Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for July 01, to the 07, 2017.
As Palestinians manage another political win at the United Nations, Israeli attacks this week targeting Palestinian communities leave more than two dozen injured civilians. 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. Israeli troops attacked anti wall and settlement protests on Friday organized at a number of west Bank villages using tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets.
In Kufer Qadum, Israeli troops attacked the villagers and their international supporters at the village entrance. Later troops stormed the village and fired tear gas at protesters, many civilians were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation.
In central West Bank, Israeli soldiers attacked protesters in Al Nabi Saleh before even leaving the village. At the nearby villages of Bil’in, and Ni’lin, residents and their supporters reached the Israeli wall. Soldiers stationed their showered them with tear gas and chemical water that generate bad smell. Many were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation.
The Political Report
This week, Palestinians win diplomatically at United Nations, while Israel objects. IMEMC’s Rami Al Meghari has more:
UNESCO ruled today that the Ibrahim mosque of Hebron, in the occupied Palestinian territories, is a Muslim heritage. The UNESCO’s ruling is the second of it’s type, after the UN organ had earlier branded the Alaqsa mosque compound of East Jerusalem as Palestinian heritage.
Palestinians hailed the ruling as a result of Palestinian diplomatic efforts , worldwide. Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, praised the decision , issued in the Netherlands, as success of of Palestinian diplomacy. Israel, from it’s part, objected to the decision.
In the meantime, Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abba s has been visiting a number of world countries, including Tunisia, within Palestinian efforts to explain Palestinian positions, regarding peace prospects with Israel.
Palestinians have raised concern over continued Israeli settlements building, dubbed illegal by the international community.
At the local Palestinian level, leader of the Islamic Hamas party, Ismail Haniya, delivered a speech, in which he expressed his party’s willingness for national unity. Haniya referred to some understandings with the nearby Egypt , he says would help ease the decade-long Israeli blockade of the coastal tiny territory.
For IMEMC , I am Rami Al Meghari in Gaza.
The West Bank and Gaza Report
Israeli attacks this week, targeting Palestinian communities in Gaza and the West Bank leave more than two dozen injured civilians. IMEMC’s Ghassan Bannoura reports:
Israeli soldiers injured, on Sunday at night, at least 35 Palestinians, including one who suffered a life-threatening injury after being shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet in the eye, after the army attack a funeral procession in occupied East Jerusalem.
The funeral was for a local youth who drowned several days ago while swimming in Tiberius Sea. One Palestinian was shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet in one of his eyes, also leading to hemorrhage in his brain, before he was moved to Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, in a serious condition.
At least ten other Palestinians were shot with rubber-coated steel bullets, and others were assaulted and clubbed by the soldiers, before medics moved them to local hospitals and clinics, while nearly 24 Palestinians suffered the severe effects of teargas inhalation.
Elsewhere, Israeli soldiers shot and injured, on Sunday evening, a Palestinian man after the army invaded al-Mogheer village, northeast of Ramallah, and fired many gas bombs and concussion grenades, causing fires in a car and three dunams of farmlands.
Elsewhere, Israeli soldiers demolished, Tuesday, a Palestinian home in Beit Hanina neighborhood, north of occupied East Jerusalem, a stable for horses in Silwan town, and bulldozed a farmland in Za’im town, east of Jerusalem. The army claimed that the constructions do not have the needed permission from the army.
Moreover, Israeli soldiers invaded, on Tuesday at dawn, the towns of Deir Abu Mashal and Silwad, north and east of the central West Bank city of Ramallah, and handed demolition ordered targeting the homes of three Palestinians, who were killed in June after killing an Israeli officer, and a similar order against the home of a detainee from Silwad, who was taken prisoner after the army claimed he deliberately rammed soldiers with his car, killing one.
Also on Wednesday morning, the soldiers invaded Khirbet al-Himma village, in the West Bank’s Northern Plains, and confiscated solar panels providing the residents with electricity, and initiated searches for more panels, to remove them.
This week, Israeli forces conducted at least 106 military invasions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. During these invasions troops detained at least 108 Palestinian civilians, including 14 children.
In Gaza, Israeli soldiers shot and injured, on Sunday evening, a young Palestinian man with live fire, and caused dozens of residents, including children, to suffer the severe effects of teargas inhalation, during clashes that erupted near the border fence, in the various parts of the Gaza Strip.
On Thursday at dawn, several Israeli military vehicles, including armored bulldozers, invaded Palestinian agricultural lands close to the border fence east of Gaza city, and Jabalia town, in the northern part of the coastal region, and fired many live rounds while bulldozing the lands.
For IMEMC’s News this is Ghassan Bannoura.
Conclusion
And that’s all for today from This Week in Palestine. This was the Weekly report for June 24, to the 30, 2017. From the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our website at www-dot-imemc-dot-org, This week’s report has been brought to you by George Rishmawi and me Eman Abedraboo-Bannoura.
