Israeli forces killed two Palestinians protesting over the new separation barrier on Thursday as the dispute over the controversial structure intensified.
Initially peaceful protests in Biddu, a village near Jerusalem, became violent as troops cleared people from the fields.
The demonstrations descended into a confrontation between Israelis firing rubber bullets, teargas and, reportedly, live rounds, and Palestinian youths throwing stones and using catapults.
In a separate incident, Palestinian gunmen attacked Israeli forces at the Erez crossing point between Israel and Gaza, killing a soldier. The two gunmen, who were later said to be from al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, were also killed.
Witnesses said the Palestinian demonstrators in Biddu were killed when plainclothes Israeli border police opened fire as the protests became more violent.
"It was a very violent confrontation and six security personnel were injured," said an army spokesman. "To the best of our knowledge, our forces responded only with teargas and rubber bullets. We are investigating the reported fatalities."
The two men killed in Biddu were the first to die in sporadic demonstrations in the past few months against the West Bank barrier -- a project Israel says keeps suicide bombers out of its cities, but which Palestinians have branded as a means of seizing land.
At the behest of the UN general assembly, the International Court of Justice held three days of hearings in The Hague this week into the legality of the barrier, which snakes into Israeli-occupied land that Palestinians want for a sovereign state. The court's non-binding verdict is not expected for some time.
Yesterday Ziad Mansoor, 23, from Biddu, said he witnessed the shooting dead of Zacharia Eid, a father of three from a nearby village. Eid was arrested by Israelis and put in a Jeep, but managed to run away, at which point he was shot, Mansoor said.
He said they were protesting because the separation barrier would ruin the future of the villages.
"We will be cut off from everything we need to have for a normal life.
"What we are seeing now is a new intifada [uprising], which is coming from the people, not the leaders. Like the first intifada, we are not trying to kill anyone -- just trying to show our anger," Mansoor said.
As clashes continued, Palestinians threw stones and the Israelis fired teargas.
Periodically, a cry would go up among Palestinians that someone had been injured and an ambulance would go to the rescue. One paramedic said that at least 11 people had been wounded by live ammunition and 14 by rubber bullets.
Eventually, the Israelis pushed the Palestinians into Biddu and took up positions in houses on the perimeter.
In Ramallah Israeli military vehicles surrounded the compound of the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, for the first time in 18 months.
Troops were confronted by stone-throwing youths, and the army said it shot dead a youth who hurled a petrol bomb.
Besides the unrest in Biddu, angry protests flared in the neighboring villages of Beit Surik and Beit Iksa.
Ibrahim Mughar, the head of a school in Beit Surik, said 10 West Bank villages north-west of Jerusalem would be affected by the separation barrier, and would be cut off from much of their farmland.
The villages are not solely reliant on agriculture. They are all close to both Ramallah and Jerusalem and many people work outside the area -- either legally or illegally.
However, the barrier will make it increasingly difficult for them to travel to work.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit Canada next week, his first since relations plummeted after the assassination of a Canadian Sikh separatist in Vancouver, triggering diplomatic expulsions and hitting trade. Analysts hope it is a step toward repairing ties that soured in 2023, after then-Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau pointed the finger at New Delhi’s involvement in murdering Hardeep Singh Nijjar, claims India furiously denied. An invitation extended by new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Modi to attend the G7 leaders summit in Canada offers a chance to “reset” relations, former Indian diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla said. “This is a
RSS