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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Monday, February 23rd, 2015.
Israeli troops invade West Bank communities and injuries civilians, in the meantime Israeli’s electricity company cuts off power to major Palestinian cities. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.
Four Palestinian civilians were injured on Sunday late at night by live rounds fired by Israeli troops after dozens of soldiers invaded the ‘Aida refugee camp, in the southern west Bank city of Bethlehem.
The wounded Palestinians suffered moderate injuries, and were moved to the Beit Jala governmental hospital. Scores of Palestinians suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation, especially after the soldiers fired gas bombs at several homes.
The soldiers also invaded several homes, and violently searched them, causing property damage, and interrogated the families. In addition, a number of soldiers occupied rooftops of some homes, and used them as military towers.
On Monday at dawn, Israeli soldiers invaded, on Monday at dawn, various areas in the occupied West Bank, stormed and searched several homes before kidnapping five Palestinians, and handed one resident a military order for interrogation.
Kidnappings and home searches were reported in the southern West Bank cities of Hebron and Bethlehem, the central West Bank city of Ramallah and Jenin in northern West Bank.
Elsewhere, dozens of Israeli soldiers invaded, on Monday morning, the Jerusalem Gate protest village, in Abu Dis town, east of occupied Jerusalem, and demolished it for the ninth consecutive time. The invasion was carried out after at least 30 army vehicles surrounded the area, and declared it a closed military zone.
The village was installed for the first time nearly three week ago, on the Khallet ar-Raheb area, east of Abu Dis, to protest Israel’s decision to displace and relocate the Bedouin communities so that it can continue its construction and expansion of its illegal colonies.
In other news, Israel’s Electric Corporation announced that it will begin limiting the supply of electricity to a number of cities in the West Bank beginning from 2.00 p.m. on Monday. Israeli media reports that electricity will be halted for up to two hours daily,
The power company says that the decision comes due to the 1.9 billion debt the Palestinian Authority owe to the company. Israel has been withholding hundreds of millions of US dollars, which Israel collects in tax revenue, on behalf of the PA. This has affected the PA’s ability to pay for salaries of public sector’s employees and fulfil its other obligations.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Monday, February 23rd, 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.
