Day: 23 June 2021

Israeli forces today sealed off all entrances to a mount pillaged by Israeli settlers in Beita town, south of the West Bank city of Nablus, according to local sources.

Deputy mayor of Beita, Mousa Hamayel, told WAFA that Israeli military bulldozers closed all the entrances to Jabal Sabih (Sabih Mountain), which has become a scene of weekly protests against decades of Israeli settler-colonialism and apartheid.

He pledged that cordoning off the mount will not deter residents of Beita from stepping up their struggle against Israeli settler-colonialism.

The residents of Beita and the surrounding villages have been holding weekly Friday rallies to protest the construction of the new colonial settlement of Givat Eviatar atop Jabal Sabih 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.

Israeli forces have used fatal violence to disperse the rallies, killing five Palestinians from the town and injuring over 618 others in almost a month.

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.

Seizing the two hilltops represents a panoptical defensive tool as they would grant the Israeli occupation with a panoramic view over the Jordan Valley and the whole district of Nablus. This is why the Israeli occupation authorities have assigned them a place in its settlement expansion project.

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

The Israeli occupation authorities today demolished a Palestinian house in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of al-Issawiya, according to local sources.

They said that Israeli police and municipal crews escorted a crane into the neighborhood, where the municipal crews tore down the house, which belong to Mousa Haloulou, using stone sawing machines.

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

Israeli settlers today blocked a major southern West Bank traffic artery to Palestinian traffic, according to local sources.

They said that settlers blocked a section of the major Jerusalem-Hebron Road, close to the Neve Daniel colonial settlement, west of the city, to vehicles with Palestinian licensing plates.

This came as scores of settlers spread across the Faghur agricultural area of al-Khader town, south of the city.

Meanwhile, the municipality of Deir Istiya said in a press statement that Israeli settlers chopped down 10 olive trees and sabotaged two water tanks and an irrigation system belonging to Qassem Mansour, a farmer, in Wadi Qana, northwest of the West Bank district of Salfit.

According to Baladi Rooted Resistance, a series of stories of Palestinians resisting the Israeli colonization and occupational with seeds and homegrown vegetables, Wadi Qana is considered one of the most beautiful natural areas in the occupied West Bank.

It is an important nature reserve boasting both fauna and flora. With its numerous springs, the valley has historically served agricultural and recreational purposes for Palestinians who live in the area, mainly from the adjacent village of Deir Istiya in the northwestern region of the West Bank.

The growth of Israeli settlements brought dramatic changes, starting in the late 1970s. Until the 1990s, almost 50 Palestinian families, around 350 people, lived in the valley. They started to leave for Deir Istiya because of water pollution.

Israel declared Wadi Qana to be an Israeli nature reserve in 1983. They called it Nahal Qana Reserve, an area of nearly 3,500 acres, and placed it under the authority of four Israeli governing entities, including the settlement of Karnei Shomron and the Civil Administration, the bureaucratic arm of Israel’s military occupation.

Palestinians, who have been working in the valley for generations, face increasing Israeli restrictions on their farming and grazing practices. Today, they cannot develop their infrastructure, except to tend some seasonal crops.

The construction of Israel’s wall poses a further threat to Palestinian farmers. According to UN maps, Wadi Qana will be left on the western side of the wall, and de facto annexed to Israel, separating landowners in Deir Istiya village from the valley.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Israeli forces today delivered demolition orders against four commercial structures in Deir Qaddis village, west of Ramallah city, according to local sources.

They said that Israeli soldiers handed Ayman Staih an order, notifying him of their plan to tear down his four stores under construction within 96 hours as of the timing of the order delivery.

Located almost 16 kilometers to the northwest of Ramallah city, Deir Qaddis has a population of some 2,600 and occupies a total area of 8,053 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 limited control over a small pocket of land occupying 621 dunams, accounting for almost 8 percent of the village’s total area. In contrast, Israel maintains control over the remainder, classified as Area C.

Israel has seized at least 2,735 dunams (34 percent) belonging to the village for the construction of three nearby colonial settlements, namely Mod‘in Illit, Nili and Na‘aleh, which strangle the village from the south and the north.

Israel has also constructed a section of the apartheid wall on the village’s land, confiscating and isolating 4,272 dunams (accounting for 53 percent) for colonial settlement activities.

Israel demolishes Palestinian houses and structures almost on a daily basis as a means to achieve “demographic control” of the occupied territories.

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

Israeli occupation forces today detained a Palestinian child after raiding a park in the village of Luban e-Sharkiya, to the south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, according to witnesses.

WAFA correspondent confirmed that 15-year-old Bahaa Arafat Eweis was detained by the Israeli occupation army during the raid, which also saw Israeli occupation soldiers fire teargas canisters at civilians, including children.

Several cases of suffocation from due to gas inhalation were reported.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

The Ministerial Committee of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) on Palestine condemned yesterday the Israeli occupation’s continued aggression against the Palestinian people, and called for an immediate end to the occupation’s continued violations of international law.

In a statement following a virtual meeting held last night by the committee, Head of the Coordinating Bureau of the NAM condemned the Israeli occupation’s attacks on the worshipers in al-Aqsa Mosque and the threat to displace hundreds of Palestinian families from their homes in occupied Jerusalem, as well as the daily incursions and arrest campaigns targeting the Palestinians, including children.

The Committee condemned the latest Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, which exacerbated the suffering of its people as a result of the siege imposed by the occupation for more than 15 years.

It called for an immediate end to the Israeli systematic aggression and apartheid policy against the Palestinians, an end to the Israeli continuous violations of international law and a just solution to the Palestinian cause.

The NAM Ministerial Committee also called for achieving the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including their right in self-determination and establishing the independent and sovereign Palestinian state based on the UN relevant resolutions.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Palestine today confirmed 176 new Covid-19 cases and 118 recoveries, according to Health Minister Mai AlKaila.

She announced that 176 Palestinians tested positive for the highly contagious virus and 118 others recovered from it in the occupied territories. There were no new deaths.

Among the new 176 cases, 22 cases were recorded in the West Bank and 154 others in the besieged Gaza Strip. No infections were registered in occupied Jerusalem.

As part of the new 118 new recovery cases, 18 recovery cases were recorded in the West Bank and 100 others in the Gaza Strip.

The health minister said six Covid-19 patients are getting treatment in intensive care units, including one who is connected to a ventilator. In addition, 12 others are currently receiving treatment at hospitals and Covid-19 dispensaries.

She pointed out that the recovery rate in Palestine has so far reached 98 percent, while active cases declined to 0.9 percent. The death toll stood at 1.1 percent of total infections.

Regarding the Covid-19 vaccination rollout, al-Kaileh said that 467,225 people have received their first jab of the vaccine in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, including 311,683 people who received the second dose of the vaccine.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency