Month: August 2022

The heatwave that affected Palestine in the last days is expected to continue today despite a slight drop in temperature, which remains 5°C above the seasonal average, according to the Palestinian Meteorological Department (PMD).

Winds are northeasterly to northwesterly, light to moderate, and sea waves are low.

Temperature in the capital, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem is expected to reach a high of 35°C and a low of 21°C and in Ramallah and Hebron a high of 34°C and a low of 20°C. In Jericho, the Dead Sea, and the Jordan Valley temperature is expected to reach a high of 43°C and a low of 27°C, while it is expected to reach a high of 32°C and a low of 25°C in Gaza and the coastal areas.

No change in temperature or weather conditions is expected tomorrow, Thursday.

However, a further drop in temperature is expected on Friday but remains 4°C above the seasonal average.

Another drop in temperature is expected on Saturday, which remains 3°C above the seasonal average, said the PMD, warning people against direct exposure to the sun for long period, especially from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and setting fire to dry grassy areas.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Israeli army raids into several towns in the West Bank, mainly the town of Rujeeb in the Nablus governorate, and the dozens of injuries caused by Israeli army gunfire were highlighted on the front page of the three Palestinian Arabic dailies published today.

Al-Ayyam and al-Hayat al-Jadida dailies highlighted the raids and said that the army surrounded a house in Rujeeb and opened heavy fire at it for five hours in order to get people inside to turn themselves in, which they did and were arrested.

In the process, Palestinians clashed with the soldiers throwing rocks at them and the soldiers responded by opening fire at the Palestinians injuring dozens from live bullets and tear gas inhalation.

The third daily, al-Quds, opted to highlight as its main front-page story the decision of the Palestinian freedom fighters incarcerated in Israel to go on a hunger strike to demand implementation by the Israel Prison Services of their rights.

It said the Israeli High Court has, once again, rejected an appeal for the release of Palestinian administrative detainee Khalil Awawda, who has been on hunger strike for six months demanding his freedom.

The other two dailies also reported on these two topics.

Meanwhile, al-Hayat al-Jadida said President Mahmoud Abbas expressed support for the security and stability in Iraq.

It also reported on the 40th year anniversary of the Israeli invasion of Beirut.

Al-Ayyam said in a report by its correspondent in Jerusalem that a US working group is studying the possibility of having a Palestinian presence at the al-Karama/King Hussein/Allenby bridge crossing between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Jordan. It said US State Department spokesman Ned Price did not give details in his daily press briefing on this issue.

Al-Quds said on the issue of the bridge crossing that the Jordanian Minister of Information Faysal al-Shboul told it in a special interview that the crisis on the crossing was caused by Israel for refusing to increase the operating hours despite the large number of Palestinians traveling in and out of the West Bank, and that the issue of Ramon airport is fabricated.

It also quoted a Jordanian lawmaker questioning his government about stopping work on the Jordan Valley airport.

The paper also said that Israel is expected to approve next week the construction of hundreds of settlement units in occupied Jerusalem.

Al-Ayyam said that after 172 sessions, an Israeli court sentenced Palestinian aid worker Mohammad Halabi to 12 years in prison without any evidence to prove the allegations against him.

It said the UN Human Right Commissioner criticized Israel for not providing visas to UN workers.

It also quoted the International Monetary Fund saying huge challenges face the Palestinian economy.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Israeli occupation forces today detained 11 Palestinians, including an injured youth, from various parts of the occupied territories, according to local and security sources.

They said that Israeli forces stormed the town of Silwad, near Ramallah, and detained four young men, including a 24-year-old youth whom they shot by live fire in his feet.

During the ensuing confrontations, the soldiers excessively fired live rounds, gas bombs, and concussion grenades toward the residents’ houses, and ransacked several houses, including the barbershop of one of the detainees.

In Salfit district, the sources confirmed a raid in Kifl Haris village, west of the city, leading to the detention of three others.

In Jerusalem, the heavily-armed police rounded up one of the Waqf-appointed guards of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

In the southern West Bank, the soldiers conducted a raid in Idna town, west of Hebron, resulting in the detention of another.

During the raid, the soldiers smashed the solar panels of a house.

They also detained two brothers from the Hebron city neighborhood of Jabal al-Rahma.

Also in the Hebron district, confrontations broke out as a military force barged its way into Beit Ummar town, north of the city.

The soldiers showered local youths attempting to block their passage by rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas canisters and stun grenades, hitting one by a round and causing dozens of others to suffocate.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

The European Union office in Jerusalem said after attending the trial of Palestinian aid worker Mohammad Halabi in an Israeli court that the judicial process was incompatible with international fair trial standards.

“Alongside member states, likeminded countries and the UN, the EU attended today (yesterday) the court sentencing of Mohammad Halabi. Regret the outcome of a judicial process, which has been incompatible with international fair trial standards,” the EU said in a tweet, adding that it will follow Halabi’s appeal before the Israeli Supreme Court closely.

