Day: 25 March 2023

The three Palestinian Arabic dailies published today, al-Quds, al-Hayat al-Jadida, and al-Ayyam, highlighted the large number of worshippers attending the first Friday in the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan at Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem, as well as the Israeli army crackdown on the weekly Palestinian protests against the occupation and settlements.

Here are the main headlines of these newspapers:

Al-Hayat al-Jadida:

An estimated 100,000 people pray on the first Friday of Ramadan in Al-Aqsa; occupation forces storm the Mosque

Injuries in Kufr Qaddoum, Beit Dajan and Beita, as people participate in the funeral of Karam Salman in Qusin

Fatah and the Parents Association call on teachers to save the school year

Moscow calls for the prosecution of those responsible for the attack on the Tomb of the Virgin Mary church in Jerusalem

The President and the Jordanian monarch exchange greetings on the advent of Ramadan

An anti-occupation demonstration and boos greeted Netanyahu in London

The Independent Commission calls on Hamas to immediately release journalist Hani Abu Rizk

Thousands attend prayers at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron on the first Friday of Ramadan

Weakening the judiciary: Hundreds of pilots and military intelligence personnel suspend their service reservists

Al-Ayyam:

The occupation authorities publish bids to build 1029 settlement units in the West Bank and Jerusalem

Dozens were injured in the suppression of the Friday protests; people in Qaryout confront settlers’ incursion

100,000 people performed the first Friday prayer of Ramadan at Al-Aqsa despite the strict restrictions of the occupation

Israel: Protest organizers plan to escalate their activities this week

Moscow calls for the prosecution of those responsible for the attack on the Gethsemane Church

US Senator: The Biden administration appears weak because of its failure to hold Israel accountable

200 Israeli military pilots stop serving in the reserve

Israeli official: The Americans are trying to overthrow the Netanyahu government

Germany expresses concern over approving the return of the settlers to the evacuated settlements

Al-Quds:

Approval of plans to build 8,100 settlement units

The martyr Karam Salman was buried in Qusin

More than 100,000 people perform the first Friday of Ramadan prayer at Al-Aqsa

The prisoner, Walid Daqqa, is facing a serious health condition in Barzlai Hospital.

The war in Ukraine is hurting the Russian arms industry

The town of Jabal al-Mukabber confronts Israeli demolition and settlement expansion

Parents and Fatah call on teachers to return to classes

Washington is weak because of its failure to hold Israel accountable

Netanyahu is holding talks with Sunak on the impact of protest demonstrations against him in London

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

Palestinian detainee in Israel, Khader Adnan, 44, from the northern West Bank town of Arraba, enters today his 49th day of hunger strike in protest against his continuous detention without charge or trial, according to prisoners’ advocacy groups.

Adnan was arrested on February 5 during an Israeli army raid at his home and immediately went on hunger. His home was thoroughly searched and vandalized by the soldiers during his arrest.

Adnan was arrested 12 times by the Israeli occupation authorities over the past 20 years for his political and anti-occupation activities and has spent a total of eight years behind bars.

He went on hunger strike four times during detention, the longest was a 67-day stretch in 2012 that ended with securing his release and inspired other Palestinian prisoners held under administrative detention to go on hunger strike to win their freedom.

In 2015, he again went on strike against his detention for 56 days and again in 2018 for 58 days. In 2021, he was once again arrested and ordered to administrative detention, and he went on hunger strike for 25 days. In each of these occasions, he was able to obtain his freedom.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

Israeli navy today attacked Palestinian fishermen sailing offshore in the north of the Gaza Strip and forced them to return to the coast, reported WAFA correspondent.

He said the navy opened fire in the direction of the fishermen and opened the water hoses at two boats and almost caused one to capsize while they were within the allowed three nautical miles.

Israel imposes a general air, sea, and land blockade on the Gaza Strip since 2005 and restricts the movement of Gazans.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned today the Israeli government’s publishing of tenders for the construction of more than 1,000 new housing units for Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Ambassador Sinan Majali, a spokesman for the Jordanian Foreign Ministry, said the Israeli settlement policy constitutes a violation of international law and undermines the foundations of peace and the opportunities for a two-state solution on the basis of international resolutions.

“Settlement activities are a flagrant violation of international law, foremost of which is Security Council Resolution No. 2334,” Majali added.

He stressed, “The unilateral measures carried out by Israel, the occupying power, in terms of building and expanding settlements, seizing lands and displacing Palestinians are illegal and rejected, and represent a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”

Israeli human rights group Peace Now said in a report earlier this week that the Israel Land Authority (ILA) had published tenders for the construction of nearly 1,000 housing units in the settlements of Efrat and Beitar Illit.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

Colonial Israeli settlers today assaulted and injured a Palestinian man and attacked herders in the northern Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank, said Mutaz Besharat, an official in charge of monitoring the Israeli settlement file in the area.

He said a group of settlers assaulted Palestinian herders while grazing their sheep near Humsa al-Foqa village and forced them to leave, adding that a local Palestinian resident, Tareq Taleb Awawdeh, was assaulted by the settlers, and was hit in the head by a stone thrown by the attacking settlers.

Besharat pointed out that at least one sheep belonging to the local Palestinian herders was killed in the attack.

Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians are commonplace, but attacks on farmers and herders are particularly intensified in the Jordan Valley area. Most of these attacks occurred in the presence of the Israeli occupation army, which usually does nothing to stop the attacks and rather provides protection for assailants.

Armed settlers and soldiers often prevent Palestinian shepherds from herding in the open pastures of the occupied West Bank in order to force them to abandon the area.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

Scores of Palestinians demonstrated today in the Arab cities of Sakhnin and Shefa-Amr in the 1948-occupied territories in protest of the Israeli policy of home demolitions targeting the indigenous Palestinian-Arab communities in the country.

During the two vigils, held ahead of the Palestinian Land Day, the participants waved banners denouncing Israel’s demolition of homes and the discrimination faced by Arab Palestinians in the territories.

Arabs in today’s Israel are Palestinians who stayed on their land following the creation of the occupying state in 1948 and their descendants. They make up about 20 percent of the country’s nine million people.

By law, their rights are equal to those of Jewish citizens. But in practice they suffer discrimination in employment, housing, policing and other essentials.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

Israeli occupation forces imposed a siege tonight on the occupied West Bank province of Nablus, blocking access of Palestinian vehicles through many roads leading to the city and many of the neighboring towns and villages.

Local sources told WAFA that the Israeli occupation forces are still imposing a closure on the checkpoints of Sarra, Huwara, Awarta, al-Muraba’a, Deir Sharaf and Za’tara.

Earlier today, Israeli media reports claimed that two Israeli soldiers were injured in a drive-by shooting in the town of Huwwara, south of Nablus.

Meantime, a Palestinian man was savagely assaulted by Israeli occupation soldiers in Huwwara. The man, who had a fracture in the leg as a result of the attack, was moved to a nearby hospital for medical treatment.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

Extremist Israeli settlers pelted stones tonight at Palestinian vehicles near the village of Deir Sharaf, to the west of Nablus, and blocked a junction in the northern Jordan Valley, according to local sources.

In Nablus province, north of the West Bank, hardcore Israeli settlers hurled stones at Palestinians’ vehicles passing through Deir Sharaf junction, to the west of the city, causing damage to some of them but no injuries, said Ghassan Daghlas, a local Palestinian official.

In the northern Jordan Valley region, northeast of the West Bank, extremist Israeli settlers shut down the Al-Maleh junction, blocking the movement of Palestinian vehicles in the area. The settlers also pelted stones at vehicles, said Mutaz Besharat, a Palestinian official in charge of the settlement file in the area.

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

There are over 650,000 Israeli settlers illegally occupying portions of the West Bank in violation of international law and established norms prohibiting the relocation of the occupying power’s civil population to the land of the occupied.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency