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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Wednesday, May 20th, 2015.
Israeli police kills a Palestinian driver in Jerusalem and tanks invade areas in Gaza. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.
Israeli police officers shot and killed, on Wednesday morning, a Palestinian driver, in occupied East Jerusalem, allegedly after he rammed two police officers with his car. The deceased driver has been identified as ‘Omran Abu Dheim, 41 years of age, from Jabal al-Mokabber in occupied East Jerusalem.
A female and a male officer sustained light wounds due to the accident and were moved to hospitals in Jerusalem, Israeli sources reported.
Palestinian eyewitnesses said the incident was an ordinary traffic accident, while the Israeli police is claiming its initial investigation indicates that the driver “deliberately attacked the officers, and ‘tried to confirm the kill by reversing back over them,” Israeli sources added. The incident led to clashes between Palestinian youths and Israeli police officers.
Elsewhere where, Israeli settlers, Wednesday morning, burned down 90 olive trees in Sarta town, near Salfit, in northern occupied West Bank. Eyewitnesses said that that Israeli occupation fire trucks and vehicles arrived to the scene, but did not interfere, Palestinian sources reported.
Last month Israeli settlers, uprooted some 450 olive trees planted by Palestinian farmers in Slafit area. On Sunday, settlers from Azfar and Bani Kadim, near Shyoukh village, East Hebron, uprooted or stole about 800 olive trees.
Earlier on Wednesday at dawn, Israeli soldiers invaded several Palestinian towns and villages in the west Bank, searched homes and kidnapped eight Palestinian civilians including four children.
In the Gaza Strip, Several Israeli military vehicles, and four armored bulldozers, carried out on Wednesday morning a limited invasion into an area, east of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
Media sources said armored vehicles and bulldozers advanced from the Kissufim military base, across the border fence, while Israeli drones flew overhead. The soldiers advanced a few dozen meters into Palestinian agricultural lands, and withdraw later.
Also in Gaza, medical sources said two children were injured, on Wednesday at dawn, in an explosion that took place near the Al-Andalus towers. Rescue teams rushed to the scene, while the police initiated an investigation into the incident.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Wednesday, May 20th, 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 Ghassan Bannoura.
