Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Monday, February, 13, 2017.
Two Palestinians killed in Gaza in two separate tunnel accidents, meanwhile Israeli troops invade West Bank communities and detain civilians. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.
At least two Palestinians have been killed in tunnels under the besieged Gaza Strip, sources said on Monday. The al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, said that one of its fighters, 22-year-old Ahmad al-Barim from the town of Khan Yunis, was killed when a “resistance tunnel” collapsed.
While al-Qassam did not specify where the tunnel was located, the use of the term “resistance tunnel” generally indicates tunnels between Gaza and Israel.
Separately, Mumin Abu Hamid, a Palestinian worker, was killed on Monday when Egyptian forces flooded a smuggling tunnel between Egypt and the blockaded Palestinian enclave.
Since Israel placed the Gaza strip under siege back in 2006, the tunnels between the coastal enclave and Egypt became the main source of food, medicine, and fuel supplies to the two million people living in Gaza.
Staying in Gaza, The ruling party in the Gaza Strip, the Hamas movement, announced Monday its new leader following “secret” elections in the strip.
The new leader, Yahia Sanwar, is a senior commander who was released from Israeli prisons in the Shalit prisoner exchange deal in 2011, and is considered one of the top militants in the military wing of Hamas.
Sanwar will be replacing Ismail Haniyya, who was the Prime Minister of the Hamas’ government in Gaza after the militant group overran the territory in 2007.
Elsewhere, Dozens of Israeli soldiers invaded, on Monday at dawn, several communities in the West Bank district of Bethlehem, violently searched many homes and abducted eight Palestinians, including two children, the Bethlehem office of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) said.
Moreover, The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) has reported that Israeli soldiers abducted, on Monday at dawn, two Palestinians in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and two in the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia, during massive invasions and violent searches of homes.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Monday, February, 13, 2017, 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.
