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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Thursday August 16th, 2012.
Settlers attack Palestinians with cocktail bomb, meanwhile Canada church votes in favour of boycott of Israeli settlement products, these stories and more, coming up, stay tuned.
Six Palestinians were wounded three, seriously when Israeli settlers hurled a cocktail bomb at the car they were riding on the Bethlehem-Hebron road on Thursday.
Palestinian media sources reported that settlers from Beit Ain settlement in the Etzion settlement bloc threw a cocktail bomb at the van en route to Hebron wounding the driver and five members of Ghayatha family, including three children.
Israeli ambulance arrived at the scene and evacuated the wounded to Hadasa hospital in Jerusalem. Three of the wounded suffer second degree burns.
Israeli Central Issues newspaper reported, Thursday morning, that a group known as the “Egyptian Salasfist Front” in northern Sinai claimed responsibility for firing two rockets into Eilat coastal city.
Residents of Eilat reported Wednesday night hearing two loud blasts across the southern city. An Israeli military investigation said the city was hit with two Grad rockets, however the rockets landed and exploded in an open area causing no injuries or damage.
The newspaper said the group issued a statement officially claiming responsibility for the attack, adding that the group is also behind several previous attacks that targeted Egyptian gas pipelines providing Israel and Jordan with gas.
The group is also believed to be behind the recent attack against an Egyptian military base in Sinai leading to the death of 15 Egyptian soldiers.
In other news, the United Church of Canada (UCC), the largest Protestant denomination in the country, voted for boycotting products made in Israel’s settlements in the occupied West Bank including Jerusalem.
The Toronto Star newspaper reported that spokesperson of the UCC general council, Bruce Gregersen, stated that the decision is considered a significant step.
The UCC will be holding another vote on Friday to decide whether this boycott would be a permanent policy of the church or just a temporary measure.
Israeli Ynet News reported that the “Centre for Israel and the Jewish Affairs” in Canada said it was outraged by this decision, and considered it a move that singled out Jewish communities for boycott.
The centre also described the move as a reckless path, and added that the decision dismisses the concerns of the Jewish community in Canada.
On his part, Chairman of the centre, David Koschitzky, stated that mainstream Jewish organizations, including the Canadian Friends of Peace Now, do not approve this boycott decision.
And that’s all for today from IMEMC News; this was the Thursday August 16th daily news round-up 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
