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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org, for Monday, February 8th, 2010.
Israel escalates attacks in the West Bank, and in Gaza, navy forces attack Palestinian fishing boats. These stories and more coming up stay tuned.
The News Cast
The Israeli military continued its crackdown on non-violent popular struggle organizers in the West Bank. On Monday, Israeli soldiers attacked the offices of the Stop The Wall campaign in Ramallah city, central West Bank, vandalizing it.
On Sunday soldiers attacked the offices of International Solidarity Movement and arrested two international activists. The court ordered their release, on Monday, saying that their arrest was illegal by the immigration authorities as they have no jurisdiction in the West Bank. Nata Golan, ISM co-founder, talked to IMEMC:
‘The crackdown on the ISM and Stop the Wall campaign is a continuation of an arrest campaign of the leadership of the popular struggle. Israel is nervous because its clear that the popular struggle is gaining legitimacy and widening. They have done many things to try to stop it in the past including killing people and now they are using violence, which they know how to do. It failed in the past and they will fail this time’
Israel’s escalation on Monday did not stop in the central West Bank. In Jerusalem city, Israeli police have attacked Shufat camp for Palestinian refugees and arrested around 60 people among them medical staff who where helping injured residents. At least 8 other civilians were reported injured. Furthermore, Israeli troops detained 10 more civilians during pre-dawn invasions targeting a number of West bank communities.
In other news, Israeli navy forces opened fire, on Monday, midday at Palestinian fishermen off the shore of Rafah town, southern Gaza Strip.
The fishermen said that Israeli boats stopped them while fishing, and then opened fire. They reported damage to their boats and said they returned to shore fearing for their lives.
On Sunday, the Israeli navy detained two fishermen after boarding their boat, off the Gaza City shoreline and took them to an unknown location, local sources reported. The fishermen report that they are being attacked by the Israeli navy each time they go out to sea. They added that they only fish in the Palestinian territorial waters.
Conclusion
Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem, you have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org. This report has been brought to you by Ghassan Bannoura.
