Israel renews planning for West Bank settlement

A more than three-month-long wave of stabbings and other violence continued on Sunday, when three separate stabbings or stabbing attempts by Palestinians targeting Israeli forces took place.

Another soldier was injured by gunfire directed at the Palestinians.

Earlier in the day, a Palestinian stabbed and wounded a soldier near Jerusalem’s main bus station.

According to the Palestinian health ministry, 141 Palestinians have been killed since near-daily attacks and clashes began in October.

The surge in violence has been fuelled by Palestinians’ frustration over Israel’s 48-year occupation of land they seek for an independent state, and the expansion of settlements in those territories which were captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. Most of those NGOs are highly critical of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s treatment of the Palestinians and of Jewish settlement activities in Palestinian areas.

Some of the violence has been motivated by increasing visits by Israeli forces to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which is considered one of the holiest Islamic sites outside of Saudi Arabia, Al Jazeera reports.

Israeli Cabinet ministers on Sunday gave preliminary approval to a bill that imposes new disclosure requirements on nonprofit groups that receive foreign funding – drawing accusations it is cracking down on pro-peace groups, rattling relations with Europe and deepening an increasingly toxic divide between liberal and hawkish Israelis. They say the measure is a blatant attempt to stifle government critics.

“[An] Israeli settlement in E1 will cut the West Bank in half and prevent territorial contiguity of a future Palestinian state”, the report adds.

Numerous senior Israeli officials, including opposition leaders and members of the coalition government, have echoed concerns from civil rights groups that the bill could undermine the country’s democratic stature.

Israel Police said the brothers, Rajeb and Muhammed Hadad, were arrested by PA police on November 11 during a drug raid in the industrial area of Beitunia, near Ofer Prison in the West Bank.