Palestine Today 070308

Thursday July 03, 2008 23:47 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News

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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org, for Thursday July 3ed, 2008.

The Israeli army attacks a village in the West Bank and kidnaps 24 civilians while in Jerusalem demolishes two Palestinian homes, these stories and more coming up stay tuned.

The News Cast

One Palestinian man was injured and three others kidnapped during morning attacks the Israeli army did in Hebron city in the southern part of the West Bank on Thursday. Abed Al Azzez Nahro, 17, was injured during clashes that took place between invading Israeli troops and local youth in Al Fowar refugee camp near Hebron.

The clashes erupted when soldiers stormed the refugee camp and searched homes, witnesses said. Meanwhile the Israeli army kidnapped Mussa Al Tawil, age 28, after searching homes in downtown Hebron city on Thursday morning.

In the nearby Beit Omer village, Israeli forces attacked a number of homes Thursday at dawn; soldiers left the village after kidnapping Mohamed Awwad, 42, who works at a local NGO.

Also on Thursday the Israeli army invaded the village of Duma, south of Nablus city in the northern part of the West Bank, troops kidnapped 24 civilians during the attack. Local sources said that soldiers and jeeps stormed the village on Thursday at dawn, during the attack that lasted for several hours, Israeli troops searched and ransacked a number of homes, and witnesses said that soldiers did cause some damage to the homes they searched.

On Thursday morning the Israeli army left Duma village taking the 24 men to an unknown detention camp. Sources in the village said that most of those taken by the army are Fatah supporters. The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas heads the Fatah party, who are now leading the peace talks with Israel.

Later on Thursday midday the Israeli army demolished two Palestinian owned homes in the city of Jerusalem, the Israeli army also attacked the families who triedto stop the bulldozers and injured some of them. The Israeli army says the homes were built without needed permits. Since it occupied the city Israel rarely gave building permits to the Palestinians of Jerusalem.

Moreover an Israeli police force and army unit attacked on Thursday morning homes of Palestinian families that live in Jerusalem's old city. Witnesses said that soldiers fired tear gas and sound bombs at residents' homes then searched a number of them, during the search, witnesses added that police officers detained men and beat them up.

Eid Qwass, an owner of one of those homes was beaten up so badly that he had to be sent to a hospital, sources in the old city of Jerusalem reported. Local sources stated that the attack happened for no reason and that soldiers were attacking randomly the homes and gave no justifications.

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. This report has been brought to you by Taylor Bray and Ghassan Bannoura.

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