Day: 24 July 2021

The Israeli occupation authorities last night released the body of a Palestinian woman shot dead by its forces after holding it hostage for more than 40 days, according to the family of the deceased.

Soldiers shot and killed Ibtisam Kaabneh, 27, from Jericho, on June 12 at Qalandia checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah claiming she attempted to carry out a stabbing attack against them and then withheld her body to prevent her family from giving her a proper burial.

After releasing her body late last night, her family was finally able to bury her at Aqbat Jabr refugee camp in the city of Jericho.

Kaabneh, who left behind a baby, was detained by Israel in August 2015 and sentenced to 18 months in prison for her anti-occupation activities.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Moderate weather conditions and light scattered showers are expected today in Palestine as temperature drops to become lower than the seasonal average, according to the Palestinian Meteorological Department (PMD).

Winds are light to moderate, westerly to northwesterly, active at times and sea waves are low to medium.

Temperature in the capital, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem is expected to reach a high of 27 C and a low of 20 C, and in Ramallah and Hebron a high of 26 C and a low of 19 C. In Jericho, the Dead Sea, and the Jordan Valley temperature is expected to reach a high of 37 C and a low of 27 C, while it is expected to reach a high of 28 C and a low of 23 C in Gaza and the coastal areas.

Hot to relatively hot weather conditions in most districts and very hot conditions in the Jordan Valley are expected to prevail tomorrow, Sunday, as temperature rises to become 2 C above its seasonal average.

No change in temperature or weather conditions is expected on Monday, but a rise in temperature by one degree Celsius is expected on Tuesday, said the PMD, which warned people against being exposed to the sun for long period, especially from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and setting fire to areas with dry grass.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

In June, the Israeli occupation authorities demolished, forced people to demolish, or seized 91 Palestinian-owned structures across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, a sevenfold increase compared to May, according to the West Bank demolitions and displacement report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territory.

This resulted in the displacement of 108 people, including 62 children, and otherwise affected the livelihoods, or access to services, of nearly 2,700 others, it added.

All the structures were located in Area C of the occupied West Bank, which remained under full Israeli military control, or occupied East Jerusalem, and were targeted for lacking building permits, which are nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain.

The number of structures demolished or seized in June is the highest this year, surpassed only by February (153), with a sevenfold increase, or 600 per cent, compared with May, said OCHA.

Twenty of the structures demolished or seized had been provided as humanitarian aid. In addition, a European Union-funded school in Um Qussa, in the Hebron district, at a value of over 14,000 euros, received a stop-work order, while another three donor-funded residential structures received a notice to submit an objection to previously issued demolition orders.

Thirty-two of the structures demolished or seized in June, or 35 percent, were seized without, or with very short, prior notice. On 7 June, in Al Mu’arrajat Bedouin community near Ramallah the Israeli authorities seized 13 structures, including five donor-funded, for lacking Israeli-issued building permits, leaving 24 people, including 16 children displaced. Another five structures, including one donor-funded, were seized in Dar Fazaa, also near Ramallah, displacing 16 people, including nine children.

So far in 2021, 212 structures, or 57 percent of all structures targeted in Area C, have been seized without, or with very short, prior notice, preventing affected people from objecting in advance.

On two separate occasions in the Massafer Yatta area (South Hebron Hills), the Israeli authorities demolished three main roads connecting the surrounding villages, in addition to a water network supplying water to multiple communities. The incidents affected some 2,300 people, including 1,140 children and left the communities without water for three and seven days, respectively.

Also, in Area C, in Halhul (Hebron) and Jinsafut (Qalqiliya), the Israeli authorities demolished a home and a livelihood structure on the basis of Military Order 1797, which provides only a 96-hour notice and very limited grounds for legally challenging a demolition. The incidents left 14 people, including seven children displaced.

In East Jerusalem, the Israeli authorities demolished or forced people to demolish 20 structures. The month of June saw an increase in structures demolished in East Jerusalem by 44 percent, compared with the previous five months, to a total of 65 structures since the beginning of 2021. Eleven of the structures, or 55 percent, were demolished by the owners following the issuance of a demolition order. In Jabal al Mukkabir, owners were forced to demolish seven structures following the issuance of such orders, displacing five people, including three children, and affecting the livelihoods of another 27 people, including 17 children.

So far in 2021, the proportion of structures demolished by their owners in East Jerusalem, following the issuance of demolition orders, reached 45 percent, up from an average of 27 percent in the previous five years. This is attributed to new Israeli legislation, which limits the authority of Israeli courts to intervene and enables the West Jerusalem Israeli municipality to exert pressure on families to demolish their properties themselves.

In late February 2021, the municipality reactivated demolition orders against 68 Palestinian structures, mainly residential, in the al-Bustan area, in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem, which would lead to the displacement of up to 1,500 Palestinians. The Local Affairs Court ruled for a six-month deferral for 52 of these structures, until 15 August. Out of the 16 structures subject to impending demolitions, on 29 June, a livelihood structure was demolished. During the incident, Israeli forces blocked all entrances to the area. In clashes that followed, more than 13 Palestinians were injured and at least four were arrested, including the owner of the demolished livelihood structure.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Fourteen Palestinian administrative detainees in Israel are currently on hunger strike demanding an end to their illegal incarceration without charge or trial, today said Palestinian prisoners’ advocates.

They said the 14 administrative detainees are held in four different prisons throughout Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories and they started the hunger strike at different times.

Administrative detainees often resort to hunger strike to win their freedom otherwise they can be kept in prison for years without any charge or trial as the Israeli occupation authorities often would renew their detention, which is sometimes set three, four, six or 12 months, based on secret evidence not seen by the prisoners or their lawyers.

Several Palestinian administrative detainees have won their freedom after going on long and painful hunger strike, the latest was Ghadanfar Abu Atwan, who was on hunger strike for almost three months before Israel agreed to end his detention and set him free at the end of his term.

Currently, Israel is holding some 540 Palestinians in administrative detention, deemed illegal by international law, most of them former prisoners who spent years in prison for their resistance of the Israeli occupation.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Israeli settlers today attacked a Palestinian man in an attempt to prevent him from building his house in the village of Qaryut, to the south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, according to local activist.

Bashar Qaryuti, an anti-settlement activist, told WAFA that a group of Israeli settlers attacked the house owner as he was trying to build a roof to his house located on the outskirts of the village.

However, he added, village residents rushed to help the house owner and succeeded in forcing the settlers out of the village.

Qaryuti said an Israeli army force later arrived at the scene and instead of going after the settlers, confiscated construction equipment belonging to the house owner and prevented him from proceeding with the construction.

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

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Israeli settlers took over an area east of Tubas in the northern Jordan Valley once used and then abandoned by the Israeli army as Palestinian residents have vowed to prevent the settlers from setting up a settlement there, according to a local activist.

Aref Daraghme, a rights activist, said settlers broke into the area and spent the night in the former Tayasir military camp, which was abandoned by the army several years ago despite the presence of soldiers on different occasions at the nearby Tayasir checkpoint.

As a result of this action by the settlers, the area’s Palestinian residents have called for popular activities to prevent the settlers from setting up an illegal settlement at the former camp.

The Tayasir military camp was established in 1992 on a 16-dunum plot of land and abandoned in 2008, while the buildings the army had set up remained intact on the land and often monitored by the checkpoint established at the site.

Over the years, settlers used the abandoned buildings for their cattle without the soldiers at the checkpoint doing anything to stop them.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Extremist Israeli settlers today attacked journalists in the neighborhood of Tal Rumeida, in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, and prevented them from working in the area, according to local sources.

Yaser Abu Markhia, a local activist, told WAFA that a group of settlers from the illegal settlement of Ramat Yishai, located in the heart of Hebron, attacked reporters of Al Jazeera TV and forced them out of the area.

Meantime, a Palestinian civilian sustained injuries in an attack by Israeli settlers targeting Palestinians’ homes in the village of Al-Tuwanah, south of Hebron.

Fo’ad Emour, a local activist, told WAFA that settlers from Havat Maon settlement accompanied by a military escort forced them way into the village and pelted stones at homes. A Palestinian was hit by a stone and injured in the head.

Israeli 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.

Over 700,000 Israeli settlers live in Jewish-only colonial settlements across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in violation of international law.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Settlers, backed by Israeli forces, attacked today staff of the Land Settlement Authority while working in Um al-Shaqhan area to the east of Yatta, south of the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron, said a local activist.

Coordinator of the Protection and Steadfastness Committees in Masafer Yatta, Fouad al-Amour told WAFA settlers from the nearby settlement of Avigal, built illegally on Um al-Shaqhan land, pelted the staff with rocks and confiscated their global positioning system (GPS) device.

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

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency