Day: 15 February 2023

RAMALLAH– The Palestinian death toll from the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake that recently struck Turkey and Syria Wednesday climbed to 104, according to a diplomat.

Palestinian ambassador to Turkey, Fayed Mustafa, said that rescue workers pulled the bodies of four Palestinians, a mother along with her son and two daughters, all identified as members of the Mousa family, from the rubble of the buildings that collapsed in Antakya.

He anticipated that the Palestinian death toll would continue to rise, especially that there was no information available on the safety of all Palestinian families in the earthquake-struck areas in Turkey and Syria.

As part of the 104 fatalities, 53 Palestinians were confirmed dead in Turkey and 51 others, all refugees, in Syria.

Source: Palestine and News Information Agency

JERUSALEM- Israeli occupation authorities today forced a Palestinian to demolish two rooms of his house in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiyeh, according to homeowner.

Hassan Zakariya Muheisin said that he tore down his two rooms purportedly for being built without a license to avoid paying exorbitant fines if the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem carries out the demolition on its own.

He explained that he started the construction of the two rooms as an extension to his existing house two months ago, but was handed a stop-construction order by the Jerusalem Municipality and detained.

He added that he consequently submitted a petition to a court against the order, but his petition was struck down and he was eventually handed a self-demolition order.

Using the pretext of illegal building, Israel demolishes houses on a regular basis 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 a 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.

According to a report by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, the Israeli High Court could be liable for war crimes for their policies that led to the dispossession of Palestinians from their properties in Area C of the West Bank.

The report, Fake Justice, shows that the court’s support of Israeli planning policy is tantamount to support for dispossession and forcible transfer of Palestinians, a war crime under international law.

Source: Palestine and News Information Agency

RAMALLAH- The Government of Japan has decided a new assistance to the Palestinian people of USD 39,199,843 through international organizations, and some USD 0.76 million through Japanese NGOs as a comprehensive economic assistance in response to global security environment, according to the Representative Office of Japan to Palestine.

The Representative Office said in a press release that this new package includes assistance for Palestine refugees through UNRWA; improving economy, access to markets and trade opportunities, industrial efforts such as fishery and agriculture for the most vulnerable communities through Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Labor Organization (ILO) and International Trade Centre (ITC), Office of the Quartet and United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

The new package also includes climate action through UNDP, assistance for health system and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research (SRH) through UNFPA and UNOPS, in addition to providing humanitarian assistance including food in the Gaza Strip, through WFP and Japan Platform (JPF).

Source: Palestine and News Information Agency

HEBRON– The Israeli occupation authorities today notified two villagers of Birin, south of Hebron, to demolish a house and stop construction of another, according to a municipal source.

The village mayor, Farid Burqan, said that Israeli forces barged their way into the southern West Bank village, and handed a villager a notice to raze his 140-square-meter house and another a similar notice to knock down the stone terraces surrounding his plot of land.

They also handed another villager a notice, ordering him to halt the construction of his house.

According to the Land Research Center, Israel has frequently issued military stop-construction and demolition orders against various residential and agricultural structures and dismantled barns in the locality, citing the lack of rarely-issued construction permits as a pretext.

In December 2017, Israel delivered stop-construction orders to the locality’s sole clinic and building intended to serve as a primary school for the community’s 60 children

In June 2019, as showed in a PLO’s Negotiations Affairs Department’s report, Israel seized 4,800 dunams of land from several localities, including Birin, for the expansion of Bani Haiver.

Located to the southwest of Bani Na‘im, Birin has a population of 160 and is flanked by Bani Haiver colonial settlement from the east and the settler-only bypass Road No. 60 from the west. Its residents were originally expelled from Naqab in southern Israel and now depend on agriculture and livestock as their main source of livelihood.

Source: Palestine and News Information Agency