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15 Palestinians Hurt in Clashes with Israeli Troops

Palestinian protesters hurl stones at Israeli troops during a demonstration in the occupied West Bank village of Kfar Qaddum. (AFP)
Palestinian protesters hurl stones at Israeli troops during a demonstration in the occupied West Bank village of Kfar Qaddum. (AFP)
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15 Palestinians Hurt in Clashes with Israeli Troops

Palestinian protesters hurl stones at Israeli troops during a demonstration in the occupied West Bank village of Kfar Qaddum. (AFP)
Palestinian protesters hurl stones at Israeli troops during a demonstration in the occupied West Bank village of Kfar Qaddum. (AFP)

Israeli troops in the West Bank wounded 15 Palestinians with rubber bullets Friday in clashes marking 20 years since the start of the second intifada, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.

The incident took place in the village of Kfar Qaddum, near Nablus in the north of the occupied territory, it said, adding that four of the injured were taken to hospital and the others treated on the spot.

The Red Crescent told AFP that it had also aided "dozens" of protesters who inhaled tear gas fired by Israeli forces.

The Israeli army said it had no knowledge of clashes in the village.

Bearing Palestinian flags, a few hundred demonstrators gathered there in the early afternoon, an AFP journalist at the scene said.

Protests against more than five decades of Israeli occupation are a regular weekly occurrence in the West Bank.

Friday's demonstrators also marked the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising which followed late Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon's contentious visit to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on September 28, 2000.

The second intifada ended in February 2005, after the deaths of some 4,700 people, nearly 80 percent of them Palestinians.

Palestinian officials, including the vice-chairman of the Fatah party Mahmoud al-Aloul, participated in Friday's march.

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Arab World

Berri to Asharq Al-Awsat: Resolution 1701 Only Tangible Proposal to End Lebanon Conflict

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (AFP file)
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (AFP file)
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Berri to Asharq Al-Awsat: Resolution 1701 Only Tangible Proposal to End Lebanon Conflict

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (AFP file)
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut. (AFP file)

Politicians in Beirut said they have not received any credible information about Washington resuming its mediation efforts towards reaching a ceasefire in Lebanon despite reports to the contrary.

Efforts came to a halt after US envoy Amos Hochstein’s last visit to Beirut three weeks ago.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri dismissed the reports as media fodder, saying nothing official has been received.

Lebanon is awaiting tangible proposals on which it can build its position, he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The only credible proposal on the table is United Nations Security Council resolution 1701, whose articles must be implemented in full by Lebanon and Israel, “not just Lebanon alone,” he stressed.

Resolution 1701 was issued to end the 2006 July war between Hezbollah and Israel and calls for removing all weapons from southern Lebanon and that the only armed presence there be restricted to the army and UN peacekeepers.

Western diplomatic sources in Beirut told Asharq Al-Awsat that Berri opposes one of the most important articles of the proposed solution to end the current conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

He is opposed to the German and British participation in the proposed mechanism to monitor the implementation of resolution 1701. The other participants are the United States and France.

Other sources said Berri is opposed to the mechanism itself since one is already available and it is embodied in the UN peacekeepers, whom the US and France can join.

The sources revealed that the solution to the conflict has a foreign and internal aspect. The foreign one includes Israel, the US and Russia and seeks guarantees that would prevent Hezbollah from rearming itself. The second covers Lebanese guarantees on the implementation of resolution 1701.

Berri refused to comment on the media reports, but told Asharq Al-Awsat that this was the first time that discussions are being held about guarantees.

He added that “Israel is now in crisis because it has failed to achieve its military objectives, so it has resorted to more killing and destruction undeterred.”

He highlighted the “steadfastness of the UN peacekeepers in the South who have refused to leave their positions despite the repeated Israeli attacks.”