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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org for Wednesday January 11th, 2012.
Israeli settlers burn a mosque near Salfit and the Israeli military invades the Gaza Strip, these stories and more, coming up, stay tuned.
A group of fundamentalist Israeli settlers burnt, on Tuesday at night, three Palestinian cars in Dir Estia village, in the West Bank district of Salfit, and defaced the local mosque with “Price Tag” graffiti.
The Israeli Police reported that it is investigating the attack; Police spokesperson, Micky Rosenfeld, stated that the settlers wrote “Price Tag” and Gal Arye Yosef’ at the walls of the mosque.
The “Gal Arye” graffiti refers to one of the unauthorized settlement outpost that the army evacuated and dismantled on Tuesday.
Also on Wednesday, the settlers burnt a Palestinian car in Shu’fat neighborhood, in occupied East Jerusalem. Last week, the settlers carried out an attack against a Palestinian carwash place in occupied Jerusalem.
The Police found “revenge” graffiti on the side of a truck and “Price Tag” graffiti on an electrical closet. The Price Tag is the slogan the settlers use in their attacks as they hold the Palestinians responsible for any evacuation of unauthorized settlements. These settlement outposts are removed because the Israeli government did not authorize them.
Israeli settler attacks have increased dramatically in the year 2011. Mosques and farmlands are the main target of the settler violence. However, in 2011 the Israeli military became another main target of the settler’s violence.
Israeli media sources stated that Israeli Police Commander, Haim Rahamim, revealed in a testimony in front of the Law and Justice Committee of the Israeli Knesset, that the settlers carried out 228 attacks against the army in the West Bank last year alone.
Israeli troops conducted, late on Tuesday evening, a limited invasion targeting Dir Al Balah and the Al Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Resistance fighters exchanged fire with the invading forces, and fired a number of mortars at them.
Local sources reported that several armored vehicles and military bulldozers invaded the two areas and leveled some lands while military choppers were clearly noticed overhead.
Meanwhile, the Salah Ed-Deen Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committee, stated that its fighters exchanged fire with undercover forces that tried to infiltrate into an area east of the Al Maghazi refugee camp, and fired two mortar shells at them.
Italian President, Giorgio Napolitano, accepted on Tuesday the official documents of Palestinian Ambassador, Sabri Atiyya, as part of the Italian decision to upgrade the status of the Palestinian mission in the country to a delegation.
The head of the Palestinian representative office will be granted the status of an ambassador as well. Napolitano also stated that this move is a proof of support from Italy to the Palestinian Authority and for peace efforts in the region.
That’s all for today from the IMEMC News, this was the Wednesday January 11th daily roundup of news from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We hope you will join us again tomorrow. This was brought to you by Husam Qassis, and me, George Rishmawi
