Day: 2 March 2023

A senior Palestine Liberation Organization official Wednesday condemned an Israeli minister’s call to “wipe out” Huwwara town, south of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, the epicenter of settler vigilante mob’s violent rage.

Secretary-General of the PLO Executive Committee Hussein Al-Sheikh labeled Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich call to erase the town “racist terrorism”.

“The terrorist Smotrich calls for erasing #Huwara from existence. A racist terrorist invitation announced by a terrorist minister in the occupation government,” al-Sheikh tweeted.

He called for “international human rights organizations to prosecute this terrorist on charges of calling for massacres against Palestinians.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh slammed Smotrich for his “terrorist” and “racist” remarks, which “portend a serious escalation” against the Palestinian people in the occupied territories.

Shtayyeh added in a press statement that considering that Smotrich’s remarks constitute an official incitement to new massacres against the Palestinian people in Huwwara and other West Bank towns and villages, they are sufficient per se to prosecute him at international courts.

He called for the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU) along with all international organizations not only to condemn Smotrich’s remarks, but also to give effect to the international resolutions supporting boycott and sanctions against Israel and bringing it accountable for its crimes.

On Wednesday, Smotrich, who in addition to being finance minister is responsible for Israel’s civil administration in the occupied West Bank, said Israel should “wipe out” the Palestinian village of Huwwara in the wake of a violent rampage by settlers on Sunday.

“The Palestinian village of Huwwara should be wiped out. The state needs to do it and not private citizens,” he said.

On Sunday, hundreds of Israeli settlers, flanked by soldiers, attacked Palestinian towns and villages near Nablus, following a shooting that killed two Israelis in the town of Huwwara earlier that day.

In the rampage on Huwwara and other Palestinian villages, at least one Palestinian was killed and nearly 400 were wounded. Israel’s police have arrested 10 people for suspected involvement in the attack.

Before and after the mob violence took place, several Israeli politicians, including Smotrich, appeared to encourage or support the settlers’ actions.

Smotrich liked a tweet that called for Israeli politicians to show no mercy and that the “village of Huwwara should be erased today”.

On Tuesday, former defence minister Benny Gantz said Smotrich wanted “another Nakba”, a term that describes the massacres and forced expulsion Palestinians endured at the hands of Zionist militias in 1948, as the new Israeli state came into existence.

The Nakba, which means “the catastrophe” in Arabic, is the name given to the massacres and forced expulsion Palestinians endured at the hands of Zionist militias in 1948, as the new Israeli state came into existence. It left an estimated 15,000 Palestinians dead and some 750,000 fled from their homes.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

Palestinian officials Wednesday welcomed US condemnation of an Israeli minister’s call to “wipe out” Huwwara town, south of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.

The US State Department Wednesday condemned Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich’s comments in which he called for the Palestinian village of Huwwara to be “wiped out”, and said the remarks were “repugnant, irresponsible and disgusting”.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials to “publicly and clearly” disavow Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s comments.

“I want to be very clear about this. These comments were irresponsible. They were repugnant. They were disgusting,” Price told reporters on Wednesday.

He added that Smotrich’s “provocative” remarks “amount to incitement to violence”.

“We welcome the statement of the US State Department, which considered the statements of the terrorist Smotrich to wipe out #Huwara as irresponsible, disgusting, and calls for violence,” Secretary-General of the PLO Executive Committee Hussein al-Sheikh tweeted.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh also welcomed the US condemnation of Smotrich’s remarks, and called for the US to combine its condemnation with action that would bring Israeli crimes to a halt and pave the way to a political horizon that would bring an end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories that began in 1967 in line with United Nations resolutions and international law.

On Wednesday, Smotrich, who in addition to being finance minister is responsible for Israel’s civil administration in the occupied West Bank, said Israel should “wipe out” the Palestinian village of Huwwara in the wake of a violent rampage by settlers on Sunday.

“The Palestinian village of Huwwara should be wiped out. I think that the State of Israel needs to do that – not, God forbid, private individuals,” he said.

This genocidal call came just days after hordes of Israeli settlers, protected by the army, attacked the occupied West Bank village, burning Palestinian homes and cars and ransacking businesses.

One Palestinian was killed in the rampage, which was the settlers’ revenge for the killing of two of their fellow colonists in the village on Sunday by unknown assailants.

Smotrich is a senior Israeli minister who has just been handed sweeping powers over the occupied West Bank.

His call for wiping out Huwwara came in response to a question on an Israeli television show about why he had “liked” a tweet from another settler leader who had urged that “the village of Huwwara should be wiped out today.”

And in a similar spirit, Zvika Fogel, an Israeli general and a lawmaker in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition, had praised the pogrom in the Palestinian village.

“A closed, burnt Huwwara – that’s what I want to see,” Fogel said.

And on 26 February, the day of the Huwwara pogrom, Smotrich himself incited Israel to “mercilessly” attack Palestinian cities with tanks and helicopters for the killing of the two settlers.

He urged that Israel should show through vengeful violence that “the owner of the house” – meaning Jews – “has gone mad” in order to deter Palestinians from any sort of resistance.

And wiping out whole towns and villages isn’t new either: Zionist militias destroyed hundreds of them during 1948, as they expelled and murdered Palestinians during the Nakba in order to establish Israel over the ruins of their lives and society.

Ever since, the Israeli settler-colony has been destroying Palestinian homes and communities and stealing their land under the guise of “legal” procedures that have no legitimacy whatsoever.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

Israeli forces today demolished a Palestinian house in Idhna town, west of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, according to local sources.

