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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Monday September 5, 2011.
Israeli settlers torch a mosque near Nablus and army uproot trees near Bethlehem, these stories and more coming up. Stay tuned.
A group of extremist Israeli settlers broke, on Monday at dawn, into a mosque in Qasra village, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and torched it after destroying its property and writing anti-Arab slogans on its walls.
Eyewitnesses said the settlers broke into Al Nourein mosque after breaking it windows, and burnt tires inside the mosque. The fire spread in the mosque consuming most of its property.
The Palestinian Authority denounced the Israeli escalation and settlement construction, describing the Israeli violations as an attempt to foil the Palestinian initiative to seek international recognition and full membership at the United Nations this month.
Nabil Abu Rodeina, spokesperson of the Palestinian President, stated that Israel is escalating its assaults to pressure the P.A into withdrawing its UN initiative.
In related news, dozens of settlers hurled stones at Palestinian vehicles driving near the Yitzhar settlement, on the Nablus- Huwwara road; damage to several vehicles and a local bus was reported.
The settlers are carrying ongoing attacks against the Palestinians under the so-called “Price Tag”, as they blame the Palestinians for any Israeli evacuation of illegal settlement outposts.
On Monday at dawn, Israeli soldiers demolished three structures at the Migron illegal outpost, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah.
Israeli soldiers invaded the village of Al-Walaja near Bethlehem and uprooted a number of olive trees to make way for the construction of the wall.
The soldiers, heavily deployed in the area, declared the village a “closed military zone”, were prevented anybody from entering or leaving it.
Recently, the Israeli High Court authorized the army to resume the construction of the Wall on village lands i under the pretext that “the damage caused by the construction is relatively acceptable comparing to its security benefits”, according to the court.
Adel Al Atrash, deputy head of the Al Walaja Village Council, stated that the army uprooted, so far, more than 100 trees in the area.
Israeli Border Authorities at the Allenby Bridge, leading to Jordan, prevented on Sunday a seriously ill West Bank patient, a former political prisoner, from traveling to Jordan for urgently needed medical treatment.
Zakariyya Daoud Issa, 43, a former football player, suffers from an advanced stage of cancer, and that his health condition is sharply deteriorating.
He received all needed permits and referrals to cross the bridge by ambulance to head to the Hussein Medical Center in Jordan, however this was not recognized by the Israeli authorities.
That was some of the news from Palestine Today, for more updates, please visit our website at www.imemc.org. Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. This report has been brought to you by Hussam Qassis and me, George Rishmawi.
