Click on Link to download or play MP3 file || 4.57MB || Time 5m 0sWelcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org, for Monday March 19th, 2007.
An explosion in Gaza leaves one Palestinian killed and ten injured. The Israeli army injures an elderly man in the West Bank. These stories and more, coming up. Stay tuned.
The Gaza strip
One Palestinian man was killed and ten others were injured in an explosion in a house in Al Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza city at midday on Monday. Medical sources in Al Shifa hospital reported that Ala Al Hassi, 25, died and ten other people were injured when a large explosion hit the Hassi family home in Al Shati refugee camp.
The sources added that Al Hassi arrived at the hospital severely injured and died shortly afterwards and that the ten other casualties sustained critical wounds. The Al Hassi family house, a two-storey building, was completely leveled to the ground by the explosion. Other nearby houses also sustained damage, local sources reported. Palestinian police and security forces rushed to the scene and are currently investigating the source of the explosion.
Also on Monday at midday, one Israeli man sustained light wounds after being shot near a gas station close to the Karni crossing in the eastern Gaza strip. Israeli sources reported that an Israel Electric Corporation worker, of about 40 years of age, sustained moderate injuries to his thigh and that his wounds are not life-threatening. He was taken to Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva for treatment.
The sources indicated that a Palestinian sniper shot the man. Later during the day
The Al Qassam brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for targeting the Israeli man near the Karni crossing. The group issued a statement in which they also claimed responsibility for firing several home-made Qassam shells at an army post near the Karni crossing.
On Monday morning unknown gunmen shot and wounded a Palestinian policeman in Deir Elbalah city, in the central Gaza Strip. No resistance group claimed responsibility for the attack.
The West Bank Update
Israeli troops stationed at Beit Iba checkpoint, west of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, opened fire and injured one Palestinian civilian on Monday morning. Beit Iba checkpoint is located on the main road between the cities of Tulkarm and Nablus.
Palestinian sources stated that Qasem Hamdan, aged 59, from Kufer Kadom village near Tulkarem in the northern part of the West Bank was injured in his leg. The incident occurred when soldiers stationed at the checkpoint stopped a young Palestinian man carrying a suspicious bag and detained him.
As the man was being detained, one of the soldiers opened fire randomly at the people standing at the checkpoint, injuring Hamdan.
Medical sources reported that a Palestinian ambulance arrived at the scene and took Hamdan to Rafidiya hospital in the city of Nablus, were he stays with moderate injuries.
The Israeli army took the detained young man away in an army vehicle, and an explosives squad was called to examine the young’s man bag. His name remains unknown, eyewitnesses reported.
In the meantime The Israeli army invaded several parts of the West Bank, attacked residents’ homes and abducted 13 Palestinian civilians on Monday at dawn. Israeli forces attacked and searched residents’ homes in the town of Qabatya south of Jenin city in the northern part of the West Bank and abducted three civilians. Five civilians were also abducted on Monday at dawn from the village of Kufer Qadom east of Qalqilia city in the northern West Bank.
Israeli media sources reported that the Israeli army invaded the cities of Nablus, Bethlehem, Hebron and Ramallah in the West Bank, and abducted 13 Palestinians on Monday at dawn. The Israeli army claimed that all 13 are ‘Wanted Palestinian resistance activists’, the Israeli sources stated. Local sources in the West Bank stated that all of the abductees are civilians.
Israeli military sources reported on Sunday night that one soldier was injured when an explosive charge detonated near a military jeep as the army was invading Balata refuge camp, in Nablus city, in the northern part of the West Bank.
Conclusion
Thank you for joining us from Occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, brought to you by Oliver Eacott and Ghassan Bannoura.
