Day: 5 July 2022

A 32-year-old man from the Gaza Strip was last night beaten to death by Israeli soldiers near the separation barrier in the northern West Bank city of Tulkarm, according to the family of the deceased.

WAFA correspondent said the family of Ahmad Harb Ayyad, from the Zaitoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, accused the Israeli soldiers of beating its son to death as he tried to cross the barrier through a hole to reach his workplace inside Israel.

The family said the Israeli army handed it last night the body of its son at the Beit Hanoun/Erez crossing in the north of the Gaza Strip and was later buried at a cemetery in his neighborhood.

Reports said the soldiers also opened fire and injured another Palestinian man in the same area near the separation barrier.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned in a statement today the killing of Ayyad and held the Israeli government fully and directly responsible for what it described as a crime.

It called on the United Nations and the international community to provide protection to the Palestinian people in the occupied territories who are being killed every day by government-sanctioned army acts.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

The Israeli occupation forces today razed six dunums of privately-owned Palestinian land located near a checkpoint in the town of Nilin, west of Ramallah, according to local sources.

They told WAFA that army bulldozers razed the land owned by three brothers from Nilin after declaring it a military area.

The land, said the sources, is located near an army-manned checkpoint where around 30,000 Palestinians cross every day to reach their workplaces inside Israel.

The Israeli army, meanwhile, prevented dozens of workers from crossing the checkpoint and forced them to return home.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Palestinian administrative detainee Khalil Awawda, 40, resumed his open-ended hunger strike on Saturday after Israel reneged on a promise to release him at the end of his current detention period and instead renewed his detention by four more months, today said the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Commission.

Commission spokesman Hasan Abed Rabbo told WAFA that Awawda, from the southern West Bank town of Idna and a father of four children, resumed his hunger strike, which he suspended on June 21 after 111 days of fast after he was promised that his administrative detention without charge or trial would not be renewed.

Abed Rabbo voiced concern over Awawda’s health, particularly after his long fast that led to a serious deterioration in his health.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

In its efforts to keep control over the Palestinian water resources in the occupied territories, Israeli forces today destroyed water spring pipelines in Duma village, south of Nablus city, according to a local official.

Head of Duma village council, Suleiman Dawabsheh, said that Israeli forces escorted a bulldozer to Duma spring, south of the village, where the heavy machinery tore down the water pipelines the village council has set up at the spring in addition to a fence built around it.

He added that the spring is the main source of water herders use for their cattle in the village, which has been suffering from serious water shortages in light of Israeli control over all water resources in the occupied territories.

He pointed out that the Israeli army had notified the village council of its intention to stop restoration works at the site, prompting it to raise the issue at Israeli courts, but to no avail.

Rights groups have long reported that Israel’s control of water resources in the occupied West Bank has led to routine water shortages in Palestinian communities.

It has often been pointed out that Israel’s restrictions in the Palestinian territory force Palestinians to buy water directly from Israel while preventing Palestinians from constructing their own wells or other projects to enhance water access.

Most of the Palestinian territory’s land reserves are located in Area C – the more than 60 percent of the West Bank under full Israeli military control – where any Palestinian development is mostly prohibited by Israel. In addition, other restrictions, such as barring Palestinians from drilling wells deeper than 140 meters, prevents Palestinians from adequately accessing natural water sources.

As a result of these restrictions, many Palestinian villages in Area C and B – where Israel retains control over security matters – are forced to buy water from Israel’s national Mekorot water company.

Israelis, including settlers, have access to 300 liters of water per day, according to water rights NGO coalition EWASH, while the West Bank average is around 70 liters, well below the World Health Organization’s recommended minimum of 100 liters per day for basic sanitation, hygiene and drinking.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

The Israeli human rights organization, B’Tselem, said yesterday that the Israeli army killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh should be looked at as a crime, not simply a “result of tragic circumstances.”

“All investigations published so far conclude that Israel is responsible for the killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh,” said B’Tselem in reaction to a US report issued yesterday that absolved Israel of killing Abu Akleh. “It is not clear on what grounds does the US State Department seek to dismiss her killing as ‘the result of tragic circumstances’ and not as a crime for which those responsible should be held to account.”

B’Tselem said the policy of killing Palestinians in the occupied territories is an organized whitewash.

“As far as Israel is concerned, its policy regarding the killing of Palestinians has never been anything other than an organized whitewash meant to enable the continuation of the killings with impunity, and it is no different when it comes to a US citizen as in the current case.”

It added: “The odds that those responsible for the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh will be held to account are all but nonexistent. Meanwhile, Israel’s international impunity remains unchallenged.”

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Israeli forces today evening set up a military checkpoint on Jenin-Nablus Road, near the village of Silet al-Daher in the northern West Bank, hampering the movement of residents, according to security sources.

Sources told WAFA that Israeli forces stationed at the entrance to the illegal Israeli evacuated settlement of Homesh placed a flying checkpoint on the main road connecting Nablus and Jenin, stopping Palestinian-registered vehicles, and interrogating and checking passengers’ identity cards, causing a heavy traffic jam.

Israeli forces also intensified their military presence in the vicinity of several nearby villages.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Israeli occupation forces today bulldozed agricultural land owned by a Palestinian resident in the village of Burin to the south of Hebron, according to local activist Rateb al-Jabour.

The coordinator of the anti-wall and settlement committees in southern Hebron, Rateb al-Jabour told WAFA that Israeli forces bulldozed land planted with olive trees, destroying at least 50 trees.

Forces also destroyed stone retaining walls, covering an area of 1000 square meters.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)