Day: 1 July 2022

Weather today is partly cloudy to clear and mainly hot in daytime and mild in daytime, particularly in the mountains, with no significant change in temperatures, which remain slightly unseasonably high, according to the Palestinian Meteorological Department (PMD).

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

Temperature in the capital, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem is expected to reach a high of 29°C and a low of 18°C and in Ramallah and Hebron a high of 28°C and a low of 17°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 30°C and a low of 22°C in Gaza and the coastal areas.

No significant change is expected in the weather conditions on Saturday.

Sunday’s temperature is set to rise and approach 2°C above the seasonal average, paving the way mainly clear and relatively hot to hot in daytime and mild conditions in the night.

Monday’s temperature is set to further slightly rise with mainly clear and relatively hot to hot conditions in daytime and mild conditions in the night.

Source: Palestine New & Info Agency

The US Presbyterian Church voted on Tuesday at its 225th General Assembly to declare Israel an “apartheid state” and designate a Nakba Remembrance Day within their calendars, The New Arab reported.

The church claims over 1.7 million members.

Its Committee on International Engagement passed a resolution recognizing that “Israel’s laws, policies and practices regarding the Palestinian people fulfill the international legal definition of apartheid”, according to a statement on the Presbyterian Church’s website.

The committee also called for an end to Israel’s siege of Gaza and affirmed the “right of all people to live and worship peacefully” in Jerusalem.

Out of 31 voting members, 28 agreed with the resolution, which states that Israel was practicing apartheid by “establishing two sets of laws, one for Israelis and one for Palestinians, which give preferential treatment to Israeli Jews and oppressive treatment to Palestinians”.

A resolution designating May 15 as the Palestinian Nakba Remembrance – commemorating the tragedy whereby over 750,000 Palestinians were expelled for the creation of Israel in 1948 – was also approved.

This received 31 affirmative votes and no negative votes within the committee.

It was passed “for the purpose of lifting prayer for peace” and “giving solidarity for those suffering under occupation”.

The resolution also stated that remembrance should be annually included in the Presbyterian Planning Calendar.

This resolution specifically calls on the US government to “exhort the government of Israel immediately to cease and desist all hostile actions that are defined as “collective punishment” under international law… [and] end the siege of Gaza”.

The Presbyterian Church’s resolutions echo human rights groups’ statements surrounding Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

Israel’s continued occupation of Palestinian land and its persecution and violence against Palestinians have been defined as apartheid by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

The UN’s Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories has also issued a report saying that Israel has imposed an ‘apartheid reality’ on Palestinians.

Source: Palestine New & Info Agency

Israeli forces today seized agricultural equipment and machinery from Al-Auja village, north of Jericho, according to local sources.

The General Supervisor of Al-Baidar Organization for Bedouin Rights, a human rights organization, Hassan Mleihat, said that an Israeli army force barged its way into the Jordan Valley village, and confiscated a tractor and sheep farm equipment belonging to two villagers.

Horizontally located 10 kilometers to the north of Jercho, al-Auja has a population of some 5,470 and occupies a total area of some 107,000 dunums.

Under the Oslo Accords, an agreement made 25 years ago that was supposed to last just five years towards a self-governing country alongside Israel, the Palestinian Authority was given control over a small pocket of land classified as Area A, which occupies 16,519 dunams and accounts for 15.5 percent of the village’s total area. In contrast, Israel maintains control over the remainder, classified as Area C.

Israel has severely restricted Palestinian access to water in the area, particularly that local water springs, including ‘Ein al-Auja (al-Auja spring), are located within Area C. Local water springs are susceptible to dryness as a result of Israel’s control over water. Israel have set up huge wells over the local hot water basins, reducing the quantity of water flowing from the spring and causing destruction to thousands of dunums of agricultural land irrigated by the water spring.

Israel has seized at least 2,257dunams belonging to the village for the construction of four nearby colonial settlements, 2,152 dunums for the construction of a military base, besides to more land for opening settler-only by-pass roads, pushing the villagers into a crowded enclave, a ghetto, surrounded by walls, settlements and military installations.

