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Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for January 10th, to the 16th, 2015.
This week Arab countries are discussed possible moves in the UN for Palestine, in the meantime Israeli attacks this week leave two Palestinian civilians killed. 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. On Friday Israeli troops attacked attack anti wall and settlement protests organized at a number of west Bank villages using tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. IMEMC’s Majd Batjali has more:
On Friday protests were organized at the villages of Bil’in, Ni’lin and Al Nabi saleh in central West Bank. Anti-wall and settlements protests were also organized in southern West Bank village of Al Ma’ssara near Bethlehem and in Kufer Qadum in the north.
In Kufer Qadum, Israeli troops attacked the villagers and their international supporters at the village entrance. Later troops stormed the village and fired tear gas at protesters, many civilians were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation. Moreover troops kidnapped one villager as they assaulted protesters with rifle buts and batons.
Elsewhere, Israeli soldiers attacked anti wall and settlements protesters in Al Nabi saleh before even leaving the village. A journalists was slightly wounded and many other protesters were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation when soldiers invaded the village and fired tear gas at residents’ homes.
At the nearby villages Bil’in, and Ni’lin residents and their supporters reached the Israeli wall built on lands taken from local famers before soldiers stationed their showered them with tear gas and chemical water that generate bad smell. Many were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation.
Also on Friday at al Ma’ssara village Israeli troops stopped the villagers and their supporters at village entrance then forced them back using rifle-buts and batons. No injuries were reported.
For IMEMC News this is Majd Batjali.
The Political Report
The Quartet committee for Middle East Peace will be discussing ways to promote peace between Palestinians and Israelis. Meanwhile, Arab countries are discussing possible one more attempt to bring about a UN resolution for Palestine. IMEMC’s Rami Al Meghari has more:
Arab countries, mainly Egypt and Jordan, demanded justice for Palestine, through their UN representatives.
Egypt called for ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, while Jordan, called on Israel to be clear on peace.
Meanwhile, foreign ministers of Arab countries met in Cairo this week to discuss one more attempt at the UN to bring about a biding UN resolution that ends the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
The meeting comes in the backdrop of last month’s failed attempt at the UN Security Council to bring such a resolution.
In a related news, members of the Quartet committee for Middle East peace, will be convene by end of this mont, to discuss ways to revive peace process between Palestinians and Israel.
In the Gaza Strip, various political factions excluding the Fatah party of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, met this week to accelerate implementation of last year’s unity deal between the Islamist Hamas and Fatah.
For IMEMC News, I am Rami Almeghari in Gaza
The West Bank and Gaza Report
Israeli attacks targeting Palestinian communities leave two Palestinians killed this week. Meanwhile in Gaza a child dies due to cold weather, his family home was destroyed by Israeli last summer. IMEMC’s Eman Abedraboo-Bannoura reports:
Late on Wednesday evening, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian teenager from Yatta town, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and kidnapped his friend, while walking near the Etzion Junction, south of Bethlehem. Medical sources said the soldiers shot Osama ‘Ali Mohammad Abu Jundiyya, 17 years of age, seriously wounding him, and prevented a Palestinian ambulance that rushed to the scene from reaching him, before he died of his wounds.
Also on Wednesday evening, Israeli police shot and killed a young Palestinian man, and wounded two others, during clashes with local residents in Rahat city, in the Negev. Sami al-Ja’aar, 20 years of age, was shot and seriously wounded, and died of his wounds at the Barzelai hospital in Asqalan (Ashkelon).
In a statement, the Israeli Police claimed it was operating against drugs in Basin #25 area, and clashed with local youths who hurled stones at them. The army also moderately injured another Palestinian; two officers suffered mild injuries.
Earlier in the week, an Israeli settler shoot and injured a Palestinian teenager in Hebron on Saturday.
According to media reports, a ‘public security officer’ shoot Ibrahim Issa Suleiman al-Tubasi, age 15, while he was working his family’s land south of Hebron. The unidentified settler is from illegal settlement of Beit Hagai, in the southern Hebron hills.
In Jerusalem this week, Israeli police stated, Monday, that they had closed down three NGOs affiliated with the Islamic Movement in northern Israel, which is known for defending Al Aqsa Mosque against extremist Jewish settlers. Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security agency said that it shut down the three organizations in the town of Nazareth that had been set up last year by the Movement, which has a following among Palestinians living in Israel.
In the Gaza Strip, one and a half year-old Fadi Qudeih passed away on Tuesday, in a caravan house where his family lives. According to local news sources, the child’s home was demolished during the Israeli attacks on Gaza this past summer, upon which his family moved to live in a caravan, in the region of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. The infant was found dead of severe cold, and moved to Nasser hospital.
The snow storm, Huda, which recently hit the region with temperatures that plummeted to some -4 degrees, has so far caused the deaths of at least five Palestinians, four of whom were infants between the ages of 1 month to 1.5 years old.
Later in the week, Israeli soldiers fired rounds of live ammunition at Palestinian farmers in the eastern area of the Khan Younis District, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, and the al-Maghazi refugee camp, in Central Gaza. No injuries were reported.
For IMEMC news this is Eman Abedraboo-Bannoura.
Conclusion
And that’s all for today from This Week in Palestine. This was the Weekly report for January 10th, to the 16th, 2015. 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 George Rishmawi and me Ghassan Bannoura.
