Day: 10 October 2022

RAMALLAH- Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh today described Israel’s actions in the occupied Palestinian territories as organized state terrorism.

“What is happening on the ground is organized state terrorism, which the Israeli occupation government is solely responsible for,” said Shtayyeh at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting held in Ramallah describing the actions of the Israeli soldiers and settlers against the Palestinian civilian population under Israel’s occupation.

“The world should not remain silent regarding the crimes that the occupation soldiers commit in the cities, villages and refugee camps that claim the lives of children and youths as part of a systematic policy based on killing for the sake of killing, whose pace increases with the approach of the Israeli elections,” said the Prime Minister.

“The international silence regarding these crimes is an encouragement to the occupation,” said Shtayyeh, adding that “statements of condemnations or concern are not enough to stop these crimes as mothers and fathers lose their loved ones whose corpses are held in a way unprecedented in history, while raids, settler terrorism, and attacks against people and their property continue and their holy places are desecrated.”

Shtayyeh indicated that during the past month, settlers carried out dozens of attacks and the occupation forces set up hundreds of checkpoints, as well as raided towns, detained, killed, and wounded people, demolished structures, and seized large areas of lands and properties.

He stressed that the Palestinian people are facing an all-out war and bloody aggression that did not stop for a moment, during which the occupation soldiers and settlers exchange roles in committing crimes.

The Prime Minister stressed that the international community must criminalize the occupation’s attacks, hold Israel accountable for its crimes, and put the settler gangs on the terrorist lists.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

SALFIT– Israeli settlers today attacked Palestinian farmers harvesting olives in Khallet Hassan, north Bidya town, west of Salfit, according to a farmer.

Arafat Abu Seif, a farmer, said that a group of armed settlers attacked the farmers, including himself, beating them severely while the latter were harvesting their olive groves in the area.

He added that one of the assailants opened live fire on the farmers. No injuries were reported though.

Since the start of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967, like so many other villages and areas in Palestine, Khallet Hassan and Bidya town have been subjected to almost continual land grab in order to create geographical link between the colonial settlements of Karnei Shamron, Ma’ale Shamron , Novem, and Jev’at Ya’er.

Since 1983, the Israeli occupation authorities and companies have seized control of over 1200 dunums utilizing fraudulent evidence to claim ownership, but the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission was able to get back 900 dunums as revealed by the Applied Research Institute in Jerusalem (ARIJ) and the Land Research Center (LRC).

Settlers have recently stepped up their attacks against olive harvesters across the occupied West Bank, mainly in Nablus and Salfit districts, attacking farmers and preventing them from picking their olives.

Over 9,000 olive trees have been destroyed in the West Bank since August 2020, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which called on Israel to ensure safe, timely, and adequate access for Palestinians to their olive groves in the occupied West Bank.

With more than 12 million olive trees planted across 45% of the West Bank’s agricultural land, the olive harvest constitutes one of the biggest sources of economic sustainability for thousands of Palestinian families.

According to UN OCHA, the olive oil industry supports the livelihoods of more than 100,000 families and accounts for a quarter of the gross agricultural income of the occupied territories.

But, as local NGO MIFTAH notes, “olive trees carry more than an economic significance in the lives of Palestinians. They are not just like any other trees, they are symbolic of Palestinians’ attachment to their land.”

“Because the trees are drought-resistant and grow under poor soil conditions, they represent Palestinian resistance and resilience. The fact that olive trees live and bear fruit for thousands of years is parallel to Palestinian history and continuity on the land.”

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

JERUSALEM– The Israeli army today, and for the third day, kept all exits from Shufat refugee camp and nearby Anata town, northeast of Jerusalem, where at least 100,000 Palestinians live, under forced lockdown after shutting down all checkpoints, according to local sources.

At the same time, the Israeli occupation forces continued to raid homes in the two communities, clash with residents and detain people as hundreds of soldiers, security agents, police, and members of the intelligence continue to search for a Palestinian they claim has carried out a fatal attack on Saturday night at the Shufat refugee camp army checkpoint, killing a woman soldier and critically injuring a security man.

The army has prevented all residents, including students, from leaving the camp, which is separated from East Jerusalem by an eight-meter-high concrete wall and a military checkpoint despite the fact that it is located within the Jerusalem municipal boundaries.

Hundreds were also left stranded inside and outside the camp and town as the army prevented them from leaving or entering these areas after locking it down following the shooting attack prompting Palestinians to offer them food and shelter while they wait for the army to reopen the checkpoints once again.

Reports from the refugee camp said at least 20 people were arrested since the attack, including, according to army claims, members of the family of the alleged attacker.

A local source said today that Israeli police attacked a father and his son, hitting the father with a stun grenade in the stomach as he tried to confront the Israeli forces while trying to apprehend his 24-year-old son. The man was taken to the hospital for treatment and the son was detained.

Anata mayor Taha Rifai told WAFA that the Israeli forces continued today to break into homes, terrorizing families, stopping people in the streets and checking their papers, while forcing shops to shut down.

Several stores have also reported a shortage in supplies due to the closure of the checkpoints at these two communities.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

HEBRON– Several Palestinians Monday evening sustained injuries in a settler attack in the city of Hebron, according to WAFA correspondent.

He said that a group of armed settlers, under military protection, assaulted Palestinians in Tal Rumeida neighborhood and Ash-Shuhada Street, pelting them with stones and empty bottles and spewing pepper spray in their faces, causing several to suffocate.

All the suffocation cases received treatment at the scene.

The Palestinian neighborhood is located in the Israeli-controlled area of the old town, known as H2, where several hundred extremist Jewish settlers are based. Israel heavily restricts movement and activity of Palestinians in H2 area while allowing the settlers free movement and access.

The city of Hebron, which houses the Ibrahimi Mosque, is home to roughly 160,000 Palestinian Muslims and about 800 notoriously aggressive Israeli settlers who live in compounds heavily guarded by Israeli troops.

Israel has 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 News & Information Agency