Israeli troops trade fire with Palestinian fighters at Gaza borders and settlers destroy farm lands in the West Bank, these stories and more coming up, stay tuned.

The News Cast

A group of Palestinian residents managed on Thursday afternoon to stop Israeli settlers from taking over their lands located east of Jerusalem's old city.

The land, of 1,75 acres, is owned by two Palestinian families from East Jerusalem. Witnesses told the Palestine News Agency WAFA that the settlers arrived at the locations along with Israeli city planners but the residents were at their lands and stopped the process.

The Israeli municipality plans to use the land to expand the nearby illegal settlement of Beit Oret. Since Israel occupied the city of Jerusalem in 1967 it rarely gave Palestinians permissions to built on their lands or add structures to their homes. On the other hand Israel continues to expand and build settlements in and around the city.

In related news, Israeli settlers attacked and destroyed Palestinian-owned farm lands on a number of locations in the West Bank on Thursday. Local sources reported that the attacks took place near the southern city of Hebron and the northern city of Nablus.

Scores of olive trees were damaged when Israeli settlers set them on fire near Hebron city. The owners told media that the settlers came from the nearby Kharsina settlement. Witnesses said that Palestinian firefighters managed to stop the fire but at least two dozen trees were destroyed.

Meanwhile another group of Israeli settlers set fire to farm lands that belong to Palestinians from the villages of Aqraba and Yanoon, near Nablus city.

The farmers said that settlers set fire to their crops while being protected by the Israeli military. The fire destroyed two acres of farm land before the farmers were able to stop the fire.

Elsewhere, Israeli troops kidnapped nine Palestinian men from different areas in the West Bank, during pre-dawn invasions.

In Gaza, Palestinian fighters fired shots at Israeli forces at the northern Gaza border on Thursday morning. The Israeli troops responded to the incident with the shooting of mortar shells. Both on the Palestinian and the Israeli side no injuries were reported. None of the Palestinian factions has so far claimed responsibility for the shooting.

At the beginning of this week Palestinians attacked Israeli troops on the Eastern border, resulting in the death of four of them.

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.