Israeli settlers attack Palestinian farmers in the West Bank injuring six, and troops demolish two facilities in Jerusalem, these stories and more coming up stay tuned.

The News Cast

Six Palestinian farmers where injured on Tuesday midday during an attack by Israeli troops and settlers in the village of Sa'er located near the southern West Bank city of Hebron. Witnesses said that Israeli settlers, protected by Israeli troops, came to the village land and started to uproot olive trees. When farmers tried to protect their trees soldiers attacked them along with the settlers injuring six of them.

Medical sources said that the six sustained light wounds and were moved to Hebron hospital for treatment. Nayef Jaradat, from Sa'er, told reporters that the army and settlers arrived at the land claiming that it belongs to the Israeli government. They uprooted at least 100 olive trees and demolished several animal shelters and farming structures

Meanwhile on Tuesday, the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem demolished a Palestinian owned bus garage and a warehouse for construction materials. The bus garage is owned by the Abu Dayah family, a Palestinian family from Jerusalem that runs a tourist bus company. The garage is located just outside the walls of Jerusalem old city, while the warehouse for construction materials is owned by another Palestinian family and is located near the garage, local sources reported.

The municipality says the facilities have been built without the required permission. Since Israel occupied the city of Jerusalem in 1967, Palestinian residents have rarely been given permits to build homes, meanwhile Israel continues to build Jewish-only illegal settlements in and around Jerusalem.

Also on Tuesday, 12 Palestinian civilians were kidnapped during pre dawn Israeli military invasions targeting a number of West Bank cities and villages. Among those kidnapped today were Mohamed Shohadah and his brother Nabeel from a village near Hebron city. The army killed their brother Taysser on Monday while he was travelling to work.

The army claims that Taysser and his co-workers opened fire towards Israeli troops at a military checkpoint near Hebron. Witnesses said that the car Taysser was in was full of Palestinian workers going to their work and they did not open fire at the soldiers. In the northern part of the West Bank Israeli troops kidnapped four Palestinian civilians on Tuesday.

In a recent development, Hamas sources in Gaza said on Monday that Egyptian mediators offered a compromise for a possible one-year long truce between Hamas and Israel that includes partial reopening of the Gaza crossings and resolving the issue of captured Israeli soldier Gil'ad Shalit.

Hamas' spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri reiterated his party's position that rejects involving Shalit in any cease-fire agreement, saying that this case remains separate from reopening the Gaza crossings.

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 Ghassan Bannoura and George Rishmawi.