Day: 29 January 2023

Israeli occupation forces sealed off a Palestinian-owned house this morning in the occupied Jerusalem neighborhood of al-Tour in preparation for its punitive demolition.

The Israeli measure came a few hours after the far-right Israeli government decided to seal off the house of late Khairy Alqam, the executor of the shooting operation on Friday night in the Israeli settlement of Neve Yaakov in which 8 Israeli settlers were gunned down.

Israeli occupation authorities occupied Alqam’s family house yesterday and arrested members of his family, including his father and other relatives, and embarked on mapping the house and making other preparations for its punitive demolition.

Israeli occupation authorities have long used to punitively demolish the family homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out attacks on Israelis, a policy that Israel does not apply to Israeli settlers who are involved in fatal attacks against Palestinians.

The policy has been widely condemned by human rights groups as a collective punishment and a war crime.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency

Israeli occupation authorities demolished today two Palestinian-owned houses in the occupied Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukabir, and handed notifications for the imminent demolition of fours homes in Yatta town, south of Hebron.

In occupied Jerusalem, an Israeli police force accompanied by bulldozers stormed Jabal al-Mukabir neighborhood before proceeding to demolish a two-storey home sheltering the families of Rateb and Husam Matar, displacing the two families, including children and women.

The occupation authorities cited unpermitted construction as pretext for the demolition of the two houses and subsequent displacement of the two families.

During the demolition, the Israeli occupation forces assaulted the displaced family members, injuring one of them with a rubber-coated round.

Meantime, Israeli occupation army handed notifications for the imminent demolition of four Palestinian homes in the town of Yatta, to the south of Hebron.

WAFA correspondent said an Israeli army force raided Al-Zuweden community near the town and handed notifications for the demolition of four Palestinian-owned homes there in addition to two agricultural facilities in the community, under the pretext of construction without a permit.

Demolitions of Palestinian-owned homes across the occupied territories has seen a spike since the swearing-in of the new far-right, fascist Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu, whose members like Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich publicly advocate for the expulsion of Palestinians and the demolitions of as many homes as possible to expedite the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency

A group of extremist Israeli settlers today assaulted and beat up a Palestinian young man and allowed their sheep to graze on Palestinian farming land in Masafer Yatta region, south of the occupied West Bank, according to local sources.

Rateb Jabour, a local Palestinian activist, told WAFA that the settlers attacked a Palestinian house in Shab al-Batm village in the region, where they physically assaulted a young Palestinian man identified as Mamdouh Abu Tabikh.

The settlers also allowed their sheep into Palestinian farming land in the area to graze there and destroy Palestinian-owned plants.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency

Israeli forces Sunday stole artifacts from the village of Sebastia, north of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, local sources said.

Mohammad Azem, head of the Sebastia municipality, said that the Israeli soldiers stole artifacts from the archeological site in the village.

He added that the forces have been surrounding and keeping hold of staff from the municipality and the Ministry of Tourism for hours.

The occupation forces detained the staff of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities while they were working at an archaeological site in Sebastia.

The municipality of Sebastia had informed the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities that ancient burials were found during the construction of a new road using the mechanisms of the Sebastia municipality, where the crews of the Ministry moved in order to start archaeological excavations, but the occupation forces, and in less than an hour later, sent military troops to the archaeological site, accompanied by the Israel Antiquities Authority crews and all workers at the site were detained

The Israel Antiquities Authority, upon its arrival with the Israeli military forces, worked to enter the ancient cemeteries and tamper with the archaeological site, and informed them of the need to leave the archaeological site

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency

Israeli settlers Sunday closed the entrance of the village of Yasuf, east of the occupied West Bank city of Salfit, local sources said.

The sources said that dozens of settlers closed off the entrance to the aforementioned village, and stoned Palestinian-owned vehicles.

No casualties were reported, however.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency

Fanatic Israeli settlers Sunday evening attacked a Palestinian-owned house, and spray-painted racist slogans, in the village of Turmusayya, east of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, sources confirmed.

Lafi Adeeb, head of the Turmusayya municipality, told WAFA that dozens of settlers broke into the village, broke the glass window of a house owned by local resident Ahmad Abu Awwad, and spray-painted racist, anti-Palestinian slogans on its walls.

To be noted, the extremist settlers burned a house and a vehicle in the village last night.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency

The Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine condemned the Israeli settlers’ attack on the headquarters of the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem, and the climbing of the Patriarchate’s walls to remove its flag.

This came in a statement issued by its chairman, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Ramzi Khoury, in which he said that the continuation of the attacks on Islamic and Christian sanctities is due to the absence of international law regarding the terrorist acts carried out by settlers against the Palestinian people, indicating that the world uses double standards, as it remains silent in the face of the crimes committed by Israel and its settlers and their repeated incursions into the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque and attacks on church property.

Khoury stressed the need for immediate and serious action by the international community to provide protection for the Palestinian people and stop all forms of racist practices adopted by the Israeli government, adding that the fascism of this racist government poses a threat to all international efforts to end the conflict and achieve peace and justice.

The chairman called on the heads and patriarchs of churches in the world to play their role and put pressure on their governments and demand them to hold the Israeli war criminals accountable, and to provide protection for the Palestinian people and all Islamic and Christian holy places.

It is worth noting that this is not the first of time Israeli settlers committ an attack against the Armenian Patriarchate.

Earlier, extremist groups wrote racist graffiti on the walls of the Patriarchate, pepper-sprayed Palestinian young men, and attacked on a monk in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Source: Palestine News and Information Agency