Muhammad Odeh said that Israeli forces, accompanying a bulldozer, barged their way into the southern West Bank town, where the heavy machinery knocked down his 120-square-meter house, displacing his eight-member family.

He added that he had received a demolition order issued by the occupation authorities against the house about two months ago and resorted to Israeli courts to stop the demolition, but to no avail.

The town mayor, Jaber Tmeizi, said that the occupation authorities have handed demolition orders against 350 houses as well as commercial and agricultural structures in the town.

Israel demolishes Palestinian houses and structures almost on a daily basis as a means to achieve “demographic control” of the occupied territories.

Israel denies planning permits for Palestinians to build on their own land or to extend existing houses to accommodate natural growth, particularly in Jerusalem and 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 argues that building within existing colonial settlements is necessary to accommodate the “natural growth” of settlers. Therefore, it much more easily gives the over 800,000 Jewish Israeli settlers there building permits and provides them with roads, electricity, water and sewage systems that remain inaccessible to many neighboring Palestinians.

Soldiers in the oxymoronically named Civil Administration, the name Israel gives to the body administering its military occupation of the West Bank, determine where Palestinians may live, where and when they may travel (including to other parts of the occupied territories like Gaza and East Jerusalem), whether they can build or expand homes on their own land, whether they own that land at all, whether an Israeli settler can takeover that land among others.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has said in a statement she was “horrified” by the rampage of Israeli settlers in the Palestinian villages of the West Bank this weekend that led to the torching of dozens of cars and houses, took an innocent life and injured over 100.

“This comes against the backdrop of massive settlement expansion and de facto annexation of the West Bank by the most rightwing Israeli government in history—moves that would erase any hope for a two-state solution,” said the US lawmaker.

She added, “The U.S. must seek full accountability for any violations of international law, and ensure that our own U.S. tax dollars are not funding human rights violations.”

“Truly putting human rights at the center of foreign policy and supporting a rules-based international order means demanding accountability for any violations, whether they are our allies or adversaries.”

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

Extremist Israeli settlers opened gunfire today at Palestinian civilians in the Bedouin village of Arab Lemlehat, to the west of Jericho in the occupied West Bank, according to local sources.

Hasan Mlehat, a local activist, told WAFA that a group of armed Israeli settlers broke into the village and fired live shots at local residents. No injuries were reported.

This was the latest in an unprecedented wave of settler terrorism across the occupied West Bank.

Earlier this week, thousands of settlers raided the Palestinian village of Huwwara, south of Nablus, killing a humanitarian activist and setting hundreds of vehicles and homes on fire.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

Hours after lifting the military checkpoints at the entrances to the city of Jericho, east of the occupied West Bank, the Israeli occupation army once again set up checkpoints this evening at almost all of the entrances to the city, thoroughly searching Palestinian vehicles entering or leaving the city.

Palestinian security sources told WAFA that at least three entrances to the city were blocked by Israeli checkpoints, where Israeli occupation soldiers are thoroughly searching all those leaving or entering the city and their vehicles, causing long delays.

Palestinians have complained that Israel is imposing collective punishment on the entire city, gravely harming it economically particularly during the high season considering that Jericho is a popular destination for internal and foreign tourism at this time due to its warm temperature during the winter season and the beauty of its terrain.

Occasionally, army units break into Jericho, mainly Aqbat Jabr refugee camp, as they did last night, and conduct searches.

Yesterday, a Palestinian young man was shot dead and four brothers were arrested in an Israeli military raid on the camp. Three of the four brothers were released later.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

Israeli occupation forces today shut down Ennab military checkpoint, on the Nablus-Tulkarm road, ahead of the Palestinian traffic, blocking the movement of the Palestinian traffic through the checkpoint.

Witnesses told WAFA that the occupation army shut down the checkpoint in the two directions, forcing drivers to use longer routes to reach their destinations.

Israeli occupation forces also blocked sections of Road 60 in the West Bank province of Nablus, under the pretext of securing a provocative march by Israeli settlers in the area.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

Weather today in Palestine is unseasonably warm in daytime and slightly cold to mild in the night with a drop in temperature, which sets back to 4°C above the seasonal average, according to the Palestinian Meteorological Department (PMD).

Winds are southwesterly to westerly and moderate to active and occasionally dusty. Sea waves are medium.

Temperature in the capital, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem is expected to reach a high of 20°C and a low of 11°C, and in Ramallah and Hebron a high of 19°C and a low of 10°C. In Jericho, the Dead Sea, and the Jordan Valley temperature is expected to reach a high of 30°C and a low of 16°C, while it is expected to reach a high of 22°C and a low of 14°C in Gaza and the coastal areas.

A rise in temperature is expected on Saturday, approaching 6°C above the seasonal average and paving the way to clear and warm conditions in daytime and slightly cold to mild conditions in the night.

Sunday’s temperature is set to rise significantly, approaching 15°C above the seasonal average and paving the way to hot to very hot, dry and dusty conditions.

A significant drop in temperature is expected on Monday, with a little chance of scattered rain over some areas.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

The office of the European Union Representative in Jerusalem has condemned racist remarks by far-right Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich in which he called for the Palestinian town of Huwwara to be “wiped out”.

“The comments made by Smotrich are unacceptable. They incite to indiscriminate violence in a situation which is already extremely tense,” said the EU in a press statement.

The EU expressed its “great concerns regarding the spiralling violence on the ground. Immediate measures of de-escalation were necessary.”

The statement added, “The comments of Mr Smotrich go in the opposite direction and are unacceptable and intolerable.”

“We call on the Israeli government to disavow those comments and to work together with all the parties involved to defuse tensions.”

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency