Day: 21 June 2021

Palestine today recorded 138 new Covid-19 cases and three deaths, according to Health Minister Mai al-Kaileh.

She announced that 138 Palestinians tested positive for the highly contagious virus and three others died of it in the occupied territories.

Among the new 138 cases, 20 cases were recorded in the West Bank and 118 others in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Al-Kaileh identified the deaths as residents of the besieged Gaza Strip.

She added that 146 Covid-19 patients recovered; 22 recovery cases in the West Bank and 124 others in the Gaza Strip.

She pointed that eight Covid-19 patients are getting treatment in intensive care units, including two who are connected to ventilators, while 14 others are currently hospitalized across the West Bank.

Recoveries account for 98 percent of total cases since the pandemic outbreak in March 2020 and the active cases for 0.9 percent. The death toll stood at 1.1 percent.

Regarding the Covid-19 vaccination rollout, al-Kaileh said that 454,006 people have received the vaccine so far in the West Bank and Gaza, including 283,597 people who received the second dose of the vaccine.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Israeli forces last night suppressed an anti-settlement rally in Beita town, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, injuring some 20 people, according to medical sources.

They said that Israeli forces used violent means to disperse a rally called for to protest the construction of the new colonial settlement of Givat Eviatar atop Jabal Sabih (Sabih Mountain), near the town, as well as the seizure of lands belonging to the villagers of Beita, Huwarra, and Za‘tara to inaugurate a new settler-only bypass road.

Director of the Palestinian Red Crescent’s (PRC) Emergency Department in Nablus, Ahmad Jibril, said PRC paramedics treated 21 injuries, including12 protestors who suffocated from tear gas, eight others who sustained fractures and bruises from falling from high places after being chased by the soldiers and another who was directly hit by a tear gas canister.

He added that four casualties were evacuated to a hospital for treatment.

Meanwhile, Deputy mayor of Beita, Mousa Hamayel, said that Israeli soldiers rounded up a young man after breaking into his house in the town.

Palestinians across Historic Palestine have been rising up against decades of Israeli settler- colonialism and apartheid. The villagers of Beita have not only been protesting decades of Israeli oppression, but also intensified Israeli pillage of their land.

In almost a month, five Palestinians were killed and over 618 others were injured while trying to oust the colonial settler outpost built atop Mount Sabih.

In addition to Mount Sabih, Israeli forces have erected another colonial settlement outpost atop Mount Al-Arma, north of Beita, a few months ago, as both mounts enjoy a strategic location as they overlook the Jordan Valley, a fertile strip of land running west along the Jordan River which makes up approximately 30% of the West Bank.

The construction of the two colonial outposts atop Mount Sabih, south of Beita, and Mount Al-Arma, north of the town, besides to a bypass road to the west is an Israeli measure to push Palestinian villages and towns into crowded enclaves, ghettos, surrounded by walls, settlements and military installations, and disrupt their geographic contiguity with other parts of the West Bank.

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

Israeli forces today continued to close Azzun town, east of the northern West Bank city of Qalqiliya, for the sixth consecutive day, according to local sources.

Deputy mayor of Azzun, Hatem Musallam, told WAFA that Israeli forces have been sealing off the metal gate at the town entrance for the sixth day in a row, while pointing that the closure is intended restrict the residents’ freedom of movement and hamper business activity.

As a result of the closure, Musallam added, over 4,000 residents will have to look for other alternative longer routes to reach their workplaces outside the town.

Azzun is surrounded on all sides by areas under Israeli military control and an Israeli settlement bloc sits directly to the south.

Israeli severely restricts Palestinians’ freedom of movement through a complex combination of approximately 100 fixed checkpoints, flying checkpoints, settler-only roads and various other physical obstructions.

Closures besides to other measures, taken under the guise of security, are intended to entrench Israel’s 54-year-old military occupation of the West Bank and its settler colonial project which it enforces with routine and frequently deadly violence against Palestinians.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

The General Authority of Civil Affairs today announced that a series of measures taken to provide relief to the besieged Gaza Strip starts today.

“What was allowed and achieved today, we hope, will be a prelude to completely lifting of the blockade on our people there,” Head of the General Authority of Civil Affairs Hussein al-Sheikh tweeted.

He indicated that the set of measures intended to relax the 15-year-old Israeli blockade on the strip comes into effect today and includes allowing Gazans stranded in Jordan to return to the coastal enclave via the Beit Hanoun crossing, and the resumption of mail delivery to/from Gaza and allowing the export of all agricultural crops and textile products to the West Bank and Israel.

“We have demanded and we are still calling on the Israeli government to open the Gaza Strip borders for individuals and goods, to allow import and export to and from the Gaza Strip, and to release all goods seized in Israeli ports to Gaza merchants,” al-Sheikh added.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

The Israeli occupation authorities today forced a Palestinian to demolish his enterprise in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of al-Mukabbir, according to local sources.

They told WAFA that the Israeli municipality forced Mos‘ab Ja‘abees to tear down his own commercial facility to avoid paying exorbitant costs if the Jerusalem municipality carries out the demolition on its own.

Using the pretext of illegal building, Israel demolishes houses on a regular basis to restrict Palestinian expansion in occupied Jerusalem.

At the same time, the municipality and government build tens of thousands of housing units in illegal settlements in East Jerusalem for Jews with a goal to offset the demographic balance in favor of the Jewish settlers in the occupied city.

Although Palestinians in East Jerusalem, a part of the internationally recognized Palestinian Territory that has been subject to Israeli military occupation since 1967, they are denied their citizenship rights and are instead classified only as “residents” whose permits can be revoked if they move away from the city for more than a few years.

They are also discriminated against in all aspects of life including housing, employment and services, and are unable to access services in the West Bank due to the construction of Israel’s separation wall.

According to a report by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, the Israeli High Court could be liable for war crimes for their policies that led to the dispossession of Palestinians from their properties in Area C of the West Bank.

The report, Fake Justice, shows that the court’s support of Israeli planning policy is tantamount to support for dispossession and forcible transfer of Palestinians, a war crime under international law.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said that it has provided emergency assistance to safeguard food security and livelihoods of vulnerable farmers and herders in the Gaza Strip, according to a statement.

The statement said that “the people in the Gaza Strip suffer from a poor humanitarian situation due to multiple challenges, including conflict, which escalated from 10 to 21 May 2021. As a result of this escalation, lives have been lost; livelihoods, homes and infrastructure have been damaged; basic services have been disrupted; and more than 106 000 people have been internally displaced.”

“The agriculture sector suffered extensive losses worth USD 204 million, according to the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA). The majority of livestock holders experienced severe damages and losses to their herds, and more damages are expected, as farmers do not have access to animal feed. This is the result of the damages caused by the conflict, farmers’ lack of access to their land to carry out agricultural operations, and, consequently, reduced capacity to procure inputs. As the fodder stock depletes, the survival of livestock is put at risk, threatening animal production. The livestock sector requires approximately 600 tonnes of fodder per day, and without support the sector will be further damaged, which would have dire consequences on the livelihoods of 17 000 households.”

“In the north of the Gaza Strip, one of the largest agricultural input warehouses was destroyed, resulting in the loss of a significant share of inputs needed for production, notably fertilizers and pesticides. Farmers, who were already suffering from a limited supply of electricity that powers essential infrastructure, including pumps for wells, face challenges accessing their farms and markets. This is limiting their ability to resume their agriculture-based livelihoods. These losses are expected to have lasting detrimental impacts on the agriculture sector, and the number of farmers and herders in need of assistance to restore their livelihoods is very high,” the statement added.

“Thanks to a contribution of USD 610,000 from the Government of Belgium, through the Special Fund for Emergency and Rehabilitation Activities, FAO will restore the productive capacities of 1,600 vulnerable pastoral families (8,960 people) through the distribution of fodder. Barley and wheat bran will be distributed to protect these households’ livelihoods and reduce the losses of key productive assets. Supporting livestock-holding families with fodder distribution is critical and will contribute to the restoration of the agriculture sector. FAO will work closely with the MoA and local non-governmental organizations to deliver this support,” the statement concluded.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

The Israeli occupation authorities today ordered a halt on the construction of two houses in Idhna town, west of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, according to local sources.

Idhna Municipality told WAFA that Israeli forces barged their way into Khallet Harb and Wadi Shomar (Shomar Valley) in the western part of the town, where they handed two residents orders to stop the construction of their houses.

The soldiers also delivered an order to dismantle a 3.5-kilometer electric power network supplying electricity to many inhabited houses and dozens of donums of farmland.

While Israel demolishes Palestinian structures across the West Bank, particularly in Area C, which constitutes 60 percent of the occupied West Bank, it much more easily gives 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.

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

Four Palestinian minors, ranging in age between 12 and 14 years, sustained injuries after being pepper-sprayed in the face by an Israeli settler in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, in occupied Jerusalem, according to local sources.

Sources told WAFA a settler pepper sprayed four minor girls while they were training to perform dabkeh folk dance during an artistic event held in the neighborhood, which caused them burns to the face.

The settler chased after the four girls after pepper spraying them and then filed a complaint with Israeli police. The police detained two Palestinian youth after the attack and did nothing to the settler.

Dozens of families in Sheikh Jarrah have been facing the imminent risk of forced expulsion from their homes for the benefit of Israeli settlers.

As the occupying power, Israel has the obligation to protect the Palestinian population in the West Bank from all acts or threats of violence. This requires the Israeli authorities to do more to prevent attacks by Israeli settlers and intervene effectively in real-time to stop them, said a UN OCHA report.

“Once attacks have occurred, the authorities must enhance their efforts to ensure that perpetrators are held accountable, including by removing barriers discouraging Palestinians from complaining and improving the effectiveness of investigations,” it said.

Israeli settlers’ vandalism in the occupied West Bank is routine and is done with full backing by the Israeli authorities, said the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.

“Settler violence and vandalism take place with full backing by the Israeli authorities. Sometimes soldiers take part in the assault; at other times, they stand idly by. The police makes no substantial effort to investigate the incidents, nor takes measures to prevent them or stop them in real-time,” it said.

Israel benefits from the repercussions, as settler violence has gradually dispossessed Palestinians of more and more areas in the West Bank, paving the way for a state takeover of land and resources, said B’Tselem.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Dozens of Palestinians today suffocated in confrontations with Israeli forces in al-Wad area, located between Ni‘lin and Qibya, west of Ramallah, according to local sources.

They said that Israeli forces indiscriminately opened fired barrages of rubber-coated steel bullets, concussion grenades, and tear gas canisters towards civilians in the area, spurring clashes and causing dozens to suffocate from tear gas inhalation.

There have been ongoing clashes between Palestinian residents and Israeli forces in Jabal al-Alam area to the north of N’ilin, where a group of Israeli settlers has been attempting to seize Palestinian residents’ land.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency