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Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for October 24, to the 30, 2015.
This week 14 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks targeting Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem. Meanwhile Palestinians refuse the US Secretary of State John Kerry’s proposal to end the recent wave of protests. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.
The Nonviolence Report
Let’s begin our weekly report as usual with the nonviolent activities organized in the West Bank. one Palestinian villager was injured; scores of protesters were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation on Friday when Israeli troops attacked anti wall and settlements protests organized in West Bank villages. IMEMC’s Majd Batjali has more:
This week anti wall and settlements protests were organized in the central west Bank villages of Bil’in, Ni’lin, and al Nabi Saleh. In addition, protest took place in the village of Kufer Qadum in northern West Bank. Israeli soldiers used live rounds, tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets against the unarmed protesters.
In Bil’in and Ni’lin ,protesters managed to reach the Israeli wall. Meanwhile in al Nabi Saleh village, Israeli troops fired several rounds of rubber-coated steel bullets at the villagers as soon as they reached the village entrance. In Bil’in village, a Palestinian civilian was injured after being hit by a rubber-coated steel bullet fired by Israeli soldier.
Elsewhere at the village of Kufer Kadum scores of residents and their international supporters were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation as Israeli soldiers attacked the weekly protest organized there. Troops also fired tear gas into residents’ homes after invading the village.
For IMEMC News this Majd Batjali.
The Political Report
This week, US Secretary of State John Kerry’s proposal to install surveillance cameras in Al-Aqsa mosque dismissed by the Palestinians and not respected by the Israelis. IMEMC’s George Rishmawi with the details:
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited the region in an attempt to ease the ongoing violence between the Palestinians and the Israeli military and setters which escalated in the beginning of October.
Kerry headed to Jordan since the Hashemite Kingdom is the custodian of the religious sites in Palestine, including Al-Aqsa mosque. He met with the Jordanian King Abdullah II and the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman and reached an agreement to install surveillance cameras in the mosque and the surrounding plaza. According to Israeli media sources Israeli Prime Minister Benjamine Netanyahu asked that both Abbas and King Abdullah publicly declare that no changes took place on Al-Aqsa mosque.
The Islamic WAQF department, the body responsible for the religious sites in Palestine received instructions from Amman to install the cameras, however, they were stopped by the Israeli police in Jerusalem. Azzam Al-Khatib Director of the WAQF Department in Jerusalem said “we work based on instructions from the Royal Palace in Amman, and we wanted to install cameras to show the world what really happens here at the mosque, but Israel is interested in cameras that serve its interests and goals only.” Al-Khatib insisted that Israel has no jurisdiction over the Aqsa Mosque and the surrounding plaza.
Israel has also rejected a proposal by New Zealand submitted to the UN security council, which demands Israel to freeze settlement construction and stop home demolitions and demands the Palestinians to freeze submitting files to the International Criminal Court in order to resume negotiations. The proposal also suggests that both sides, stop violence against each other and to end all incitements.
In a recent development Palestinian sources said the Palestinian Authority will submit a file to the International Criminal Court about what the Palestinians described as “field executions” of Palestinians in the streets by the Israeli military and settlers. The source added that the file includes 52 pages of a number of documented cases of Israeli soldiers and settlers killing Palestinian youth at point-blank, or leaving them to bleed to death.
There have been several cases where Palestinians accused the Israeli settlers and soldiers of faking evidence by putting knifes besides the bodies of killed Palestinians to justify the killing as a self-defense.
Since the beginning of the confrontations, early in October, around 70 Palestinians were killed, 13 of them were children, the last of which was an 8-month baby who suffocated by gas fired by Israeli soldiers, in addition to over two thousands injured. 9 Israelis were also killed in several stabbing and car hitting attacks.
For IMEMC News, this is George Rishmawi
The West Bank and Gaza Report
This week Israeli army attacks left at least 14 Palestinians killed, meanwhile clashes continue all over the occupied West Bank, Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 71 Palestinians have been killed since the start of October. IMEMC’s Ghassan Bannoura reports:
On Friday three Palestinian civilians, including an 8-month-old baby, were killed and more than 80 others injured during ongoing clashes in occupied West Bank, Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Ramadan Thwabta, 8 months old, was killed when Israeli troops stormed his family home in Beit Fajar town in southern West Bank and fired tear gas in it. The baby died due to tear gas inhalation.
On Thursday, Israeli troops shot and killed two Palestinian youth in the old city of Hebron in southern West Bank in two separate incidents near military checkpoints. The army claimed that the two tried to stab soldiers. Witnesses said that the two were killed in cold blood. Also on Thursday Nadim Eshqeirat, 52, died after the ambulance was unable to reach him in time, due to the extensive military blockade, and roadblocks isolating Palestinian communities in the occupied city of Jerusalem. Eshqeirat suffered a heart attack at his home in Jabal al-Mokabber town in Jerusalem. The ambulance was held up by Israeli roadblocks for more than 10 minutes which lead to the man’s death.
On Wednesday, One Palestinian youth was killed by Israeli gunfire while at least 19 others were injured as clashes continue all over the occupied West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza. Islam Rafiq Obied, 23, was shot by Israeli troops near an illegal Israeli settlement located in Tel Rumeida area of Hebron old city, southern West Bank.
Two more Palestinian youth were killed on Tuesday. Both youth from Hebron city were killed when Israeli soldiers opened gunfire at them at a bus stop near Gush Atzion illegal Israeli settlement located between the southern West Bank cities of Hebron and Bethlehem. According to the Red Crescent Society, Israeli troops detained the two critically injured Palestinians and did not allow the medics to provide them with medical assistance until they bleed to death.
Earlier in the week, Israeli troops killed three Palestinian youth during three separate incidents in Heron city, southern West Bank. on Sunday Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian teenage girl near the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron old city. Moreover, a 16-year-old teenager was gunned down and killed by an Israeli security guard, Saturday, for allegedly “running towards” the soldier. The boy was killed at the Jalama checkpoint, to the north of Jenin. Nobody else was hurt.
The Health Minister has reported that 71 Palestinians have been killed, and 921 Palestinians have been shot and injured with live Israeli army rounds, since the beginning of this month, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, while 855 were shot with rubber-coated steel bullets, and 208 suffered fractures and bruises after being assaulted and beaten by soldiers and fanatic settlers. Moreover more than 5000 Palestinians suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Also this week, Israeli forces conducted at least 110 invasions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. During these invasions, Israeli troops kidnapped at least 183 Palestinians, including 29 children. Fifty-five were kidnapped from Jerusalem alone.
For IMEMC News this is Ghassan Bannoura.
Conclusion
And that’s all for today from This Week in Palestine. This was the Weekly report for October 24, to the 30, 2015. From the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our website at www.imemc.org, This week’s report has been brought to you by Maher Qasiess and me Eman Abedraboo- Bannoura.
