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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Wednesday July 3rd, 2013.
Israeli troops invade West Bank communities, clash with local youth and kidnap civilians. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.
On Wednesday morning clashes erupted between Israeli troops and local youth at the town of Abu Dees near Jerusalem in central West Bank. Israeli troops stormed the town and searched homes then clashed with the local youth, local sources reported. Many were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation.
Earlier on Wednesday at dawn several Israeli military keeps invaded Al-Arroub refugee camp, north of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and kidnapped four Palestinians, including two brothers.
Local sources said that soldiers violently broke into the homes of the kidnapped residents, and violently searched them causing property damage.
In related news, dozens of soldiers invaded the Arbouna village, surrounded by the Annexation Wall east of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, and broke into and searched three homes. The army gave no reason for the attack.
In other news the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe granted Palestine a membership status, as a Mediterranean State that is a nonmember of the European Union.
The Assembly of the OSCE adopted a draft resolution presented by Belgian Socialist Senator, Marie Arianna, during its 22nd session of the Parliamentary Committee convening in Istanbul, Turkey. The Palestinian Authority filed the application back in 2004.
After passing the vote, the OSCE urged both Israel and the Palestinians to resume direct peace talks in order to preserve the two-state solution.
The Senator filed her application based on the fact that Palestine was voted in as a nonmember state of the General Assembly of the United Nations in November of 2012, as a member state at the UNESCO in 2011, in addition to the “Partner for Democracy” status granted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in 2011.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Wednesday July 3rd, 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 Hussam Qassis and me, Ghassan Bannoura.
