Palestinians, Jewish Settlers Clash in Dispute Over Land

Israeli troops used tear gas to break up a violent land dispute Friday between Palestinian villagers and Jewish settlers that sent an elderly woman and a photographer to hospitals.

More than 100 Palestinians tore down fences and set fire to bushes in a field they said was illegally seized by residents of a Jewish settlement in nearby Shiloh. About 20 armed settlers attacked the Palestinians with clubs and smashed windows of several cars.

Both sides hurled stones at each other, and settlers beat three journalists and took the film from their cameras. A photographer and an 80-year-old Palestinian woman were hospitalized.

The Palestinians, residents of the village of Karyut, south of Nablus, protested the seizure of a 200-acre plot by Shiloh residents. The villagers said the settlers fenced in the plot last year and seized a 50-acre plot in recent months.

Villagers said 70% of their land has been confiscated since Shiloh and two other settlements in the area were built, starting in the late 1970s.

About 135,000 Jewish settlers live among 1.2 million Palestinians in the West Bank. The new government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to expand the settlements.

Palestinians say such plans violate the Israel-PLO autonomy accords, advanced by Netanyahu’s predecessor, Shimon Peres.

In Cairo, President Hosni Mubarak, in his most optimistic comments yet, said Friday that Arab countries could reach peace with Netanyahu, with whom he had met Thursday.