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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Thursday January 17th, 2013.

Palestinian detainees go on hunger strike, and Israeli army bulldozers demolishes Bab Al Shames village near Jerusalem. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.

Palestinian detainees, held at the Israeli Eshil prison, declared hunger strike in protest to the transfer of 27 detainees into solitary confinement, and to the ongoing violations carried out by the soldiers against them.

The Palestinian Ministry of Detainees issued a press release stating that the detainees started their hunger strike one day ago after the Israeli Prison Authority forced 27 detainees into solitary confinement.

The detainees said that the army is escalating its attacks against them, while the prison administration decided to deny family visits for one month.

In related news Israeli soldiers invaded several West Bank communities, late on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, broke into and searched several homes, and kidnapped a number of Islamic Jihad members and supporters, mainly those involves in solidarity activities supporting Palestinian political prisoners held by Israel. Invasions were reported in Jenin city, northern West Bank and Hebron in the south.

In other news Israeli soldiers, acc ompanied by military bulldozers, attacked and demolished the Bab Al-Shams Palestinian village established by nonviolent activists on Palestinian lands Israel considers as “E1” area, and wants to build Jewish settlements on it.

The soldiers removed the tents after sealing the area and declaring it a closed military zone. Last week the army evicted the village by force when activists and residents tried to go back on Tuesday of this week they were met by force as well. 10 were injured and 17 arrested when the army attacked the activists on Tuesday.

And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Thursday January 17th, news round-up from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our website at www.imemc.org. Today’s report has been brought to you by Hussam Qassis and me, Ghassan Bannoura.

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