JAB'A West Bank (Reuters) - The rocky valley north of Jab'a, scattered with olive and pine trees and dry streams long evaporated by the searing heat, would be unremarkable had it not become the latest point of friction between Israel and the Palestinians.
Days after a ceasefire was reached in the war in Gaza last month, Israel announced that 400 hectares (988 acres) west of Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, was now "state land" - that is territory for Israel, not land that will be part of any future Palestinian state.