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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Tuesday, Febuary 01 2011
Israeli sources reported, on Monday night, that three “Grad” rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into the Western Negev. Damages to a number of vehicles were reported, but no injuries.
So far, no Palestinian group claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Hamas, today, criticized the Israeli arrest of legislator Sheikh Mohammad al-Natsha of its Change and Reform Bloc. The legislator was abducted by the Israeli army on Monday at dawn, after Israeli soldiers broke into his home in Hebron.
He was among 21 Palestinians in abducted in several parts of the West Bank.
On Monday, Silwan activists were arrested by Israeli authorities, and a pregnant woman suffered the ill effects of tear gas inhalation, whenIsraeli troops fired a tear gas canister inside a local shop. The woman was transfered to a local hospital for treatment.
Furthermore, on Tuesday, The Jerusalem Magistrates Court sentenced al-Bustan Popular Committee member Sheikh Musa Aouda to a month’s house arrest.
Following the civil unrest in Egypt, and other Middle Eastern States, the Palestinian Authority has announced that they will hold municipal elections.
Prime Minister in the West Bank, Salam Fayyed, stated that the dates for these elections will be set next week, and he hopes that they will take place in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
In a move to improve Israel’s deteriorating image in the world, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has decided to make an unprecedented move by hiring a network of European public relations firms to conduct the state’s PR campaign throughout the continent.
The Israeli government is increasingly alarmed by reports from its embassies abroad, particularly from the UK and some Scandanavian countries, where boycotts of Israeli products are on the rise, with successful chains in Britain refusing to sell products made in settlements and often all Israeli products as well.
Mike Huckabee, Republican Party US presidential frontrunner, visited the Israeli Knesset on Monday as part of a tour of Israel and the occupied West Bank.
Huckabee stated that the, now defunct, settlement freeze was “irrational”.
Following protests this weekend, King Abdullah II of Jordon has dismissed his government. Abdullah has requested that his former military adviser Marouf Bakhit to form a new government. Bakhit has previously served in the role, from November 2005 to November 2007, and is the former Jordanian ambassador to Israel.
That sums up our news for today, thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem, you have been listening to Palestine Today, from International Middle East Media Center. For more updates, please visit our website at www.imemc.org. This report has been brought to you by Husam Qassis and Circarre Parrhesia.
