Click on Link to download or play MP3 file || 3 m 26s || 3.15 MB ||

Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Tuesday, October 15, 2013.

United Nations reports continued Israeli violations against detained children, and the army freeze shipments to Gaza. These storied, and more, coming up, stay tuned.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has reported that Israeli violations against detained Palestinian children are still ongoing, despite an alleged Israeli decision to improve their conditions, and the methods of interrogation.

It said that Tel Aviv took steps to address some of the issues of concerns outlined in a report that was released back in March of this year. The March report indicated that detained Palestinian children face systematic mistreatment.

The UNICEF said that despite its earlier report violations against detained children are still ongoing, despite the 38 recommendations that outlined these violations and the manner to address them.

The report hoped that Israel would improve the ill treatment of children, and start treating the children within international standards.

In other news, Israeli officials froze the delivery of construction materials into the Gaza Strip following the army’s discovery of a 1.7 km long tunnel connecting Gaza to Israel.

Israeli military official, Guy Invar, sites ‘security reasons’ to justify the recent freeze construction materials. The army blames Hamas, a fundamentalist Palestinian resistance movement, for the construction of the tunnel.

Since Israel blockade on the Gaza Strip, began in 2007, Palestinians have used underground tunnels to smuggle products into Gaza, including building materials.

Following Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood’s fall from power, the Egyptian army destroyed tunnels connecting Egypt to the border town of Rafah.

The Israeli military attributed the tunnels to ‘terror groups’, meanwhile failing to address the six year blockade’s role in of decreasing the standard of living for Gaza’s 1.7 million residents and increasing unemployment and poverty rates in the coastal region.

And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Tuesday, October 15, 2013 news round-up from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our websiteatwww.imemc.org. Today’s report has been brought to you by George Rishmawi and me, Ghassan Bannoura.