Palestinians erect another West Bank protest camp

Palestinian activists on Friday reported they had set up a protest camp in the West Bank to demonstrate against what they termed an Israeli land grab.

They said they set up a mosque and several tents Friday in the village of Beit Iksa, near Jerusalem.

The move comes a week after Palestinian activists set up a similar camp in a strategic West Bank corridor known as E-1 where Israel said it would build 3,000 homes. The activists were evacuated a day later.

In a statement, the activists said they were securing land from Israel.

The Israeli military said soldiers were monitoring the area to prevent disturbances.

The Palestinian activists seem to be adopting a tactic used by Jewish settlers, who establish communities hoping the territory will remain theirs once structures are built, a move known as “establishing facts on the ground.”

Earlier Friday, Palestinian sources reported that a youth was seriously wounded in the head in a skirmish with the IDF in the ‘Ayda refugee camp, near Bethlehem. He was evacuated to a local hospital.

Israel Radio quoted sources in the IDF as saying that the youth had been about to throw rocks at Israeli soldiers when he was shot. The Palestinians at the refugee camp were said to have been engaged in throwing rocks and explosives toward Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem when the IDF retaliated.

Sources in Gaza, meanwhile, reported Friday that a Palestinian was moderately wounded in the leg from IDF gunfire in the north of the Gaza Strip.

According to the IDF, the wounded man had gathered along with other Palestinians at an off-limits section of the security fence in the north of the Gaza Strip and had tried to cause damage to the fence. The IDF then shot the man while attempting to disperse the rioters.