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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Wednesday, October 30, 2013.
Israeli settlers uproot Palestinian owned olive trees and troops issue demolishing orders against a number of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem. these stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.
A group of Israeli settlers uprooted on Wednesday 600 olive tree owned by Palestinian farmers from the village of Einaboos south of Nablus city in northern West Bank.
Villagers said that the settlers came from the nearby Yitshar illegal settlement. Farmers said that they only can access their land after coordinating with the Israeli army because the lands are close to the illegal settlement. The farmers say the destruction of the trees happed over days and the army did not stop it.
Elsewhere, the Israeli army handed out demolishing orders to five Palestinian families in Silwan neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem.
According to the army the homes are built without the needed permission from the military which is rarely given to Palestinian residents of Jerusalem.
In other news The Israeli government has announced that it intends to build additional 1500 units for Jewish settlers in the illegal settlement of Ramat Shlomo, in occupied East Jerusalem.
The announcement came after Israel released 26 veteran Palestinian detainees, as part of diplomatic talks between Tel Aviv and the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas.
The decision did not come as a surprise as Netanyahu and his coalition partners said that they would build more settlements in return for freeing Palestinian political prisoners, and alleged that President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to this formula.
President Abbas told those gathered in Ramallah to welcome the released political prisoners that he never accepted the release of detainees in return for accepting Israel’s settlement activities. Tel Aviv will be releasing more detainees on December 29, and on March 28 2014.
The release is part of an agreement, mediated by the United States, to ensure the resumption and continuation of peace talks that were halted for three years due to ongoing Israeli violations, including invasions, arrests, and ongoing settlement activities.
The agreement is meant to ensure the release of all 104 detainees held by Israel since before 1993 on four stages.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Wednesday, October 30, 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.
