Audio Link After Text
Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Tuesday, February 09, 2016.
Qassam fighter dies in a tunnel accident in Gaza, and in the West Bank Israeli troops destroy ten Palestinian homes. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.
A Hamas fighter was killed on Tuesday, when a tunnel collapsed in the southern Gaza Strip, Hamas’ military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, stated. Al Qassam identified the fighter as 27-year-old Marwan M’arouf, from Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
During the past two weeks, the group has reported at least ten other deaths in three separate tunnel collapses.
While the tunnels are used by Hamas as a source of tax revenue and inflow of weapons, they also supply highly-demanded necessities for Gaza’s 1.8 million residents under the blockade, including food, medicine, as well as infrastructure materials like concrete and fuel.
In other news, At least 18 Palestinians, including two minors, were abducted by Israeli troops across the West Bank districts and Jerusalem, on Tuesday, most of them during predawn raids, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS).
In the Hebron district, Israeli forces kidnapped seven Palestinians, including a young girl, who was identified as Deema al-Wawi, 13. Israeli troops claimed that al-Wawi, who hails from the town of Halhoul near Hebron, had a knife on her possession at the time she was detained outside the settlement of Karmie Tzur, an illegal Israeli settlement north of Hebron. Meanwhile, in the Ramallah district, central West Bank, Israeli forces kidnapped five local Palestinians during a predawn offensive in the villages of Bil’in and Arora.
In Jerusalem, Israeli police reportedly took a woman and a teenager into custody. The teenager, 16 years old, was detained by Israeli police outside Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, allegedly after a knife was found on her possession. In Tulkarem and Tubas districts, in northern West Bank, Israeli troops kidnapped three civilians after searching their homes.
also on Tuesday, Israeli settlers, assaulted and injured a Palestinian shepherd in Masafer Yatta, a Bedouin area to the south of Hebron, while he was grazing sheep, according to local sources.
Moreover, Israeli forces, on Tuesday, demolished more than 10 Palestinian homes and structures in the village of Khirbet Tana, east of Nablus, northern West Bank, where residents have lived in an area declared as an Israeli military “firing zone” for decades. Khirbet Tana, located east of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, is home to some 300 Palestinians who belong to a herding community and have lived in the area for decades.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Tuesday, February 09, 2016, 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.
