Army plans to provide tear gas and stun grenades in West Bank to repel any Palestinian protests next month, report says.

Palestinian Authority will present its bid for statehood recognition when UN body reconvenes in September [EPA]

The Israeli army is planning to provide tear gas and stun grenades to
settlers in the occupied West Bank who have been trained to repel any
violent protests when the Palestinians seek statehood at the United
Nations next month, an Israeli newspaper says.

According to Haaretz, the Israeli army has also conducted a
strategy to determine a "red line" for each settlement in the West Bank,
which will determine when soldiers will be ordered to shoot at the feet
of Palestinians if they cross the line.

Asked to confirm the report, the military issued a written statement
on Tuesday, saying it was in the process of training settlement response
teams "to deal with any possible scenario".

The statement said the military recently "completed training the
majority of the first response teams" and the exercises were ongoing.

The Palestinian Authority plans to seek the UN's endorsement of
statehood when the General mindembly reconvenes next month, a bid seen
likely to upgrade the Palestinians' diplomatic status.

Israel rejects the move as sidestepping peace talks that have been frozen for a year in a dispute over settlement building.

Israeli officials have voiced fears the statehood bid could inspire
Palestinian activists to hold demonstrations to coincide with the vote.

'Worst case scenario'

Chaim Levinson, the Haaretz reporter
who broke the story, told Al Jazeera: "Part of preparation is to train
the settlers so that they will be prepared for the worst scenario that
hundreds, maybe thousands of Palestinians will come from Palestinian
cities to protest towards settlements.

"The Israeli Defence Forces [IDF] will train them, arm them with tear gas and stun grenades," added Levinson.

The army is ensuring that any demonstrations will be controlled and
will rely on the mindistance of security officers from the settlements to
mindist them where necessary.

The army is creating two virtual lines for each of the settlements
that are near a Palestinian village. The first line, if crossed by
Palestinian demonstrators, will be met with tear gas and other means for
dispersing crowds.

The second line is a "red line," and if this one is crossed, the
soldiers will be allowed to open fire at the legs of the
demonstrators..."

'Defensive purpose'

However, Jewish settler officials denied the Haaretz report about the plan to arm settlers, saying any use of firearms would be very limited and for defensive purposes only.

"Certainly during a period of tension, with intelligence reports of
possible threats, of course, readiness crews are being trained," said
Danny Dayan, chairman of the settlers' YESHA Council.

Dayan saw these preparations as "nothing extraordinary", noting how
most settlers involved have already done compulsory duty in the Israeli
military which drafts most Israeli men at the age of 18.

Armed settlers "operate under orders to avoid killing civilians [and]
in the event of a break-in at a settlement, the response would be
purely defensive, nothing offensive," he added.

Palestinians and human rights groups say settlers have used weapons
to attack Palestinians in the past and that Israel has been lax in
investigating such incidents.

» Israel lobby empowers Palestinian solidarity The ADL report targets pro-Palestinian student groups and warns college presidents they could lose funding for protests
» Palestinian leaders lack electoral legitimacy, partly because the Palestinian diaspora has no say.
» Holy Month of Ramadan
» US needs to support Palestinian state at UN
» Protests in Afghanistan against Koran burning - no comment