Five Palestinian Government employees were hospitalized in the West Bank city of Ramallah after inhaling suspicious material that was in an envelope addressed to the Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyya,
Nasser Ed Deen Al Sha’er, the Palestinian vice-premiere said that the letter that included this suspicious material is a clear Israeli assassination attempt that targeted Haniyya or his deputy.
Moreover, a Palestinian security source reported that the letter arrived from Israel and that the material that was inside it vaporised after the letter was opened.
Haniyya is constantly present in Gaza since Israel does not allow him to travel to the West Bank. The letter was supposed to be transferred to Gaza but the employees suspected it and decided to open it to see its contents.
All Palestinian government meetings are conducted by video conference since government members in the West Bank and Gaza cannot travel to hold their meetings in one place.
In a separate incident, Israeli war planes fired a missile at a house in Beit Lahia, in the norther part of the Gaza Strip, no injuries were reported.
The house includes three families, its owner received a phone call from the Israeli army informing him that they will shell it within minutes.
In the West Bank, soldiers took, Fadel Hamdan, a Hamas legislator prisoner, less that 24 hours after illegally arresting Aziz Dweik, head of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
The Egyptian Foreign Minister, Ahmad Abu Al Gheit, The Secretary General of the Islamic Conference Organization Akmaluddin Ihsan Ogli, and Amr Mousa, Secretary of the Arab League, condemned the abduction of Dweik and considered it a direct violation to the international law.
Also, European Parliament president Josep Borrel demanded Israel to release Dweik and considered his arrest by Israel as an “unacceptable act”.
From his detention, Dweik said that his refuses to be released without the release of all Palestinian officials , ministers, and Legislators.
The Palestinian Legislative Council is set to hold a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the implication of the arrest of Dweik.
The latest event came after Israeli soldiers partially withdrew from Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. 17 residents were killed and dozens were injure.
The Rafah invasion was carried out on Thursday at dawn, most of the infrastructure in Rafah was destroyed by Israeli shells during the invasion.
