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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Thursday September 23, 2010.
Today report will be focused on Jerusalem where the situation is relatively calm following a very tense day. Yet, the Israeli police and army invaded a number of areas in Jerusalem and abducted five Palestinians, the details are coming up, stay tuned.
Israeli soldiers broke on Wednesday evening into the yards of the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, clashed with dozens of Palestinian youths and arrested several Muslim worshipers; at least fifteen Palestinians were wounded.
The army claimed the soldiers were chasing Palestinians who hurled stones and empty bottles at them after an Israeli security guard, working for a private security company, shot and killed, Samer Sarhan, 32 on Wednesday.
Israeli forces also broke into the Orphanage School in the old city of Jerusalem, after surrounding the school from all sides. The Israeli police claim some school students threw stones at them during the funeral of Sarhan.
As the headmaster of the school did not allow the police to arrest any of the students, the police and the army abducted the 15-year-old student Murad Murrar as he left the school with his classmates.
In the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sliwan, Israeli forces detained four Palestinians, a Palestinian information centre reported.
The four were identified as Saleem Tawil, 17, Ziad Abu Sneinah, 27 and his brother Ihab 20, and Abed Yattawi 38.
The information center added that clashes erupted between the Abu Sneinah family and the Israeli settlers in Wadi Hilwa in Jerusalem. Jawad Siyam, head of the information center said settlers fired live rounds in the air after a quarrel escalated into a scuffle between the settlers and the Palestinian residents. No injuries were reported.
In related news, the Israeli police have released the three journalists who were arrested on Wednesday as they were covering the invasion of the Aqsa Mosque by the Israeli military and police. The three journalists were identified as Muammar Awad, Omran Risheq, and Ammar al-Razim.
The three had a conditional release of banning them to enter the old city of Jerusalem for two weeks and to pay $1300 each if they violate the condition.
The committee of Palestinian photographers and journalists condemned the arrest of the journalists and said this is a server violation of the journalists rights and freedom of expression.
On the other hand, the Palestinian Authoriy has demanded an international investigation IN the death of Samer Sarhan in Jerusalem.
Ahmad Al-Rweidi, in charge of Jerusalem unit in the office of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said that there is evidence that the Sarhan’s death was not an accident or a reaction to an incident, adding that he believes that it was a pre-arrange assassination by Israeli settlers.
Al-Rweidi also said that the family of Sarhan told him that the Israeli police arrested Sarhan a number of time recently and that Israeli settlers has threatened to kill him several times.
Samer’s cousin Mohammad said that as Samer was driving one of his friends to the hospital, an armoured jeep driven by an Israeli settler, blocked their way. A quarrel erupted between the settler and Samer, as a result, the settler guard jumped out of the car and shot Samer in the chest, and left him to bleed to death for half an hour.
This concludes our news for today. Thank you for joining us form occupied Bethlehem, you have been listening to Palestine Today, from the International Middle East Media Center. For more updates, please visit our website at www.imemc.org. This report has been brought to you by, Hussam Qassis, and George Rishmawi.
