Day: 1 September 2021

Weather today is hot to very hot in in daytime, with a rise in temperature which approaches 5 C above the seasonal average, according to the Palestinian Meteorological Department (PMD).

Moderate conditions are expected in the morning and night hours, especially in the mountains. Light to moderate westerly wind blows.

Sea waves are low.

Temperature in the capital, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem is expected to reach a high of 34 C and a low of 21 C and in Ramallah and Hebron a high of 33 C and a low of 20 C. In Jericho, the Dead Sea, and the Jordan Valley temperature is expected to reach a high of 43 C and a low of 27 C while it is expected to reach a high of 33 C and a low of 25 C in Gaza and the coastal areas.

Thursday’s temperature is set to plummet and approach 2 C above the seasonal average on Thursday, paving the way to relatively hot to hot conditions in daytime and moderate conditions in the morning and night hours.

The same weather conditions are expected for Friday and Saturday.

People are warned against being exposed to the sun for long period, particularly from 11:00 AM to 4:00 pm, and against setting fire to areas with dry grass.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian close to Beit Ur al-Tahta village, west of the West Bank city of Ramallah in the early hours of Wednesday, according to medical and local sources.

The Health Ministry and local sources confirmed that Israeli forces gunned down 39-year-old Raed Jadallah from a distance at the western entrance of the village, and left him to bleed to death.

Jadallah, a father of four children, was coming home from his work in the occupied city of Jerusalem and crossing one of the military-controlled crossing points when he was killed by the Israeli military, according to Beit Ur Municipality.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Israeli forces Wednesday demolished three agricultural structures in the village of Duma, south of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, local sources confirmed.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors Israeli settlement activities in the north of the West Bank, told WAFA that the Israeli bulldozers demolished in the early morning hours an agricultural structure owned by local resident Faris Salawdeh, and two more owned by a resident from Jerusalem.

Israeli forces continuously target that area under the pretext that it’s located in Area C.

Area C, which constitutes about 60 percent of the West Bank, is under full Israeli security and civilian control. The Palestinians and the international community consider the area as the main land reserve for the future Palestinian state.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Israeli forces today detained at least 13 Palestinians, including a school principal, and injured another across the West Bank, according to local and security sources.

They confirmed that Israeli police detained the principal of a secondary school after storming the school campus in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi al-Joz, under the flimsy pretext of meeting personnel from the Palestinian Ministry of Education.

While in the school campus, the police officers seized several computers and files as they ransacked the school buildings.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces rounded up two Palestinians after breaking into and ransacking the houses of their families in Beit Rima and Kobar towns, northwest and west of Ramallah city respectively.

Israeli soldiers also opened fire at a Palestinian at a military checkpoint at the entrance of Ni’lin town, west of the city. The casualty was identified as a resident of the town.

In the northern West Bank, Director of the Palestine Prisoner’s Society (PPS) Office in Jenin, Muntaser Samour, said that Israeli forces barged their way into Fandaqumiya village, southwest of the city, where they detained a woman.

The detainee was identified as the wife of a prisoner from the nearby town of Jaba‘.

Samour confirmed that another Palestinian was detained as he attempted to cross the Mavo Dothan checkpoint, southeast of Yaabad town.

In the southern West Bank, Israeli soldiers conducted a raid in the Bethlehem city neighborhood of As-Saff, resulting in the detention of two others.

Soldiers manning the Container military checkpoint, northeast of the city, stopped and detained another from Aida refugee camp.

Two others, a 16-year-old teen from the same refugee camp and a 17-year-old teen from Bir ‘Onah, one of the neighborhoods of the city of Beit Jala, were also detained from the vicinity of the section of Israel’s apartheid wall built on the lands of the city.

In Hebron district, two others were detained in separate two raids in Halhul and Dura towns, north and south of the city.

Another Palestinian from Hebron district was rounded up as he was on his way to his work inside Israel.

Israeli forces frequently raid Palestinian houses almost on a daily basis across the West Bank on the pretext of searching for “wanted” Palestinians, triggering clashes with residents.

These raids, which take place also in areas under the full control of the Palestinian Authority, are conducted with no need for a search warrant, whenever and wherever the military chooses in keeping with its sweeping arbitrary powers.

Under Israeli military law army commanders have full executive, legislative and judicial authority over 3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank. Palestinians have no say in how this authority is exercised.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

The Israeli occupation authorities today demolished two Palestinian houses in the village of Beit Ta‘mir, east of Bethlehem, according to an activist.

Director of the Anti-Wall and Settlement Commission, Hassan Breija, said that an Israeli military force escorted two bulldozers to the village, where the heavy machineries tore down two houses under construction purportedly for being built without permits.

Owner of the demolished structures was identified as Elayyan Zawahreh.

Meanwhile, WAFA correspondent confirmed that Israeli forces tore down another house belonging to Nasri Sbeih in Harmala village, east of Bethlehem.

Israeli refuses to permit virtually any Palestinian construction in Area C, which constitutes 60 percent of the occupied West Bank and falls under full Israeli military rule, forcing residents to build without obtaining rarely-granted permits to provide shelters for their families.

In contrast, Israel much more easily gives over 700,000 Jewish Israeli settlers there building permits and provides them with roads, electricity, water and sewage systems that remain inaccessible to many neighboring Palestinians.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh today met with a senior Norwegian diplomat over preparations for the upcoming Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) meeting.

Prime Minister Shtayyeh held a meeting with Norwegian Envoy to the Middle East Peace Process, John Hansen Bauer, in the presence of Norway’s Representative to Palestine, Torunn Viste.

During the meeting, Shtayyeh reviewed the already difficult financial situation of the Palestinian government due to the ongoing deductions from the Palestinian tax revenues by Israel and reaching the limit of bank borrowing.

He stressed the importance of donor aid to eliminate the budget deficit, enable the government to fulfill its financial obligations and support development projects in Palestine as he reiterated his call for the international community to pressurize Israel into abiding by the agreements signed with the Palestinian side.

The meeting discussed the latest developments on the Palestinian political arena in addition to preparations for the upcoming Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) meeting, scheduled during September.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Dozens of Palestinian protesters suffered suffocation today as Israeli occupation forces attacked hundreds of protesters demonstrating for the second week at the east border of Gaza in protest of the 14-year Israeli blockade.

Soldiers stationed along the borderline opened gunfire and teargas at the protesters to disperse them, causing several cases of suffocation from gas inhalation.

Palestinians in Gaza have been demonstrating near the border for over two weeks to raise their voice against the 14-year Israeli blockade of the coastal enclave.

At least one fatality and 80 injuries have been reported among Palestinian protesters during the ongoing border protests during the last two weeks.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Ahmad Hamamreh, a Palestinian prisoner in Israeli detention, ended today his hunger strike which he had started in protest of his unfair detention without a charge or trial.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said Hamamreh decided to break his hunger strike after he had reached an agreement with the Israeli Prison Service not to extend his detention term beyond 14 February 2022.

The policy of administrative detention allows Israeli occupation authorities to extend the detention of a Palestinian prisoner without charge or trial.

There are around 5,300 Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, including 520 administrative detainees, according to institutions concerned with prisoners’ affairs.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Palestine today confirmed 2,675 new Covid-19 cases and eight death cases, according to Health Minister Mai al-Kaileh.

She announced that 2,675 Palestinians tested positive for the highly contagious virus and eight others died of it in the occupied territories.

As part of the 2,675 new cases, 1,262 cases were registered in the West Bank and 1,413 others in the Gaza Strip.

She identified the death cases as two deaths from the West Bank and six others from the Gaza Strip. The West Bank deaths were identified as a resident of Qalqiliya district and another from Tulkarm district.

She added that 837 Covid-19 patients recovered; 462 recovery cases in the West Bank and 375 others in the Gaza Strip.

She pointed that 50 Covid-19 patients are getting treatment in intensive care units and 135 others are currently receiving treatment at hospitals and Covid-19 dispensaries, including eight who are intubated.

She said that the recovery rate in Palestine has so far reached 93 percent and the active cases account for 6 percent. The death toll stood at 1 percent of total infections.

Regarding the Covid-19 vaccination rollout, al-Kaileh said that 991,613 people have received their first jab of the vaccine in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, including 459,128 people who received the second dose of the vaccine.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency

Minister of Health Mai Al-Keila has sent urgent letters to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations Population Fund, urging them to intervene and press the Israeli occupation authorities to immediately release Anhar Al-Deek, a pregnant Palestinian mother in Israeli detention who is expected to give birth very soon.

In her letters, Al-Keila said the Israeli occupation prisons lack the minimum health and preventive conditions, especially in light of the COVID resurgence, and that Al-Deek is in need of urgent medical care and follow-up for her safety and the safety of her fetus.

“Anhar is the mother of an 18-month old baby. She needs to be next to her family and children, and this is a human right guaranteed by various international regulations, laws and norms,” said Al-Keila.

The Minister of Health held the occupation authorities fully responsible for the health of the prisoner al-Deek, and the safety and health of her fetus, calling for her immediate release.

25-year-old Al-Deek hails from the Kafr Ni’ma town in the occupied West Bank, and was detained when she was four months pregnant.

Last week, she appealed to the international community to pressure Israel to release her and allow her to give birth outside prison.

“What should I do if I give birth far from you? I am tied up, how can I give birth via caesarean section when I am alone in prison?” Anhar wrote in a letter to her family, adding:

“I am exhausted, and I had severe pains in the pelvis and severe pain in my legs due to sleeping on the prison beds. I do not know how I want to sleep on it after my delivery operation.”

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency