By Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondent
At least ten people – Israelis and Palestinians – sustained light injuries Thursday afternoon in a clash with Israel Defense Forces troops at a separation fence construction site, between the Palestinian village of Beit Sira and the town of Maccabim, within the Green Line.
Dozens of “Anarhists Against the Fence” activists and some 200 village residents clashed with the troops, who were securing the bulldozers paving the route of the fence.
The forces fired rubber coated bullets and sprayed tear gas at the protesters. The protest delayed construction work at the site by several hours.
According to a report published this week by the human rights groups B’Tselem and Bimkom, the main consideration behind the route for “numerous segments” of the separation fence was settlement expansion.
The report, entitled “Under the Guise of Security: Routing the Separation Barrier to Enable Israeli Settlement Expansion in the West Bank,” looks at four areas: the settlements Tzofin and Alfei Menashe near Qalqilyah, Modi’in Illit and the separation fence surrounding the Neveh Yaakov neighborhood in northern Jerusalem. The conclusion: a direct link between the route already built by the Defense Ministry and the future master plans for those settlements.