Day: 9 June 2022

Weather today in Palestine is hot to very and dry during the day with a rise in temperature, which becomes 3°C above the seasonal average, according to the Palestinian Meteorological Department (PMD).

Winds are southwesterly to northwesterly and light to moderate, while sea waves are low.

Hot to very hot and dry conditions are expected to continue on Friday, with another rise in temperature, approaching 4°C below the seasonal average, and 7°C on Saturday.

Temperature is expected to significantly drop on Sunday.

PMD warned against direct exposure to the sun especially during peak hours from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm, and setting fire to dry grassy areas.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Israeli authorities Thursday demolished a house consisting of four apartments, which is under construction, in the city of Beit Jala, west of Bethlehem.

Wissam Zarina, son of the owner of the house, told WAFA that a large force of the occupation army, accompanied by bulldozers, stormed the Bir Aouneh area in Beit Jala, and demolished their one-story house, which includes four apartments, with a total area of 400 square meters, under the pretext of not having a permit.

He noted that this is the second time Israeli authorities demolish their house as they first demolished their six-storey house in the same area.

It is noteworthy that the occupation forces demolished more than once the houses belonging to the Zarina family in the Bir Aouneh area, in addition to other houses, and besides issuing demolition and construction halt notices.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

News about the speech that the President Mahmoud Abbas delivered on al-Aqsa mosque hit the front pages of the three Arabic Palestinian dailies on Sunday.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida, al-Ayyam and al-Quds said that President Mahmoud Abbas stressed that Jerusalem, the capital of the state of Palestine, is not for sale and that all Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem are Palestinian. In a speech delivered over the phone at the conference “Property Documentation and the Historical Status of the Holy Al-Aqsa Mosque”, which is being held at the headquarters of the Red Crescent Society in the city of al-Bireh, President Abbas stressed that “we will not allow nor accept any changes to this legal and historical status quo (of Al-Aqsa Mosque), regardless of the circumstances.”

The dailies said that staff from the West Jerusalem Israeli municipality conducted measurements on the four-storey residential building at risk of imminent demolition in Wadi Qaddoum area in the Silwan neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem.

The residents of the building received a week ago a notice from the municipality ordering them to evacuate the building in preparation to demolish it under the pretext of being built without a permit.

Al-Ayyam said that The White House said that ‘we affirm our demand for a thorough and transparent investigation into the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, and we want those responsible for her killing to be held.’

Israel refused a US proposal last week for a regional summit with the Palestinian Authority, as reported in al-Ayyam and al-Quds.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Israeli settlers today torched the wheat crops of Qusra town, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, according to a local activist.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors Israeli colonial settlement activities in the northern West Bank, said that a group of settlers set fire to the wheat crops belonging to the town farmers.

He added that firefighters rushed to the scene and managed to put out the blaze with the help of the villagers while warning of intensive settler attacks, particularly in the Nablus countryside, amid attempts to set up new colonial settlement outposts.

Two days ago, Israeli soldiers and officers of the so-called “Civil Adminitration” prevented Palestinians from working on their lands in the village, purportedly for being classified as Area C.

The village has been a scene of frequent Israeli military and settler attacks, including the installation of makeshift homes at the villagers’ land as a means for colonial settlement expansion, attacking farmers on their way to their olive groves, blocking agricultural roads, leveling lands and serving stop-construction orders.

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

It includes arsons of property and mosques, stone-throwing, uprooting of crops and olive trees, attacks on vulnerable homes, among others.

The number of settlers living in Jewish-only colonial settlements across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in violation of international law has jumped to over 700,000 and colonial settlement expansion has tripled since the signing of Oslo Accords in 1993.

Israel’s nation-state law, passed in July 2018, enshrines Jewish supremacy, and states that building and strengthening the colonial settlements is a “national interest.”

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Israeli forces Thursday dawn shoot and injured four Palestinians in the northern West Bank districts of Nablus and Jenin, according to security sources.

They said that Israeli military vehicles stormed Nablus city, where the soldiers ransacked several houses.

During the ensuing confrontations, the heavily-armed soldiers opened fire towards local youths, wounding one by a live round in the leg.

Meanwhile, a number of military vehicles and a bulldozer stormed Jenin refugee camp and city as snipers positioned themselves on rooftops of residential buildings, triggering confrontations.

The soldiers fired live ammunition, tear gas canisters and stun grenades, hitting three young men by live rounds in the shoulder and foot.

The casualty was rushed to hospitals for treatment.

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 (WAFA)

At least four Palestinians were arrested by the Israeli occupation forces this evening in occupied East Jerusalem, according to local sources.

Witnesses told WAFA that Israeli police arrested Aziz and Wadi Elian, Hamza Hammad and Iyas Abu Salb.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Israeli forces today gunned down a Palestinian in Halhul town, north of Hebron, according to a statement issued by the Health Ministry.

The statement said that Mahmoud Fayez Abu Ayhour, 27, succumbed to his critical wounds he sustained after being shot by Israeli soldiers in the course of confrontations in the southern West Bank town.

The statement added that “the bullet penetrated Abu Aihoor’s abdomen, diaphragm and aorta, and all the attempts by the medical staff to save his life did not succeed.”

The confrontations erupted when a sizable Israeli military force stormed the town, blocked off the main street, ransacked and closed down a local money exchange shop amid intense shooting of gunfire, tear gas canisters and concussion grenades.

The confrontations resulted in three live fire injuries and two rubber-coated steel injuries.

All the casualties were rushed to a hospital for treatment. The medical condition of each one of them remains unclear.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Big Thief, an American indie rock band, has pulled out of two upcoming live shows in the occupying state of Israel and apologized for the “recklessness and naivete” of a statement they had previously shared defending the booking.

The band’s decision to play two shows in Tel Aviv in July have been the subject of a heated controversy over the weekend with multiple social media users calling the band out for seemingly ignoring the BDS cultural boycott of Israel.

In a statement shared today, Big Thief walked back on its previous decision and confirmed it will no longer be playing in Israel next month. “Our intent in wanting to play the shows in Tel Aviv, where Max was born, raised, and currently lives, stemmed from a simple belief that music can heal,” the band said.

“We now recognize that the shows we had booked do not honor that sentiment.” They went on to add: “We oppose the illegal occupation and the systematic oppression of the Palestinian people.”

The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) has welcomed the band’s decision, saying: “We salute Big Thief’s courage and their willingness to listen to the oppressed.”

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

A Palestinian young man sustained a critical injury by Israeli gunfire this evening during confrontations with the Israeli occupation forces in the town of Jayyus, to the east of Qalqilia in the north of the occupied West Bank, according to witnesses.

They told WAFA that a young man was shot by a live bullet in his abdomen during the confrontations, and was rushed to nearby Darwish Nazzal Public Hospital for medical treatment. His condition there was described as critical.

The Israeli occupation forces also confiscated a Palestinian-owned bulldozer during the raid of the town, according to local sources.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

A group of Israeli settlers today tried to kidnap a Palestinian child near the town of Yatta, to the south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, while another group attacked the memorial of martyr Sheikh Suleiman Al-Hathlin, east of the town, according to witnesses.

Ratib al-Jabour, the coordinator of the National Committee for the Resistance of the Apartheid Wall and Settlements in the area, told WAFA that a large group of rampaging settlers gathered near the town, attacked Palestinian citizens and tried to kidnap a child, but where fiercely confronted and thwarted by residents.

Jabour added that a group of settlers from the settlements of Ma’on and Karmiel, which are built on Palestinian citizens’ lands in Masafer Yatta area, brought bulldozers and embarked on the construction of a settler-only road east of the town.

Meantime, the coordinator of the Protection and Resilience Committees in Masafer Yatta, Fuad Al-Amour, told WAFA that Israeli settlers destroyed the memorial of Palestinan martyr Sheikh Suleiman Al-Hathlin, which was built by the families of Masafer Yatta and a number of foreign activists near the entrance to the village of Umm Al-Khair, east of Yatta, in honor of the the martyr.

Al-Hathalin dead on January 17 from a serious wound he sustained at the entrance to the village of Umm al-Khair in Masafer Yatta area, after being run over by an Israeli police vehicle on January 5.

Israeli settler violence is commonplace across the occupied West Bank, and is rarely prosecuted by the Israeli occupation authorities.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)