Day: 25 June 2021

RAMALLAH, Palestine today recorded 156 new Covid-19 cases and one death, according to Health Minister Mai Al-Kaileh.

She announced that 156 Palestinians tested positive for the highly contagious virus and another died of it in the occupied territories.

Among the new 156 cases, 12 cases were recorded in the West Bank and 144 others in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Al-Kaileh identified the death as a resident of the besieged Gaza Strip, while pointing that 407 Covid-19 patients recovered; seven recovery cases in the West Bank and 400 others in the Gaza Strip.

She pointed that six Covid-19 patients are getting treatment in intensive care units, including one who is connected to a ventilator, while 12 others are currently hospitalized across the West Bank.

Recoveries account for 98.1 percent of total cases since the pandemic outbreak in March 2020, active cases for 0.8 percent and the death toll accounts for 1.1 percent.

Regarding the Covid-19 vaccination rollout, al-Kaileh said that 481,392 people have received the vaccine so far, including 339,082 people who received the second dose of the vaccine.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

NABLUS, A Palestinian young man was shot, wounded and later arrested today by the Israeli occupation army outside the colonial Israeli settlement of Yitzhar, illegally built on Palestinian land south of Nablus city in the occupied West Bank, according to local sources.

Mohammad Kamal Aranda, a citizen of neighboring Einabus village, was shot by Israeli occupation soldiers and injured in his foot. He was arrested by the soldiers a few minutes later.

Aranda was said to be suffering from neurological diseases.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

QALQILIA, Two Palestinians were injured by gunfire today and four others by rubber-coated rounds as Israeli occupation forces attacked dozens of activists protesting in the village of Kafr Qaddum, near the city of Qalqilia in the occupied West Bank, against the Israeli colonial settlements.

Morad Shtewi, coordinator of the popular resistance in the village, said Israeli soldiers fired live bullets, injuring two Palestinians in the foot and knee respectively. One of the two wounded was detained by the attacking Israeli forces and taken to an unknown destination.

He added that a third protester was injured and sustained fractures in his foot as the soldiers chased him and other protesters. A fourth, a paramedic, was also injured by Israeli rubber-coated rounds while trying to help one of the wounded.

For years, the village of Kafr Qaddum has been at the heart of a national campaign against the Israeli colonial settlement activities in the occupied West Bank. Almost every other day, clashes erupt between Palestinian protesters and Israeli occupation forces in the village.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

SALFIT, Hardcore Israeli settlers set dozens of Palestinian-owned olive and fig trees on fire today near the town of Salfit in the occupied West Bank, according to local sources.

Meantime, Israeli occupation forces clamped down on Palestinian anti-colonization protesters who rallied in the same area in protest of Israel’s planned confiscation of large tracts of Palestinian land for colonial settlement purposes. Cases of suffocation from gas inhalation were reported among the protesters.

Illegal Israeli settlers recently set up caravans and embarked on opening roads in the area in what seems to be a prelude to establish a new settlement outpost.

All kinds of Israeli settlement activities in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law, which prohibits the relocation of the occupying country’s population to the land of the occupied.

Settler violence against Palestinians is routine in the occupied West Bank, and is rarely prosecuted by the Israeli occupation authorities.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

NABLUS, Dozens of Palestinians, including two medics, were injured by gunfire as Israeli occupation forces today quelled an anti-settlement rally in Beita town, south of the West Bank city of Nablus, according to local and medical sources.

They said that Israeli forces cracked down on a rally called for to protest the construction of the new colonial settlement of Eviatar atop Jabal Sabih Mount, near the town, injuring 18 Palestinians, including two paramedics, with rubber-coated steel bullets and causing scores others to suffocate from tear gas.

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 occupation 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

WASHINGTON DC, 73 Democrats in the US House of Representatives have signed a letter urging US President Joe Biden to reverse the Trump administration’s “abandonment of longstanding, bipartisan United States policy” towards Palestine, including support for a two-state solution.

The letter, signed by 73 Democrats, calls on the Biden administration to formally withdraw former US President Donald Trump’s proposed Middle East Plan, which he dubbed the “deal of the century”.

It also urges Biden to fulfill his administration’s commitment to reopening a separate US consulate in Jerusalem to serve the Palestinian population.

With a total of eight demands, the lawmakers focused on Trump’s policy changes which they said brought Israelis and Palestinians further away from a two-state agreement, citing the recent upheaval sparked by Israel’s attempts at settlement expansion in occupied East Jerusalem and its bombardment of the Gaza Strip as evidence.

“This outbreak of violence was a painful reminder that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has no military solution and can only be resolved through diplomacy and a negotiated two-state solution that guarantees the civil and political rights, safety, and self-determination of both peoples,” the lawmakers wrote.

“Toward that end, we urge you to reverse the previous administration’s [policies],” they continued.

Other requests included the issuance of State Department and US customs guidance to make it clear that the US considers Israeli settlements to be inconsistent with international law, and the release of a statement of opposition from the White House against the forced expulsion of Palestinian families from their homes in Jerusalem and throughout Palestinian territory.

The US House Democrats also called for an assurance that all government documents would “consistently refer” to the West Bank and Gaza Strip as occupied lands, the release of all previously withheld aid to the Palestinians, and the consistent and proactive issuance of firm public condemnations of human rights violations that undermine the prospects for peace.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

RAMALLAH, The Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ministry Thursday condemned the relocation of Honduras’ embassy to Jerusalem as a violation of international law.

The Ministry decried Honduras’ move of its embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied city of Jerusalem and considered it a flagrant violation of international law and UN resolutions regarding the holy city and its legal and political status.

It noted that this decision completely contradicts the decision taken by Honduras to recognize the State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, on August 26, 2021. It is also considered an unjustified opposition to the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination on their land and, therefore, also contradicts the Honduras Constitution, which stipulates in Article 15 that “Honduras supports the principles and practices of international law, that promote the solidarity and self-determination of peoples, nonintervention and the strengthening of universal peace and democracy.”

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

LONDON, Amnesty International Thursday stated that Israeli police carried out a “catalogue of violations” against Palestinians across Israel and occupied East Jerusalem, including unlawful force against peaceful protesters, sweeping mass arrests, and subjecting detainees to torture and other ill-treatment.

The human rights organization reported that Israeli police have also failed to protect Palestinian citizens of Israel from premeditated attacks by groups of armed Jewish supremacists, even when plans were publicized in advance and police knew or should have known of them.

“The evidence gathered by Amnesty International paints a damning picture of discrimination and ruthless excessive force by Israeli police against Palestinians in Israel and in occupied East Jerusalem,” said Saleh Higazi, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

“Police have an obligation to protect all people under Israel’s control, whether they are Jewish or Palestinian. Instead, the vast majority arrested in the police crackdown following the outbreak of inter-communal violence were Palestinian. The few Jewish citizens of Israel arrested were dealt with more leniently. Jewish supremacists also continue to organize demonstrations while Palestinians face repression.”

Amnesty researchers documented more than 20 cases, verified through 45 videos and other forms of digital media, of Israeli police violence between May 9 and June 12, 2021, during which protests against the forced expulsions of Palestinians from the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah began.

“This discriminatory crackdown was orchestrated as an act of retaliation and intimidation to crush pro-Palestinian demonstrations and silence those who speak out to condemn Israel’s institutionalized discrimination and systemic oppression of Palestinians,” said Saleh Higazi.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been injured in the police crackdown, and a 17-year-old boy and 25-year-old man were both shot dead. Mostly peaceful demonstrations have taken place in Israeli cities and East Jerusalem over the last several weeks.

More than 2,100 people – 90 percent of them Palestinian – have been arrested, most for allegedly insulting or assaulting a police officer or taking part in an illegal gathering, while Israeli settlers have been largely able to organise freely.

“The few Jewish citizens of Israel arrested were dealt with more leniently. Jewish supremacists also continue to organise demonstrations while Palestinians face repression,” said Higazi.

On at least two occasions in Haifa and Nazareth, Amnesty reported there was evidence of police attacking groups of unarmed Palestinian protesters without provocation.

An incident in which an Israeli police officer shot a 15-year-old girl in the back outside her Sheikh Jarrah home was captured on video, as was another incident where a protester was shot in the face while using his phone to film police from a balcony in Jaffa.

The rights group also documented the torture of detainees who were tied up, beaten and deprived of sleep at a police station in Nazareth and at the Kishon detention center.

“The repeated failure of Israeli police to protect Palestinians from organized attacks by groups of armed Jewish supremacists and lack of accountability for such attacks is shameful and shows the authorities’ disregard for Palestinian life,” Molly Malekar, Director of Amnesty Israel.

“The fact that Jewish citizens of Israel, including prominent figures, have been allowed to openly incite violence against Palestinians without being held accountable highlights the extent of institutionalized discrimination faced by Palestinians and the urgent need for protection.”

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency