Israel shuts roads to Bedouin village facing demolition, activist arrested
Israeli troops arrest Palestinian demonstrators and an activist protesting planned demolition of Bedouin village of Khan al Ahmar, meanwhile, 3 Palestinians, including a child, have been killed by Israeli army gunfire near Gaza-Israel buffer zone.
The Israeli army has closed all roads leading to Khan al Ahmar, a Bedouin village in occupied West Bank threatened with demolition.
Abdullah Abu Rahma, a local Palestinian official, told Turkey's Anadolu Agency on Friday that Israeli army bulldozers had blocked all the roads leading to the village with large mounds of earth.
Despite an intense army and police presence, dozens of local residents and solidarity activists had tried — unsuccessfully — to keep the roads open, according to Abu Rahma.
Last week, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled to demolish Khan al Ahmar and expel its Bedouin inhabitants.
The Israeli authorities hope to expel 10,000 Bedouin residents of the E1 Zone — which sits on 15 sq km of land in the West Bank — to make way for a series of new Jewish-only residential units linking Jerusalem to the Maale Adumim settlement.
If implemented, the plan would effectively cut the West Bank in two, thus preempting the emergence of a territorially contiguous Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders.
TRT World's Caitlin McGee reports from Khan al Ahmar.
Protesters, activist arrested
The Israeli army also arrested three Palestinians and a French solidarity activist during the demonstration to protest the controversial Israeli court decision to demolish Khan al Ahmar.
According to an Anadolu Agency correspondent, Israeli troops assaulted dozens of activists and local residents near Khan al Ahmar in occupied West Bank.
During the melee, three Palestinians and a French solidarity activist were detained by the Israeli authorities.
'Real reason is to split West Bank in half'
US Senator Dianne Feinstein issued a direct appeal to Israel on Thursday to abandon plans to demolish a strategically placed bedouin village.
"The only reason to destroy this community is to expand nearby Israeli settlements and split the West Bank in half," Feinstein said on Twitter, stressing "the potential for peace depends on what happens to Khan al Ahmar."
Three Palestinians killed by Israeli gunfire
At least three Palestinians, including a child, were killed on Friday by Israeli army gunfire near the Gaza-Israel border area.
In a statement, Gaza’s Health Ministry said a 14-year-old boy — whose name was not given — had been killed instantly after being shot in the head by Israeli troops east of the town of Jabalia.
Meanwhile, east of Khan Yunis, a young Palestinian man — also not yet identified — sustained a fatal gunshot injury, according to the ministry.
Eight other Palestinians, including three children, were reportedly injured by Israeli army gunfire elsewhere along the buffer zone.
Mohammad Shaqqura, 21, was also killed after being hit by a bullet in the chest in the central Gaza Strip's Maghazi refugee camp located in the Deir al Balah governorate, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
On Friday, Palestinians converged on the border area to take part in weekly demonstrations against Israel’s decades-long occupation.
Since the rallies began on March 30, scores of Palestinians have been killed — and thousands more injured — by Israeli troops deployed along the other side of the buffer zone.
Protesters demand the “right of return” to their homes and villages in historical Palestine from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.
They also demand an end to Israel’s 11-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its more than two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.