Month: July 2022

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

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riyad Al-Maliki briefed today his Spanish counterpart Jose Manuel Albares on the latest political developments in occupied Palestine, including the Israeli violations and crimes against the Palestinian people.

During his meeting with his Spanish counterpart at the Viana Palace, Al-Maliki stressed the need for the international community to demand the new interim Israeli government to stop its settlement policy and clearly abide by the two-state solution.

Al-Maliki pointed out that the Madrid Conference was a historic milestone in the early stages of the peace process, but it was Israel, the occupying power, that made this peace out of reach due to the policy of creating a fait accompli on the ground through settlement construction, land confiscation, killing and arbitrary arrest of Palestinians.

Meantime, Albares affirmed Spain’s firm position in support of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, and its strong commitment to the two-state solution. He pointed out that Spain will continue this support Palestine in all areas, and will always work alone or through its partners to advance the peace process.

Source: Palestine New & Info Agency

Israeli occupation forces arrested three Palestinians this evening in the town of Burqa, in the northern occupied West Bank province of Nablus, according to local sources.

Ghassan Daghlas, a local Palestinian activist, told WAFA that two of the three detainees were a father, Haitham Hajja, and his son, Mo’men. The three were taken to an unknown destination.

Source: Palestine New & Info Agency