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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Thursday, February 25, 2016.
A Palestinian man killed by unknown gunmen in the West Bank, and Israeli navy attack fishermen in Gaza. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.
A group of unknown gunmen assassinated a former political prisoner and a senior security leader, in Sielet al-Harethiyya town, south of the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
Ali Zakarna, spokesperson of the Palestinian political factions in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said Brigadier Ayman Jaradat, 40, was shot and seriously injured, and died from his wounds in the Jenin governmental hospital. Jaradat was shot during celebrations welcoming Emad Zyoud, who was released from an Israeli detention center.
Jaradat was repeatedly kidnapped and imprisoned by Israel, and he was sentenced to several life terms, and was released under the Shalit Prison Swap Agreement, after spending 23 years in prison.
Following his death, the Palestinian Authority deployed hundreds of security officers in the town, in an attempt to prevent retaliatory attacks, or any incident that could lead to additional confrontations, and casualties.
Palestinian Police spokesperson Luay Erzeiqat said the police initiated an investigation into the incident, and that the police, and security forces, will ensure calm in Jenin.
Elsewhere, The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) has reported that Israeli soldiers have kidnapped eleven additional Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Thursday midday, raising the number of kidnapped residents since dawn to at least 35.
Invasions and home searches were reported in Hebron and Bethlehem cities in southern West Bank. in addition to Nablus and Jenin in the north and the central West Bank city of Ramallah.
Moreover, Several Israeli military vehicles and armored bulldozers, invaded on Thursday at dawn Nil’in village, west of the central West Bank city of Ramallah, and demolished agricultural structures and barns. The army claims the structures “are close to a settlement road,” although the colonies and their segregated roads were illegally built on Palestinian lands.
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli navy ships opened fire, on Thursday morning, on several Palestinian fishing boats, only four nautical miles away from the Gaza shore, causing damage. The attack is part of daily violations targeting the fishers in the besieged and improvised coastal region, local sources reported.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Thursday, February 25, 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.
