Day: 24 August 2021

Weather today is mostly clear and hot in the mountains and very hot in the Jordan Valley in daytime with a rise in temperature, which becomes 3°C above the seasonal average, 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 32°C and a low of 22°C and in Ramallah and Hebron a high of 31°C and a low of 21°C. In Jericho, the Dead Sea, and the Jordan Valley temperature is expected to reach a high of 41°C and a low of 28°C while it is expected to reach a high of 32°C and a low of 25°C in Gaza and the coastal areas.

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 and Friday with steady temperature.

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 forces Tuesday dawn killed a Palestinian teen in Balata refugee camp, east of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, medical sources confirmed.

Director of the Emergency Unit at the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) in Nablus, Ahmad Jibril, said that Israeli forces shot and killed 16-year-old Imad Hashhash as they carried out a detention raid in the camp.

The Health Ministry pointed that Hashhash was rushed to the Rafidia Surgical Hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.

While in the camp, the soldiers detained a young man.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh today condemned the killing of a Palestinian teen near the West Bank city of Nablus.

Shtayyeh decried the killing of 16-year-old Imad Hashhash by Israeli military gunfire during a dawn detention raid in Balata refugee camp and called on the world to hold the Israeli occupation authorities accountable for ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Israeli warplanes Tuesday overnight bombed several sites in the Gaza Strip, according to WAFA correspondent.

He said that the Israeli F-16 fighter jets targeted a site to the west of Khan Younius, south of the besieged coastal enclave, a plot of agricultural land, east of Gaza city, the vicinity of al-Shuhada graveyard, east of the Jabalia town, in addition to a site to the east of Shuja’iyya neighborhood.

He added that the airstrikes caused substantial damages in the targeted sites, specifically in the nearby civilian houses and property.

No human casualties were reported, however.

Meanwhile, the Israeli navy opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats offshore al-Sudaniya area, west of Beit Lahia in the northern besieged enclave. No casualties or damages were reported though.

Fourteen years following the Israeli “disengagement” from Gaza, Israel has not actually disengaged from Gaza; it still maintains control of its land borders, access to the sea and airspace.

Two million Palestinians live the Gaza Strip, which has been subjected to a punishing and crippling Israeli blockade for 12 years and repeated onslaughts that have heavily damaged much of the enclave’s infrastructure.

Gaza’s 2-million population remains under “remote control” occupation and a strict siege, which has destroyed the local economy, strangled Palestinian livelihoods, plunged them into unprecedented rates of unemployment and poverty, and cut off from the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories and the wider world.

Gaza remains occupied territory, having no control over its borders, territorial waters or airspace. Meanwhile, Israel upholds very few of its responsibilities as the occupying power, failing to provide for the basic needs of Palestinian civilians living in the territory.

Every two in three Palestinians in Gaza is a refugee from lands inside what is now Israel. That government forbids them from exercising their right to return as enshrined in international law because they are not Jews.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Israeli occupation forces today handed Palestinians orders to stop work on reclamation of their lands and building storerooms in an area west of the occupied West Bank city of Salfit, according to Abdul Kareem Fattash, mayor of Salfit.

He told WAFA that three orders were issued to local farmers to halt reclamation of their land and a fourth to another resident to stop construction of storerooms claiming that the lands are located in Area C of the occupied West Bank, which is under full Israeli military rule.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

The Israeli military government today demolished three animal barns in Khirbet al-Rahwa hamlet, south of al-Dhahiriya, and ordered the demolition of a house in Beit Jala, both in the south of the occupied West Bank, according to local and Palestinian security sources.

Suleiman Abu Allan, an anti-settlements activist, told WAFA that Israeli occupation forces raided Khirbet al-Rahwa and demolished three animal barns, adding that last month the Israeli military handed 13 Palestinian residents of the hamlet demolition notices against their animal sheds.

Israel has been targeting the hamlet in an effort to push its Palestinian residents out of their lands and homes in order to take them over to expand the nearby illegal settlement of Tina.

Meanwhile, in Beit Jala, a Christian town south of Jerusalem, the Israeli military government has informed a local Palestinian resident of its intention to demolish his house under the pretext it was built without a permit, according to a Palestinian security source.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riyad Malki today urged the European Union to deter Israel from persisting in its crimes against the Palestinian people.

