Day: 17 June 2021

RAMALLAH, Palestine today recorded 170 new Covid-19 cases and a death, according to Health Minister Mai al-Kaileh.

She announced that 170 Palestinians tested positive for the highly contagious virus and another died of it in the occupied territories.

Among the new 170 cases, 18 cases were recorded in the West Bank and 152 others in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Al-Kaileh identified the deaths as from the Gaza Strip.

She added that 428 COVID-19 patients recovered; 30 recovery cases in the West Bank and 398 others in the Gaza Strip.

She pointed that nine COVID-19 patients are getting treatment in intensive care units, including two who are connected to ventilators, while 15 others are currently hospitalized across the West Bank.

Recoveries account for 97.8 percent of total cases since the pandemic outbreak in March 2020 and the active cases for 1.1 percent. The death toll stood at 1.1 percent.

Regarding the Covid-19 vaccination rollout, al-Kaileh said that 436,275 people have received the vaccine so far in the West Bank and Gaza, including 260,713 people who received the second dose of the vaccine

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

NABLUS, A Palestinian teen who was seriously injured by Israeli military gunfire in an anti-settlement rally in Beita town, south of Nablus, succumbed to his wounds on Thursday dawn.

Ahmad Zahi Bani-Shamsa, 16, died of the serious injury he sustained in the head after being hit by live ammunition shot by Israeli soldiers on Wednesday.

Bani-Shamsa, the fifth Palestinian killed in anti-settlement rallies in Beita, was taking part in a rally at Jabal Sabih mount, located near the town, where Israeli settlers recently set up an illegal colonial settlement outpost.

The villagers of Beita, Yatma and Qabalan towns, south and southeast of Nablus, took part in the rally called for in protest of the construction of a new colonial settlement atop Jabal Sbeih (Sbeih Mountain).

The nonviolent rally was called for after a group of Israeli settlers set up over 20 mobile homes or caravans atop the mount as a prelude for taking over the complete mount and establishing a colonial outpost.

The number of settlers living in Jewish-only colonial settlements across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in violation of international law has jumped to over 700,000 and colonial settlement expansion has tripled since the signing of Oslo Accords in 1993.

Israel’s nation-state law, passed in July 2018, enshrines Jewish supremacy, and states that building and strengthening the colonial settlements is a “national interest.”

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

NABLUS, Israeli settlers Wednesday evening attacked Palestinian houses and vehicles in Qusra town, south of Nablus city, according to local sources.

Member of Qusra Municipal Council, Imad Jamil, told WAFA that a group of settlers sneaked their way into the southern part of the village, attacked the houses of at least two villagers and smashed the windshields of a villager’s vehicle.

He added that the villagers rushed to fend off the attack of the settlers, who came from the nearby colonial outpost of Esh Kodesh, but were met with Israeli military gunfire. No injuries were reported though.

Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is commonplace in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.

It includes arsons of property and mosques, stone-throwing, uprooting of crops and olive trees, attacks on vulnerable homes, among others.

The number of settlers living in Jewish-only colonial settlements across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in violation of international law has jumped to over 700,000 and colonial settlement expansion has tripled since the signing of Oslo Accords in 1993.

Israel’s nation-state law, passed in July 2018, enshrines Jewish supremacy, and states that building and strengthening the colonial settlements is a “national interest.”

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

RAMALLAH, Israeli forces Thursday overnight detained at least nine Palestinians and injured four others in multiple West Bank raids, according to security sources.

They said that Israeli forces rounded up three teens after breaking into the houses of their families in Jalazone refugee camp, north of Ramallah city.

While in the camp, the soldiers opened fire towards local teens who protested the raid and attempted to block their passage. No injuries were reported though.

In Jerusalem city, Israeli police detained two teens after storming the houses of their families Ras al-Amud area of Silwan neighborhood.

The Wadi Hilweh Information Center posted a video showing police and intelligence officers in civilian clothes assaulting and using an electroshock weapon to incapacitate one of the teens to force him into a vehicle.

In Hebron district, the sources confirmed separate raids in Yatta and Tarqumiyah towns, resulting in the detention of two others, including a former prisoner.

In the northern West Bank, a sizable Israeli military force barged its way into Jenin city and refugee camp, triggering confrontations.

The soldiers opened fire towards local youngsters, injuring four of them. The casualties were rushed to a hospital for treatment.

They conducted a similar raid in Kafr Dan town, northwest of the city, resulting in the detention of another.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

HEBRON, Israeli forces Thursday morning demolished a tin-roofed structure in Wadi Muhaisen area, north of Hebron city, according to local sources.

