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Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for July 4th, to the 10th, 2015.
Israeli attacks this week leave three injured Palestinians including a child meanwhile Palestinians say won’t resume talk until Israel responds to demands These stories and more coming up stay tuned.
The Nonviolence Report
Let’s begin our weekly report as usual with the nonviolent activities organized in the West Bank. One child was injured; scores were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation when Israeli troops attacked nonviolent protests organized in West Bank villages on Friday. IMEMC’s Majd Batjali with the details:
At the village of Kufer Kadum in northern West Bank undercover soldiers ambushed local youths, and fired live rounds at them, wounding Amjad Najjar, 13 years of age, with a live round in the leg. Medics moved Najjar to the Rafidia Hospital in Nablus. Many more residents were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation as Israeli troops attacked the weekly protest there. Troops later stormed the village and fired tear gas and chemical water into residents homes.
Meanwhile in the villages of Bil’in and Ni’lin, in central West Bank, Israeli soldiers attacked the protesters as soon as they reached the gate in the wall that separates local farmers from their lands. Many protesters suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation and were treated by field medics at both locations.
At the nearby al Nabi Saleh village, troops attacked protesters at the village entrance. Israeli soldiers fired several rounds of rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas at protesters and nearby homes. Many residents suffered effects of tear gas inhalation as a result.
In the village of al Ma’ssara near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, soldiers attacked villagers and their international supporters as soon as they reached the village entrance and forced them back. No injuries were reported.
For IMEMC News this Majd Batjali.
The Political Report
This week, Palestinians say won’t resume talk until Israel responds to demands, meanwhile the fate of two Israelis who went missing in the Gaza Strip remain unclear, the details with IMEMC’s George Rishmawi:
Palestinian Chief Negotiator, Dr. Saeb Ereikat said on Friday that the Palestinian Authority will not resume talks unless Israel releases Palestinian Prisoners. Ereikat’s statements came during his meeting with Fernando Gentilini, European Envoy for the Peace Process and Dorothy Shea, American Deputy Consul General, Jerusalem.
He said by not releasing Palestinian prisoners and by the ongoing home-demolition and land-confiscation policy and the construction of the wall, Israel shows no respect to international resolutions and recommendations by International Human Rights Organizations and the ruling of the International Court of Justice.
Ereikat called upon the involved parties who demand the Palestinian Authority to resume talks, to commit Israel to stop settlement activities and to recognize the pre-1967 borders which the base for the two-state solution and to release the Palestinian prisoners, especially the fourth group of prisoners who were jailed before the Oslo Agreement.
This week an Israeli court reversed a ruling it issued last year to freeze the construction of the wall near Al-Walaja village west of Bethlehem. The Israeli military will resume the construction of the wall in the area and have also approved bids for the construction of hundreds of settler units in another settlement near Jerusalem.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a statement released on Wednesday, condemned the decision saying it allows the confiscation of large swathes of private and state land, undermines the potential establishing of a viable Palestinian state and paves the way for further settlement activities.
In other news, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid his first visit to the parents of a missing Israeli allegedly in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli sources said the 28-year old Avera Mingestun of Ethiopian Descent went missing 10 months ago as he went into the Gaza Strip. Israeli authorities say he is being held by Hamas. Hamas on the other hand denied the claims. Israel is yet claiming that another Israeli, is also held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The second Israeli is an Arab who, according to Israeli sources had crossed the border with Gaza a number of times in the past, yet his name has not yet been released.
Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Masha’al told reporters in Doha on Wednesday that Israel had approached the organization via European mediators and requested the release of two prisoners and two bodies being held in Gaza.
Masha’al said that Hamas could not respond or give details, and would not agree to any negotiations on the matter until Israel released the prisoners who had been freed in the Shalit deal and were rearrested following the abduction of the three Israeli teens who were found dead in the West Bank last summer.
For IMEMC News, this is George Rishmawi
The West Bank and Gaza Report
This week, the Israeli army conducted at least 45 military invasions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. During these invasions, Israeli forces kidnapped at least 40 Palestinians, including eight children. Israeli forces also attacked Gaza fishermen this week. IMEMC’s Eman Abedraboo- Bannoura reports:
This week Israeli army invasions and kidnappings were focused in the cities of Bethlehem, Hebron and Ramallah. Eleven were kidnapped, including 5 children, were taken during invasions and home searches in East Jerusalem.
Moreover, on Monday soldiers kidnapped two Palestinians near the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) Crossing, after crossing the border fence with Gaza, and took them to an unknown destination.
Also on Monday of this week, the Palestinian Political Prisoners Society said that a Palestinian prisoner held by the Israeli army in the Negev detention center began a hunger strike. Daoud Ham-dan began his hunger strike in protest of administrative detention policy of the Israeli military he is held under since June of last year.
On Tuesday Ham-dan was moved to solidarity confinement and on Wednesday the army moved him to Ishel prison.
Last week Khader Adnan, a political prisoner held by Israel, ended a 55-day hunger strike, also against the practice of administrative detention. The Israeli military agreed to release Adnan on July 12th. Israel’s army uses the administrative detention policy to hold Palestinians from unlimited time without charges or trial.
On Wednesday of this week, Palestinians marked the one year since last summer Israeli war on Gaza.
According to a recent report by the UN’s office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Israeli 51-day offensive on Gaza last year was the “deadliest” and “most destructive escalation” since 1967.
In July and August of last year, more than 2,260 Palestinians were killed and 11,000 injured, mostly women and children. According to OCHA, one year have past and still more than 100,000 people remain displaced. Moreover, the report shows that 120,000 people in Gaza cannot reach water and 80 percent of the 1.5 million Gazans relies on humanitarian aid.
Also in the Gaza, strip this week, Israeli gunboats chased and opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats.
They also arrested 6 fishermen, and confiscated 3 fishing boats. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) observed that Israeli forces escalated their attacks against fishermen in the Gaza Strip sea. Four fishermen, including a child were wounded; 14 fishermen, including two children, were arrested; and three fishing boats were confiscated only during last week, PCHR said.
For IMEMC News this is Abedraboo- Bannoura.
Conclusion
And that’s all for today from This Week in Palestine. This was the Weekly report for July 4th, to the 10th, 2015. From the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our website at www.imemc.org, This week’s report has been brought to you by Maher Qasiess and me Ghassan Bannoura.
