10 wounded during clashes between Palestinians, settlers

Gaza (dpa) - Palestinian security sources said that a Jewish settler driving near the Gadid settlement in the southern Gaza Strip struck and injured a pedestrian west of the town of Khan Younis.
The sources said that the pedestrian, a 57-year-old Palestinian farmer and local resident, was crossing the main road into the Jewish settlement and suffered moderate injuries.

Meanwhile, officials in the Palestinian Authority's Interior Ministry and Palestinian medics said that nine Palestinians were injured east of the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom in the central Gaza Strip.

An Interior Ministry statement said that a Jewish settler trying to drive into his neighbourhood of al-Mani east of the settlement found the road blocked by Palestinians, three of whom were injured when he drove into the group.

The statement also said that during the confrontation between the settler and the residents, an Israeli army force and several settlers arrived at the scene and clashed with the Palestinians.

It said that nine Palestinians in all were injured, including one who lost his eye. Another was critically wounded and transferred to an Israeli hospital by an Israeli army helicopter.

An earlier claim by witnesses and security sources that a Jewish settler drove into a donkey cart on a road near the settlement was denied by the Interior Ministry.

The Israeli government is intending to evacuate Jewish settlers living in 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip by August, as part of implementing its unilateral disengagement plan with the Palestinians.

dpa sar ff