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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Thursday, December 31, 2015.
Israeli troops shot and kill a Palestinian youth and US Treasury Sued over Donations for Settlements. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.
Israeli soldiers shot and killed on Thursday a Palestinian young man near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
Hassan Bezro, 22, was driving his car near the Bita junction close of Bita village near Nablus when Israeli soldiers opened fire at his car killing him.
The Israeli army claimed that he tried to hit soldiers with his car when troops shot him. The circumstances of Bezro death remains unclear.
According to the Palestinian ministry of health, the number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli army since October 1 have reached 142 including 27 children. The ministry added in its report on Thursday that the Israeli army have shot and injured more than 15710 Palestinians since October.
In related news, the Palestinian Commission for Civil Affairs announced on Thursday that the Israeli army would hand over the bodies of 10 Palestinians who were killed last month by Israeli soldiers.
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, A lawsuit has been filed in a US court seeking to stop non-profit groups from sending billions of dollars worth of tax-exempt donations to support illegal Israeli settlements and the Israeli army.
A group of American citizens filed the suit on December 21 against the US Department of Treasury, claiming about 150 non-profits have sent an estimated $280bn to Israel over the past two decades.
The lawsuit claims that certain non-profit groups (including the Falic Family Foundation, FIDF (Friends of the Israeli Defence Force), American Friends of Ariel, Gush Etzion Foundation, American Friends of Har Homa, and Hebron Fund) directly contributed, tax-exempt, to violations of US law and international law, subverted US foreign policy, and contributed to countless crimes and human rights abuses targeting Palestinians.
The Treasury Department, which has 60 days to respond to the lawsuit, declined to comment on the issue.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Thursday, December 31, 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.
