Day: 6 March 2022

Israeli navy boats opened their heavy machine gunfire today evening at Palestinian fishing boats sailing in the Gaza Sea, according to sources.

Israeli navy targeted Palestinian fishermen offshore Khan Younis city to the south of the besieged Gaza Strip, forcing them to flee for their safety.

Israelis forces constantly harass fishermen and farmers at border areas and prevent them from earning a living.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Israeli extremists attacked today a church in the Old City of Jerusalem and caused damages to the property.

WAFA correspondent said two Israelis were arrested by the police on racial and national grounds after they carried out an attack against a church in Jerusalem.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Israeli settlers today cut down and sole dozens of olive trees and vandalized an agricultural room and its contents in the town of Kafr Ad-Dik, west of Salfit, according to local farmers.

Settlers from the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Alei Zahav cut down and stole around 190 olive trees, aged 2 to 10 years old, and destroyed an agricultural room belonging to local farmers. They further stole around 40 olive saplings.

The said area has been recently targeted by repeated settlers’ attacks with the aim of forcing residents to leave the area for the benefit of settlement expansion.

Mayor of Salfit, Abdallah Kmail stressed that the racist expansion of settlements on large swathes of Salfit land has been increasing every day in a systematic manner and under the protection of the occupation forces, calling on Palestinians to remain steadfast on their land.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

A young Palestinian protester sustained a gunfire injury today as Israeli occupation forces dispersed and assaulted anti-occupation Palestinian protesters demonstrating outside Al-Arroub refugee camp, in the occupied West Bank province of Hebron, according to medical sources.

The director of Alia Government Hospital in Hebron said a 19-year-old Palestinian protester was admitted to the hospital with an injury from a live bullet in his foot. He said the admitted protester was of stable medical condition.

Earlier today, extremist Israeli politician and MK Itamar Ben-Gvir arrived at the entrance to Al-Arroub and threatened to “open gunfire” at Palestinian children from the camp for pelting stones at Israeli settlers’ vehicles passing near the camp.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Israeli occupation forces last night and today arrested seven Palestinians during military raids in the occupied West Bank provinces of Hebron, Bethlehem, and Nalus, according to Palestinian security and local sources.

In Hebron, south of the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces raided Hebron city and the nearby town of Halhul, where they arrested three Palestinians after raiding and searching their homes.

In Bethlehem province, Israeli occupation forces stormed Aida refugee camp and arrested two local Palestinians after raiding and searching their homes.

In Nablus, north of the West Bank, Israeli soldiers arrested two Palestinian young men while they were trying to cross an Israeli military checkpoint near the village of Deir Sharaf. The two were taken to an unknown destination.

Almost on a daily basis, Israeli occupation forces carry out raids targeting populated Palestinian communities for arrests or searches. The practice, mostly carried out at nighttime, has become a routine under Israeli military regime.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Palestinian-American model Bella Hadid criticized yesterday the double standards employed by Western officials and media in their coverage of the crisis in Ukraine/Russia, saying that oppression everywhere deserves the same level of backlash.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” the model captioned a screenshot of a note she posted on her Instagram.

“Question yourself, question how quietly you moved around other injustices, the footprint we leave here will be the clearest one we’ve left in a long time,” the model said. “If this is your first time realizing a war in some years, you’re not of the world… War, along with the position we take during it, is forever.”

Hadid added that people “should always speak up when we feel encouraged to,” but she believes “the most transformative speech comes from discomfort, when air has to break to make room for your voice.” The model said in sarcasm that “if the American president is defending a liberation movement, there’s no risk in joining that defense.”

She talked about Ukraine saying “nothing should undermine the magnitude of their suffering, of the violence against them but it’s not just about justice, it’s also about who is at the receiving end of injustice.” She highlighted that “the way we’ve failed to uphold it elsewhere dictates this. Our lack of tools here is a result of our neglect elsewhere.”

Hadid said that “the language we use to define oppression cannot favor one victim over another.”

“How many Muslim nations aflame? Invasions by the west, merciless drone strikes, executions, internment camps in China? How much of Palestine, how little of Palestine left?” the model asked.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Nearly 450 Palestinian detainees have been refusing to show up for their military court hearings for 65 days in protest of their unfair detention without charge or trial under Israel’s controversial administrative detention policy.

The boycott includes hearings for the renewal of administrative detention orders as well as appeal hearings and later sessions at Israel’s Supreme Court.

Also for more than 10 days now, Palestinian administrative detainees with chronic diseases in the Israeli prison of Ofer have been boycotting the Israeli prison clinics in protest of their unfair detention without charge or trial.

Palestinian detainees say their action is a continuation of longstanding Palestinian efforts “to put an end to the unjust administrative detention practiced against our people by the occupation forces.”

Under administrative detention, Israel keeps Palestinians without charge for up to six months, a period which can be extended for an indefinite number of times. Women and minors are also among those detainees. The detention takes place on orders from a military commander and on the basis of what the Israeli regime describes as ‘secret’ evidence. Some prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to 11 years.

Palestinians and human rights groups say the administrative detention violates the right to due process since evidence is withheld from prisoners while they are held for lengthy periods without being charged, tried, or convicted.

Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes in an attempt to express their outrage at the detention. They have also been subjected to systematic torture, harassment and repression all through the years of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.

More than 4,500 Palestinian prisoners are currently held in about 17 Israeli jails. Over 450 detainees, including women and minors, are under the administrative detention. Rights groups describe Israel’s use of the detention as a “bankrupt tactic” and have long called on Israel to end its use.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

The Israel occupation’s navy today opened fire on Palestinian fishermen as they were sailing off the coast of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, forcing them to return to shore, according to local sources.

WAFA correspondent said the Israeli navy fired live bullets and water cannons towards fishermen who were sailing off Rafah shores, forcing them to leave to the shore.

Israeli naval forces and their gunboats have long been harassing Gaza fishermen, shooting at them, damaging their boats and making arrests. Sometimes fishermen were injured or killed during gunfire attacks.

In addition to attacking fishermen, Israel regularly bans boats from accessing the water and reduces the fishing zone which Palestinians from Gaza can access.

Israeli naval authorities have been enforcing a naval blockade on Gaza’s 40-kilometre-length coast since 2007.

The blockade has restricted fishing for the 3,700 registered fishermen in Gaza – the majority of whom live below the poverty line by shrinking the fishing zone from 25 nautical miles, down to only six to nine nautical miles, according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)