Israeli troops, Palestinians clash in West Bank

On Friday, clashes broke out between scores of Palestinian youths and Israeli soldiers in the town of Silwad, 12 kilometers (seven miles) northeast of Ramallah.
 
Israeli troops fired tear gas canisters at the demonstrators to disperse the crowd, and detained a number of Palestinians taking part in the demonstration.
 
Similar clashes also erupted in the town of Kafr Qaddum near Nablus.
 
Palestinians argue that the Israeli regime is expropriating their lands in the occupied West Bank in order to legalize the expansion of its settlement outposts there.
 
Israel has announced plans to build 90 more settler units in the occupied West Bank despite widespread international criticism over the construction of settlements in Palestinian territories.
 
The plans, signed by the then Israeli Minister for Military Affairs Ehud Barak in August 2012, received final approval on February 10.
 
Barak had earlier approved the construction of 346 new settler units in two settlements in southern West Bank.
 
The United Nations and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbids construction on occupied lands.
 
The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for the efforts to establish peace in the Middle East.
 
More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.