Day: 29 August 2021

Israeli settler fanatics last night stormed Jaber neighborhood in the old city of Hebron, south of the occupied West Bank, where they attacked nine Palestinian-owned vehicles parked on the sides of streets and caused damage to almost all of them.

Aref Jaber, a local anti-settlement activist, told WAFA that the rampaging settlers hurled stones at the vehicles and smashed their windshields. No injuries were reported.

The city of Hebron is home to roughly 160,000 Palestinians and about 800 notoriously aggressive Israeli settlers who live in colonial compounds in the heart of the city, heavily guarded by Israeli troops.

Israel has expelled the only international monitors protecting Hebron’s Palestinians from the 800 heavily guarded settlers, one of whom committed the 1994 massacre that triggered their deployment.

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

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Israeli occupation today raided two schools in the village of Al-Khader, to the south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, according to local sources.

Ahmad Salah, a local activist, told WAFA that soldiers raided the two schools and fired teargas canisters and stun grenades inside their yards, terrifying the schoolchildren. No injuries were reported.

He said the students of one of the schools were evacuated for their safety following the Israeli army’s withdrawal.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

A burnt corpse belonging to a Palestinian national of Israel has been found inside a parked vehicle in the town of Jaljulia, in the center of the Palestinian land occupied since 1948, bringing the number of Palestinians killed in domestic crimes since yesterday to four.

Arab 48 website said the latest incident was the fourth since Saturday morning. The incident is part of an ongoing years-long crime wave blamed for Israeli Police tolerance of criminality and even collaboration with criminal gangs across the Arab communities in Israel.

Palestinians in today’s Israel are those who stayed on their land following the creation of the occupying state in 1948 and their descendants. They make up about 20 percent of the country’s nine million people.

By law, their rights are equal to those of Jewish citizens. But in practice they suffer discrimination in employment, housing, policing and other essentials.

Palestinians have long blamed the Israeli police for turning a blind eye to gun violence among Palestinian-Israelis and even complicity with criminal gangs.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh met today in his office in Ramallah, with consuls and representatives of European countries in Palestine, where he briefed them on the latest political developments, and discussed a number of issues of mutual interest.

Shtayyeh briefed the European officials on the Israeli violations committed against the Palestinian people, especially the killings and arrests, the daily incursions into Palestinian areas, the demolition of homes, and the seizure of land and settlement expansion, calling on the European Union to pressure Israel to stop these measures.

“Europe must have a stronger voice and effective steps to compel Israel to stop its violations against our people and to establish an independent and sovereign Palestinian state within 1967 borders and with Jerusalem as its capital, in order to achieve the required peace and justice,” said Shtayyeh.

Shtayyeh stressed the need to fill the current political vacuum through a peace initiative led by the International Quartet, and the need for Israel to respect the signed agreements, which will contribute towards starting a dialogue on many political, economic and final-status issues, he said.

At the international level, the Prime Minister said that “Israel has vetoed our democracy” by preventing the holding of elections in Jerusalem. The agreements signed with it provided for the participation of Jerusalemites in voting and running as electoral candidates, which has been done in previous elections, said the premier.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

The Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission today submitted an appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court against the administrative detention of hunger-striking Palestinian prisoner Miqdad al-Qawasmi.

Qawasmi, a 24-year-old resident of the southern occupied city of Hebron, was detained in January 2021 and is currently held in Ofer prison.

He has been on an open-ended hunger strike for 39 consecutive days in protest of his administrative detention, without charge or trial.

Qawasmi has previously spent a total of four years in Israeli jails for resisting the occupation.

Palestinian administrative detainees, who are held for long periods without charge or trial and based on classified evidence, often resort to hunger strike to secure their freedom otherwise they can be kept in prison for several years.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

A number of Palestinians suffocated today as Israeli forces attacked a peaceful rally to the east of Jabalia town, in the northern Gaza Strip, in protest of the Israeli siege that has been in place since 2007.

Sources said Israeli force stationed at watchtowers along Gaza borderline to the east of the Strip fired tear gas canisters towards the rally, causing several people to suffocate.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Minister of Health Mai Al-Kaileh said today that 1,696 new cases of COVID-19, three deaths and 478 recoveries were registered in Palestine during the last 24-hour reporting period.

In her daily report on the coronavirus pandemic, Al-Kaileh said two deaths from COVID-19 were reported in the West Bank, while another one was registered in the Gaza Strip.

A total of 9,704 COVID-19 tests were conducted during the last 24 hours. In the Gaza Strip, 818 coronavirus tests came out positive, while the West Bank had 878 new cases, including 294 cases in the northern district of Nablus alone, followed by Tulkarm (205).

No update was available regarding the situation in occupied Jerusalem.

The health minister said 104 patients of COVID-19 are hospitalized, while 45 others are in intensive care, including seven on ventilators.

Al-Kaileh pointed out that the recovery rate in Palestine has so far reached 94.3 percent, while active cases rose to 4.6 percent. Deaths stood at 1.1 percent of total infections.

Concerning rollout of vaccines, the health minister said over 843,500 people have received their first jab of the vaccine in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, of whom 452,400 have been fully vaccinated.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency