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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Monday July 20th, 2015.
Settlers aid west Bank areas demanding settlement construction and Gaza power shortage intensifies. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.
Israeli settlers, Monday, put up banners in multiple areas in Bethlehem district calling for more Palestinian lands to be confiscated for the purpose of settlement construction and expansion, according to local and security sources. The incident came a day after Jewish settlers organized three provocative rallies near Ramallah and Bethlehem in call-up for more settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
According to the Council for European Palestinian Relations There are currently 121 Israeli settlements and approximately 102 Israeli outposts built illegally on Palestinian land occupied by Israel since 1967 this include West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.
In related news Jewish settlers resumed their regular daily raids to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque , on Monday. Settlers stopped their provocative tours to the third holiest site for Muslims world wide during the month of Ramadan. The settlers toured the site before a number of worshipers present there forced them to leave. No clashes reported.
Also in Jerusalem on Monday, Israeli soldiers kidnapped four Palestinians, including one woman, from different parts of occupied Jerusalem. Israeli Court also ordered several detained Palestinians under further interrogation.
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli authorities have prevented Israeli power firm from repairing electricity grids supplying Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said on Monday. A technical error in the Israeli side cut off two main power grids supplying electricity to the Gaza Strip over the weekend. The down lines provide 25 percent or 30 megawatts, of the electricity that the Israeli occupation sells to the Strip.
Power grid No. 8, which provides electricity to central Gaza and parts of Khan Younis, shut down three days ago, and Al-Qubba grid, which provides electricity to the Gaza City, shut down on Sunday, Moreover the Gaza only power plant will stop running Monday evening as it is unable to cover taxes imposed by the national unity government, Gaza’s energy authority announced.
The energy authority added that it had only been able to cover the cost of maintaining the plant during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan and the Eid holiday by borrowing from local companies and taking loans from banks.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Monday, July 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.
