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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Monday, March 16th, 2015.
Israeli forces invade west Bank communities, search homes and kidnap a number of civilians. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.
Israeli soldiers kidnapped, on Monday at dawn, at least twenty Palestinians in different parts of the occupied West Bank, including seven children in occupied East Jerusalem, and two Palestinians from Gaza.
The Detainees Parents Committee in occupied Jerusalem said Israeli soldiers invaded Ras al-‘Amoud neighborhood, in Silwan, and the al-‘Isawiyya town, stormed and searched several homes, and kidnapped seven children.
Soldiers also invaded Qaryout village, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, broke into and violently searched several homes and kidnapped three Palestinians.
Furthermore, dozens of military vehicles invaded the villages of Deir Sharaf, Zawata and Beit Eeba, west of Nablus, broke into homes and searched them, and kidnapped two men.
In the southern West Bank district of Hebron, soldiers invaded various communities, searched homes, and kidnapped five Palestinians, including a father and his son.
In addition, soldiers installed roadblocks on various main roads leading to Yatta town, the al-Fawwar refugee camp, Sa’ir town, and the Halhoul Bridge north of Hebron city, stopped and searched dozens of cars, and examined the ID cards of the passengers while interrogating them.
Two more Palestinians have been kidnapped in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, after the soldiers invaded and ransacked their homes. In the central West Bank district of Ramallah, soldiers invaded Beit Rima town, northwest of Ramallah city, and kidnapped two Palestinians.
In related news, soldiers kidnapped two Palestinians, allegedly after crossing the border fence with Gaza. The army said the soldiers searched the two Palestinians, who were unarmed, and moved them to an interrogation center.
At the political level, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Monday that, if reelected, he will build thousands of settler homes in occupied East Jerusalem to prevent future concessions to Palestinians.
Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s general election on a whistle-stop tour of Har Homa, a contentious settlement neighborhood of annexed East Jerusalem, the PM vowed that he would never allow Palestinians to establish a capital in the city’s eastern sector.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Monday, March 16th, 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.
