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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Thursday, July 30th, 2015.
Israel’s new law sparks wide scale condemnation meanwhile Israeli troops clash with local youth and kidnap other during invasions targeting West Bank communities. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.
Israeli soldiers invaded, on Thursday at dawn, the ‘Aida refugee camp, north of the West Bank city of Bethlehem, and kidnapped three young Palestinian men.
Eyewitnesses said several military vehicles invaded the refugee camp, before the soldiers broke into and searched a few homes, and kidnapped three Palestinians. During the invasion local youth clashed with invading troops by hurling stones at them. Israeli soldiers responded with live rounds and tear gas. No injuries were reported.
Also on Thursday at dawn, Undercover Israeli forces have kidnapped several Palestinian children, after invading their homes in the al-‘Isawiyya town, in occupied East Jerusalem. Soldiers also clashed with local youths causing injuries.
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan said clashes took place in the town, after the soldiers invaded it and started breaking into homes and searching them. Clashes mainly took place in the Schools neighborhood, Mahmoud neighborhood and Dari neighborhood, and undercover Israeli soldiers infiltrated the town and fired rounds of live ammunition.
Moreover, regular units of the army also fired rubber-coated metal bullets, gas bombs and concussion grenades; several Palestinians suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation.
In other news, Hanna Ashrawi, head of the international affairs unit at the PLO, condemned the recent Israeli parliament – keenest law that allows Israeli troops to force feed Palestinian political detainees on hunger strike. In statement sent to press, Ashrawi described the new law as politically supported torture and against international law.
From his part, Issa Qaraqee, head of the political detainees committee of the Palestinian Authority, deemed the new law as unethical torture and noted that at least 3 political detainee held by Israel have died by the method of force feeding back during the 1980 hunger strikes. The Israeli Medical Association announced that the new law is not necessary and damaging meanwhile Physicians for Human Rights in Israel called the new law shameful.
The force-feeding law was passed in the Israeli keenest with 46 votes to 40. Palestinian political detainee held by the Israeli army use hunger strike to protest the administrative detention policy Israel uses and the ill-treatment by their captives. The Israeli army uses administrative detention to hold Palestinians for longer time without charges to trial.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Thursday July 30th, 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.
