QUSRA, West Bank: Palestinian villagers yesterday detained and beat up a group of Israeli settlers before freeing them, accusing the group of having thrown rocks at farmers tending their fields in the occupied West Bank.
The incident added to simmering tensions between Israeli settlers and Palestinian villagers in the West Bank with the United States struggling to usher forward peace talks that resumed in July after a three-year halt. The Israelis, who appeared to be aged between 15 and 30, were detained in an uninhabited house on the outskirts of the Palestinian village of Qusra after what Palestinians said was a settler assault on local farmers.
Asylum seekers in third day of protests
TEL AVIV: Thousands of African asylum seekers demonstrated in Tel Aviv yesterday for a third straight day of protests against Israel’s immigration policies. Migrants, most of them from Eritrea and Sudan, held banners reading “We are refugees” and “No more prison” as they marched on Western embassies and the offices of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).reuters
