Two cars torched in West Bank, Palestinians blame settlers

Palestinians said that Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank burned about 200 of their olive trees on Sunday and also torched surrounding grazing land.Settlers denied the allegations.The alleged attackers were seen heading in the direction of the nearby Elon Moreh settlement after setting fire to the trees on land owned by the Palestinian village of Salem, village council spokesman Adli Ishtayeh said.

Benjamin Netanyahu was poised Thursday to unveil a new Israeli government that will include Right-wingers strategically installed in key positions to further expand Jewish settlements. After 40 days of exhaustive negotiations, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister’s Right-wing Likud party said agreement had been reached, two days before a deadline. But talks hit a last-minute snag over whether or not leaders of smaller parties would be given the title of deputy prime minister.

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.

Masked settlers attacked two Palestinian construction workers and an Israeli security guard at a West Bank settlement on Thursday, lightly wounding them, settler officials and police said."Masked Jews attacked Arab workers at a building site inside the settlement, also harming the Jewish guard," said a statement from the Shiloh settlement in the northern West Bank where the attack occurred.The statement said the attackers were not from Shiloh and the motivation behind the attack was not completely clear.

JERUSALEM — Israel’s prime minister said Monday that his new government was extending its hand in peace to the Palestinians, declaring that he is ready to make a “historic compromise” if they return to the negotiating table with good will. Laying out the agenda for his new term, Benjamin Netanyahu said he hopes to rejuvenate peace efforts, which remained frozen throughout Netanyahu’s just-completed four-year term.

A mosque in northern West Bank was Tuesday partially destroyed by fire which Palestinians blamed on Jewish settlers but which Israeli investigators said may have been accidental."The settlers set fire to the mosque," said Jamal Daraghmeh, the mayor of Lubban Ash-Sharqiya, the town where the mosque is located, which lies close to three Jewish settlements.But Israeli investigators at the scene said the blaze in the mosque, which was being renovated, may have been caused by a short-circuit.

RAMALLAH, West Bank — U.S. President Barack Obama is meeting Palestinian officials on the second day of his Mideast tour to emphasize the importance of reaching an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, a message underscored Thursday when Palestinian militants in Gaza launched rockets into southern Israel.

Israeli police arrested four Israeli settlers in the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar on Monday, accusing them of "attacks on public order," a police spokeswoman said.Among those detained was a minor suspected of setting fire to Palestinian property, she said, adding that police had seized various items including computers when they arrested the suspects.Local media said some of those detained were involved with a right-wing news website called "The Jewish Voice," which had expressed sympathy with attacks on Palestinians in response to the demolition of Israeli settlements.