Day: 15 July 2021

The Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS) today condemned the Israeli army’s detention of dozens of Palestinian students of Birzeit University following a solidarity visit to the Shalabi family whose home was demolished by the army last week.

Soldiers stopped 45 students following their solidarity visit yesterday to the Shalabi family in Turmous Ayya village, north of Ramallah, and detained them for several hours before allowing the females students to leave while holding the remaining 33 male students who will be brought before a military court today.

The PPS said the army targeting of Palestinian students, particularly those at Birzeit University, is an attempt to undermine their leadership role, and their right to participate in and to defend their just causes.

It said the Israeli occupation authorities have intensified their measures against Birzeit University students and detained dozens of students, disrupting their pursuit of higher education, which is a violation of their right to education.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, joined scores of Palestine refugee children at the conclusion of their summer camp activities at the UNRWA School in Sur Baher in East Jerusalem, which ran between 10 and 15 July.

The Commissioner-General expressed his delight upon seeing the happy children as they engaged in several activities that included handicrafts and preparing Eid al-Adha sweets.

“It is wonderful to see children have fun with their friends after a very difficult year of semi-isolation because of COVID-19,” said Lazzarini. “UNRWA will continue to do all it can to help contain the spread of the virus and its new variants. It will continue to advocate for equitable access for all to COVID-19 vaccination so that important activities like these will not have to be suspended again.”

This year, UNRWA launched its summer camps in 29 schools in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, with generous funding from the United States Department of State, Bureau of Population Refugee and Migration and UNRWA USA, targeting about 3,000 refugee students from the various refugee camps, including the most vulnerable children who suffer from difficult economic conditions and children with disabilities.

The UNRWA summer camps included various art and cultural activities, such as handicrafts, drawing, music, singing, folk dance (dabkeh), drama and theater, in addition to sports, science and environmental awareness activities. The summer camp activities included a trip that was organized for all the participating refugee children to Jericho, as well as a ceremony that showcased the handicrafts made during the summer camps.

The summer camps resumed this year after being cancelled the last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic that encircled the globe. Commenting on the importance of organizing recreational activities for UNRWA students at this particular time, the Chief of UNRWA Education Program in the West Bank, Muawiyya Amar, said: “The mental health of refugee children has been impacted during the past months as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and its effects on the socio-economic situation. These summer camps targeted those who were the most affected and in need of emotional and social development.”

With the exception of last year, UNRWA has organized summer camps for refugee children before their return to school for the past 10 years. These camps aim to put a smile on the faces of the children, entertain them and provide them with various skills with the help of trained supervisors.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Israeli forces Thursday demolished a water reservoir set up on lands belonging to the villages of Beit Dajan, to the east of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, according to local sources.

Tawfiq Haj Mohammad, an activist, said that the Israeli forces raided the village and demolished the water reservoir that had a capacity of 500 cubic meters of water and was used for drinking and irrigating purposes, noting that it belongs to the village council.

He added that a previous decision to demolish the tank was halted through legal institutions, but Israeli authorities returned today and demolished it while it was full of water resulting in the water flooding and damaging nearby lands.

Haj Mohammad said that the village suffers from a water shortage problem and that the Israeli authorities sabotage any projects that aim to solve this issue.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

The Rahmatan Lil Alamin Foundation (RLAF), a Singapore-based charity, raised some $3.18 million for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in May 2021.

The record-setting inaugural campaign in support of Palestine refugees through UNRWA reached this target over a nine-day period, thanks to the generous support of the People of Singapore, said an UNRWA press release.

The fundraising campaign spanned from 22 to 30 June 2021. The cheque was handed over to UNRWA to Tamara Alrifai, Acting Director of the UNRWA Department of External Relations and Director of Strategic Communications/Spokesperson by Esa Masood, Chief Executive of Islamic Religious Council of Singapore, Faizal Othman, Chief Executive Officer of RLAF and Po’ad Shaikh Abu Bakar Mattar, Chairman of RLAF, in a virtual ceremony.

This contribution will support UNRWA health and relief and social services programming for Palestine refugees in the besieged Gaza Strip. The campaign, organized with support from the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) and endorsed by the Second Minister of Foreign Affairs and Education, Mohamad Maliki Osman, was able to raise $1 million the hours following its launch on 22 May.

“The plight of Palestine refugees impacted by the recent escalation of violence in Gaza touched the People of Singapore and they come in full force to help and demonstrate their compassion for all those affected. We thank you for your overwhelming support and solidarity with Palestine refugees,” said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.

“This is an important issue (for us) because we live in goodness and harmony in a multi-racial and multi-religious society in Singapore, but the situation is different in Palestine. So, this (RLAF humanitarian aid fund) is one of the platforms for the people here to show their concern and compassion to help and support the Palestinians who are suffering,” said Faizal Othman, RLAF CEO.

UNRWA has launched a $164 million humanitarian and early recovery appeal following the recent hostilities in Gaza.

The appeal outlines the needs for emergency shelter repairs, humanitarian assistance to displaced families, and emergency repairs and maintenance of UNRWA installations. Also, funds will be required to temporarily subsidize rental payments for those Palestine refugee families whose shelters have been completely destroyed or damaged in the form of Transitional Shelter Cash Assistance.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Israeli settlers continued today to set up mobile homes near the villages of Jalud and Qariot, to the south of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, in order to expand an illegal settlement, according to sources.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors colonial settlement activities in the northern West Bank, told WAFA the settlers seek to expand the illegal settlement of Shavot Rahel by adding more mobile homes and planting trees on land nearby owned by Palestinians.

He explained that the settlers are proceeding to expand their settlement despite an Israeli court ruling to halt all construction until it looks into an appeal by the Palestinian landowners against the settlers’ infringement on their lands.

To be noted, Israeli settlers set up on Monday seven mobile homes in the vicinity of the same settlement.

Meanwhile, in the south of the West Bank, the Palestinian Wall and Settlements Resistance Commission said that Israel plans to build more than 500 new housing units in two illegal settlements north of Bethlehem.

According to Hasan Breijieh, head of the Bethlehem office of the Commission, 400 new settlement units are going to be built in the illegal Migdal Oz settlement, built on land that belongs to Beir Fajjar village, and 110 units in Abi Hanahal settlement, built on Kisan land.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

A total of 95 people have tested positive for the coronavirus disease in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours, while no death cases were recorded, according to Minister of Health Mai Alkaila.

She said that 74 of the new cases were in the Gaza Strip, where 76 patients have also recovered, while the West Bank recorded 21 new cases and 14 recoveries.

Alkaila said that 14 people infected with coronavirus are still in hospitals, and seven are in intensive care.

She also said that 466,522 people in the West Bank have been vaccinated against the disease and 93,673 in the Gaza Strip.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency