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This Week In Palestine, a service of the International Middle
East Media Center, www.IMEMC.org, for July 26th, through August, 1st, 2008.
Palestinian negotiators confirmed this week that the Palestinian side has handed
over a list of to-be-released prisoners to the Israeli side during two-days in
Washington, meanwhile Death toll in Gaza due to the Israeli siege 221, these
stories and more coming up, stay tuned
Nonviolent Resistance
We begin our weekly report with recent nonviolent actions in the West Bank.
IMEMC’s Rula Shahwan has the details:
Nil’in
In Nil’in village south of Ramallah city the Israeli army attacked non-violent
protests against the illegal wall on the village lands several times this week.
During the clashes 2 children were killed and at least 40 protesters were
injured.
On Tuesday Evening Ahmed Mousa, an 11-year-old Palestinian child, was announced
dead after being shot by Israeli soldiers who violently attacked and opened fire
at a non-violent protest in the village of Nil’in.
On Thursday morning Yousif Amira, 17, who was shot in the nearby Nil’in village
on Wednesday evening, was pronounced clinically dead. Amira was among the
villagers who took part in the funeral of the Ahmed, the 11-year-old who was
killed by Israeli army gunfire on Tuesday night. He was shot during clashes with
Israeli soldiers who had taken up positions around the village during the
funeral.
Bil’in
The Israeli army dispersed the weekly nonviolent protest located in Bil’in
village north of the West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday midday with gas, guns
and grenades.
After the weekly Friday prayer, a group of internationals and peace activists
marched a nonviolent protest in solidarity with the people of Bil’in village.
The protest was against the illegal wall being built on the village lands.
The protestors were demonstrating against the Israeli killings of local
civilians as well as the illegal closures and confiscation of lands and
property. The protestors walked towards the wall with the intention of reaching
the villagers lands behind it.
Israeli troops shot CS gas canisters, rubber-coated steel bullets, and
concussion grenades at the protesters. A number of civilians reported suffering
from gas inhalation. Additionally, a photographer was injured by the Israeli
troops.
Bethlehem
Local sources reported that a number of Palestinian children were injured during
a non violent protest against the illegal wall in Al Ma’sara village near by the
West Bank city of Bethlehem on Friday midday.
A number of internationals, Israeli peace activists and Palestinian villagers
marched in a nonviolent protest against the annexation wall being built on the
village lands and in solidarity with the people of Nil’in village south of the
West Bank city of Ramallah.
Local sources reported that the Israeli army stopped the protest by violently
attacking the protesters. Among them were children who were injured by the
Israeli troops
For IMEMC.org this is Rula Shahwan.
The political report
Senior Palestinian negotiator, Ahmad Qurai, confirmed this week that the
Palestinian side has handed over a list of Palestinian prisoners to the
Israelis. Palestinians want to see them freed. Qurai was speaking at the
conclusion of a two-day round of peace talks in Washington.
Negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians have been in slow
progress since the two sides kicked off their stalled peace talks in Annapolis
in November 2007, within the framework of a two-state solution that Washington
wants to realize by the end of 2008.
The prisoners issue, jointly with the refugees , the status of occupied
Jerusalem and the borders of a future Palestinian state, are said to be the most
contentious profiles of peace talks.
Up to this moment, Israel continues to expand and build illegal settlements on
Palestinian lands in occupied east Jerusalem, thus preempting final status talks
over the Palestinian state.
In the meantime, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas ordered on Friday the
release of dozens of Hamas supporters which Abbas’s security services have
detained recently from various West Bank areas.
The arrests came in reaction to the Hamas-led government arrests of hundreds of
Fatah supporters in the Gaza Strip, following a deadly car blast that claimed
the lives of three Hamas fighters last Friday.
Also, Abbas reiterated his initiative for dialogue with the rival Hamas party in
Gaza, which took over the coastal territory amidst factional fighting with the
Fatah party of President Abbas in June2007.
The Hamas government came under sharp criticism from several Human Rights groups
over the weekend after the Hamas police forces sealed off about 179 local
community-based NGOs in the coastal Strip.
Samir Zaout is the spokesperson of the Almizan center for Human Rights in Gaza.
Actuality ( In Arabic)
" We believe that what is going in Gaza and the West Bank is unjustified
campaign that is inconsistent with the law. What happened was the sabotag of
long-standing institutions".
The Hamas’s interior ministry argues that its measures were intended at cracking
down on organizations that have attempted to destabilize internal security.
Ehab Alghosain is the spokesman of the Hamas interior ministry in Gaza
Actuality (In Arabic).
" Any institution that proves to be uninvolved in any corruption , we will
reopen it right away and return back its assets, for we never intend to sabotage
the civil society institutions. However , these institutions should be working
in accordance with the law".
On another development, representatives of the ruling Hamas party headed for
Cairo this week, in pursue of the ceasefire deal, Cairo brokered 40 days ago
between Hamas and Israel.
The Hamas delegation said it would ask the Egyptians to pressure the Israeli
side for much more commitment to the ceasefire deal.
Gaza Strip
Lead: As the Palestinian ceasefire with Israel enters its sixth week, the death
toll in Gaza reached 221 due to the Israeli siege. This and more from IMEMC’s
Rami Al Mughari in Gaza:
In the Gaza Strip the death toll reached 221 as three more patients died this
week due to the Israeli enforced siege on the Gaza strip for over a year. Those
patients were banned from getting out of the Gaza Strip to seek the life-saving
medical treatment.
Last month both Israeli and Palestinian Resistance factions in Gaza agreed to a
truce, as a result of Egyptian mediation efforts. The deal stipulates that Hamas
will stop the firing of homemade shells into Israeli territory in exchange for
Israel lifting the 12 month-blockade and ceasing all military attacks against
the Coastal Region.
Israeli forces have kept all border crossings to the Gaza Strip closed for more
than 18 months. The siege imposed by Israeli forces on the Gaza Strip has left a
disastrous impact on the humanitarian situation and has violated the economic
and social rights of the nearly 1.5 million Palestinian civilian citizens,
particularly their rights to appropriate living conditions, health and
education.
The closure of border crossings deprives the Palestinian civilian population in
the Gaza Strip of their right to freedom of movement, and severely curtails
their rights to education and proper healthcare.
Israeli army has continued to impose severe restrictions on fishing in the Gaza
Strip. Fishermen have been subjected to intensive monitoring by Israeli forces,
which use helicopter gunships and gunboats to monitor the fishermen. The Oslo
Accords allow Palestinian fishermen to go fishing up to 20 nautical miles away
from the Gaza seashore.
For IMEMC this is Rami Al Mughari in Gaza
West Bank
Lead: This week the Israeli Army conducted at least 33 military invasions into
Palestinian communities in the West Bank. During these invasions, Israeli forces
kidnapped 42 Palestinians. 2 Palestinian, including a child, were killed by
Israeli gunfire, and 17 Palestinians, including 2 children, and 2 international
journalists were wounded by Israeli gunfire. IMEMC’s William Bascom has the
details:
This Weeks attacks were focused in the cities of Nablus, Hebron, Jenin and
Ramallah. This week the number of Palestinian civilians kidnapped by the Israeli
army in the West Bank since the beginning of this year now stands at 1,669.
On Saturday, Israeli army killed a member of the Al Qassam Brigades (the armed
wing of Hamas) in Hebron. Israeli forces shelled the house where the victim was
hiding and then demolished it over him.
On Tuesday Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian child in Nil’in village, west
of Ramallah, when he and another child got close to the area where Israeli
bulldozers were leveling land in the village for the purpose of the construction
of a section of the illegal Wall. The Israeli army fired at the child without
warning.
On Thursday morning, Palestinian medical sources in the central West Bank city
of Ramallah told IMEMC that 17 year old Yousif Amira, who was shot in the nearby
Nil’in village on Wednesday evening, had been pronounced clinically dead.
Amira was among the villagers who took part in the funeral of Ahmad Mousa, the
11 year old Palestinian boy who was killed by Israeli army gunfire on Tuesday
night.
Meanwhile, 20 Israeli settlers attacked Hebron city. They shot gunfire at random
and hit cars with iron bars and stones. Fifteen cars were damaged. Settlers also
attacked civilian houses in the village of Wad Al Nasara.
Earlier on Wednesday, a group of Israeli settlers accompanied by Israeli troops
tried to seize a Palestinian land in Silwan village at the north east of
Jerusalem city. Locals reported that Israeli settlers attacked the land and a
resident and brought mobile homes with them in order to settle there.
On Monday at dawn Israeli troops demolished a Palestinian owned house located in
Beit Hanina neighborhood in Jerusalem city. As army bulldozers arrived, Israeli
troops attacked the families and their supporters and forced them out of the
home. At least 10 civilians were injured; among them Hatem Abed Al Qader, the
Palestinian Prime Minister’s Advisor for Jerusalem affairs. Israeli troops did
not allow ambulances and medical teams to evacuate the injured civilians
The Israeli army says that the house was built without the necessary
documentation. Since Israel occupied Jerusalem in 1967 it has rarely given its
Palestinian residents any form of documentation for their land or homes.
In addition to that, the Israeli army continued targeting businesses in Nablus
city. They set a four story furniture store on fire. The losses are estimated at
3 million dollars.
For IMEMC.org this is William Bascom.
Conclusion
And that’s just some of the news this week in Palestine. For constant updates,
check out our website, www.IMEMC.org. Thanks for joining us from Occupied
Bethlehem. This week’s report was brought to you by Nathen Dannison and Husam
Qasiss.
