Day: 4 September 2022

قتل مساء اليوم الأحد، الصحفي نضال اغبارية، إثر إطلاق النار عليه، في مدينة أم الفحم، بالداخل الفلسطيني المحتل.

وأشارت مصادر محلية إلى أن إغبارية تعرض لإطلاق نار خلال تواجده داخل سيارته في حي الكينا (البير) بأم الفحم، وأصيب بجراح خطيرة، نقل على إثرها للمشفى، قبل أن يعلن لاحقاً عن وفاته، متأثراً بإصابته.

وبحسب مصدر طبي؛ فإن إغبارية أصيب بعيارات نارية في القسم العلوي من جسده.

وسبق أن تعرض منزل الصحفي اغبارية لوابل من الرصاص في حزيران/يونيو 2021.

واستنكر مركز “إعلام” (مستقل في أراضي 48) جريمة قتل اغبارية، وقال في بيان، إن المس بالصحفيين، وعموم الجمهور الفلسطيني، “تصعيد إضافي من قبل منظمات الإجرام، التي تعيث بمجتمعنا فسادًا”، مؤكداً أن استهداف اغبارية مس “بحرية التعبير وحق الجمهور في المعرفة”.

ولقي 71 فلسطينيًا في الداخل الفلسطيني المحتل، منذ مطلع العام الجاري مصرعهم بسلاح الجريمة.

وفي عام 2021 قتل 127 مواطنًا في مختلف بلدات الداخل المحتل، حيث اعتبر العام الأكثر دموية خلال الخمس سنوات الأخيرة.

وفي عام 2019 قُتل 93 مواطنًا بينهم 11 امرأة، في حين قُتل 99 مواطنًا بينهم 16 امرأة في سلسلة جرائم قتل شهدها عام 2020.

Source: Quds Press International News Agency

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) slammed the death sentences recently passed by Hamas, the de facto power in Gaza, against five Palestinians in Gaza without the approval of President Mahmoud Abbas as a violation of Palestinian law and the international obligations of the State of Palestine.

In a press statement, the center stressed that justice cannot be achieved by bypassing laws, stating: “Despite the relevance of prosecuting killers and bringing them to justice, the rule of law is above all considerations, and the implementation of unlawful death sentences undermines the values of justice.”

PCHR reiterated that the President’s approval of death sentences is a prerequisite to their implementation as stipulated by relevant laws, including the Penal Procedure Law of 2001 and the Palestinian amended Basic Law of 2003, which unequivocally provided that this punishment may not be carried out without approval as affirmed in article 109 of Palestine’s amended law which emphasized that the death penalty issued by any court shall not be carried out unless it is ratified by the President of the Palestinian National Authority.

It is noteworthy that the current year has seen a rise in the issuance of death sentences in the Gaza Strip, where so far it reached 17 new death sentences, including three issued by military courts, and five that aggravate previous rulings by the Court of Appeal, all of which are in the Gaza Strip.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Weather today in Palestine is generally hot to relatively hot with no change in temperature, remaining above the seasonal average by 2°C, according to the Palestinian Meteorological Department (PMD).

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

Temperature in the capital, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem is expected to reach a high of 30°C and a low of 20°C, and in Ramallah and Hebron a high of 29°C and a low of 19°C are expected. In Jericho, the Dead Sea, and the Jordan Valley temperature is expected to reach a high of 39°C and a low of 27°C, while it is expected to reach a high of 30°C and a low of 24°C in Gaza and the coastal areas.

No change in temperature or weather conditions is expected tomorrow, Monday, but a slight drop in temperature is expected on Tuesday setting back to its seasonal average.

No change in temperature or weather conditions is expected on Wednesday.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Israeli occupation authorities yesterday forced a Palestinian family to self-demolish their own house in the occupied Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, citing unpermitted construction as a pretext.

Witnesses told WAFA that members of Hadia family demolished their privately-owned house yesterday to avoid paying exorbitant fees if the Israeli municipality crews carried out the demolition on their own.

Owners say their house, which was inhabited by three households from the Palestinian family of Hadia, was built 12 years ago, and that throughout the past years they had been trying to get a construction permit from the Israeli municipality, all but in vain.

