Day: 20 May 2021

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced today that the death toll of the ongoing Israeli military aggression on the Gaza Strip has so far risen to 230, while the number of wounded increased to 1,710.

MoH said the death toll includes 65 children, 39 women, and 17 elderly.

Israeli started a barbaric aggression on Gaza from the land, air and sea on the tenth of this month, and has since crippled all sectors of life in the coastal enclave. Entire roads and power networks were destroyed, and high-rise buildings were flattened to the ground during the ongoing aggression.

In addition, over 50,000 Palestinian civilians remain internally displaced as a result of the heavy bombing that mainly targeted homes and other residential facilities in the war-ridden Strip.

Meantime, the Ministry of Education said 46 school buildings were partially damaged during the ongoing Israeli onslaught on Gaza.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

Palestinian prisoner in Israeli detention, Khaled Makhamreh, 26 years old, remains on hunger strike for the sixth day in a row today on protest of being placed in solitary confinement at the Israeli prison of Hadarim, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS).

PPS held the Israeli occupation authorities fully responsible for the life of Makhamreh, describing the use of solitary confinement as one of the repressive tools that have been widely practiced against the Palestinian prisoners.

Makhamreh has been in prison since 2016, and is serving four life sentences for his activism in the resistance of the Israeli occupation. His family’s home has also been demolished by the Israeli occupation authorities in a collective punishment against the entire family.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

A Palestinian civilian died and another one was injured today in an Israeli airstrike that hit the northwest of Beit Lahia town in the north of the Gaza Strip, according to WAFA correspondent.

The wounded civilian was moved to the nearby Indonesian Hospital for medical treatment where his case was described as critical.

Earlier today, the Ministry of Health said that the death toll of the ongoing Israeli military aggression on the Gaza Strip has so far risen to 230, while the number of wounded increased to 1,710. It said the death toll includes 65 children, 39 women, and 17 elderly.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

Israeli artillery bombing on the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, earlier today caused a cutoff of power supply in all of the city that is still ongoing until this moment.

Meanwhile, a group of workers of the Electricity Corporation also survived one of the strikes, according to WAFA correspondent.

He said one of the Israeli artillery strike directly hit one of the major power lines that provide the city with electricity, which caused a full blackout in all of the city.

Meanwhile, a group of workers of the Gaza Electricity Corporation survived an artillery strike while they were performing maintenance works on a high-pressure network in the neighborhood of al-Tuffah in Gaza City.

In the meantime, Israeli fighter jets fired missiles that hit a house in the Gaza City neighborhood of Al-Remal. It is not yet clear whether there are casualties in the strike.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

At least four Palestinians were injured on Thursday afternoon in an Israeli airstrike that hit an apartment in the neighborhood of Al-Remal in Gaza City, according to WAFA correspondent.

All of the four were evacuated to Al-Shefa Medical Complex for medical treatment.

Earlier today, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that the death toll of the ongoing Israeli military aggression on the Gaza Strip has so far risen to 230, while the number of wounded increased to 1,710.

MoH said the death toll includes 65 children, 39 women, and 17 elderly.

In addition, over 50,000 Palestinian civilians remain internally displaced as a result of the heavy bombing that mainly targeted homes and other residential facilities in the war-ridden Strip.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

Diab al-Loah, Palestine’s ambassador to Egypt and its representative to the Arab League, said today the State of Palestine was intensifying its efforts to ensure the implementation of the Arab Parliament resolutions on forming an international commission of inquiry regarding Israeli war crimes in Palestine.

In an interview with Palestine TV, al-Loah said the outcomes of the Arab Parliament meeting support this strategy, which is aimed at ending the Israeli aggression on Gaza and Jerusalem, opening an international investigation of these crimes, and providing international protection for the Palestinian people.

“There is an intense movement to implement these resolutions. The Palestinian, Arab and friendly diplomacy has succeeded to create a broad international front condemning this [Israeli] aggression and strengthening the steadfastness of our people in facing this occupation,” he remarked.

