Israeli police raid suspected Palestinian car thieves

Israeli security forces have sealed off a village on the West Bank and arrested more than thirty Palestinians in a raid on suspected car thieves.

Police and army forces entered the village of Shuweika around dawn and searched homes and workshops where they say cars stolen in Israel are dismantled and re-sold as spare parts.

Shuweika is situated in a zone under Palestinian civil administration but Israeli security control.

Correspondents say the Israeli police have frequently criticised the Palestinian security forces for failing to deal with car theft, which increased by thirty per-cent in Israel in 1996.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service