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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Tuesday, December 7th 2010.
Today, Israeli forces entered a town south of Qalqilia, in the northern West Bank, and surrounded a mosque where Palestinians were praying, preventing people from leaving and then, examining each person one by one. There was no official explanation given by the Israeli army about the incident.
Also, a Palestinian couple was arrested after Israeli troops searched their house in Hebron and Palestinian laborers from Nahalin village, near Bethlehem, received orders to stop working.
In Gaza, a military court detained three men for collaborating with Israel, ordering execution for one and sentencing the other two to prison terms of seven and three years. No further details were given about the three men.
Also in the strip, the southern crossing, Kerem Shalom, was opened for entry of humanitarian aid, fuel and commercial goods and for the limited export of strawberries and flowers.
With regard to Gaza blockade, Former British Member of Parliament George Galloway told Algerian daily that new humanitarian aid convoys would be sent next year via land, air, and sea to the coastal enclave to break the four-year Israeli blockade.
In other news, the Palestinian Authority reported that Israel uses Palestinian prisoners to test the effects of different drugs, through the experimental medicine. According to PA Israel has increased its annual contribution to the experimental medicine by 15% and this type of medicine is mostly practiced in jails. He reported that the majority of Palestinian detainees face serious health problems, also after they are released, and many of them even die.
Palestinian human rights center Ahrar slammed Israel for renewing the administrative detention of Kifah Jibril just few hours before her scheduled release. Kifah is believed to suffer from a rare disease which causes tightening of the arteries obstructing regular flow of blood to her limbs and also from breathing difficulty.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights also condemned the shutting down of a peaceful assembly and the arrest of 16 participants by the Palestinian police in Gaza city. The assembly was held by a number of young people, who were protesting against Gaza’s decision to close a Youth Forum.
In separate reports, dozens of top Israeli rabbis signed on to a new ruling that would call on Jews not to rent homes to Arabs. Most of the signatories are from Safed, a city with an increasing number of Arab students enrolled at the town’s local college. The signatories appealed to the religious community to support the chief rabbi of Safed, Shmuel Eliyahu, who could be tried for incitement against Arabs.
According to a report by Ma’an News, an Israeli man went missing on Monday evening, near Jericho.The Israeli Police reported that the car of the missing man was located, and that his disappearance is likely related to a financial dispute with a resident of the area. The missing Israeli is a resident of the Negev and entered the Palestinian controlled area.
That sums up our news for today, thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem, you have been listening to Palestine Today, from International Middle East Media Center. For more updates, please visit our website at www.imemc.org. This report has been brought to you by Husam Qassis and Ane Irazabal.
