Latest News Headlines of Palestine
Israeli forces overnight and Thursday detained 18 Palestinians from several areas in the occupied West Bank, according to local sources.
The sources said that the Israeli forces detained seven Palestinians from Hebron, and seven others in Jenin.
Additionally, the forces detained two from the village of Silwad, in Ramallah, and two more from Nablus.
Source: Palestine News & Information Agency
A Palestinian today sustained wounds from Israeli army gunfire in Aida refugee camp, north of Bethlehem, according to security sources.
They said that a Palestinian sustained an injury after being shot by Israeli soldiers in the foot in the course of confrontations in the early morning hours in the camp.
The casualty, who remained unidentified, was rushed to a hospital for treatment.
Source: Palestine News & Information Agency
A number of American, English and French singers have withdrawn from the from Israel-partnered Pop Kultur Berlin festival due to the partnership with Berlin’s Cultural Department of the Israeli embassy.
American musical band Trustfall took it to Instagram to announce that they have been invited to the fesitval after gaining some clarity regarding Pop Kultur’s stance on the people of Palestine, they decided to withdraw from playing the festival.
Parisian musician Franky Gogo has cancelled his performance at the festival with reference to the BDS movement.
UK singer-songwriter Alewya also announced story via Instagram that she cancelled their performance as well, saying “Free Palestine. Every. F***ing. Day. Until it is done.”
Earlier, French singer Lafawndah has withdrawn from the from Israel-partnered Pop Kultur Berlin festival over its partnership with Israel, whom she called an “apartheid state.”
The singer, songwriter, producer and director took it to her Twitter official page to post a statement in which she announced that she agrees with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem on their reports in which they said that Israel is an apartehid state.
Source: Palestine News & Information Agency
The Construction Cost Index for residential buildings remained stable during July, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).
PCBS said in a press statement that the Construction Cost Index (CCI) for residential buildings remained stable at the level of 119.39 in the West Bank during July 2022 (Base year 2013=100).
At the level of major groups, the price of rental of equipment increased by 0.45%. While, the price of raw material slightly decreased by 0.04%. At the same time, labour costs and wages remained stable during July 2022 compared with the previous month.
Meanwhile, CCI for non-residential buildings in the West Bank reached 118.56 with a slight increase of 0.05% during July 2022 compared with June 2022 (base year 2013=100).
At the level of major groups, the price of rental of equipment increased by 0.41%, and the price of raw material slightly increased by 0.06%.While, labour costs and wages remained stable during July 2022 compared with the previous month.
Additionally, CCI for skeleton buildings in the West Bank reached 120.03 with a decrease of 0.68% during July 2022 compared with June 2022 (Base year 2013=100).
At the level of major groups, the price of raw materials decreased by 1.07%.While, the price of rental of equipment increased by 0.45%. At the same time, labour costs and wages remained stable during July 2022 compared with the previous month.
Highlighting the Road Cost Index (RCI), PCBS said that the overall RCI in the West Bank reached 115.59 with an increase of 0.75% during July 2022 compared with June 2022 (Base month December 2008=100).
At the level of major groups, the price of operating costs of equipment and maintenance increased by 3.08%, the price of rental of equipment increased by 1.08%, and the price of raw material increased by 0.81%. At the same time, labour costs and wages remained stable during July 2022 compared with the previous month.
Regarding the Water Networks Cost Index (WNCI), PCBS said that the overall WNCI reached 129.21 with a decrease of 0.32% in the West Bank during July 2022 compared with June 2022 (Base month January 2010=100).
Water Reservoirs Cost Index reached 122.86 with a decrease of 1.05% and WNCI reached 132.09 with a slight decrease of 0.01% during July 2022 compared with June 2022.
Meanwhile, the overall Sewage Networks Cost Index (SNCI) in the West Bank reached 114.22 with an increase of 0.28% during July 2022 compared with June 2022 (Base month January 2010=100).
Source: Palestine News & Information Agency
An autopsy conducted yesterday on the Palestinian youth Mohammad Shaham, 21, who was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers on August 15 at his home in Kufr Aqab neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem, showed that he was hit by three bullets to the head, chest and waist, today said attorney Midhat Dibeh announcing the preliminary results of the autopsy.
Dibeh told WAFA that the result of the autopsy that took place at Abu Kabir Institute in Jaffa in the presence of Palestinian pathologist Ashraf al-Qadi representing the family showed that the youth was hit by a bullet that penetrated his head and led to a large laceration in the skull.
He added that the second bullet penetrated his chest, heart, kidneys and spleen and exited from the left flank, and the third bullet penetrated his right waist.
Dibeh added that the preliminary results concluded that the result of death was due to a heart injury, severe bleeding, and a large laceration in his skull.
Shaham was shot dead at close range by a special Israeli army force after breaking into his family home in Kufr Aqab. The army withheld his body since then.
Dibeh pointed out that it’s expected a decision should be made today regarding whether the Israeli authorities will release Shaham’s body or not, stressing that if it is not handed over, he will go to the Israeli Supreme Court next Sunday to request that the body should be released at the request of his family.
Source: Palestine News & Information Agency
UN experts Wednesday condemned Israel’s escalating attacks against Palestinian civil society in the occupied West Bank, after the Israeli army broke into the offices of seven Palestinian human rights and humanitarian groups operating in Ramallah and shut them down last week.
“These actions amount to severe suppression of human rights defenders and are illegal and unacceptable,” the experts said, encouraging UN member states to take effective measures afforded by international law to put an end to these abuses.
In a dawn raid on 18 August, Israeli forces caused extensive damage to property and issued military orders imposing the closure of the seven Palestinian human rights groups’ offices. These actions follow Israel’s earlier designations and declarations of these organisations as “terrorist” and “unlawful”.
“These designations and declarations are illegitimate and unjustifiable and no concrete and credible evidence substantiating Israel’s allegations has ever been provided,” said the experts, who made the same observations in April 2022.
On 18 and 21 August, the Israeli security service Shin Bet interrogated the directors of three of the seven organisations, Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, Al-Haq and Defence for Children-Palestine. The experts noted with particular concern the alleged threats made by Shin Bet against them, including as reported in a public statement regarding Al-Haq’s director Shawan Jabarin.
“The Israeli government has taken multiple measures to undermine civil society organisations, restricting and repressing the legitimate activities of human rights defenders, which also has a disproportionate impact on women human rights defenders,” the experts said.
“The result is serious infringements of the rights to freedom of association, opinion and expression and the right to participate in public and cultural affairs, which Israel is fully obliged to fulfill, respect and protect,” the experts said. “Civil society is what is left to the Palestinians for their minimum protection. Shrinking this vital space and resource is illegal and immoral.”
The UN experts said information presented by Israel to justify its decision to blacklist human rights groups as terror organisations had failed to convince donor governments and international organisations. The experts noted that a review of Al Haq by the Anti-Fraud Office of the European Union (EU) confirmed that “no suspicions of irregularities and/or fraud affecting EU funds” had been found.
The experts called on the EU, all five permanent members of the Security Council, and all member states to take concrete measures to protect the Palestinian organizations and staff whose offices were raided and closed.
“Such protection depends on Israel revoking once and for all its designations and declarations of these organisations as “terrorist” and “unlawful”, the experts said. “The EU and its member states in particular must urgently use their leverage to stop these aggressive attacks on civil society, in line with their commitments and obligations to protect human rights defenders and civic space.”
“Once again, it is clear that statements condemning and regretting Israel’s unlawful measures are not sufficient – it is time that words are followed by swift and determined action by the international community to put diplomatic pressure on Israel to restore the rule of law, justice and human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory,” the experts said.
Source: Palestine News & Information Agency
Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh today met in his office in Ramallah with the Representative of the European Union to Palestine, Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff, and discussed with him the latest political developments and the upcoming donor’s meeting.
Shtayyeh discussed with Burgsdorff strengthening cooperation between Palestine and the European Union and supporting development projects, especially in the field of renewable energy, the water desalination plant in Gaza, and supplying the Gaza power plant with gas.
The two sides also discussed preparations for the donors’ conference planned to be held next month in New York and ways to make it a success to produce serious and real results.
