Click on Link to download or play MP3 file || File 2.88 MB|| Time 3m0s ||Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org, for Monday April 23rd 2007.
The Israeli army invades several West Bank cities and attacks civilians, while Israeli war planes drop leaflets over the Gaza Strip warning of possible attack. These stories and more coming up, stay tuned.
The West Bank Update
For the second consecutive day the Israeli army enforced a curfew on the town of Howwara, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus on Monday. This led to the confinement of hundreds of Palestinian families to their homes. The Israeli army invaded the town on Sunday and imposed a curfew on its residents.
Also on Monday, despite an Israeli high court ruling banning the use of Palestinians as human shields, the Israeli army forced Palestinian civilians to walk in front of their military vehicles as they invaded several West Bank areas.
Eyewitnesses in Balata refugee camp near Nablus reported that Israeli troops used Mahmoud Ji’arim, from Balata camp, as a human shield on Monday morning. J’iarim was forced to walk with the soldiers as they searched the camp and kidnapped five Palestinians.
On Monday morning some illegal Israeli settlers attacked and injured Palestinian farmers from the village of Halhol, near Hebron city in the southern part of the West Bank. The settlers, from Kurmitsur settlement which is located on stolen village land, attacked the farmers who were working on their land near the barbed wire fence surrounding the settlement.
Israeli radio reported Monday that an Israeli and a Palestinian were injured in a shooting in east Jerusalem. According to the radio a Palestinian opened fire early on Monday at an Israeli car, wounding the driver in the arm, while a Palestinian bystander was hurt with shrapnel. No further details were reported about the incident.
Over the weekend eight Palestinians were killed in less than 24 hours during invasions of several West Bank areas. This includes five Palestinian resistance fighters and three civilians, among them a child and a woman.
The Gaza strip
As a warning of a possible Israeli military campaign against the Gaza Strip, Israeli war planes dropped leaflets on Monday at dawn in the northern Gaza Strip, eyewitnesses reported.
The leaflets threatened that if Palestinian resistance groups continued to fire homemade Qassam shells at nearby Israeli settlements and towns, the Israeli army would invade the Gaza Strip. Witnesses said that they saw Israeli army aircraft drop these leaflets.
The Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, of Fatah, and Al Quds Brigades of the Islamic Jihad announced on Monday that they had fired several home made shells at the northern Israeli towns of Siderot and Ashkelon- areas within the Green Line. They also claimed responsibility for the shelling of the Israeli army post of Nahal Oz, which is located to the east of Gaza City, in response to the latest escalation of Israeli military attacks. The resistance groups also reaffirmed their commitment to the resistance of the Israeli military occupation.
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 Kate Orwell and Ghassan Bannoura.
