Israeli forces injure 60-year-old woman, arrest three foreign nationals, in protest to save agricultural land

Ma'an – Israeli forces injured an American activist and detained three other foreign nationals Sunday, as they attempted to stop Israeli bulldozers from razing Palestinian agricultural land east of Qalqiliya, witnesses said.

International solidarity activists gathered in Izbat At-Tabib in the northern West Bank on privately-owned Palestinian property, which Israel seeks to confiscate for the construction of a wall around Jewish-only settlements in the area.

Soldiers pushed over a 60-year-old American woman with the Michigan Peace Team, who fell and was taken to hospital with a suspected broken wrist, witnesses said.

They added that Israeli forces detained two British activists and one Swedish activist.

A Ma'an correspondent said Israeli officials ordered a group of journalists to leave the area, threatening to arrest them for being in a closed military zone.

Residents said Israeli authorities had issued them warrants earlier in April informing them that their land would be confiscated.

An Israeli army spokesman said soldiers were in the area to secure the engineering team, but that it was border police who carried out the arrests.

A border police spokesman could not be reached for comment.