Israeli forces, on Tuesday, fired an artillery shell toward residents’ homes in Juhr al-Deek area, to the southeast of Gaza, yet no injuries were reported, according to media sources.WAFA correspondence reports that army tanks, stationed along the borders with the Gaza Strip, fired several missiles on an agricultural area, in addition to opening heavy machine gunfire towards residential homes to the east of Gaza.
Israeli army forces intensified their presence in the eastern suburbs of Gaza city, in the predawn hours, amid opening gunfire and amid flying reconnaissance aircraft.
The eastern area of Khan Yunes, in the south of the Gaza Strip, was also under similar gunfire attacks during the night. Israeli army forces, stationed at Kissufim military outpost on the borders, opened a hail of gunfire towards the homes in the border village of Qararah.
No injuries were reported.
Furthermore, a Palestinian worker was shot and injured, Tuesday, by Israeli forces stationed in military watchtowers near Beit Hanoun border crossing in northern Gaza Strip, medical sources said.
A 23-year-old Palestinian worker was admitted into Kamal ‘Odwan hospital, in Beit Lahia, after he was shot and injured in his right leg by Israeli soldiers stationed near the border crossing.
The Palestinian’s case was described as moderate.
Palestinian workers and farmers attempting to access their farmlands, in the northern and eastern part of the Gaza Strip, are continually and deliberately targeted by Israeli soldiers almost on daily basis.
The Israeli Archeological Authority, on Tuesday, robbed the contents of a cemetery near the village of Deir Sharaf, to the west of Nablus, according to Saleh Tawafsheh, Director General of the Monument Protection Department at the Ministry of Tourism.
He said that this action is a clear breach of the international conventions, regarding cultural heritage, in which the occupying power is prohibited from conducting any excavations in the occupied land.
Tawafsheh called upon the international organizations, particularly the UNESCO, to immediately intervene to prevent the confiscation of Palestinian monuments by the Israeli authorities.
This morning, a Palestinian young man was kidnapped by the Israeli army, after they blew the doors and stormed his house in Ethna town, to the west of the West Bank city of Hebron, according to a report by Al Ray.
Local sources told Safa that a huge troop of Israeli solders raided al-Brna’a area in the town and detained Mahmoud Namer, 30, in a violent way and damaged property within the house.
A large force of the Israeli army carried out sweeping operations in Wad Aziz, in the western side of Ethna, near the place where an Israeli settler died and four were injured on Monday evening.
At the end of December 2013, 4,768 Palestinian security detainees and prisoners were held in Israeli prisons, 317 of them from the Gaza Strip.
An additional 1,284 Palestinians were held in Israel Prison Service facilities for being in Israel illegally, 20 of them from the Gaza Strip.
Since 1967, when (Israel) occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, more than 650,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israel. This represents approximately 20% of the total population in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), and 40% of all males.
Despite prohibition by international law, Israel detains Palestinians in prisons throughout Israel, far from their families, who almost never obtain the necessary permits to leave the Occupied Palestinian Territories to visit them.
Also on Tuesday, WAFA reports that Israeli settlers assaulted a Palestinian farmer in the village of al-Khader, to the south of Bethlehem, while he was in his own ranch, according to Hassan Burajiyeh, coordinator of the anti-settlement and segregation wall committee in Bethlehem.
He said that around 100 settlers, under army protection, assaulted Islam Jaber, in his late twenties, while he was in his land located near Daniel settlement, illegally built on the land of al-Khader, forcing him to leave at gunpoint.
Burajiyeh said army soldiers seized his identity card and threatened to arrest him should he return to his own property.
The village of al-Khader has seen similar attacks by Israeli settlers and soldiers, including the confiscation of large areas for settlement expansion purposes.
Just this past evening, Israeli settlers attacked Hosh Sabra neighborhood in the old city of Jerusalem, in addition to taking over an empty Palestinian-owned shop and turning it into a home for them, according to witnesses.
Settlers attacked Hosh Sabra, a residential neighborhood in the old city, where they burned tires and seized a store, which caused confrontations to erupt between Israeli police and Palestinians in Bab Hatta complex, just adjacent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
Israeli police shot rubber-coated metal bullets and gas canisters at Palestinians, who responded by hurling empty bottles and stones at the police.
Several Palestinians were injured and others were abducted.
