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Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for October 12th to the 18th, 2013.
The Palestinian Authority voiced concerns over escalating rates of construction in West Bank Israeli settlements, meanwhile settlers attacks this week leave five Palestinians injured. These stories and more, coming up, stay tuned.
The Nonviolence Report
Let’s begin our weekly report as usual with the nonviolent activities organized in the West Bank. one civilian was injured a journalist arrested as Israeli troops attacked on Friday the weekly anti wall and settlements protests organized at a number of West Bank communities. IMEMC’s Eman Abedraboo-Bannoura has more:
This week protests were organized at the villages of Al Nabi Saleh, Bil’in and Nil’in, central West Bank in addition to Al Ma’ssra village, southern West Bank.
At the villages of Bil’in and Nil’in, residents and their international and Israeli supporters managed to reach the Israeli wall built on local farmers lands. Israeli troops used tear gas and chemical water against protesters.
One civilian was slightly injured and a photojournalist was kidnapped by Israeli troops at the village of Bil’in. Many residents were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation at the two villages as well.
al Nabi Saleh protesters were attacked by Israeli soldiers before leaving the village. However the residents and their international supporters managed to remove the Israeli installed gate closing the main road leading in or out of the village. Many people were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation.
Elsewhere on Friday Israeli troops attacked al Ma’ssara residents and their supporters at village entrance then forced them back using rifle buts and batons, no injuries were reported.
For IMEMC News this is Eman Abedraboo-Bannoura.
The Political Report
As Palestinian – Israeli talks comes to halt, Palestinian lead negotiator Saeb Eriqat voiced this week the Palestinian Authority concern over growing settlements building on occupied Palestinian lands. IMEMC’s Rami Al Meghari has more:
Eriqat maintains that such settlements activities would lead nowhere in terms of current peace talks with Israel. He called on international players to pressure Israel to stop those activities.
Eriqat’s remarks came on the heels of a report issues by Peace Now Block, an Israeli organization promoting peace. The report suggested that since early 2013, Israel has accelerated settlements building by double the amount in 2012.
Israeli illegal settlements building on occupied Palestinian lands are considered as an obstacle to peace-making. International community and United Nations regard the occupied Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza Strip, as boundaries of future Palestinian state.
Meanwhile, spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, Nabil Aburdaina, believed that a two-state solution can never be workable, unless Israel halts illegal settlements activities on occupied Palestinian lands.
In a related note, PA’s Prime Minister, Rami Alhamdallah, called on the state of Malta to exert pressure on Israel to lift a 6-year-long blockade on the Gaza Strip, which is an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territories that make up the future Palestinian state.
Malta has pledged a financial support of more than 100,000 US dollars to the Palestinian Authority and formed a join economic committee with the PA.
For IMEMC News, I am Rami Almeghari in Gaza
The West Bank and Gaza Report
This week the Israeli army conducted at least 35 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Gaza. During these attacks a number of civilians were injured and troops kidnapped at least 41 others, including 3 children. Right wing Settlers’ attacks against West Bank Palestinian civilians escalated also this week. IMEMC’s Salam Qumsiy reports:
Israeli army invasions this week were focused in the cities of Bethlehem and Hebron, southern West Bank, as well as the cities Jenin and Nablus in the north.
A Palestinian young woman sustained critical wounds on Monday when she was stabbed by an Israeli right-wing settler near Jerusalem old city. Israeli police announced that they found the woman stabbed and left to bleed near Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem.
Palestinian sources said that the young woman was moved to a nearby hospital after sustain multiple stab wounds in her abdomen and hands.
Elsewhere, three Palestinian farmers were injured on Monday when Israeli settlers attacked them near the village of Yabod, in northern part of the West Bank. Witnesses told local media that the settlers attack the car the three men were in as it drove by Humish settlement near their village.
Later in the week three Palestinian civilians were injured on Wednesday afternoon as they were attacked by Israeli right wing extremists near Jerusalem’s old city. According to Israeli police reports the attack was racially motivated.
On Thursday two Palestinian civilians were injured during clashes between local youth and invading Israeli troops targeting the southern West Bank town of Beit Omer. Witnesses said that the clashes stared when soldiers fired tear gas at residents taking part of a funeral in the town.
Also on Thursday Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farmers south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus. Farmers where harvesting their olive trees when a group of armed settlers attacked them and took over their farming tools, local sources reported. According to sources the settlers came from the Yitshar illegal Israeli settlement near the Palestinian village of Buren.
In the Gaza Strip this week, the Egyptian army destroyed on Wednesday a tunnel between the southern Gaza strip city of Rafah and Egypt.
According to Egyptian sources the tunnel was dug under a house on the Egyptian side of the borders all the way into Rafah. Egyptian troops evacuated the house then destroyed it and the tunnel under it.
Since Israel placed the Gaza strip under siege in June of 2007, those tunnels became the source of much needed medical, food, and fuel supplies to the 1.7 million Palestinians living in the Gaza strip.
For IMEMC News this is Salam Qumsiy.
Conclusion
And that’s all for today from This Week in Palestine. This was the Weekly report for October 12th to the 18th, 2013 from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our website at www.imemc.org. This week’s report has been brought to you by George Rishmawi and me, Ghassan Bannoura.
