"This
action may have happened to avenge yesterday's attack," said
Majid al-Mati, referring to a resistance operation on a bus traveling
from the settlement of Gilo on the fringes of Jerusalem that killed 19
Israelis and wounded 50.
The
settlers came from Nokdim, some 10 kilometers (six miles) from Gilo.
Mati
said that the settlers, in charge of Nokdim's security, burned the
trees over an area of five hectares (12.5 acres) near an Israeli army
checkpoint.
"The
army did nothing and looked away," he said, AFP reported.
Meanwhile,
Israeli public radio reported that Israeli police abducted some 1,200
Palestinians in the past 24 hours after allegedly finding them on
Israeli territory illegally.
Most
were sent back to the West Bank, while the rest were detained for
trial, the report added.
The
abductions followed Tuesday’s resistance operation. "We
consider these Palestinians who entered Israel illegally to be
potential terrorists", border guard office Abshalom Peled told
the radio, reported AFP.
"There
is always the fear of a terrorist infiltrating Israeli territory with
those who enter illegally to work," he said.
Since
the Intifada, or Palestinian uprising, erupted in September 2000,
Israeli authorities have clamped a tight blockade on the Palestinian
territories, preventing Palestinians from entering Israel to work,
with disastrous effects on the economy of the West Bank and Gaza Strip
