Day: 26 June 2022

Minister of Health Mai Alkaila said in a statement today that 1,350 cases of COVID-19 and 411 recoveries were registered in Palestine during the last past week. No deaths were recorded.

In her weekly report on the coronavirus pandemic, Alkaila said no deaths from COVID-19 were registered in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip or occupied East Jerusalem.

A total of 6,465 COVID-19 tests were conducted during the reporting period, with the exclusion of East Jerusalem. In the West Bank, 938 coronavirus tests came out positive, while the Gaza Strip had 12 new cases. East Jerusalem had 400 new cases.

The Health Minister said that in the West Bank, 17 patients of COVID-19 are currently hospitalized, of whom three are in intensive care.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Weather today in Palestine is partially cloudy and hot in most areas with no change in temperature, staying around the seasonal average, according to the Palestinian Meteorological Department (PMD).

Winds are westerly to northwesterly, moderate to active and sea waves are low to medium.

Temperature in the capital, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem is expected to reach a high of 28°C and a low of 18°C and in Ramallah and Hebron a high of 27°C and a low of 17°C. In Jericho, the Dead Sea, and the Jordan Valley temperature is expected to reach a high of 36°C and a low of 24°C, while it is expected to reach a high of 29°C and a low of 22°C in Gaza and the coastal areas.

Temperature is expected to rise on Monday and approach 2°C above the seasonal average.

No change in temperature is expected for Tuesday, which remains 2°C above the seasonal average, said the PMD.

Similar weather conditions are expected for Wednesday, with no significant change in temperature.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

The three Palestinian Arabic-language dailies focused today on the death of a 16-year-old Palestinian teenager by Israeli gunfire in the town of Silwad, northeast of Ramallah.

They said Mohammad Abdallah Hamed died on Friday-Saturday night of wounds sustained by Israeli occupation army gunfire. He was first taken away, wounded, by the occupation army before he was reported dead.

On a different subject, the dailies said the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) reaffirmed President Mahmoud Abbas as Chairman and President of the State of Palestine and the PLO Executive Committee.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida said in its main headline that the Central Committee of Fatah Movement convened last night in Ramallah, chaired by President Mahmoud Abbas, and affirmed that “our people will not stand idly by in the face of the Israeli occupation’s crimes that have crossed all red lines.”

It said the Central Committee of Fatah Movement affirmed that “the Israeli occupation will be held to account before international courts, on top of which is the ICC.”

Al-Ayyam also highlighted: “The Central Committee of Fatah: Peace can only be achieved though a political horizon ending the occupation, and our people will not stand idly by in the face of the Israeli crimes.”

Al-Quds also reported on the Fatah Central Committee meeting in Ramallah.

Al-Ayyam said a group of extremist Israeli settlers yesterday attacked Palestinian farmers working in a land near the town of Turmus-Ayya, northeast of Ramallah, injuring one farmer by a stone in his head and setting a vehicle on fire.

Al-Hayat al-Jadida said Palestinian detainee Ra’ed Rayyam remains on hunger strike for 80 days in a row today in protest of his detention without charge or trial by the Israeli occupation authorities.

Al-Quds said Ismail Haniyeh, the Head of the political bureau of Hamas, and Ziad Nakhaleh, the Secretary-General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, warned during a meeting in Beirut that the Israeli occupation was trying to “cut the arteries of communication between the Palestinian people and the rest of the Arab and Muslim world.”

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Israeli occupation forces arrested at least 17 Palestinians, including a father and son, last night and today during raids into several communities in the north, center and south of the occupied West Bank, according to local sources.

In Salfit province, in the center of the West Bank, an Israeli army force raided the village of Iskaka and arrested three Palestinians, including a father, Naeem Harb, 55, and his son, Feras, 25, after raiding and searching their homes.

The three are said to be close relatives to slain Ali Harb, a young Palestinian who was stabbed to death last week by an extremist Israeli settler near the village.

Meantime, Israeli occupation army and undercover forces stormed Nour Shams refugee camp, in the northern West Bank city of Tulkarm, and arrested three Palestinians after raiding and searching their homes.

During the raid, Israeli soldiers mounted the rooftop of several homes and blocked the main road in the camp to the Palestinian traffic.

In Nablus province, an Israeli army force broke into the village of Qaryut and arrested six Palestinians after raiding and searching their homes.

In the southern West Bank province of Hebron, forces stormed the town of Beit Ummar and arrested two young Palestinians, while in the district of Bethlehem, at least one Palestinian was reportedly arrested in the village of Al-Khader.

In occupied Jerusalem, Israeli police arrested Ahmad Al-Ghoul, a prominent Fatah activist, and a female activist identified as Suad Abu Rmuz.

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 an annoying daily experience under Israeli apartheid regime.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH) called today upon the international community to meet its obligations under international law and universal jurisdiction to hold Israel accountable for its systematic torture of Palestinian detainees.

In a report marking the International Day in Support of the Victims of Torture, MIFTAH said, “Despite the absolute prohibition of torture and ill-treatment under international law, Israeli occupation forces and prison authorities employ various torture and ill-treatment techniques against almost all Palestinian political prisoners and detainees, including women and children, leaving grave physical and psychological damage.”

The report named various forms of torture and ill-treatment used by the Israeli prison authorities against Palestinian political prisoners and detainees, such as prolonged stress positions, beatings, solitary confinement, sleep deprivation, deliberate medical negligence, physical and verbal sexual abuse, force-feeding, humiliation and threat on family members.

“Israel also extensively uses administrative detention to detain hundreds of Palestinians for indefinite periods of time with no charge or trial based on “secret charges”, something Palestinian human rights organization Addameer has identified as a cruel form of psychological torture,” added the report.

Since the beginning of its illegal occupation in 1967, Israel has detained over 1 million Palestinians. This policy of mass arbitrary arrest, the group added, is one of the tools that aim at maintaining Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid regime.

As of today, there are 4,700 political prisoners in Israeli jails, including 640 administrative detainees, 32 women and 170 children.

“Israeli prison authorities, occupation forces and interrogators feel emboldened to commit such acts of torture with full impunity knowing that neither the complicit Israeli legal system nor the international community will hold them accountable,” the report continued.

MIFTAH calls on the international community to support the investigation by the International Criminal Court into the Situation in Palestine, including the crime of torture, and to hold Israel to account for systematic torture of Palestinians.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

President Mahmoud Abbas today met with Jordanian King Abdullah II in Amman.

President Abbas arrived today in the Jordanian capital, Amman, where he had a closed meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

They discussed the latest political developments, bilateral relations, and issues of mutual concern.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Palestinian detainee Ra’ed Rayyan remains on hunger strike for 81 days in a row today demanding an end of his detention without charge or trial by the Israeli occupation authorities, according to the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission.

Hasan Abed Rabbo, a spokesman for the Commission, told WAFA that Rayyan, who’s currently held in the infamous Ramla Prison Hospital, is suffering from a severe loss of weight, lack vitamins and proteins, dizziness, frequent vomiting and pains all over his body, adding that his health condition is worsening with time.

On Thursday, the Israeli occupation authorities reneged on a promise not to renew the administrative detention of Khalil Awawda, 40, another Palestinian detainee who had been on hunger strike for 111 days.

Israel’s widely condemned policy of administrative detention allows the detention of Palestinians without charge or trial for renewable intervals usually ranging between three and six months based on undisclosed evidence that even a detainee’s lawyer is barred from viewing.

Currently, Israel is holding over 500 Palestinians in administrative detention, deemed illegal by international law, most of them former prisoners who spent years in prison for their resistance of the Israeli occupation.

Amnesty International, has described Israel’s administrative detention policy as a “cruel, unjust practice which helps maintain Israel’s system of apartheid against Palestinians.”

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Israeli occupation authorities today forced a Palestinian to demolish his own house in Wadi al-Joz neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem, under the pretext of being built without a permit.

WAFA correspondent said that Fareed Jaber was forced to tear down his 80-square-meter house in Wadi al-Joz neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem, where he lives with his disabled wife.

Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem say they are forced to build without permits because the Israeli municipality rarely issues permits to the city’s original Palestinian citizens as a way to reduce their number by forcing them to leave it and find accommodation and work elsewhere.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)