Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org. For Monday, November 27th, 2006.|| Click here to Download MP3 file 5.0MB || time:5m29s
A fighter and a woman are killed near Jenin north of the West Bank while to the south a group of settlers attack and injure one child in Hebron. These stories and more coming up, stay tuned.
West Bank
Palestinian sources in Jenin, in the northern part of the West Bank reported on Monday morning that one fighter and one woman were killed in an Israeli invasion to the nearby town of Qabatia. The sources stated that Abdul-Raziq Mahmoud Bakir, 22, one of the leaders of the Salah Al Din Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, and Fatima Nazzal, 55, were killed by Israeli military fire after the army invaded the town.
Palestinian security sources reported that fierce clashes took place on Monday at dawn after the army invaded the town .The Brigades confirmed that Bakir is one of its members and vowed to retaliate.
Abu Mojahid, a media spokesperson for the Brigades, said that resistance factions declared a ceasefire that was conditional on Israel's termination of its attacks and assassinations. But today, Israel violated the first day of ceasefire and assassinated one of our fighters,” Abu Mojahid stated, adding “This crime will not pass unpunished”.
The army claimed that soldiers were fired at in the town and responded by firing back.. Elsewhere in the West Bank, soldiers took prisoner fifteen residents in several invasions to cities, villages and refugee camps.
A group of illegal settlers attacked Palestinian school kids going back home to the Tell Rumeida neighborhood in the southern West Bank city of Hebron on Monday afternoon. Wourod Shabanah, 9, was admitted in the city hospital after sustaining several cuts and bruises due the settler attack. Doctors described her wounds as moderate.
Shabanah said that she was walking back home with a group of kids from her neighborhood when a group of settlers attacked them. The kids ran away while she was caught by the settlers who beat her up. Local residents said that the settlers came from the nearby illegal settlement of Ramat Shai, built on stolen Palestinian land.
The Gaza Update
Palestine will not be able to join the Fifteenth Asian Games in Qatar 2006 due to the Israeli closure imposed on the Gaza Strip, media sources reported. Palestine’s participation was in volleyball only. The team is from Gaza and could not go through the Rafah border crossing, which has been closed for the past few months.
The Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) announced in Doha on Sunday that Palestine dropped out of the men's volleyball competition in Doha due to traveling difficulties.
The Palestine delegation just informed us that there is no chance for its volleyball team to participate in the games because the border in the Gaza Strip is still closed and no athletes or team officials can leave, said Yim Hyung Bin, AVC's vice president, in a press release. Apparently, despite the Israeli pullout of the Gaza Strip, Israel still controls the terminal and has opened it a few times to allow people through, but never enough.
Dr. Muawiyah Hasaneen, director of the Ambulance and Emergency Department at the Palestinian Ministry of Health, told IMEMC in a phone interview that hundreds of patients who need urgent medical treatment in Egypt are not able to go through the terminal due to the Israeli closure. The conditions of many of those patients may worsen if they are unable to receive the needed treatment in Egypt, Dr. Hasaneen added.
On Sunday, one fighter of the Al Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, died of earlier wounds suffered in Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. The fighter, Yahia Al Qassas, 25, was injured last month during clashes between resistance fighters and soldiers invading Al Faraheen area, in Khan Younis.
He was transferred to an Egyptian hospital where he was pronounced dead on Sunday.
. And finally, the newly reached fragile ceasefire still holds for the second day.
After three days of continuous military offensives in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops withdrew, leaving scenes of complete devastation. Twenty-three Palestinians are now dead and hundreds have been injured. The withdrawal came after Israel and Palestinian factions in Gaza officially began a cease-fire at 6 A.M Sunday morning. The ceasefire followed an agreement reached between Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, and Palestinian factions operating in Gaza. The withdrawal of the Israeli forces came after Israel agreed to a ceasefire declared by Palestinian armed faction
Conclusion
Thank you for joining us from Occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today for the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org brought to you by Cash Cay and Ghassan Bannoura.