Al-Loah pointed out that the leadership will prepare a file on the recent Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip, to be attached to the files that have been referred to the International Criminal Court.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

Israeli police Thursday afternoon stormed Al-Makassed Hospital in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of al-Tur, according to witnesses.

They said that Israeli police and intelligence officers, including at least a masked officer, forced their way into the hospital and occupied its rooftops as they harassed and interrogated the medical staff.

This came two days after the hospital, considered one of the oldest and largest hospitals serving Palestinians across Gaza and Jerusalem, issued a direct appeal for support following weeks of police violent crackdown on Palestinians in Jerusalem as well as others parts of the occupied territories and Palestinian towns and cities inside Israel who took to the streets in denunciation of Israel’s brutal occupation and settler-colonialism, particularly encroachments upon Al-Aqsa Mosque compound during the holy month of Ramadan, the forced expulsions of Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah, the onslaught on Gaza in addition to settler mob violence.

“We are overwhelmed and have a shortfall that we can no longer manage. We are now having to directly request for urgent support. Our medical frontline teams are constantly treating injuries from Israeli aggression in Gaza, West Bank, and Jerusalem. This emergency direct appeal will fund medical aid, emergency psychological support, hygiene kits, pharmaceuticals, and other needs during crises in Al Makassed hospital,” the online appeal read.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said that the Israeli occupation forces killed at least 241 Palestinians and wounded some 7,800 others since May 5.

It elaborated that at least a Palestinian was killed and some 1,100 others were wounded during the same period. As part of the approximately 1,100 casualties, some 490 were evacuated to Palestinian health centers and hospitals for treatment, including 60 serious casualties, 204 medium injuries and 223 light injuries.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

A Palestinian family survived imminent death early today morning when a huge ordnance thrown down by Israeli fighter jets hit their home in the city of Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip.

WAFA correspondent said a huge missile hit the Abu Muhareb family house in Khan Younis but fortunately did not explode. Should the missile explode, the house would have turned into rubble in one second.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced earlier today the death toll of the ongoing Israeli military aggression on the Gaza Strip has so far risen to 230, while the number of wounded increased to 1,710.

MoH said the death toll includes 65 children, 39 women, and 17 elderly.

In addition, over 50,000 Palestinian civilians remain internally displaced as a result of the heavy bombing that mainly targeted homes and other residential facilities in the war-ridden Strip.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

Israeli settlers today leveled a tract of land belonging to the villagers of Kisan, east of Bethlehem city, to make room for colonial settlement construction, according to a local official.

Deputy Mayor of Kisan, Ahmad Ghazzal, said that a group of settlers razed a tract of the villagers’ land, west of the village and adjacent to the creeping colonial settlement of Ibei Hanahal, to make room for the expansion of the settlement.

He added that they were informed by the so-called Israeli Civil Administration, the name Israel gives to the body administering its military occupation of the West Bank, that the settlers’ move is intended to make room for the construction of over 20 new setter units.

He pointed that settlers have recurrently forced out Palestinian shepherds from the seized land and denied them access to it.

Located 11 kilometers to the south of Bethlehem city, Kisan has a population of some 600 and occupies a total area of 133,330 dunams.

Under the Oslo Accords, an agreement made 25 years ago that was supposed to last just five years towards a self-governing country alongside Israel, the Palestinian Authority was given limied control over a tiny pocket of land occupying 112 dunams, accounting for less than 1 percent of the village’s total area. Israel maintains control over 108,952, classified as Area C, accounting for 81.7 percent. The remaining part of 24,266 dunams, accounting for 18 percent, is classified as nature reserve.

Israel has established three colonial settlements, namely Ma‘ale Amos and Mizpe Shalem besides to the settlement outpost ofIbei Hanahal on lands confiscated from the village. It has confiscated further land for the construction of settler-only by-pass road no. 901 and road no. 3698, which extend for 16.1 kilometers on the village land.