Malki made this appeal during a meeting in Ramallah with his Slovenian counterpart Anze Logar.

The two foreign ministers discussed in their meeting ways to enhance cooperation and bilateral relations, particularly in the fields of economy and trade.

Commenting on the dire economic situation, Malki reiterated that the Israeli occupation is the key obstacle to the development of the Palestinian economy, particularly that Israel continues to control and exploit Palestinian natural resources.

He added that ending the Israeli occupation and enabling the Palestinian people having access to its natural resources and historical and religious sites are a prerequisite for dispensing with international aid and building a robust economy that could bring prosperity for the Palestinian people.

Touching on Israeli crimes and violations, the top Palestinian diplomat pointed that such crimes and violations, including land confiscation and home demolitions, reach their peak in Jerusalem and Area C, which accounts for 60 percent of the West Bank territory, as he referred to risks of building the new colonial settlement of Givat Eviatar atop Mount Sabih in the Nablus area, which has become a scene of daily protests against decades of Israeli settler-colonialism and apartheid.

He urged the international community, particularly the EU, to take immediate action to deter Israel from persisting with these crimes and take practical steps in this regard instead of just issuing statements of condemnation.

He also urged them to pressure Israel into lifting the 14-year-blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip and link Gaza reconstruction to an international position guaranteeing that Israel no longer carries out a devastating onslaught on the Strip.

Malki addressed the Palestinian leadership’s efforts to consolidate calm in the occupied territories in order to restore a political horizon towards achieving just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution in line with the United Nations resolutions, the Arab Peace Initiative and President Mahmoud Abbas’ initiative calling for convening an international peace conference conducive to the establishment of the Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

He touched upon the issue of postponed general elections, stressing the importance of holding them throughout the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem, which is part of the occupied territories under international law, while calling on the international community and the EU to also pressure Israel into allowing the elections in Jerusalem.

Logar, whose visit to Palestine was his first, stressed that his country would continue to support Palestinian institutions and the principle of the two-state solution, as he expressed his hopes for strengthening bilateral relations, especially in the field of trade.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh today told visiting Slovenian Foreign Minister Anze Logar that Europe should play a bigger and more active role in the Middle East peace process.

Shtayyeh received Logar at his office in Ramallah in the presence of Foreign Minister Riyad Malki during which they discussed the latest political developments and ways to enhance cooperation between their two countries in all fields.

The Prime Minister called on Slovenia, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, to lead Europe in reviving the political process by reactivating the role of the International Quartet to return to negotiations on the basis of UN resolutions.

“We do not have any real partner for peace,” said Shtayyeh. “Israel has no serious intention for negotiations, and we are ready for any serious political path that fills the current political vacuum through an international multilateral framework that guarantees the end of the Israeli occupation and the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state on the June 4, 1967, borders with Jerusalem as its capital, and a just solution to the refugee issue.”

The Prime Minister added: “The Palestinians, the original owners of the land, are living in extraordinary, cruel and unjust conditions. Israel continues its racist practices against them, increases the settlement area and its grip on their land, and continues the siege of Gaza and the Judaization of Jerusalem, and controls the crossings, land and water, which leads to the systematic destruction of the two-state solution.”

He continued: “We share with Slovenia our respect for international law, human rights, and the values and principles of justice, freedom, dignity and equality, and we hope that it will play its role by calling on Israel to stop its settlement policy, land seizure and extrajudicial executions against our people and violations against Islamic and Christian holy places, facilitate freedom of access to these place in order to perform worship, in addition to end its occupation of Palestinian lands.”

Shtayyeh reiterated the insistence of the Palestinian leadership, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas, to hold elections to preserve the national project, end division and achieve unity, calling on the international community to pressure Israel to abide by the signed agreements, especially with regard to allowing elections to be held in occupied Jerusalem.

For his part, Logar affirmed his country’s support for the two-state solution and the achievement of a just and comprehensive peace, stressing the continuation of cooperation and joint work with Palestine, and its support in all fields.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency