Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for July 16, to the 22, 2016.
A child and man were killed this week by Israeli gunfire, meanwhile international states say Israeli settlements in the West Bank fuel violence in the region. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.
The Nonviolence Report
Let’s begin our weekly report as usual with the nonviolent activities organized in the West Bank. In Kufer Kadum in northern West Bank two civilians were lightly wounded and many residents were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation as Israeli troops attacked the weekly protest there. Troops later stormed the village and fired tear gas into residents homes.
Meanwhile in the villages of Bil’in and Ni’lin, in central West Bank, Israeli soldiers attacked the protesters as soon as they reached the gate in the wall that separates local farmers from their lands. Many protesters suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation and were treated by field medics at both locations.
At the nearby al Nabi Saleh village, troops attacked protesters at the village entrance. Israeli soldiers fired several rounds of rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas at protesters and nearby homes. Many residents suffered effects of tear gas inhalation as a result.
The Political Report
This week, International stats condemn Israeli settlements in the West Bank and calls them a fuel for violence in the region. IMEMC’s Rami al Meghari has more:
Unities and human rights council in Geneva said that existing illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are grave violation of human right and will fuel violence in the region.
The council called for a resolution to the conflict in a way that reduces violence in the region. In the meantime the Palestinian Authority asserted that the French peace initiative along with the Arab stats offer for peace with Israel which both call for a Palestinian statehood on the 1967 border could constitute a solid base for any potential political settlement with Israel.
On the internal front representatives of both the Islamist Hamas party and the Palestinian Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine meet in Beirut this week over stalled unity between the Fatah Party of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and the Islamism Hamas.
Both emphasized on the need for general elections, legislative and presidential as municipal elections are to be held soon across the occupied Gaza and the West Bank.
Hamas had earlier agreed to hold those elections even amidst political division with Fatah.
For IMEMC this is Rami al Meghari in Gaza.
The West Bank and Gaza Report
Israeli attacks targeting West Bank communities this week leave a man and a child dead. Meanwhile in Gaza one farmer was injured and fishermen came under Israeli gunfire. IMEMC’s Ghassan Bannoura reports:
On Tuesday, Muhie al-Deen Tabakhi 11, was killed after an Israeli soldier shot him from a close range in the town of al-Ram, north of occupied Jerusalem.
Eyewitnesses said an Israeli army sharpshooter shot the child from a close range, after the soldiers invaded the town, and clashed with many local youngsters, who hurled stones at the military vehicles.
The killing of the Palestinian child led to extended clashes between the soldiers and local youths, especially close to the military base, built on Palestinian lands near the town. The soldiers fired dozens of gas bombs and rubber-coated steel bullets, causing several injuries.
Also on Tuesday, 52 year old Mustafa Barad’iyeh, from the southern West Bank town of Beit Fajar, was preannounced dead of wounds he sustained on Monday. Barad’iyeh, was wounded at the entrance to al-‘Aroub refugee camp, north of Hebron after stabbing two Israeli soldiers.
On Monday of this week, four civilians and two children were injured when Israeli forces invaded Qabatia village near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, to level the house of political prisoner. Another Palestinian child was injured, on Monday morning, after a colonist Israeli settler rammed him with his car, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and fled the scene.
Elsewhere, a Palestinian couple was nearly burned alive in their beds in the town of Douma, near Nablus, after a flaming explosive was thrown into the second story window of their home while they were sleeping on Wednesday at dawn. The attack came just days before the one-year anniversary of the horrific arson attack on the Dawabsheh family in Douma, in which an 18-month infant and his parents were burned to death, and a 4-year old child was the only survivor, with severe burns all over his body.
During the week, Israeli forces conducted at least 83 military invasions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and in occupied East Jerusalem. During these invasions, Israeli troops kidnapped more than 59 Palestinian civilians, including 6 children.
In the Gaza Strip, A Palestinian farmers was injured, on Wednesday morning, when Israeli soldiers opened live gunfire targeting Palestinian farmlands and farmers, east of Deir al-Balah city, in Central Gaza. Local medics rushed to the site of the Israeli attacks, and moved the wounded man to the al-Aqsa hospital, in Deir al-Balah.
Moreover, Israeli navy attacked Palestinian fishing boats near Gaza coast line on Monday and Wednesday of this week. Damage to boats but no injuries were reported.
For IMEMC News this Ghassan Bannoura.
Conclusion
And that’s all for today from This Week in Palestine. This was the Weekly report for July 16, to the 22, 2016. From the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our website at www-dot-imemc-dot-org, This week’s report has been brought to you by Maher Qassiss and me Eman Abedraboo-Bannoura.