Mohammad Awad, a media activist, said that Israeli soldiers and officers of the so-called Israeli Civil Administration escorted a bulldozer into the area, located between Halhul and Beit Ummar towns, where the heavy machinery tore down the stone-built structure, which belongs to Bassem Ajlouni, reducing it to rubble.

The structure covered an area of 170 square meters and was used by Bassem’s family, which comprises 20 members, for agricultural purposes.

Awad pointed that the so-called Civil Administration officers insisted on carrying out the demolition of the structure although the Ajlouni family presented the title deeds to their land and an Israeli court order’s allowing them to reside in the structure.

The “Civil Administration” is the name Israel gives to the body administering its military occupation of the West Bank.

Soldiers in the oxymoronically named Civil Administration determine where Palestinians may live, where and when they may travel (including to other parts of the occupied territories like Gaza and East Jerusalem), whether they can build or expand homes on their own land, whether they own that land at all, whether an Israeli settler can takeover that land among others.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

JERUSALEM, In a recent medical report on Amal Nakhleh, a 17-year-old Palestinian child administrative detainee diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a rare medical condition, Amal has been found to face a new, potentially threatening health concern. In light of the precarious health conditions and deliberate medical neglect policy practiced by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) threatening Amal’s health and well-being in Ofer Prison, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association calls upon his urgent and immediate release.

On 21 January 2021, Amal Nakhleh was re-arrested from his home by the Israeli Occupation Forces and placed in administrative detention, said a press statement issued by Addameer Human rights Association.

Despite Amal’s young age and rare medical condition, which requires special medical care and constant monitoring of symptoms, Ofer military court confirmed his detention order on 24 January 2021 for the entire duration of six months, which was later reduced to four months. This decision comes less than two months after the Israeli military court of appeal confirmed Amal’s release after 40 days of incarceration, on 10 December 2020, due to his young age and physical and psychological health. Since his most recent arrest, Amal Nakhleh has been detained arbitrarily in Ofer Prison, located inside the Occupying Power’s territory, in violation of international humanitarian law.

Amal Nakhleh’s health conditions go beyond the condition of myasthenia gravis mandating regular medication and monitoring of symptoms, including a recent surgery removing a cancerous mass in his chest that left Amal with lasting side effects, including severe headaches and shortness of breath. Moreover, the severity of his detention, as a child detainee suffering from a multitude of health conditions, led to a communiqué on 25 February 2021 by several UN Human Rights experts and Special Rapporteurs expressing concern for Amal’s administrative detention and urging “all necessary interim measures be taken to halt the alleged violations and prevent their re-occurrence [and] to ensure the accountability of any person responsible.” Nevertheless, on 4 May 2021, the Israeli military commander renewed Amal’s administrative detention order for an additional four months, based on “secret material” inaccessible for neither Amal nor his attorney. The confirmation hearing for the renewal, held on 20 May 2021, was further confirmed by a military judge on 24 May 2021.

Addameer immediately appealed the decision the following day, on 25 May 2021. The motion had yet to be met with a response, leading Addameer to send a reminder on 15 June 2021 to schedule the appeal hearing. The hearing for the appeal on Amal’s renewed administrative detention is currently scheduled for 22 June 2021.

To compound upon the urgency of Amal’s case, a recent medical examination performed on Amal Nakhleh, following increasing complaints of shortness of breath, led to a chest X-ray revealing a retrosternal abnormality, indicating possible recurrence of a serious health implication. Notwithstanding the imminent threat, such a development poses to his health and the need for immediate diagnosis and potential treatment, the first appointment for the necessary CT chest scan given to Amal by the IPS was August 2021. The date of the appointment stands in stark contrast to the strong recommendations of the examining physician, who recommended a CT scan of the chest “as soon as possible.” This specific case is emblematic of the larger phenomenon of deliberate medical neglect, amounting to ill-treatment and threat to life, by the IPS towards Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Amal Nakhleh’s case highlights the Israeli apartheid regime’s systematic targeting of Palestinian children, demonstrating that no one is exempt from Israel’s arbitrary policy of administrative detention and deliberate medical neglect, not even vulnerable Palestinian children or when grave health conditions emerge.

Furthermore, Palestinian children are not afforded the protection they are entitled to under many international conventions and treaties, particularly the Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by Israel in October 1991. Moreover, the Israeli occupation systematically and arbitrarily utilizes administrative detention while proceeding on the basis of “secret evidence,” inaccessible by the detainee nor their lawyer, undermining their right to a fair trial guaranteed under international human rights and humanitarian law.

