Palestinians and Israeli soldiers clash

Dozens of Palestinians and international activists clashed with Israeli soldiers on Saturday during a protest against Jewish settlement activity in the West Bank.

In Iraq-Burin village, located in the northern West Bank, Palestinians hurled rocks at Israeli security forces, who shot riot dispersal means toward them.

Angering settlers and their supporters, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced in November a ten-month moratorium on new housing starts in West Bank settlements - but exempted Jerusalem from the order.

Palestinians fear settlements on land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war will deny them a viable state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Israel dismisses international findings that the communities it has been building since the 1980s in the West Bank, on land occupied by the Israeli military since 1967, constitute a violation of international law.

It has built more than 100 which are home to 500,000 Jews or nine percent of Israel's Jewish population.

The Palestinians, who number some 3 million in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, said all building must stop before they would resume talks with the Israeli government who took office in March 2009.