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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Monday, June 29th, 2015.
Israeli troops take over siege-busting ship heading to Gaza, and troops kidnap civilians from the West Bank. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.
Israel’s navy has boarded and taken over an activist ship seeking to break its Gaza blockade and escorted it to Ashdod Israeli port, Monday. According to Israeli sources, the taking over of the boat was done without any injuries among the unarmed human rights activists.
The Swedish boat, which on Sunday afternoon was 150 nautical miles from the Gaza Coast, was carrying 20 activists, among them Member of Israeli Keenest Basel Ghattas of the Joint Arab List, and former Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki.
The Israeli army said that all activists were be deported back to their countries. Organizers of the Gaza Flotilla III said that more ships will depart from Greece to Gaza in the coming few days.
A number of flotillas had reached Gaza prior to May 2010, when 10 Turkish activists aboard the Mavi Marmara were killed in an Israeli raid on the six-ship flotilla.
Since then, several ships manned by pro-Palestinian activists have tried to reach the shores of Gaza, but they have all been repelled by the Israeli navy.
Elsewhere, Israeli soldiers kidnapped, Monday, five Palestinians, including a child and a former political prisoner, in different parts if the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. The Israeli army claimed the child “carried an automatic weapon.”
Later on Monday midday, Israeli troops detained Maysoon Musa 19, allegedly for stabbing a female Israeli soldier at the 300 Israeli checkpoint separating the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem from Jerusalem.
According to media sources, Musa stabbed the soldier in the neck wounding here severely. The soldiers was moved to an Israeli hospital. Troops closed the checkpoint, the only way for West Banker in or out of Jerusalem. Later Israeli forces attacked Musa’s house in al Shawaoura village near Bethlehem and searched it.
In other news, Palestinian political prisoner held by the Israeli military Khader Adnan ended 54-day Hunger Strike.
Adnan ended his stick after the Israeli military agreed to release him on July 12. He was protesting the policy of administrative detention used by the Israeli military to hold Palestinians without charges or trial for unlimited time.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Monday, June 29th, 2015 news round-up from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates, please visit our website at www.imemc.org. Today’s report has been brought to you by George Rishmawi and Ghassan Bannoura.
