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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Thursday, June 28, 2012.
Palestinian President Abbas to meet with the leader of the Israeli Kadim Party Mofaz the leader of kadema party, meanwhile a Palestinian hunger-striker is in critical condition, these stories and more, coming up, stay tuned.
The Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, announced that one of its senior political leaders was assassinated at his home in the Syrian capital Damascus.
On his Facebook page, Hamas official Izzat Al-Rishiq stated that Kamal Ghanaja was assassinated in Damascus. added that Hamas is conducting an investigation into the killing.
Following the assassination of Ghanaja, several Israeli media outlets rushed to accuse him of being behind several shipments of weapons smuggled through Iran to the Gaza Strip.
The Hamas movement said that the assailants are unknown, and did not accuse any party of the assassination, while several websites run by the opposition in Syria claimed that the regime of Bashar Assad is behind the assassination.
In January 2010, Israeli Mossad agents, carrying different forged European passports, assassinated a Hamas official, Mahmoud Al-Madbouh, at his hotel room in Dubai. Kamal Ghanaja, who was assassinated in Syria, was formerly an assistant of Al-Mabhouh.
Ad-Dameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association reported that Palestinian prisoner Samer Al-Barq, 39 who started his hunger strike 34 days ago, is currently in a critical health condition, suffering from arrhythmia, ongoing fatigue and other serious health issues.
The Association reported that its lawyer visited Al-Barq at Ar-Ramla Prison Clinic, and stated that he insists on continuing his hunger strike as the prison administration backed down on its agreement that ended a long hunger strike conducting by the detainees by renewing his Administrative Detention for three more months.
The prison administration also placed Al-Barq into solitary confinement after he refused to receive medication. The hunger-striking prisoner said that he will escalate his protest and stop taking water until he is released as stated in the agreement signed with the detainees.
Palestinian and international rights groups have condemned the Israeli government’s failure to live up to the agreement made one month ago in order to end the month-long hunger strike of over 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
The promises made by the Israeli government in order to end the hunger strike included an end to solitary confinement, improved living conditions for prisoners, proper medical care and increased family visits. A month after the hunger strike was declared over, however, the Israeli authorities have yet to implement these agreed-upon terms.
Palestinian chief negotiator, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), Dr. Saeb Erekat, stated that the meeting between President Mahmoud Abbas and the head of the Kadima opposition party in Israel, Shaul Mofaz, will be held this coming Sunday.
Speaking to the Palestine Radio, Erekat stated that the meeting is not an indication of the resumption of peace talks, adding that Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his negotiations team, are in charge of running the Israeli side of the political process.
Commenting on statements made by Israeli Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, who said that Abbas “is not interested in peace”, Erekat stated that these statements “are rude and filled with incitement”, and added that Israel is responsible for these statements. The Palestinian officials also said that the statements of Lieberman “are incitement meant to inflict physical harm on president Abbas”.
That’s all from IMEMC News. This was the Thursday June 28th daily roundup of news from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our website at www.imemc.org. Today’s report has been brought to you by Husam Qassis and me George Rishmawi