The Beersheba district court in southern Israel yesterday sentenced Mohammad Halabi, director of World Vision’s Gaza office who has been on trial for six years over alleged “terror” financing charges based on secret evidence, to 12 years of imprisonment.

World Vision has also condemned the sentencing in a statement, as well as several other international organizations.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Palestinian administrative detainee Khalil Awawdeh is suffering from an acute case of dyspnea and severe problems in all his vitals due to his continued hunger strike. His time is rapidly running out, Euro-Med Monitor said in a statement.

Awawdeh’s health condition has become more critical than ever as he has been on hunger strike since 3 March (more than 170 days) in protest of the Israeli authorities’ refusal to release him.

The detainee emphasized that his continued detention, given his deteriorating health, means he is sentenced to a slow death.

Awawdeh’s case requires immediate intervention from all parties involved to preserve his life and end his ongoing suffering since his administrative detention on 27 December 2021, said Euro-Med.

The Israeli Supreme Court yesterday rejected an appeal by Awawdeh’s lawyer to release him, based on a medical report documenting his significant deterioration in recent days. Currently, Awawdeh is kept at the Israeli Assaf Harofeh hospital.

The wife of Awawdeh told the Euro-Med Monitor team that her husband has major breathing problems, a sharp drop in hemoglobin and blood sugar levels, and he is unable to speak, walk, or move his limbs. Moreover, he suffers from a significant decline in awareness and cognition and severe weight loss.

Following his arrest last year, an Israeli court issued a six-month administrative detention order against Awawdeh, which was later extended for another four months.

On 19 August, an Israeli court froze the administrative detention order against him but refused to release him, meaning he could be transferred from the hospital back to the prison if his health improves.

Khalil Awawdeh, 40, is from Idna in the Hebron governorate in the southern West Bank. He has four daughters, the oldest of whom is nine years old and the youngest is one and a half.

Following a widely practiced policy of administrative detention in the Palestinian territories, Israeli authorities arbitrarily confiscate the freedom of Palestinian civilians. As of August, the number of administrative detainees has surpassed 720.

Administrative detainees are held for months or years without indictment, and lawyers are frequently denied access to the evidence the court relies on for extending detention orders. The evidence is allegedly classified intelligence information, in blatant violation of fair trial guarantees and conditions.

Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by Israel in 1991, prohibits arbitrary arrest or detention and states, “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are established by law.”

Nour Olwan, Euro-Med Monitor’s Chief Media Officer, said, “The suffering of Palestinian detainee Khalil Awawdeh from severe breathing difficulties clearly indicates that his life could end at any moment, and warns of the need to take all possible measures to save his life as soon as possible.”

“It appears that the Israeli authorities are purposefully prolonging Awawdeh’s suffering, even if it puts his life in danger, to thwart attempts to rebel against the policy of administrative detention and discourage Palestinian detainees from carrying out protests,” she added.

Olwan warned that if urgent steps to save Awawdeh’s life are not taken, he will join the list of about 228 other Palestinians who have died in Israeli prisons since 1967, more than 70 of whom died as a result of health deterioration and the policy of medical neglect in prisons.

Israeli authorities must immediately release Palestinian detainee Khalil Awawdeh, end his administrative detention, and provide him with all necessary medical care in a manner that ensures his safety and eliminates the danger to his life, demanded Euro-Med.

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention must actively pursue the issue of administrative detention in Palestinian territories, using all available means to pressure Israel to end this arbitrary policy, it added.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Israeli occupation forces today uprooted scores of olive trees and demolished two agricultural structures in Tuqu town, east of Bethlehem, according to a municipal source.

The town mayor, Mousa al-Shaer, said that Israeli forces escorted a bulldozer into the eastern wilderness, known in Arabic as al-Bariyah al-Sharqiya, on the edge of the southern West Bank town, where the heavy machinery uprooted 50 olive trees and knocked down two agricultural shacks belonging to two local residents purportedly for being located in Area C, which makes up more than 60 percent of the area of the West Bank and is under total Israeli army control.

Also in Tuqu, the mayor said the Israeli army today demolished a 150-square-meter house that was still in the construction stage under the pretext it was built without a permit.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

The Israeli military this morning infiltrated Gaza’s border east of Khan Yunis city and leveled a tract of farmland, according to WAFA correspondent.

He said that a military convoy of three tanks and four bulldozers advanced several dozens of meters into al-Fakhari area, east of the city in the southern besieged enclave, and razed a tract of farmland and set up earth mounds.

Fourteen years following the Israeli “disengagement” from Gaza, Israel still maintains a tight siege on the Gaza Strip and controls its borders and access to the sea.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Palestinian residents in the town of Urif to the south of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, fended off today an attack by Israeli settlers against the town, according to a local official.

Ghassan Daghlas, an official in charge of the settlements file in the northern West Bank, said residents managed to fend off an attack carried out against the outskirts of the town by a group of Israeli settlers from the nearby illegal settlement of Yitzhar. No injuries were reported.

