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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Thursday January 2, 2014.
Israeli attacks targeting Palestinian communities leave an old man killed in the west Bank and another injured in Gaza. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.
A Palestinian old man, from the village of Kufur Qaddoum, in northern West Bank, was pronounced dead on Thursday at dawn due to tear gas inhalation.
The Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in the village said that (Hajj) Sa’id Jasser Ali, 85 years of age, suffered serious complications after Israeli soldiers fired dozens of gas bombs at a number of homes in the village and its neighborhoods.
Local sources said that soldiers attacked the villagers as dozens of Palestinians held a nonviolent procession marking the 49th anniversary of forming the Fateh movement, headed by president Mahmoud Abbas.
Elsewhere, Undercover forces of the Israeli army have invaded the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, searched homes and kidnapping two civilians.
Eyewitnesses said that the soldiers also fired rounds of live ammunition and gas bombs at residents’ homes during the invasions.
In other news the Israeli Interior Minister, Gideon Sa’ar, placed the cornerstone for a new illegal settlement in the occupied Jordan Valley of the West Bank, Palestine TV has reported.
The Minister told reporters that Israel would boost and maintain the presence of its soldiers and settlers in the Jordan Valley, under any peace agreement with the Palestinians, adding that the area is essential for what he called “Israel’s strategic interests”.
Israeli settlements, in every part of occupied Palestine, including the Jordan Valley and occupied Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law and the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a signatory.
In the Gaza strip on Thursday, Israeli soldiers shot and injured a Palestinian man near the northern borders between Israeli and the costal enclave. Local sources said that the man sustained critical wounds and was moved to a hospital in the nearby Jabliya town for treatment.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Thursday January 2,, 2014 news round-up from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our web siteatwww.imemc.org. Today’s report has been brought to you by George Rishmawi and me Ghassan Bannoura.
