recent remarks by Fatah's spokesperson's on the alleged infiltration of Fatah Al-Islam, into the Hamas-run coastal region, as 'an attempt to prolong the blockade of Gaza'.

Ahmad Abdelrhaman, Fatah spokesperson in Ramallah, yesterday held Hamas responsible for what he called ' the likely negative consequences' of the existence of the Fatah Al-Islam group, which has been engaged in fighting with the Lebanese army over the past several months.

Abdelrahman considered the presence of such a controversial group as a threat to Gaza's security, which has been destabilized since Fatah and Hamas have been involved in a power struggle over the past year. Media reports have recently said that a new group, calling itself Fatah Al-Islam had claimed responsibility for firing homemade shells onto nearby Israeli areas.

Conclusion

Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, brought to you by Caroline Jones and Ghassan Bannoura.

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