Source: Palestine New & Info Agency

Israeli troops today cracked down on an anti-expulsion rally in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, leading to dozens of injuries, according to a local activist.

Rateb Jbour, an anti-colonial-settlement activist, said that the heavily-armed soldiers brutally assaulted the participants in the rally in Ein al-Baida and al-Juwaya, two of the 19 hamlets making up Masafer Yatta, causing scores to suffocate from tear gas inhalation.

The soldiers, Jbour added, detained five international activists who partook in the rally, which was organized by the Committee in the Defense of Masafer Yatta, to confront the imminent forcible displacement of Palestinians living in the area.

The Alliance for Human Rights, a human rights organization, said that activists from all around nonviolently demonstrated in Ein Al Baida, holding placards reading “Save Masafer Yatta” and “End Israeli apartheid”. They were met with aggression by occupation forces.

Recently, Israel’s top court gave the army the green light to forcibly expel some 1,300 Palestinians living in twelve villages or hamlets making up the Masafer Yatta area, which relies heavily on animal husbandry as the main source of livelihood, marking one of the largest expulsions carried out by the State of Israel in recent decades.

Located in Area C of the West Bank, under full Israeli administrative and military control, the area has been subjected to repeated Israeli violations by settlers and soldiers targeting their main source of living – livestock.

It has been designated as a closed Israeli military zone for training since 1980s and accordingly referred to as Firing Zone 918.

Israeli violations against the area include demolition of animal barns, homes and residential structures. Issuance of construction permits by Israel to local Palestinians in the area is non-existent.

Source: Palestine New & Info Agency

Israeli occupation forces today attacked a deceased Palestinian woman’s funeral in the town of Beit Ummar, in the southern West Bank province of Hebron, according to local sources.

Mohammad Awad, a local Palestinian activist, told WAFA that soldiers attacked the coffin of the deceased Palestinian woman as well as the pallbearers as the funeral passed through the main entrance to the town.

He said the attacking soldiers fired lives shots into the air, kicked the pallbearers and fired teargas canisters and stun grenades in an attempt to disperse the funeral. No injuries were reported.

Source: Palestine New & Info Agency

At least 17 Palestinians were injured by Israeli occupation forces today during the weekly protest in the village of Kafr Qaddum against Israeli settlement construction, in the West Bank province of Qalqilia, local sources said.

Morad Shtewi, a local anti-occupation activist, told WAFA that Israeli soldiers attacked the protesters with rubber-coated rounds and tear gas canisters, injuring 17 of them by rubber-coated rounds and causing many cases of suffocation from gas inhalation.

All of the injured protesters were treated at the scene of the clashes.

For many years, villagers from Kafr Qaddum and neighboring villages have been holding weekly protests every Friday against illegal Israeli settlement construction.

Between 500,000 and 600,000 Israelis live in Jewish-only settlements across the occupied Palestinian Territories in violation of international law.

Source: Palestine New & Info Agency

Three Palestinians were injured by live Israeli bullets today and many others suffocated from teargas inhalation during confrontations with the Israeli occupation army in downtown Hebron, south of the occupied West Bank, according to local sources.

Witnesses told WAFA that Israeli soldiers fired live bullets and teargas canisters at Palestinian protesters during confrontations which erupted in Bab al-Zawiya neighborhood in the city, injuring three of them and causing many cases of suffocation from teargas inhalation.

Almost every Friday, the day of rest and worship in Palestine, confrontations break out between young Palestinian protesters and the Israeli occupation army in the neighborhood, located in the old city of Hebron.

The city of Hebron is home to more than 200,000 Palestinian and about 800 notoriously aggressive Israeli settlers who live in compounds heavily guarded by Israeli occupation army and Border Guards Police.

In 2019, Israel expelled the only international monitors protecting Hebron’s Palestinians from 800 heavily guarded settlers, one of whom committed the 1994 massacre that triggered their deployment.

Source: Palestine New & Info Agency