Under Trump’s peace plan, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paves the way to annex settlements in the West Bank.
Palestinians have rejected the proposal, saying it would kill their dream of establishing a viable state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
More than 400,000 Israeli settlers now live among about 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank, with a further 200,000 settlers in East Jerusalem. Palestinians and much of the world view the settlements as illegal under international law, a position Israel and the United States dispute.
An Israeli military statement said that on March 1 Israelis were carrying out “agricultural work” near Migdalim when around 30 Palestinians “came to the area, hurled rocks and came into physical confrontation with the Israelis. Military forces came to the area and dispersed the crowd.”
Soon afterwards, the statement said, 120 Palestinians gathered nearby in what it termed a “riot.” It said its troops were confronted with burning tyres and “large amounts of rocks” and “responded with riot dispersal means.”
Qusra protesters said Israel had stopped Palestinians using or farming the lands in question since the 1990s, and now they feared settlers would seize them for their own use.
