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Activists build new village Almanatir near Burin [03.02.2013]

(fb-icai) Palestinian activists and farmers on Saturday erected a new tented protest village south of Nablus, sparking clashes with settlers which left one teen injured.

Around 200 supporters from across the West Bank set up tents in an area of Burin village that activists say is slated for confiscation by a neighboring settlement.

Israeli forces immediately moved to shut down the area, and blocked traffic at the nearby Zaatara checkpoint, stopping several buses of activists destined for the village, witnesses told Ma'an.

Soldiers fired tear gas and sound grenades to disperse the activists, and detained five Palestinians, they said.

Israeli settlers also raided the village and fired at the Palestinians. Zakariya Al-Najjar, 16, was hit by bullet in his thigh, a Ma'an reporter said.

Settlers managed to seized a trailer in the encampment, activist Salah Al-Khawaja told Ma’an.

He said fistfights broke out between Palestinian men and Israeli soldiers trying to remove them.

An Israeli military spokesman said forces used riot-dispersal means when Palestinians threw rocks at them.

Residents said the new village was established to protest Israeli land confiscation for settlement building. Burin is squeezed between the Bracha and Yitzhar settlements, and the target of regular settler violence.

They are calling the new encampment the "Al-Manatir neighborhood" after the traditional stone huts built for watchmen in Palestinian agricultural land.

It is the fourth such initiative in recent weeks.

 (ts)