Israel holds 10 Palestinians over road crash

The Israeli army has arrested 10 Palestinians on suspicion of stonethrowing blamed for a road accident in which an Israeli woman and her three daughters were injured, a statement said Friday. The accident took place on Thursday evening near the West Bank settlement of Ariel. One daughter, aged two, was seriously injured. "Israeli special forces acting on precise intelligence arrested eight Palestinians from the village of Haris, south of Qalqilya, and two more from the village of Kifl Haris," the army statement said. "The suspects were arrested after a group of Palestinians caused a traffic accident yesterday evening." Tensions have been increasing in the Israeli-occupied West Bank with clashes on the rise between soldiers or settlers on the one hand and young Palestinians on the other. Six Palestinians have been killed in clashes with the army so far this year. In the week from March 5 to 11, 132 Palestinians and five Israeli soldiers were wounded in disturbances. Another 14 were wounded in clashes with settlers, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.