Settlers’ violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.

“Investigations, if even opened, are usually closed with no action taken against perpetrators as part of an undeclared policy of leniency. The long-term effect of this violence is the dispossession of Palestinians from increasing parts of the West Bank, making it easier for Israel to take over land and resources,” said the Israeli information center for human rights in occupied territories, B’Tselem.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Some 30 organizations have called for the immediate release of the administratively detained Palestinian-French citizen Salah Hammouri, demanding that Israel rescind the decision to revoke his Jerusalem residency based on “secret evidence”.

“We, the undersigned organizations, unions, and institutions, condemn and reject the arbitrary measures taken by the Israeli occupation forces against human rights defender and lawyer at Addameer, violating its obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law,” they said in the petition.

“For many years, Salah Hammouri has been subjected to a continuous harassment campaign by the occupation forces due to his human rights activism. Mr. Hammouri has spent nine years in Israeli occupation prisons as a result of over six arrests. The longest stretch he spent in an occupation prison was seven continuous years between 2005 and 2011 after he was forced to choose between being deported to France for 15 years or imprisoned for 7. Since the beginning of March 2022, the Israeli occupation forces have held Mr. Hammouri in their prisons without charge under the administrative detention system, based on a secret file that even his lawyer is not permitted to view. These actions make his detention arbitrary and illegal under international law,” they said.

“The occupation forces have taken several additional acts against Mr. Hammouri in an attempt to deport him from Jerusalem. Most recently, in October 2021, they issued a decision to revoke his Jerusalem residency for charges of not showing loyalty to the State of Israel, which was also based on ‘secret evidence.’ Thereafter, they have tried to enforce the decision by attempting to deport him to France; where he holds citizenship. Mr. Hammouri’s wife and children currently reside in France because the occupation authorities have prevented them from entering the occupied territories, thus depriving him of his right to have his family reside with him.

“When Mr. Hammouri is released, he fears he will be forcibly removed and deported from his home city of Jerusalem. The Israeli Supreme Court is scheduled to hear Mr. Hammouri’s residency revocation case in February 2023.”

The organizations said Hammouri was targeted by Israel “because he is a human rights defender and a lawyer for Palestinian prisoners. This means that Israel is waging a war against human rights defenders, both as individuals and groups, completing what it started by labeling six Palestinian human rights organizations as terrorist groups including Addameer where Mr. Hammouri works. In fact, Israel previously personally targeted Mr. Hammouri for being a human rights worker by hacking his mobile phone and installing Pegasus software developed by Israeli cybersecurity company NSO. Through these practices, Israel seeks to convey a message to all peaceful activists and human rights defenders that they have no immunity and can be subjected to family separation, arbitrary detention, and even expulsion from the country.”

In addition, said the organizations, “although Mr. Hammouri holds French citizenship, the French government has not played any effective role in pressing for his release from this arbitrary detention. The Israeli government recently placed Mr. Hammouri in a collective isolation confinement as a punishment for sending a letter to French President Manuel Macron asking him to help with his release. Since then, the French government has not taken any public action to assist him such as condemning the detention or calling on the Israeli occupation authorities to immediately release him. Instead, they merely visited him and asked the Israeli government to ‘respect his rights.’ These actions are clearly insufficient, not in line with the usual response of French authorities in cases of arbitrary detention of French citizens and do not demonstrate a strong enough political will to hold the Israeli authorities accountable.”

Accordingly, the organizations, unions, institutions, and human rights bodies that have signed this statement, said they “reject the harassment and arbitrary violations the Israeli occupation forces are subjecting Salah Hammouri to as punishment for his human rights work and to discourage him, and all human rights defenders, from continuing to defend Palestinians and criticize Israeli violations.”

They condemned and rejected the practice of administrative detention, emphasizing its violation of provisions of international law, thus calling for the immediate release of all administrative detainees, including Salah Hammouri, condemned and rejected the Israeli decision to revoke Hammouri’s Jerusalem residency, demanded that the French government act effectively and quickly to help secure the release of French citizen Salah Hammouri, denounce and prevent the revocation of his residency and his forced deportation from Jerusalem, and compensate him for the human rights violations he was subjected to.

They also demanded that the International Criminal Court move the investigation file as soon as possible and prosecute Israel for its grave violations of international humanitarian and criminal law, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity, called on the United Nations, especially the General Assembly, the Security Council, and the Human Rights Council, to take effective steps to stop Israel’s practices of revoking Jerusalem residencies, emptying the city of its Arab residents, and changing its demographic composition in contravention of the existing legal status, demanded that world governments activate universal jurisdiction in accordance with Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention to ensure that Israel is held accountable and does not enjoy impunity for the grave violations it commits against Palestinians, including arbitrary detention and forced displacement, and demanded that member states of the international community, world parliaments, and civil society institutions work to pressure Israel to respect human rights work and help provide protection to the Palestinian people and human rights workers, document violations of international law committed by the occupation, and seek international accountability.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)