Using the pretext of building without a permit, which is rarely granted to Palestinians in the occupied city, the Israeli municipality has demolished or forced Palestinians to demolish hundreds of Palestinian-owned houses as part of a policy aimed to restrict Palestinian expansion in occupied Jerusalem.

At the same time, the municipality and government build tens of thousands of housing units in illegal settlements in East Jerusalem for Jews with the goal to offset the demographic balance in favor of the Jewish settlers in the occupied city.

Although Palestinians in East Jerusalem, a part of the internationally recognized Palestinian Territory that has been subject to Israeli military occupation since 1967, they are denied their citizenship rights and are instead classified only as “residents” whose permits can be revoked if they move away from the city for more than a few years.

They are also discriminated against in all aspects of life including housing, employment and services, and are unable to access services in the West Bank due to the construction of Israel’s separation wall.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

The United Nations said yesterday that the Israeli occupation authorities have demolished close to 9,000 Palestinian-owned structures and displaced thousands of Palestinians since 2009.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) offered the grim data in a report, which said the demolitions have displaced some 13,000 Palestinians and inflicted losses on around 152,000 others.

The report said that during the reporting period, 1,559 Palestinian houses were demolished whether by the Israeli occupation authorities or self-demolished by their owners to avoid paying heavy fines.

It added that the demolition orders were issued against Palestinian-owned structures under the pretext of construction without permit.

In order to try to rationalize demolition of the Palestinian structures, the report said, the Israeli regime has been accusing their owners of lacking construction permit, obtaining which is next to impossible.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

Palestinian Arabic-language dailies focused today on the death of Mousa Abu Mahameed, a 40-year-old Palestinian man, in an Israeli hospital yesterday in yet unclear circumstances as Palestinian prisoner advocacy groups held Israel responsible for his death. Abu Mahameed had been held in Israeli detention for two months.

Following are the main headlines of the three Palestinian dailies:

Al-Hayat al-Jadida:

– Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh: ‘Our strategy at the orders of President [Mahmoud Abbas] is to reinforce the resilience of our people and confront the [Israeli] settlement project.’

– Protesters hold a vigil in the city of Taybie against the Israeli policy of home demolitions, while others take part in a convoy of vehicles in Kafr Qara in protest of [Israeli police’s inaction to] criminality.

– The Israeli occupation hands over the body of martyr Mousa Abu Mahameed.

– Israel imposes new restrictions on the entry of foreigners into the West Bank, starting tomorrow.

– Google harnesses its services to the occupying state, and former employees say ‘no tech for apartheid’.

– Temperature is about two degrees above normal.

Al-Ayyam:

– The occupation will close the West Bank’s gates to foreigners as of tomorrow.

– Palestinian prisoner dies in Israeli occupation’s prisons “as a result of deliberate medical neglect.”

– The Israeli occupation bulldozes a Palestinian-owned land in the village of Sinjil.

– OCHA: The Israeli authorities demolished and confiscated 55 Palestinian buildings within two weeks.

– Jenin: Dina Jaradat, a Palestinian woman prisoner in Israel, was moved to hospital [following a deterioration in her health condition].

– Iran announces strengthening its civil defense and boosting the readiness of its air defense forces.

– Protesters hold a vigil against the Israeli policy of home demolitions in the city of Taybie.

– A Turkish warship docks at Haifa port, accompanied by an American destroyer.

– Vehicles rally in Kafr Qara in protest of violence and crime.

Al-Quds:

– Palestinian prisoner Mousa Abu Mahameed dies in Israeli prisons.

– OCHA: Israeli occupation forces demolished more than 8,000 Palestinian buildings since 2009.

– The Israeli occupation bulldozes a Palestinian-owned land in the village of Sinjil, and forces a Palestinian family to self-demolish its own home in Silwan.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

A Palestinian child fainted today after he got a sunstroke while detained by Israeli occupation soldiers together with a group of solidarity activists in Masafer Yatta area, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, according to local sources.

Rateb Jabour, a local Palestinian activist, told WAFA that Israeli occupation soldiers briefly detained a group of international activists in the village of Fakhit in Masafer Yatta region while they were distributing stationery to students, and also detained a number of children who were accompanying the activists.

He said the activists and children were thrown out under the searing sun by the Israeli soldiers for a few hours, causing Sinmar Le’mour, one of the children detained, to get a sunstroke and faint as a result.