Shtayyeh also briefed Burgsdorff on the progress in implementing administrative and financial reform by the Palestinian government.
Source: Palestine News & Information Agency
Over 100 days have passed since Palestinians everywhere lived one of the toughest moments in 2022 when veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was murdered in cold blood by Israeli gunfire in Jenin in May.
Abu Akleh’s importance comes from the fact that she was one of the most influential, prominent, and hard-working women in the field of journalism and media in Palestine who worked for over 25 years for Al-Jazeera, covering the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
On May 11, while covering an Israeli army assault in the northern occupied West Bank refugee camp of Jenin, Abu Akleh, 51, a Palestinian-American journalist from Jerusalem, was murdered by a bullet to the head fired by an Israeli sniper.
Ever since her killing, tributes have been pouring in her name as Palestinians do their best to keep her memory alive as Abu Akleh spent all of her life as a journalist advocating for Palestinians, exposing Israeli crimes to the world, and was even killed by an Israeli soldier while on duty.
Drawings, graffiti, images and murals in dedication of Abu Akleh with slogans of the phrases she said in her reports can easily be found anywhere in the West Bank cities and even in Arab areas inside Israel such as Nazareth, where activists set up a mural in tribute to the slain journalist.
Recently, the Ramallah Municipality named a central street after Abu Akleh. The street is located in front of Al-Jazeera office in Ramallah, where Abu Akleh worked, along with a wall mural. Her niece, Lina, said Shireen had a fear of heights, thus she didn’t report from the balcony of the office. As a result, she’d go downstairs and report live from that street now named after her.
In Nablus, precisely in the town of Deir Sharaf, Palestinians installed a memorial in dedication of Abu Akleh on the road leading to Jenin; where the reporter went to cover the Israeli military raid in the Jenin refugee camp, where she was shot dead by Israeli forces.
Many Palestinian universities such as Birzeit University, Al-Quds University and the Arab American University, launched scholarships and prizes in honor of Abu Akleh’s name.
Birzeit University announced the Shireen Abu Akleh Award for Media Excellence, an annual award for Palestinian media workers, aimed at encouraging creativity and ethnic media work that tells the story of Palestine.
A number of Palestinian families have named their new baby-born daughters after the iconic journalist. Some even chose Jenin to be the name of their daughters as well.
The Bani Suhaila Municipality, to the east of the city of Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, opened a square and named it after Abu Akleh.
Several Palestinian kids’ summer camps were named “Shireen” in several areas in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
In Bethlehem, an art exhibition titled “At a Near Distance” was launched in dedication to Abu Akleh.
Not long ago, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate premiered a film titled “Shireen” and announced the establishment of the Shireen Abu Akleh Global Organization to support female journalists around the world.
The Palestinian Ministry of Women Affairs hosted a ceremony held in commemoration of Abu Akleh. The event was sponsored by President Mahmoud Abbas, and authors are currently working on books that tell Abu Akleh’s life story.
Despite all the reports, investigations released by major US prestigious media publications, as well as the thorough investigation by Palestinian General Persecution, which all confirmed that the veteran journalist was killed by an armor-piercing projectile fired directly at her head by an Israeli sniper, the report released by the US administration still failed to accuse Israel of Abu Akleh’s killing. To this day, Israel still hasn’t launched its own investigation into Abu Akleh’s killing.
Abu Akleh’s family still demands justice for the reporter and even sent a letter to US President Joe Biden accusing his administration of intentionally undermining efforts toward justice and accountability for Abu Akleh’s killing.
“We, the family of Shireen Abu Akleh, write to express our grief, outrage and sense of betrayal concerning your administration’s abject response to the extrajudicial killing of our sister and aunt by Israeli forces on May 11, 2022, while on assignment in the occupied Palestinian city of Jenin in the West Bank,” wrote Abu Akleh’s brother Anton, and niece, Lina, in their letter to President Biden.
Whatever the position of the US or Israel, Abu Akleh will be always remembered by the Palestinians and the world at large for her work and dedication to reporting the truth despite the dangers accompanying that.
Source: Palestine News & Information Agency
Scores of Israeli settlers this evening stormed Jerusalem’s Old City and held a provocative march amid a heavy police deployment, according to WAFA correspondent.
Settlers, under the protection of Israeli police, toured the streets of the Old City of Jerusalem in a provocative manner, while performing Talmudic dances.
Israeli police forced Palestinian shop owners to close their shops in preparation for another tour later tonight.
Source: Palestine News & Information Agency
The number of Palestinian-owned structures demolished or seized in June 2022 is the highest monthly total this year, and represents a 48 percent increase compared with the monthly average of such structures demolished or seized since the beginning of the year, according to United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territory.
It said in a new report on demolitions and displacement in the occupied territories in June 2022, the Israeli authorities demolished, seized or forced people to demolish 96 Palestinian-owned structures across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, 20 of which had been provided as donor-funded humanitarian aid.
As a result, 79 people, including 36 children, were displaced, and the livelihoods or access to services of about 6,400 others were affected.
All but two of the structures were targeted for lacking building permits, which are nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain in Area C and East Jerusalem, and 84 of the structures were in Area C, 10 were in East Jerusalem, and two were punitively demolished in Area B, said the report.
It said that June also marked a record month for the issuance of demolition orders, particularly against EU-funded structures, with a total of 55 such structures placed at risk of demolition.
Of the 20 donor-funded structures demolished or seized in June 2022, eleven were funded by the EU or its Member States, for a total value of more than 18,600 euros; all of them were in Area C. Most of the destruction occurred in Ibziq in the Tubas governorate, an area designated by the Israeli authorities as a ‘firing zone’ for military training, and where Palestinian communities are at risk of forcible transfer.
Another 55 structures funded by the EU or its Member States, valued at more than 222,000 euros, received stop-work or demolition orders, the highest number of humanitarian aid structures placed at risk of demolition in a single month, since OCHA began recording the practice in Date. The majority of these structures were in Massafer Yatta, southern Hebron.
Twenty-eight of the 96 structures demolished or seized in June were in herding communities in Israeli-designated ‘firing zones.’ Nearly 30 percent of Area C is designated as such, and the 38 Palestinian communities in these training areas are among the most vulnerable in the West Bank, with limited access to essential services and basic infrastructure.
In the herding community of Ibziq, in the northern Jordan Valley, the Israeli authorities demolished 19 structures, five of which had been provided as humanitarian assistance by the EU or its Member States in response to previous demolitions, affecting 23 households, comprising 143 people, including 62 children.
In Khirbet al Fakheit and Mirzek, both in the Masafer Yatta area of southern Hebron, the Israeli authorities demolished a total of nine structures, all of which had been provided as donor-funded humanitarian aid in response to previous demolitions. As a result, 38 people, including 16 children, were displaced. On 4 May, the Israeli High Court of Justice approved the eviction of Palestinians living in Massafer Yatta, putting 1,144 people, including 569 children, at imminent risk of forcible transfer. On 23 June, the acting Humanitarian Coordinator called for a halt to demolitions, military activities and other increasingly coercive measures, so that residents can remain in their homes in safety and dignity.
In June, of the 96 structures targeted, two were seized without warning in Area C, preventing the owners from objecting in advance.
Additionally, in the Area C communities of Ni’lin and Bir Zeit (both in Ramallah) and Al Buweib (in Hebron), the Israeli authorities demolished a total of four structures based on Military Order 1797, which provides only a 96-hour notice and very limited grounds for legally challenging a demolition. This affected five households, comprising 24 people, including 12 children. A total of 201 Palestinian-owned structures have been demolished based on this order, since it came into effect in July 2019.
Ten structures, including five homes, were demolished in East Jerusalem: eight were demolished by the Jerusalem Municipality and two by the owners, following the issuance of demolition orders.
In the first six months of 2022, the proportion of structures demolished by their owners in East Jerusalem, following the issuance of demolition orders, reached 44 percent, up from an average of 35 percent in the previous five years. This is attributed to new Israeli legislation, which limits the authority of Israeli courts to intervene and enables the Jerusalem Municipality to exert pressure on families to demolish their properties themselves.
Source: Palestine News & Information Agency