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This week in Palestine- a service of the International Middle East Media Center, IMEMC.Org for the week of Friday August 19, to Thursday, August 25.
After concluding the evacuation of the settlements in the Gaza Strip and four others in the West Bank, Israel intensified its attacks against the Palestinians in the West Bank by grabbing land, invading, killing and arrest.
Separation Wall
As expected, Israeli army, used violence in dispersing the peaceful anti Wall protests in the West Bank, and used its weapons, unlike their way of dealing with settlers during the evacuation of settlements in the Gaza Strip, in spite of numerous violent attacks carried out by the settlers.
Around four hundred Palestinians, Israeli and International peace activists participated in a weekly peaceful protest, against the Separation Wall in Bil’in, west of Ramallah.
Israeli soldiers used excessive force against the protest .30 protestors were injured; seven international peace activists and four Israelis were detained.
Two Palestinian residents were injured on Thursday afternoon, during a peaceful protest against the separation Wall in Al Ramadeen village, south of the West Bank city of Hebron. Dozens of residents and International peace activists participated at the protest. Israeli soldiers fired concussion grenades, gas bombs and rounds of live ammunition at the residents, who were peacefully protesting against annexing their orchards in order to construct the Separation Wall.
Land Grab
Israeli soldiers handed several residents of Qaryout village, south east of the West Bank city of Nablus military orders informing them of annexing 1200 Dunams of farmlands in Al Hamra Castle Mountain area west of Qaryout near the settlements of Shilo and Ely.The settlers controlled farmlands in the area over the last four years and constructed an illegal outpost.
Settlers Acts
A group of Israeli settlers from the near by settlement of Enav attacked residents in Ramien village near the West Bank city of Nablus on Monday afternoon. and hurled stones at the houses. Settlers also caused damage to groves that belong to the farmers.
Israel placed the villages adjacent to Enav settlement under tight closure since the beginning of the pullout from Gaza Strip and the four northern West Bank settlements.
Israeli soldiers supported by armored vehicles invaded several neighborhoods in the West Bank city of Hebron and broke into dozens of homes on Tuesday at dawn and causing damage. Several families were forced out of their homes for several hours, while soldiers carried out military searches and interrogated the youth.
Disengagement
Israel wrapped up with its unilateral disengagement plan evacuating the settlers of 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four small ones in the northern of the West Bank in six days instead of two weeks as the military departments earlier expected since most of the settlers left the settlements earlier. The Israeli army faced resistance of the anti pullout right wing settlers by attacking the army in different sites of the evacuated settlements. An Israeli female soldier was stabbed with a screw driver while attempting to evacuate one of the settlers in the northern West Bank settlement of Sanur. Israel moved the evacuated settlers from Nitzarem in the Gaza Strip into the West Bank Settlement bloc of Ariel. According to the Israeli army the evacuation will be implemented by the middle of the next month.
Monday evening Israel dismantled nearly 70% of its military camps in the Gaza Strip and has only maintained temporary posts. Israeli army demolished most of the houses of the evacuated settlements
Israel and Egypt arrived to an understanding which paves the way to sign the “Philadilphi Agreement†in order to deploy Egyptian troops along the Philadilphi Route, on the Gaza-Egypt borders in Rafah area. 750 Egyptian border-police will control the area from the coast all the way until the Negev border Israeli town of Keren Shalom. According to the Israeli-Egyptian agreement, the Egyptian task force will be preventing weapons smuggling, and infiltration attempts through the borders, a small Egyptian Naval unit will also be deployed along naval border with the Gaza Strip.
New Patriarch
The synod, the highest body in the Greek Orthodox Church, on Monday has elected a new Patriarch to succeed former Patriarch Irineos I, who was dismissed over selling church property to right-wing Jewish investors in east Jerusalem. The new Patriarch, Theofilos is expected to return the east Jerusalem property leased or sold.
Maaleh Adumim Wall
The Israeli army began issuing land confiscation orders for the construction of the Wall around the settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim, east of Jerusalem after most of the sections of the wall in that area, were approved by Menachem Mazuz, the Israeli Attorney General, Israeli sources reported on Wednesday. This section of the wall is strongly opposed by the United States, since constructing a wall around this huge West Bank settlement would impede the establishment of the viable Palestinian State with territorial contiguity as stated in the US-backed Road Map.
The U.S. has strongly opposed building the wall around the settlement of Ariel, yet Israel did build it there, also 25 kilometers deep into the West Bank. Building this section of the wall as planned, would make movement of Palestinians between the north and the south of the West Bank very hard. The Wall will lead to the annexation of 1585 Dunams of Palestinian farmlands and will route 14km east of Jerusalem leaving a wide area of land and olive groves, and 250 water wells that serve the Palestinian population on Israel’s side of the wall.
Tulkarem Invasion
Les than two days after Israel concluded the evacuation of the Jewish settlers from Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements an Israeli under cover special assassination unit killed five Palestinians in a raid into the West Bank city of Tulkarem overnight, one of them was an Islamic Jihad operative and the other four were civilians, Palestinian sources reported that undercover special unit entered Tulkarem as part of an ‘arrest operation’ targeting Islamic Jihad operatives.
In response, a home made Qassam shell hit the Israeli Negev town of Sderot, Thursday morning causing no damage or causalities, marking the first attack against Israeli targets as the Palestinian factions committed to ensure a calm pullout from the Gaza Strip.
The assassination was widely condemned by the Palestinians. Hamas spokesman Shiekh Hassan Yousef said this brutal crime will not pass without a response.
(Actuality)
‘We think that what happened is a brutal crime.The Palestinians will not stand still. The occupation could not dream of an eternal opened calm period.We have the right to defend ourselves.’
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei condemned the assassination, saying that it proves that Israel is not interested in calm.’
From the International Middle East Media Center IMEMC.Org in Beit Sahour , Palestine This is Dina Awad and Andy Clarno.
