Day: 3 June 2022

Weather today is clear, dry and hot in daytime and warm in the night with a rise of temperature, which approaches 2°C above the seasonal average, according to the Palestinian Meteorological Department (PMD).

Light to moderate northwesterly wind blows. Sea waves are low to medium.

Temperature in the capital, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem is expected to reach a high of 29°C and a low of 19°C and in Ramallah and Hebron a high of 28°C and a low of 18°C. In Jericho, the Dead Sea, and the Jordan Valley temperature is expected to reach a high of 37°C and a low of 24°C, while it is expected to reach a high of 27°C and a low of 20°C in Gaza and the coastal areas.

Saturday’s temperature is set to slightly rise by 1°C as the hot and dry conditions continue to prevail in daytime and warm conditions in nighttime.

The same weather conditions are expected for Sunday.

Monday’s temperature is set to drop and become seasonal, paving the way to partly cloudy to clear and relatively hot to hot conditions in daytime and slightly to relatively cold conditions in the night, particularly in the mountains.

PMD warns people against direct exposure to the sun for long period, particularly from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and setting fire to dry grassy areas.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Israel’s navy Thursday evening chased and targeted fishing boats offshore the northern besieged Gaza Strip, according to WAFA correspondent.

He said that fishermen were sailing offshore As-Sudaniya and al-Waha areas when Israeli naval boats opened heavy gunfire, tear gas canisters and water hoses toward them, forcing the fishermen to flee for their safety.

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 (WAFA)

Armed Israeli settlers Thursday evening stormed Nabi Saleh village, northwest of Ramallah, to take down Palestine flags, according to local sources.

Bilal Tamimi, a local anti-settlement activist, said that a number of gun-toting settlers from the nearby encroaching colonial settlement of Halamish, also known as Neveh Tzuf, barged their way into the southern area of the village to take down a flag of Palestine that was recently raised on a pole atop a hill.

The settlers tried to reach the flag, but dozens of Palestinians rushed to the area and scuffled with the settlers, who fired several live rounds, forcing them to retreat.

Israeli soldiers stormed the village to protect the settlers and started firing live rounds, rubber-coated steel bullets, and gas bombs at the Palestinians.

Medical sources said the soldiers shot a young man with a rubber-coated steel bullet under his left eye. The casualty was rushed to a hospital in a stable condition.

The Israeli occupation authorities have seized large tracts of land belonging to Nabi Saleh and the nearby village of Deir Nidham for the construction of Halamish as well as for the construction of the settler-only by-pass Road 465.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Israeli settlers today set up a wodden pergolas on the lands of Khirbet al-Farisiya in the northern Jordan Valley, according to a human rights activist.

Aref Daraghmeh said that since the morning hours a group of settlers embarked on the construction of the pergolas in proximity to the tents of the villagers of Khirbet al-Farisiya locality, raising concerns about an imminent displacement of them.

In the past two months, settlers leveled large tracts of Palestinian farmlands and set up mobile homes in the area as a prelude to seize them and set up colonial agricultural enterprises.

The Jordan Valley, which is a fertile strip of land running west along the Jordan River, is home to about 65,000 Palestinians and makes up approximately 30% of the West Bank.

Since 1967, when the Israeli army occupied the West Bank, Israel has transferred at least 11,000 of its Jewish citizens to the Jordan Valley. Some of the settlements in which they live were built almost entirely on private Palestinian land.

The Israel military has also designated about 46 percent of the Jordan Valley as a closed military zone since the beginning of the occupation in June 1967, and has been utilizing the pretext of military drills to forcefully displace Palestinian families living there as part of a policy of ethnic cleansing and stifling Palestinian development in the area.

Approximately 6,200 Palestinians live in 38 communities in places earmarked for military use and have had to obtain permission from the Israeli authorities to enter and live in their communities.

In violation of international law, the Israeli military not only temporarily displaces the communities on a regular basis, but also confiscates their farmlands, demolishes their homes and infrastructure from time to time.

Besides undergoing temporary displacement, the Palestinian families living there face a myriad restrictions on access to resources and services. Meanwhile, Israel exploits the resources of the area and generates profit by allocating generous tracts of land and water resources for the benefit of settlers.

Israeli politicians have made it clear on several occasions that the highly strategic Jordan Valley would remain under their control in any eventuality.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

A Palestinian today was shot and injured by rubber-coated metal bullets and dozens of others suffocated as Israeli forces quelled an anti-settlement rally in the village of Beit Dajjan, east of Nablus, according to WAFA correspondent.

Clashes reportedly broke out after Israeli army forces attacked an anti-settlement rally that set off from the village of Beit Dajjan.

Forces attacked the rally with rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas canisters, shooting and injuring one of the participants. Another participant sustained burn injuries.

Ahmad Jibril, the head of the Emergency and Ambulance Department at the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) told WAFA that all injuries and suffocation cases were treated at the scene.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Several Palestinians suffocated today by tear gas fired by Israeli forces during clashes that broke out in the village of Qaryout to the south of Nablus, according to local sources.

Sources said that settlers stormed the village’s water spring, under the protection of Israeli forces, provoking residents and leading to clashes.

Israeli soldiers attacked the village residents with tear gas canisters and stun grenades after they attempted to confront the settlers, causing several suffocation cases among them.

The firing of tear gas canisters also caused nearby land to catch fire.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Dozens of Palestinians suffocated today evening by tear gas fired by Israeli military forces during clashes that erupted in the town of Beit Ummar to the north of Hebron, in the southern occupied West Bank, according to local activist Mohammed Awad.

He told WAFA that clashes broke out in the town of Beit Ummar, during which Israeli soldiers fired tear gas canisters and stun grenades toward the town’s residents and their homes.

Dozens were treated at the scene from tear-gas suffocation.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

US-Palestinian congresswoman Rashida Tlaib launched a petition calling on US president Joe Biden to reject efforts to allow Israelis to enter the United States without a visa.

The petition also calls on Biden to reject Israeli discriminatory measures that restrict Palestinian-Americans’ ability to travel to the West Bank, live, work, teach, study, and reunite with family members there.

The petition asks the Biden administration to ensure that US law is upheld, which prohibits Israel from joining the Visa Waiver Program while continuing to discriminate against US citizens on the basis of their ethnicity, national origin, religion, and political opinion, as has been documented extensively by the State Department.

This letter closes for signatures on Monday, June 6.

“Next month Israel will greatly restrict Palestinians’ ability to travel to the West Bank, live, work, teach, study, and reunite with family members there. These new procedures will even force US citizens to provide Israel with incredibly intrusive information about the personal details of anyone they plan to visit in the West Bank, and any property Palestinians stand to inherit,” reported Americans for Justice in Palestine Actions (AJP Action).

These new Israeli procedures issued by Israel’s Coordinating Office for Government Affairs in the Territories (COGAT) are even more outrageous considering that Israel desperately wants to join the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), which would allow visa-free entry of Israeli citizens to the US, it said.

However, this program requires that participating countries provide reciprocal, non-discriminatory treatment to US citizens. Instead of ending Israel’s discriminatory policies, these new procedures would increase the discrimination it metes out to US citizens based on their ethnicity, national origin, religion, and political opinions, it added.

Rashida Tlaib and other progressives are pushing back against these procedures and demanding information from the Biden administration to ensure that Israel reverses its discriminatory policies toward US citizens.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Palestinian health activist, Shatha Odeh, director of the Health Work Committees (HWC), who was arrested by Israel in Ramallah on July 7, 2021, was released today.

Odeh, 60, a health and human rights activist and a member of the Global Steering Council of the PHM, was arrested at her home in the early morning hours a few days after she defied an Israeli military order shutting down her HWC office for six months as a punitive measure for the office’s activism in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

افرجت سلطات الاحتلال الإسرائيلي، اليوم الجمعة، عن مديرة مؤسسة لجان العمل الصحي السابقة، الأسيرة الفلسطينية شذى عودة (61 عاماً) من مدينة رام الله.

وكان الاحتلال قد اعتقل الأسيرة عودة في 7 تموز/يوليو 2021، وأصدر بحقها حكماً في 12 أيار/مايو الفائت بالسجن لمدة 16 شهراً، ودفع تسعة آلاف دولار أمريكي، وخمس سنوات من وقف التنفيذ، بشرط عدم تقديم الخدمات الصحية.

ولاحقا؛ قررت ما تسمى “لجنة الثلث” في المحكمة المركزية بالناصرة، الإفراج المبكر عن الأسيرة عودة.

Source: Quds Press International News Agency

أطلقت عضو مجلس النوّاب الأميركي عن الحزب الديمقراطي رشيدة طليب عريضة تطالب الرئيس الأمريكي جو بايدن بعدم الموافقة على مساعي تتيح لمواطني دولة الاحتلال الإسرائيلي دخول الولايات المتحدة بدون تأشيرة.

كما تطالب العريضة، التي بدأت طليب في جمع التواقيع عليها، برفض الإجراءات الإسرائيلية التي تضع ضوابط على زيارة الأمريكيين من أصل فلسطيني لموطنهم.

وبحسب نشطاء أمريكيين، تحدثوا لوسائل إعلام، فإن إغلاق باب التوقيع على العريضة، سيكون يوم الاثنين المقبل (6 حزيران/يونيو)، ليصار إلى اعتمادها بصيغتها النهائية.

يشار إلى أن سلطات الاحتلال الإسرائيلي، تستعد لفرض إجراءات ضد الأمريكيين من أصل فلسطيني، بهدف إعاقة زيارة بلادهم ولم شملهم مع عوائلهم. إضافة إلى فرض قيود على أعداد الأجانب المسموح لهم الدراسة في الجامعات التابعة للسلطة الفلسطينية.

Source: Quds Press International News Agency