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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Wednesday, December 30, 2015.
Israeli soldiers injuries 24 Palestinians and kidnap 28 others during invasions targeting West Bank communities. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.
At least 24 Palestinians were shot and injured by rubber-coated steel bullets, while 19 others suffered from severe tear gas inhalation, when clashes erupted between residents and Israeli military forces in the town of Abu Dis near Jerusalem. The Clashes broke out in Abu Dis following a funeral held for a Palestinian killed earlier this month, whose body was held by Israeli authorities for 26 days. Israeli authorities handed over the body of Mazin Hasan, 37, near the town of al-Eizariya.
Palestinian Red Crescent medics transferred the body to the Abu Dis medical center, where the funeral procession set off to Ureiba’s family home before mourners carried his body to the local cemetery for burial. Ureiba’s body was one of three to be returned by Israeli authorities Tuesday evening. The bodies of Palestinians killed while carrying out attacks on Israelis have been withheld in line with a decision made in October by Israel’s security cabinet to return the bodies on a case-by-case basis.
In other news, Israeli forces kidnapped 28 Palestinians, including nine minors, from across the West Bank districts overnight, according to local and security sources. In Tulkarem city and the nearby Shwakeh Neighborhood, armed Israeli soldiers abducted four Palestinians, including two 18-year-old twin sisters.
In Hebron, forces took three Palestinians, including a minor, during a raid into the town of Tarqumiya to the west of the city. Forces also abducted a 15-year-old student near Abu Irish Israeli military checkpoint, in the Old City of Hebron. Furthermore, forces took six Palestinians from the Hebron area.
Israeli forces also kidnapped four minors aged 17 from the town of Kharbatha al Misbah to the west of Ramallah. Three more Palestinians were taken from the Ramallah area of Beit Doqo, including an injured local. In the Jenin area, armed soldiers took two locals after searching their homes. In Jerusalem, police kidnapped six Palestinians, including four children.
The Commission of Political Prisoners’ Affairs (CPA) said that at least 6,830 Palestinians were detained by Israeli troops in the occupied Palestinian Territory since the beginning of the year 2015, marking the highest rate of daily arrests in five years. 3.285 Palestinians were detained in the past three months alone since the beginning of violent unrest in early October.
Also on Wednesday, Israeli police have arrested five Israelis involved in a Jerusalem wedding ceremony that incited violence towards Palestinians, Israeli media reported. The groom of the wedding — reportedly a well-known member of the radical right — was arrested in addition to an Israeli soldier and two minors. Israeli police opened an investigation into the wedding last week after video footage aired by Israel’s Channel 10 went viral. The video shows Israelis present at the wedding dancing and singing songs of revenge while waving knives and guns in the air.
At one point during the ceremony, a masked Israeli youth waves a firebomb while another stabs a photo of Ali Dawabsha, an 18-month-old Palestinian burned alive in an arson attack carried out by Jewish extremists over the summer. The infant’s parents later died from severe burns, leaving their four-year-old child Ahmad as the sole survivor of the attack.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Wednesday, December 30, 2015 news round-up from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. From more news and updates, please visit our website at www.imemc.org Today’s report has been brought to you by George Rishmawi and me Ghassan Bannoura.
