Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Thursday, August, 18, 2016.
Two Palestinian officers killed in West Bank raids, meanwhile Gaza power plant runs-out of fuel. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.
Two Palestinian security officers have been killed, Thursday, and two others injured, during and an exchange of fire with wanted drug traffickers and arms dealers, in the Old City part of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
The two officers were identified as Shibly Bani Shamsa, 27, from Beita town, near Nablus, and Mahmoud Tarayra, from Bani Neim town, near Hebron.
Nablus Governor Akram Rajoub said the security forces are still operating around the Old City of Nablus, “in order to apprehend criminals, gun and drug dealers.”
Adnan Dmeiri, spokesperson of the Palestinian Security Forces said the identities of the shooters are known, and added that they are members of a very dangerous group, involved in various crimes. He also stated that despite losing five security officers in the past two months, two of them were also killed in Nablus two months ago, the operations will continue, especially since more than 100 criminals have been recently apprehended.
Elsewhere, a number of Israeli military vehicles invaded, on Thursday at dawn, the town of Jaba’, south of the northern West Bank city of Jenin, kidnapped one Palestinian during searches of homes, and caused many to suffer the effects of teargas inhalation.
In other news, Israeli bulldozers, escorted by Israeli police, demolished Palestinian-owned properties in several Bedouin villages of the Negev Desert, in southern Israel on Thursday, according to local sources.
Bedouin member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, Talab Abu Arar denounced the demolitions, saying that “Israel’s demolition campaigns are conducted for political and demographic reasons rather than legal as Israeli authorities claim,” adding that the demolitions occurred without the owners receiving prior warnings.
In Gaza, the only power plant in the besieged region announced, Thursday, that it was unable to operate on more than one generator, after exhausting its fuel reserves.
In a statement, the electricity supplier noted that efforts were being made to obtain fuel in the coming week. Even at full capacity, Egyptian and Israeli electricity grids, together with Gaza’s sole power plant, fail to cover the Gaza Strip’s energy needs. The power plant has not run at full capacity in years, with Israel’s crippling blockade severely limiting fuel imports into the coastal enclave.
And that’s all for today from the IMEMC News; this was the Thursday, August, 18, 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.