Jabour said the international activists were visiting the area in order to stand by its residents who are facing a series of Israeli closures and restrictions, including Israeli imminent demolition threats facing hundreds of structures in the region, including schools.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

The Israeli occupation’s Planning and Building Committee in Occupied Jerusalem is considering the approval of two settlement plans in the city comprising a total of 3,412 housing units over the next week, today said the PLO’s Colonization & Wall Resistance Commission.

Muayyad Shaaban, the Head of the Commission, said in a press statement that the two plans, which bear the numbers (TPS YOSH 420-4-7) and (TPS YOSH 420-4-10), will see the construction of more than 3,412 new settlement housing units, which will be built on an area estimated at 2,100 dunums in the eastern outskirts of the occupied capital.

He pointed out that the approval by the occupation authorities of these two plans would expose about 2,000 native Palestinians living in small Bedouin communities in this area (Jabal al-Baba, Wadi al-Jamal, Bir al-Maskoub, Wadi Snisil, and Abu George Bedouin), to the risk of forced displacement, which amounts to a war crime.

Shaaban warned that the implementation of the two settlement plans will separate the north of the West Bank from its south, and that it will disconnect Palestinian neighborhoods in the heart of Jerusalem from their Palestinian environs east and south of the city, preventing the possibility of future expansion of the city as capital of a future Palestinian state.

‘‘The two plans would link all settlements in the eastern region and outside the boundaries of the Jerusalem municipality with the settlements within the municipal boundaries, thus transforming Palestinian villages into enclaves besieged by settlements, establishing what is called “Greater Jerusalem”, and bringing about a profound change in favor of the settler population as far as demography is concerned,’’ Shaaban said.

He pointed out that the implementation of the so-called E1 settlement plan is a serious violation of the foundations of the political process, as it will separate the West Bank from East Jerusalem, which will deal a fatal blow to the two-state solution.

‘‘The occupation authorities, due to the international rejection of this scheme, postponed work on it for periods of time, but today, they are deceiving the world through the silent implementation of the scheme and the imposition of facts on the ground.’’

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) called for a prompt and impartial investigation into the death circumstances of Palestinian prisoner in Israeli prison Mousa Abu Mehamid, expressing strong concern that he might be a new victim of medical negligence policy in the Israeli jails.

According to PCHR’s follow-up, at around 06:00 on Saturday, 03 September 2022, the Israeli occupation authorities announced the death of Mousa Haron Abu Mehamid (40), from Beit Ta’mor village, eastern Bethlehem, noting he was a Palestinian detainee in al-Ramlah Prison.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said in a statement that the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) arrested Mehamid after he entered occupied Jerusalem without a permit. His health condition had recently deteriorated after he got a microbe, without explaining what type or how he got it. Afterward, he was referred to “Assaf Harofeh” hospital in Tel Aviv at the beginning of the month.

Haron Abu Mehamid said to PCHR’s fieldworker that his son, Mousa, was arrested in June 2021 near Beit Safafa village in occupied East Jerusalem, allegedly for being illegally present in the occupied city without a permit. He added that his son did not suffer any disease, and only two months ago he visited him, confirming his son was in good health.

Abu Mehamid’s death sheds the light on the general deterioration of Palestinian detainees’ conditions in the Israeli jails as there are 4550 Palestinians, including 175 children and 32 women, detained in 23 prisoners and detention facilities inside Israel in inhuman and cruel conditions that lack the standard minimum rules of the treatment of prisoners and detainees in detention. Among the detainees, there are 600 ill detainees; some of them suffer chronic and serious diseases, said PCHR in a statement.

According to the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs, 231 security detainees died in Israeli prisons, including dozens who have died due to medical negligence policy since 1967.

“PCHR hereby holds the Israeli occupation authorities fully responsible for the death of Palestinian detainee Mehamid, who is the fourth detainee to die since the beginning of 2022, and for the lives of hundreds of ill detainees, who would face the same fate if the policy of deliberate medical negligence continued, especially under the unhealthy imprisonment conditions where prisoners are denied adequate healthcare.”

PCHR Called upon the International Committee of Red Crescent (ICRC) to intensify and ensure the efficacy of their follow-up of the conditions of Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails and their imprisonment conditions.

It also called upon the international community to compel Israel to respect the rules of international law and international humanitarian law, in particular, the Fourth Geneva Convention and the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)