Palestinians, settlers clash near Nablus, 11 hurt

Jewish settlers torched a car and tried to set fire to a house in a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank on Saturday, a Palestinian official said.The pre-dawn attack occurred in the village of Burin, just south of the city of Nablus, said Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official who monitors settler activity."They torched a car that belongs to Bashi al-Zain and tried to burn his house by pouring on gasoline, but the owners of the house become aware of it and they started chasing the settlers with stones," Daghlas said.

A Palestinian man was shot and killed near the northern West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday, Palestinian security sources and witnesses said, blaming Israeli settlers.The security officials told AFP the man was shot by a Jewish settler, but had no immediate details on the incident.Hospital officials speaking to AFP identified the man as 18-year-old Uday Maher Qadous from the village of Iraq Burin, southwest of Nablus.His relatives, gathered at Rafidiyeh hospital in Nablus, said Qadous died of gunshot wounds to the chest.

Israeli settlers and Palestinians threw stones at each other on Wednesday over an olive harvest in the northern West Bank, the Israeli army and Palestinian officials said.Palestinian security officials and witnesses said one farmer was wounded in the head by a rock before Israeli soldiers used tear gas to break up the clashes, which occurred between Yitzhar settlement and Burin village near Nablus.The military confirmed dispersing the clashes but denied using tear gas. No arrests were made, a spokeswoman said.

Four Israeli settlers and three Palestinians were wounded on Monday when clashes broke out in the northern West Bank, police and an AFP correspondent said.The violence began when Israeli troops removed two mobile homes set up near the Bracha settlement, sparking protests from settlers, who hurled rocks at Palestinian vehicles at a nearby checkpoint, Palestinian witnesses said.

A Palestinian was shot dead by an Israeli guard in east Jerusalem on Wednesday during clashes between Israeli settlers and Palestinians, police and witnesses said.Another two Palestinians were wounded as the guard, whose job was "to protect Jewish residents," opened fire against Palestinians who were hurling rocks at his car, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.The incident took place in the volatile Silwan neighbourhood where Palestinians and Jewish settlers threw rocks at each other.

Three Palestinians were wounded by Israeli settlers on Monday near the West Bank town of Hebron, witnesses and Palestinian security and medical services said.Mahmud Ibrahim Awad, 32, was attacked by three Israelis near Mahon settlement as he rode by on a donkey, suffering stab wounds mainly to his chest and hands.He was taken to hospital in Hebron and operated on, according to the same sources.Another settler fired on Palestinians attending a funeral from a road overlooking a cemetery at Beit Omar, hitting one man in the chest and another in a leg.

Vandals tried to set fire to a mosque in the northern West Bank, causing damage to the inside, Palestinian security sources said on Tuesday, blaming Jewish settlers.The attackers set fire to a number of tyres inside the mosque in al-Mughayyir village, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) northeast of Ramallah, which damaged prayer mats inside the building.They also spray-painted "Alei Ayin" on the walls, which is the name of a nearby settlement outpost demolished by Israeli police last week, sparking fierce clashes with the settlers.

Two cars were torched in the northern West Bank on Friday in what Palestinian security services say is the latest of several attacks by Israeli settlers in the occupied territory.The words "price tag" were scrawled in Hebrew on a nearby wall, a reference to hardline settlers' policy to punish Palestinians whenever the Israeli government threatens to curb Jewish settlement activity.The Israeli army confirmed that attackers burned two cars in the Palestinian village of Jinsafut, which is located near several settlements.