Audio Link After Text
Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Wednesday, May 21st, 2015.
Israeli troops destroy Palestinian farmlands in the West Bank and attack fishermen in Gaza. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.
On Thursday morning, Israeli army bulldozers uprooted around 20 Dunams of Palestinian farmlands in the Wadi al-Hamra area, in Husan town, west of the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
Local sources reported that a large military force invaded the area, approximately at five at dawn, uprooted 20 Dunams planted with olive trees and grapevines. In addition, soldiers also closed the main roads leading to Husan and Nahhalin, and declared the area a closed military zone.
Earlier, On Thursday at dawn Israeli soldiers kidnapped nine Palestinians in different parts of the occupied West Bank, after the army searched dozens of homes.
Media sources in Jenin, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, said the army invaded the Jenin refugee camp, Qabatia town, and Deir Abu Da’if village, violently searched homes, and kidnapped five Palestinians.
In addition, soldiers invaded ‘Aseera Ash-Shemaliyya town, in the northern West Bank district of Nablus, and kidnapped two Palestinians. The army also invaded various Palestinian communities in the southern West Bank district of Hebron, searched dozens of homes, and kidnapped two brothers.
Local sources in Hebron city said the soldiers invaded Jabal ar-Rahma area, and stormed one home, while fanatic Israeli settlers assaulted a Palestinian identified as Arafat Shaher al-Fakhoury, near the Ibrahimi Mosque.
In the Gaza strip, Israeli military ships opened fire on Palestinian fishing boats in the al-Waha and as-Sudaniyya areas, in Gaza, causing excessive property damage but no injuries.
In other news, Hunger-striking detainee Khader Adnan, who started his strike nearly three weeks ago, is currently only consuming salt and water, rejecting medical checkups and any sort of supplements, the Palestinian Political Detainees Committee reported on Thursday.
Khader also informed the Prison Authority that he would not attend any session of Administrative Detention courts, as they have no legitimacy and are only setup for show.
He was re-arrested by the Israeli authorities on July 8, 2014, two years after he was released from following a 66-day hunger strike against administrative detention, where no formal charges were laid against him.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Thursday, May 21st, 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.