Israel has constructed a section of the apartheid wall, confiscating and isolating some 87,344 dunams of fertile land, accounting for 65.5 percent of the village total area, for colonial settlement activities and pushing the villagers into a crowded enclave, a ghetto, surrounded by walls, settlements and military installations.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

President Mahmoud Abbas today emphasized the need for an immediate action to halt the Israeli onslaught in a phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

President Abbas briefed Chancellor Merkel on the catastrophic situation in the besieged Gaza Strip following the Israeli savage onslaught, ongoing Israeli police and settler encroachments upon Jerusalem and al-Aqsa Mosque compound and their assaults across the West Bank in addition to the forced expulsions of Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah.

He urged an immediate end to these Israeli actions and held the Israeli occupation government responsible for them.

He called on Germany and the European Union besides to all other concerned parties to take urgent action in order to halt the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people everywhere and take practical political steps in order to end the Israeli occupation of the territories of the State of Palestine in line with the United Nations resolutions and international law with the purpose of establishing the Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, as a way out from the spiral of violence and tension engulfing the region.

Merkel reaffirmed her country’s position to ‘de-escalate’ the situation and spare innocent civilians the suffering, while stressing her country’s support for achieving peace in line with the European Union’s resolutions and international law.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

Three Palestinians were announced dead and others injured on Thursday evening in a series of Israeli artillery and airstrikes that hit Gaza City and the north of the Gaza Strip, according to WAFA correspondent.

He said Israeli fighter jets bombed with missiles a civilian vehicle north of Gaza City, killing two Palestinians who were inside the car.

Israeli artillery, stationed along the perimeter fence surrounding the Gaza Strip, also attacked homes in the town of Beit Hanoun, resulting in one death and one injury.

Earlier today, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that the death toll of the ongoing Israeli military aggression on the Gaza Strip had risen to 230 until midday Thursday, while the number of wounded increased to 1,710.

MoH said the death toll includes 65 children, 39 women, and 17 elderly.

Israeli started a barbaric aggression on Gaza from the land, air and sea on the tenth of this month, and has since crippled all sectors of life in the coastal enclave. Entire roads and power networks were destroyed, and high-rise buildings were flattened to the ground during the ongoing aggression.

In addition, an estimated 70,000 Palestinian civilians remain internally displaced as a result of the heavy bombardment that has mainly targeted homes and other residential facilities in the war-ridden Strip.

Meantime, the Ministry of Education said 46 school buildings were partially damaged during the ongoing Israeli onslaught on Gaza.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

Israeli artillery today targeted four factories in Gaza’s industrial zone, according to the Palestinian Industrial Estate and Industrial Zone Authority (PIEFZA).

PIEFZA said in a press statement that the Israeli tanks deployed at Karni commercial border crossing, known to Palestinians as al-Muntar, east of Gaza, fired shells directly at the industrial zone, located in eastern Gaza city, causing extensive damage to four factories so forth.

This increases the total number of factories and commercial establishments targeted by Israeli bombardment since the start of the onslaught on Gaza to 13.

The Gaza Industrial Zone is built on an area of 123.5 acres and lies near the al-Muntar crossing. It was established under agreements with the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Bank, the European Investment Bank and the European Union.

PIEFZA stressed that the industrial zone, which hosts 54 factories and employs 1,500 workers on a full-time basis, along with the hosted factories are private sector productive entities that are apolitical and has no affiliation with any party.

It warned that the Israeli occupation authorities are targeting the Gaza’s already devastated economy of through the deliberate bombardment of the infrastructure and the industrial zone in addition to the partial destruction of the project of electricity generation through solar panels, which supplies electricity to the factories.

It also warned that the Israeli occupation authorities are determined to exacerbate the unemployment rates, which are already sky-rocketing high and reached 49 percent, and attempting to coerce Gazans to waive their right to live freely and in dignity.

PIEFZA appealed to the international community along all international bodies and relevant UN and international humanitarian organizations to intervene to “stop these unprovoked, barbaric and destructive attacks” and “spare the 23-year-old industrial zone from further destruction of productive economic assets.”

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA