Day: 30 November 2022

Israeli forces today detained 10 Palestinians in predawn raids across the occupied West Bank, according to local and security sources.

They said that Israeli forces rounded up a Palestinian after breaking into and searching his family house in the Ramallah city neighborhood of al-Tireh.

In Jerusalem district, a convoy of army vehicles stormed Al ‘Eizariya town, southeast of the city, where the soldiers re-arrested a former prisoner and ransacked his house, turning it upside down.

In the southern West Bank, the heavily-armed soldiers showed up at a house in Dura city, southwest of Hebron, muscled inside, conducted a thorough search and eventually detained another.

They also barged their way into al-Fawwar refugee camp, southwest of Hebron, and rounded up another.

They conducted a similar raid in in the nearby city of Ad-Dhahiriya, resulting in the detention of another.

In Nablus district, the soldiers forcibly entered a house in ‘Asira al-Qibliya village, south of the city, and detained another.

In the northern West Bank, an army force raided Anabta town, east of the city of Tulkarm, and rounded up three others, including two former prisoners.

The soldiers also showed up at a house in Jaba‘ town, south of Jenin, tampered with its contents and rounded up another.

Israeli forces frequently raid Palestinian houses almost on a daily basis across the West Bank on the pretext of searching for “wanted” Palestinians, triggering clashes with residents.

These raids, which take place also in areas under the full control of the Palestinian Authority, are conducted with no need for a search warrant, whenever and wherever the military chooses in keeping with its sweeping arbitrary powers.

Under Israeli military law army commanders have full executive, legislative and judicial authority over 3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank. Palestinians have no say in how this authority is exercised.

According to the latest figures from Addameer, the Palestinian Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, there are currently 4,700 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers, including 190 children and 30 female prisoners.

This number includes approximately 800 Palestinians placed under “administrative detention”, that allows the detention of Palestinians without charge or trial for renewable intervals ranging between three and six months based on undisclosed evidence that even a detainee’s lawyer is barred from viewing.

Mass arrest of Palestinians is nothing new. According to a 2017 report by Addameer, over the past 50 years, more than 800,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned or detained by Israel, this figure is now believed to be closer to 1 million. This means that about 40% of Palestinian men and boys living under military occupation have been deprived of their freedom. Almost every Palestinian family has suffered the imprisonment of a loved one.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency

A Palestinian Tuesday evening sustained wounds in a settler attack close to al-Mughayyir village, east of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, according to a local activist.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors colonial settlement activities in the northern West Bank, said that a group of settlers hurled rocks towards Palestinian vehicles travelling close to the village, causing damage to a vehicle and wounding a passenger in his eye.

The casualty, a resident of Qusra town, south of Nablus, was rushed to a hospital in Rafidiya for treatment.

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

Settlers violence includes property and mosque arsons, stone-throwing, uprooting of crops and olive trees, attacks on vulnerable homes, among others.

There are over 700,000 Israeli settlers living in colonial settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency

President Abbas Tuesday stated that the two-state solution cannot be left hostage to the occupier’s will.

“The two-State solution cannot be left hostage to the occupier’s will, as this is considered an abandonment of this solution. Therefore, we stress on the importance of recognizing the State of Palestine and supporting its full membership to the United Nations, as an embodiment of the natural right of the Palestinian people, similar to all other peoples of the world,” President Abbas stated in his message on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

The message was addressed to Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, President of the General Assembly, Csaba Korösi, President of the Security Council, Harold Agyeman in addition to Chair of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian, Cheikh Niang.

President Abbas added in the message delivered by Palestine’s envoy to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, at Geneva, that an international conference must be convened under the auspices of the United Nations in line with the resolutions of international legitimacy and the international law with the aim of ending the occupation and resolving all final status issues, and a package of guarantees must be defined for the implementation of what has been agreed upon within a defined timeframe, so as to achieve a just and comprehensive peace which leads to ending the occupation, realizing the freedom of the Palestinian people and their independence in their own State on the 4th of June 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital.

He stressed the need for the international community to mobilize and intensify its efforts to put pressure on Israel to end its occupation and stop its crimes.

He cautioned the states that have established trade or diplomatic offices in Jerusalem or those which have concluded agreements with companies or education institutions operating in Israeli colonial settlements or buy products from these settlements that all such actions are in violation of international law and encourage the Israeli occupation authorities to persist in the commission of crimes against the Palestinian people.

“We tell these countries that through such actions you contribute to the suffering of our people as you help entrenching the occupation of our land and you do not contribute to the regional peace, security and stability,” he added.

He went on to state that we cannot expect the Israeli occupier, who supports colonization and settler terrorism, persists in its aggression and siege against our people, abuses our prisoners, detains our children’s bodies, destroys our homes and displaces our children, to wake up one day, and choose justice and peace.

He pledged that the Palestinian people would not tolerate oppression and injustice and will continue to pursue their struggle against the colonial occupation of our land and people.

“We will not abandon the culture of peace that is deeply rooted within us and we will continue to pursue peaceful popular resistance. We will not accept a future of walls, blockade, Apartheid, oppression, hatred and colonialism. The question of Palestine will remain the litmus test for the credibility of the international community and the effectiveness of the order it established to uphold international law, maintain international peace and security, prohibit the acquisition of territory by force and support the right of peoples to self-determination, according to the pledges it enshrined in the resolutions and international instruments it adopted,” it concluded.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency

The Israeli occupation authorities today demolished several Palestinian greenhouses and shacks in Aqraba village, south of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, according to a local activist.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors colonial settlement activities in the northern West Bank, said that Israeli forces escorted a bulldozer into al-Afjam area, east of the village, where the heavy machinery tore down five greenhouses and five shacks belonging to the villagers.

Israeli refuses to permit virtually any Palestinian construction in Area C, which constitutes 60 percent of the occupied West Bank and falls under full Israeli military rule, forcing residents to build without obtaining rarely-granted permits to provide shelters for their families.

In contrast, Israel much more easily gives over 700,000 Jewish Israeli settlers in incessantly-expanding colonial settlements building permits and provides them with roads, electricity, water and sewage systems that remain inaccessible to many neighboring Palestinians.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency

Latvian President Egils Levits arrived in Ramallah this afternoon on an official visit and was received by President Mahmoud Abbas at the presidential headquarters.

The two leaders inspected the honor guard while the Palestinian and Latvian national anthems were played before starting official talks.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency

Israeli settlers today continued to level Palestinian land to the east of al-‘Auja village, north of the occupied West Bank city of Jericho, according to a local activist.

Ayman Gharib, an anti-colonial-settlement activist, said that some 20 settlers razed some 60 donums of Islamic Waqf land, located between the nearby encroaching colonial settlements of Na’ama and Tzachi, to plant it.

He pointed that confiscated land is part of a large 100-donum tract of land that the settlers intend to raze and plant and annex it to the colonial settlements.

While Israel allows settlers to seize land, including for farming purposes, it has been severely restricting Palestinian access to water in al-‘Auja village and rest of the Jordan Valley, particularly that local water springs, including ‘Ein al-Auja (al-Auja spring).

Local water springs are susceptible to dryness as a result of Israel’s control over water. Israel have set up huge wells over the local hot water basins, reducing the quantity of water flowing from the spring and causing destruction to thousands of dunums of agricultural land irrigated by the water spring.

The Jordan Valley, which is a fertile strip of land running west along the Jordan River, is home to about 65,000 Palestinians and makes up approximately 30% of the West Bank.

Since 1967, when the Israeli army occupied the West Bank, Israel has transferred at least 11,000 of its Jewish citizens to the Jordan Valley. Some of the settlements in which they live were built almost entirely on private Palestinian land.

The Israel military has also designated about 46 percent of the Jordan Valley as a closed military zone since the beginning of the occupation in June 1967, and has been utilizing the pretext of military drills to forcefully displace Palestinian families living there as part of a policy of ethnic cleansing and stifling Palestinian development in the area.

Approximately 6,200 Palestinians live in 38 communities in places earmarked for military use and have had to obtain permission from the Israeli authorities to enter and live in their communities.

In violation of international law, the Israeli military not only temporarily displaces the communities on a regular basis, but also confiscates their farmlands, demolishes their homes and infrastructure from time to time.

Besides undergoing temporary displacement, the Palestinian families living there face a myriad restrictions on access to resources and services. Meanwhile, Israel exploits the resources of the area and generates profit by allocating generous tracts of land and water resources for the benefit of settlers.

Israeli politicians have made it clear on several occasions that the highly strategic Jordan Valley would remain under their control in any eventuality.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency