Day: 23 August 2021

Weather today is relatively hot to hot in daytime with no change in temperature, which remains above the seasonal average by a slight margin, according to the Palestinian Meteorological Department (PMD).

Moderate conditions in the mountains and relatively hot conditions in other districts are expected in the night and morning hours. Light to moderate westerly to northwesterly wind blows. Sea waves are low.

Temperature in the capital, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem is expected to reach a high of 30°C and a low of 20°C and in Ramallah and Hebron a high of 29°C and a low of 19°C. In Jericho, the Dead Sea, and the Jordan Valley temperature is expected to reach a high of 39°C and a low of 26°C while it is expected to reach a high of 31°C and a low of 24°C in Gaza and the coastal areas.

Tuesday’s temperature is set to rise and become 3°C above the seasonal average, causing a slight increase in the heat stress.

Temperature is set to further rise and approach 5°C above the seasonal average, paving the way to hot to very hot conditions in daytime and moderate to relatively hot conditions in nighttime.

The heavy to extreme heat stress is set to continue on Thursday.

The PMD warns people against being exposed to the sun for long period, particularly from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and setting fire to areas with dry grass.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Israeli settlers today torched dozens of olive trees in Burin town, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, according to witnesses.

They said that a group of settlers set fire to dozens of olive trees belonging to Akram Omran in the southern part of the town.

The settlers came from Yitzhar, a colonial settlement notorious for its hardcore religious community.

Burin town has been the scene of frequent settler attacks, including cutting down fully grown olive trees, setting fire to fields and crops, stealing the olive harvest, attacking olive harvesters and foreign volunteers, and hurling Molotov Cocktails toward houses in the town.

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.

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 sealed off the entrances to Sinjil town, northeast of the West Bank city of Ramallah, according to local sources.

They said that Israeli forces used a bulldozer to close the entrances to the town with earth mounds, denying the town residents and other from the surrounding area access into and out of the town.

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 representation mission of Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) in the West Bank and Jerusalem is carrying out a surgical project, with a total budget of $182,067, according to a press release.

Under its medical convoy program in the West Bank, Palestine, QRCS sponsors cleft lip surgeries for children and urology surgeries for patients with renal disease, in cooperation with Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS).

The project is aimed at providing medical assistance to alleviate the suffering of the patients who need urgent surgical intervention, securing advanced medical services for the children born with cleft lip or cleft palate, developing the surgery departments at PRCS hospitals with medical and surgical equipment, reducing the patients on waiting lists for specialized surgeries, and saving the patients the high costs of treatment.

According to the action plan, surgeries are performed by local surgeons in the specializations of urology for 50 patients and cleft lip/palate surgery for 60 children. Varying from minor to medium-level cases, the beneficiaries were selected from the waiting lists of the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MOH). The project is hosted by PRCS hospitals in the cities of Al-Bireh and Hebron.

So far, 28 and 31 surgeries have been performed for urology patients and cleft lip/palate patients respectively. At the same time, the list of medical equipment required for the target surgery departments was developed, and they are being procured from the suppliers already contracted under a public tender prior to the project’s start.

This project addresses many issues suffered by the health care sector in the West Bank, said the press release, including lack of qualified medical professionals and supplies, the many surgery delays or cancellations due to over demand on surgical services at MOH hospitals, and the high costs of treatment that the patients cannot afford, which may cause health complications.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

The Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) today said the Hebron Governorate in the south of the occupied West Bank is suffering from water shortage due to interruption in supply from the Israeli water company, Mekerot that led to heavy loss of water that exceeded 40,000 cubic meters.

The PWA said in a statement that despite the fact that its teams met last week with the Israeli company to discuss the repeated interruptions in water supply to the Hebron governorate, who promised to resolve this issue, the interruption in water supply has nevertheless continued and intensified today.

It said that Mekerot’s frequent interruptions cause significant confusion in the wholesale distribution of water, as well as to local authorities providing households with their water needs.

It warned that the continued cutting of water to the lines supplying the Palestinian communities lead to people not having even drinking water, particularly in this very hot weather condition.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Israeli settlers today set two mobile homes on Palestinian-owned lands in the town of Deir Istiya, to the west of the occupied West Bank city of Salfit as part of efforts by the settlers to take over Palestinian land.

Said Zeidan, head of the Deir Istiya municipality, told WAFA that the settlers set up two mobile homes in the area west of the town already threatened of takeover by the settlers since it is located close to the illegal Israeli settlement of Havat Yair.

He added that 10 days ago the settlers razed lands and opened a road to the site.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Salem Zeidat, the Palestinian administrative detainee in Israel who has been on hunger strike for 43 days, ended today his fast following a deal that would set him free at the end of his current detention period, according to the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS).

It said that Zeidat, 40, from Bani Naim town in the south of the occupied West Bank, has been held in administrative detention since February 22, 2020, following his arrest for entering Israel without a permit. He was first sentenced to four months in prison and after completing his term, he was held in administrative detention without charge or trial.

Zeidat, married and a father of five children, had spent two years in Israeli prisons for resisting the occupation. He will be released in November.

He was the longest on hunger strike among nine Palestinian administrative detainees who reverted to take this path in order to secure an end to their detention and their ultimate freedom.

Two of the remaining eight prisoners have been on hunger strike for more than 40 days demanding their release.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Five people have died of coronavirus in Palestine in the last 24 hours as 1366 new cases were recorded, according to Minister of Health Mai Alkaila.

She said in her daily report on the pandemic in Palestine that two deaths and 661 new cases were recorded in the West Bank while 173 patients have recovered.

Three people died of the disease in the Gaza Strip and 663 new cases were recorded, while 145 patients have recovered.

East Jerusalem recorded 42 new cases over three days and 64 recoveries.

Alkaila said 98 patients are getting hospital treatment and 30 are in intensive care, while seven patients are on ventilators.

At the same time, 34.2 percent of the West Bank population have been vaccinated against the disease and only 10.7 percent vaccinated in the Gaza Strip.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency