Residents reclaim land, but army arrests them

 Palestinian residents of Um El-Arayes, a village in the South Hebron Hills, accompanied by Israeli activists attempted Saturday to reclaim their land taken away from them by Jewish settlers but an army intervention forced them off the land, according to local sources. They said the residents and Israeli activists arrived at their lands in the area of Metzpeh Yai’r settlement outpost built illegally on their land in order to reclaim it back. Israeli soldiers immediately declared the area a closed military zone and pushed the residents and activists off the land after arresting 10 Palestinians, including three women, one with a child, three minors, and an elderly man in his 80s, and five Israelis. The army had on Friday cracked down on a similar attempt by the residents and arrested four people in the same area.