Click on Link to download or play MP3 file || 3 m 0s || 2.75 MB || Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org, for Tuesday April 14th, 2008.
The Israeli government approves minimum fuel shipments to Gaza; In the West Bank Israeli troops attack a local charitable society, these stories and more coming up stay tuned.
The News Cast
Israeli government sources told media agencies on Tuesday that Israel will resume supplying Gaza with the minimum quantities of fuel needed to generate electricity and cooking gas.
The Israeli sources said that all shipments will come throw the Nahal-OZ border crossing located in the northern part of the Gaza strip starting Wednesday.
Israeli had stopped all kind of fuel shipments coming into the Gaza strip last Wednesday, after an attack by the Palestinian resistance targeting the Nahal-OZ crossing and killing two Israelis. Two Palestinian resistance fighters where killed in the attack.
The Gaza based Palestinian Center for Human Rights, stated today that the transportation fuel embargo has paralyzed the movement of Gazans by 80%.. In addition, the center said that the Health, Water, and Education sectors in Gaza are 50% paralyzed due to those fuel cuts.
Internally, a Palestinian resident of the Gaza Strip city of Deir Elbalah, was reportedly found killed Tuesday in vague circumstances. Palestinian media sources and witnesses said that Sami Khattab, a former Palestinian intelligence service agent was found dead Tuesday morning in the evacuated Israeli settlement of Nitsarim to the south of Gaza city.
On Tuesday at dawn, the Israeli army started to close down projects founded and operated by the Islamic Charitable Society based in the southern West Bank city of Hebron.
In addition to the projects run by the society in the city of Hebron, it is also responsible for three schools and two orphanages serving 7000 children, 300 of whom are living in buildings owned by the Society.
The Society went to the Israeli high court of Justice, which on April 2nd had allotted the Israeli military four days to give the High Court full justification for the closure and evacuation orders. This deadline passed last week without the army offering any formal justification for the closure orders, instead demanded more time on Tuesday of lasted week.
Today at dawn the Israeli army closed down a bakery run by the Islamic Charitable Society in Hebron in an indication that the army will go ahead with the closures.
Sources at the society said if the army does close the society, 300 children will sleep on the street, 5000 families will lose social support services, and 800 workers will become unemployed.
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. This report has been brought to you by Ghassan Bannoura and George Rishmawi.
