Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center www.imemc.org for Tuesday November 14, 2006.|| Click here to Download MP3 file 5.27MB || time: 5m 45s
A resident of Beit Hanoun dies of wounds sustained last week, while the Israeli Army invades Nablus and kills one Intifada activist. These stories and more coming up, stay tuned.
The Gaza Update
Palestinian medical sources reported that Mohamed Mekhiz, 21, died on Tuesday morning of wounds he sustained during the Israeli army attack on Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip last Wednesday. The sources added that Mekhiz was admitted last week to a hospital in Egypt where he died due to a fatal wound in the chest, raising the death toll from the Israeli attacks last week on Gaza to 95.
Elsewhere in the Gaza Strip, Israeli army fighter jets targeted a warehouse used to store iron and car parts with a missile, destroying it completely and damaging neighboring houses. The warehouse is located in Asskola neighborhood on the eastern side of Gaza City and belongs to Al Hito family. The destroyed business was their only source of income, local sources reported. Ambulance and fire fighters rushed to the scene. No injures were reported.
In the meantime, the Rafah border crossing, the only way in and out of Gaza, was reopened today, Palestinian security sources reported, and added that the crossing was opened on Tuesday morning after EU observers arrived to their posts at the crossing. Keeping Rafah crossing open is conditioned on the presence of EU observers, according to an agreement reached earlier this year. The opening of Rafah crossing will help end the suffering of thousands of Gaza residents trapped on the Egyptian side of the boarder; they have been stuck their for four months since the Israeli army began its summer rains military offensive last June.
Medical sources in the Gaza Strip reported on Tuesday that the Israeli army controlling the border crossing with Israel is refusing to allow patients with severe conditions to go to hospitals in Israel. Dr. Mou'awiah Hassanin, the director of the ambulance and emergency department in the Palestinian ministry of health reported that since Tuesday morning, soldiers have systematically not allowed Palestinian patients with severe health conditions to cross the border into Israel for treatment.
Sources from the Palestinian preventative security forces working in Gaza Strip announced on Tuesday that the forces managed to arrest two Gaza residents working as agents for the Israeli secret service Shin Bet. One, aged 20, from Khan Younis City, south of the Strip, told the forces that he sold information to the Israelis in exchange for money while the other one, who is from Jabalia and aged 40, said he has been a Shin Bet agent since 2005 and has given them vital information, Palestinian sources reported. Both were handed over to the state attorney office in the Gaza Strip for legal proceedings.
The West Bank Update
The army invaded Ein Al Maya’ Refugee camp in the West Bank city of Nablus and killed Baha' Khater, 20, on Tuesday at dawn. Local sources said that an Israeli army convoy stormed the refugee camp, followed by clashes between local resistance fighters and the invading troops, during which Khater, who is said to be an Abu Ali Brigades fighter, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was killed during the clashes. Palestinian medical sources in Rafidia Hospital reported that Israeli troops injured five children during the invasion to Beit Ein Al Maya’ Refugee Camp.
Troops fired live rounds and tear gas at the residents during the military invasion, which injured the five, identified as; Isra' Salem, 17, who was hit with a live round in the left leg, Obaidah Ghafri, 16, hit by a live round in the foot, Imad Al Bark, 16, hit with a rubber bullet in the chest, Makwai Baghdadi, 16, hit with two live rounds in the leg and Nidal Borkosh, 16, hit by a live round in his leg.
The injured were admitted to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus. Eyewitnesses reported that the resistance fighters managed to target the Israeli army convoy with a homemade road side bomb and damage one army vehicle, army sources reported. There have been no injures among the soldiers.
The Israeli army invaded the West Bank city of Qalqilia and took prisoner a photo journalist on Tuesday morning. Troops stormed the city and searched several houses including the house of Mohamed Al Shanti who was taken prisoner after soldiers confiscated his computers and cameras and 1000 NIS, Al Shanti family reported. Al Shanti works as a photo journalist for Reuters agency and he has a workshop for repairing cameras and computers.
Israeli forces attacked the village of Harmalah, south east of Bethlehem city in the southern West Bank and took prisoner five residents on Tuesday morning. Army vehicles and troops entered the city and closed all exits and entrances; soldiers then conducted a wide scale house-to-house search campaign and ransacked a number of them before taking the five to unknown destinations, eyewitnesses reported. The five were known as; Naji Atta-Allah, 28, Rami Atta-Allah, 22, Mohamed Atta-Allah, 21, Abed Atta-Allah, 27, and his brother Walied, 24.
Conclusion
Thank you for joining us from Occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org brought to you by Caysha Cay & Ghassan Bannoura.