Accordingly, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association calls upon the international community and local and international civil society actors to urge Israel, as the Occupying Power, to immediately release child detainee Amal Nakhleh, and end the arbitrary detention of Palestinian children and the systematic practice of administrative detention more broadly.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Premier Shtayyeh delivering his speech at Europe Day celebration in Ramallah

RAMALLAH, Premier Mohammad Shtayyeh Wednesday evening urged Europe to fill the current political vacuum by launching an initiative to end the Israeli occupation.

Speaking in a celebration of Europe Day in Ramallah, Premier Shtayyeh commended Europe for its political support in terms of safeguarding international law, supporting the Palestinian people’s quest to secure its inalienable rights, end the Israeli occupation that began in 1967, and establish its independent state.

The celebration was attended by EU Rep Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff in addition to a host of EU member states diplomats and Palestinian ministers and other officials.

Shtayyeh added that the Israeli occupation constitutes the longest occupation in modern history while pointing that on October 30, 2021, 30 years will have passed since the launching of the Madrid Peace Conference.

Therefore, he added, there was a need to launch a new international peace conference modeled on the Madrid Conference based on ending the Israeli occupation, achieving the two-state solution and respecting international law and the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights.

He stressed that Europe is a key player on the international political arena and is part of the Quartet, which requires it to take action to end any monopoly over the peace process, facilitate the transition from a unilateral to a multilateral approach and sponsorship of the peace process and fill the political vacuum by launching a European political initiative.

While the EU is helping realize the establishment of the Palestinian state, the Israeli occupation continues to systematically destroy any prospect of the establishment of the Palestinian state on the ground and maintains control over the Palestinian natural resources.

He pointed that the new Israeli government should grasp the opportunity to demonstrate its sincere willingness to make peace and end the occupation, but not to proceed with the unbridled colonial settlement construction, land grab, killings and demolitions.

He noted that many Israeli settlers holding the citizenship of member states of the EU illegally live in colonial settlements, as stressing that it was imperative for Europe to compel them to leave the illegal colonial settlements build on the occupied territories.

Shtayyeh concluded his remarks with thanking the EU for providing financial aid to the Palestinian people, while noting that 80,000 families in the besieged Gaza Strip and 40,000 others in the West Bank are benefiting from EU assistance, not to mention other EU assistance for infrastructure, education and combating poverty and unemployment.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

RAMALLAH, The Palestinian Health Work Committees (HWC) in the occupied West Bank city of al-Bireh reopened its doors despite an Israeli authorities’ decision to shut it down for a period of six months.

Minister of health Mai al-Kaileh, who attended the reopening ceremony, said that the reopening of the HWC headquarters came in response to calls made by popular Resistance Committees and the coordinating council of civil society organizations.

The PLO human rights department praised the reopening decision, stating that: “this step represents an effective response to the occupation’s violations against the sovereignty of the Palestinian territories and the work of Palestinian civil society institutions, which it stressed should not be left to the racism and arrogance of the occupation.

On June 9th, Israeli forces at dawn raided the main headquarters of the leading health organization in the occupied West Bank city of al-Bireh and ordered the place to be shut down.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

HEBRON, Israeli forces today delivered demolition orders against eight Palestinian structures in Jawaya village, east of Yatta city in the southern hebron district, according to local sources.

Coordinator of the Popular anti-Wall and Settlement Committees in Southern Hebron, Rateb Jbour, said that Israeli forces barged their way into the village and handed six villagers orders to demolish their property.

Among the property slated for demolition are three houses, including a two-storey houses, an agricultural room, a shed besides to four rainwater collection wells.

The soldiers also delivered demolition orders against five Palestinian houses, including some built using brick and tin sheets, to the east of Yatta city, a step that would displace three families comprising some 40 members.

Israel demolishes Palestinian houses and structures almost on a daily basis as a means to achieve “demographic control” of the occupied territories, a practice described by Palestinians and human rights activists as a form of ethnic cleansing.

Israel denies planning permits for Palestinians to build on their own land or to extend existing houses to accommodate natural growth, particularly in Jerusalem and Area C, which constitutes 60 percent of the occupied West Bank and falls under full Israeli military rule, forcing residents to build without obtaining rarely-granted permits to provide shelters for their families.

In contrast, Israel argues that building within existing colonial settlements is necessary to accommodate the “natural growth” of settlers. Therefore, it much more easily gives the over 700,000 Jewish Israeli settlers there building permits and provides them with roads, electricity, water and sewage systems that remain inaccessible to many neighboring Palestinians.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency