Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center www.imemc.org for Thursday September 11, 2008.

Israeli troops invaded a West Bank village; detain one, as an Israel naval vessel crashed a Palestinian fishing boat with fishermen on board on Gaza shores, these stories and more coming up, stay tuned.

The News Cast

Israeli troops invaded on Thursday morning the West Bank town of Abu Enjaim in the outskirts of Bethlehem city. The Israeli soldiers ransacked several houses in the village and eyewitnesses said, one person was taken prisoner.

Also in the West Bank, the Israeli center for human rights in the occupied territories,
“B’tselem, published a report stating that the Israeli settlement expansions have doubled over the past few years.

Although Israeli settlements in the West Bank constitute a breach of international law, and the Oslo accords and the US-backed Road Map for peace, Israel continues to build new settlements and expand existing ones up to this moment.

Meanwhile, for the first time in three years, the Israeli authorities, starting Friday, will allow Palestinian residents of Israel to travel with their own vehicles inside the West Bank city of Qalqilia.

In the Gaza Strip, the ruling Hamas party slammed on Thursday an Egyptian decision, to deny a solidarity convoy access to the Gaza Strip. The convoy consists of lawmakers, human rights activists and lawyers, who headed from Cairo to Gaza via the Rafah crossing terminal.

The convoy of sympathizers was stopped at the Sues canal in Sinai, about 300 kilometers away from Gaza. For more than two years, the coastal region faces a crippling Israeli blockade, intensified after Hamas seized control of the strip in June 2007.

On Gaza shores, an Israeli naval vessel crashed Palestinian fishing boats while on fisherman were board on the Gaza coast. One fisherman was lightly injured and the boat was completely damaged

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 Rami Al-Meghari Hussam Qassis and Gorge Rishmawi.