Palestine News

Khalil Awawdeh, 40, a Palestinian in Israeli detention, has been on hunger strike for 38 days in protest of his detention without charge or trial, the Palestinian Authority’s Detainees Affairs Commission has said.

Hasan Abd Rabbo, a spokesman for the commission, told WAFA that Awawdeh is suffering acute headache and joint pain all the time, and has lost 16 kg of weight after 38 days of hunger strike in protest of his unfair administrative detention, without charge or trial.

A father of four daughters, Awawdeh was arrested by the Israeli occupation forces on 27 December 2021, and was immediately placed under administrative detention, without charge or trial.

Meantime, Palestinian prisoner Khalil Musa Musbah has been on hunger strike for six days in protest of being placed in solitary confinement at Israel’s Asqalan Prison. He’s been in prisons since 2003, and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

This widely condemned Israeli policy of administrative detention allows the Israeli occupation military to sentence Palestinians up to 6 months in Israeli detention on secret information without charging them or allowing them to stand trial.

This policy has at times forced Palestinian detainees to go on hunger strike as a last resort to demand their freedom.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

More than 450 Palestinian detainees have been refusing to show up for their military court hearings for 100 days in protest of their unfair detention without charge or trial under Israel’s controversial administrative detention policy.

The boycott includes hearings for the renewal of administrative detention orders as well as appeal hearings and later sessions at Israel’s Supreme Court.

Palestinian detainees say their action is a continuation of longstanding Palestinian efforts “to put an end to the unjust administrative detention practiced against our people by the occupation forces.”

Under administrative detention, Israel keeps Palestinians without charge for up to six months, a period which can be extended for an indefinite number of times. Women and minors are also among those detainees. The detention takes place on orders from a military commander and on the basis of what the Israeli regime describes as ‘secret’ evidence. Some prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to 11 years.

Palestinians and human rights groups say the administrative detention violates the right to due process since evidence is withheld from prisoners while they are held for lengthy periods without being charged, tried, or convicted.

Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes in an attempt to express their outrage at the detention. They have also been subjected to systematic torture, harassment and repression all through the years of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.

More than 4,500 Palestinian prisoners are currently held in about 17 Israeli jails. Over 450 detainees, including women and minors, are under the administrative detention. Rights groups describe Israel’s use of the detention as a “bankrupt tactic” and have long called on Israel to end its use.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

Israeli occupation forces today shot dead a Palestinian woman after they opened fire at her while she was crossing an Israeli military checkpoint near the village of Husan, to the west of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, according to The Ministry of Health.

The woman, who was not yet identified, was walking past the checkpoint when soldiers opened gunfire at her, and was later rushed by a private car to a nearby hospital for medical treatment, witnesses said.

The Ministry of Health confirmed that the woman lost large amounts of bloods and later succumbed to her injuries.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

An unidentified Palestinian woman was shot and killed today evening by Israeli forces’ fire in the city of Hebron, in the southern occupied West Bank, according to security sources and eyewitnesses.

Sources told WAFA correspondent Israeli forces opened fire on the woman in the vicinity of al-Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, causing her critical injuries.

Forces reportedly prevented the medical staff from reaching the area and left the woman on the ground bleeding to death.

The Israeli army declared the area a closed military zone and closed the mosque while workers were still inside in the aftermath of the shooting.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

The European Union expressed shock at the Israeli army’s killing of a Palestinian woman in Bethlehem.

“Horrified by the killing of a Palestinian woman by ISF near Bethlehem. Our deepest condolences to her family. Such excessive use of lethal force against an unarmed civilian is unacceptable. This incidence must be swiftly investigated and the perpetrators be brought to justice,” said the EU in a tweet tonight.

Israeli forces earlier today shot a Palestinian woman at close range of just a few feet while she was crossing an Israeli military checkpoint near the village of Husan, west of Bethlehem. The woman, a mother of six, succumbed to her wounds shortly after.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

Dozens of Israeli settlers tonight gathered and spread out at road junctions leading to the city of Nablus, cutting off driving Palestinian-registered vehicles, according to a local activist.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors Israeli settlement activities in the north of the West Bank, said settlers spread out near Huwwara, Beit Furik, and Annab military checkpoints to the south, east, and west of Nablus, respectively.

They also gathered on the road connecting Jenin and Nablus, cutting off driving Palestinian-registered vehicles.

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

“Settler violence and vandalism take place with full backing by the Israeli authorities. Sometimes soldiers take part in the assault; at other times, they stand idly by. The police make no substantial effort to investigate the incidents, nor takes measures to prevent them or stop them in real-time,” said the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.

Israel benefits from the repercussions, as settler violence has gradually dispossessed Palestinians of more and more areas in the West Bank, paving the way for a state takeover of land and resources, said B’Tselem.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency

Israeli forces tonight opened fire at a Palestinian vehicle at Ad-Dhahiriya crossing to the south of Hebon, in the southern occupied West Bank, according to local sources.

Sources told WAFA correspondent that Israeli soldiers opened fire at the vehicle for allegedly fleeing the scene when asked to stop for searching.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency