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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Wednesday, February 11th, 2015.
Israeli troops demolish a Palestinian protest tent village near Jerusalem and kidnap civilians during invasions targeting West Bank communities. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.
Israeli forces, for the fifth time in a row, have demolished the symbolic popular struggle village ‘Jerusalem Gate’ in Abu Dis, which continues its stand against Israeli policies of demolition and ethnic cleansing by relocating Bedouins in East Jerusalem to the Jordan Valley region.
Munther Amira, popular struggle activist and coordinator, said that the demolition was completely provocative and used bigger and stronger machinery than the last four times, in a way to point out that Israel is, in fact, preparing to proceed with the displacements and bulldozing land for the purpose of settlement expansion. Amira assured that the parties and committees will complete their steadfastness and rebuild the village again.
Earlier on Wednesday at dawn, Israeli soldiers invaded several towns in the southern West Bank district of Hebron, kidnapped eight Palestinians, including children, wounded at least two, and handed five others military orders for interrogation.
Local sources said that dozens of soldiers invaded Beit Ummar, and kidnapped seven Palestinians after violently breaking into their homes, and searching them.
The invasion into Beit Ummar led to clashes between the soldiers and local youths; the army fired gas bombs, concussion grenades and rubber-coated metal bullets.
A young man, 27 years of age, was shot by a gas bomb in the leg, and was moved to the Hebron governmental hospital. Many residents suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation.
Soldiers also forced some young men out of their homes in the rain, and forced them to remove their clothes in order to search them.
Elsewhere, Israeli soldiers invaded, on Wednesday at dawn, several towns in the northern West Bank district of Jenin, and kidnapped seven Palestinians.
In Jerusalem, The Israeli Municipality of West Jerusalem set up, on Wednesday, a sign reading “Temple Mount”, in reference to the nearby al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
The sign, which was placed near Al Nather Gate, was made available in three languages: Hebrew, Arabic and English, according to local news sources.
Jews refer to the site as the “Temple Mount,” claiming it as the site of two Jewish temples destroyed in ancient times. The site is home to the third holiest mosque in Islam, and houses the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.
The site is located in occupied East Jerusalem, taken by Israel from Jordan in 1967, but under an agreement to keep the site under Jordanian jurisdiction.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Wednesday, February 11th, 2015, news round-up from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates, please visit our website at www.imemc.org. Today’s report has been brought to you by George Rishmawi and me Ghassan Bannoura.
