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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org, for Thursday, March 4th, 2010.
Israeli tanks open fire at farm lands in Gaza, and troops detain civilians from the West Bank. These stories and more coming up, stay tuned.
The News Cast
Israeli tanks stationed at the borders shelled residents’ homes and farm lands close to the town of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. Residents said that they had to leave their farms during the attack; they reported damage to property but no injuries.
In other news in Gaza, a Palestinian teen was reported killed on Wednesday night when a tunnel collapsed on him in the southern Gaza border zone with Egypt.
Ahmad Al Najjar, 18 years old, was buried alive under the rubble, local sources reported. According to the Gaza based human rights group, Al Mizan, 141 Palestinians have died inside tunnels at the borders with Egypt since 2007.
Since Israel placed the Gaza Strip under Siege on June of 2006, the tunnels at the borders with Egypt became the main source of much needed supplies for the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the coastal enclave.
Elsewhere, residents of Beit Jala town in the southern West Bank, along with Israeli and international supporters, chained themselves to olive trees in protest at the Israeli built wall on their land. The Israeli army and police arrived at the location, but today troops did nothing to stop the protesters, and soldiers stood and watched while young men chained themselves to the trees that army bulldozers did not destroy yet.
Another group replanted two trees that bulldozers destroyed earlier this week. On Tuesday and Wednesday troops attacked those who came to support the local residents, and forced them out using rifle butts and batons. After some hours the protest ended with no casualties.
Earlier on Thursday eight Palestinian civilians were detained by Israeli troops during morning invasions targeting West Bank communities. The Israeli army radio announced that those taken on Thursday were on the military ‘wanted’ list. Local sources reported invasions of northern West Bank communities especially in the Jenin area.
This week the Israeli military conducted at least 18 invasions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. During those attacks troops detained 50 Palestinians, including 10 children, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights reported on Thursday.
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.
