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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Tuesday, August 11th, 2015.
Israeli settlers attack Palestinian Public Park, and soldiers demolish homes and business in the west Bank. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.
Jewish Israeli settlers, at dawn on Tuesday, used molotov cocktails in an attempt to set fire to a public park in the northern West Bank village of Qaryut. Local Palestinian sources said that a number of settlers arrived in three vehicles at 2 am and threw several molotov cocktails into the park before fleeing the scene.
Residents of the nearby village of Beita said that settlers tried to carry out a separate attack there, but locals noticed them and managed to quell the attack.
Settler violence has come under international scrutiny in recent days following a deadly attack on the village of Douma, last month, which killed an 18-month-old Palestinian toddler and his father. The mother and 4 years son is still struggling for their lives in an Israeli hospital after being injured in the attack.
In related news, Israel police questioned and freed, on Tuesday, a Jewish extremist leader who condoned torching churches. Benzi Gopstein, who heads far-right group Lehava, has not been linked to any recent attacks, but his comments regarding churches came at a time of heightened sensitivity over Jewish extremism and drew outrage from Roman Catholic officials.
In other news, Israeli forces, Tuesday morning, demolished a three-story commercial building in the industrial zone of Qalandia, just north of Jerusalem. The building consisted of two meeting halls, four offices and additional utilities measuring 220 square meters in total.
Mazin Abu Diab, the owner of the building, said that part of the building was constructed in 1971, and another part measuring 100 square meters was added on in 2013. He said that he had tried to obtain the necessary permits from the Israeli authorities for the additional structure, but said that the Jerusalem municipality decided to demolish the entire building rather than give him a license.
Also on Tuesday, Israeli forces have demolished three residential structures near the Hamra military checkpoint, central Jordan Valley. On Monday all families living near the military checkpoints were given 10 days to leave their homes as they are slated to be demolished by the army.
Elsewhere, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Tuesday morning, broke into the Ibrahimi Mosque in the Old City of Hebron. in anticipation of Ya’alon’s provocative visit, Israeli forces closed down all of the old market gates leading to the mosque, effectively denying Palestinian Shari‘a Court employees as well as Muslim worshippers access into the mosque.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Tuesday, August 11th, 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.
