Several Palestinians wounded by illegal Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem

Saturday August 08, 2009 14:22 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

Palestinian medical sources reported Saturday that several Palestinians were wounded in Shaikh Jarrah neighborhood, in East Jerusalem, after being attacked by dozens of illegal extremist Israeli settlers.

The settlers attacked homes and a summer-camp for children, and hurled stones and empty bottles at them.

The settlers also attacked several women, and dumped trash in the yards of a number of homes.

The Maan News Agency reported that clashes took place between the settlers and the residents and that the Israeli police provided protection to the settlers and fired gas bombs at the residents.

Encouraged by the Israeli policy of demolishing Palestinian homes in Jerusalem and by a decision of the Israeli High Court to evacuate Palestinian families and replace them with settlers, extremist Israeli settlers have stepped-up their attacks against the Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem and several areas in the occupied West Bank.

UNRWA concerned over eviction of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem

Saturday August 08, 2009 01:39 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC

The Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) expressed concern over the eviction of Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem, especially amidst the ongoing Israeli violations that is forcing more families out to replace them with illegal Israeli settlers.

Last week, the Israeli Authorities evicted two more Palestinian families in East Jerusalem, rendering 53 persons homeless. The residents are officially registered by the UNRWA as refugees.

The two families, Al-Ghawi and Hannoun, are from Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood which is subjected to extensive Israeli violations against the Palestinians residents to replace them with Jewish settlers.

Chris Gunnes, UNRWA spokesperson, stated that the families lived in their homes for more than half a century. They were forced out of their homes in the early hours of last Sunday.

He added that the families ‘continue to suffer distress and shock’, and that ‘the children are particularly traumatized’.  

Gunnes also stated that besides being attacked in their homes when the police and security personnel broke into them, they also had to endure the humiliation as their “personal effects being loaded onto trucks and dumped in scrub land at the edge of Jerusalem’s Route One, a busy thoroughfare”.

He added that the attacks are in direct violation to the Geneva Conventions, and are carried out regardless of international objections, including objections by the Quartet Committee (The United nations, the United States, the European Union, and Russia).

“These actions are contrary to the provisions of the Geneva Conventions related to the occupied territory,” he said, adding that they flout the united calls by the international community, including those by the diplomatic Quartet comprising the UN, the United States, the European Union and Russia.

Bil'in protesters gassed, sprayed as they request release of prisoners

August 8, 2009

 Bethlehem - Ma’an -

Tens choked on teargas fired by Israeli soldiers as protesters from Bil’in made their weekly attempt to cross the separation wall blocking families from their lands.

Israeli and International peace activists demonstrated after the Friday prayers, waving Palestinian flags and banners with slogans calling for the release of the local anti-wall activists Muhammad Al-Khatib and Adib Abu Rahma. The men were detained by Israeli forces during raids into the village following anti-wall protests. Raids often begin as soon as international activists leave the area.

Once the demonstrators arrived at the wall gate, waiting soldiers fired three types of gas bombs at protesters. According to the Bil’in popular committee there were canisters thrown by hand, others by small lautomated hand-held launchers and a third sort from military vehicles. The gas covered nearly a square kilometer with stink. According to one participant, one of the canister launchers was capable of launching 50 at once.

Soldiers sprayed demonstrators with green-water, which locals believe is contaminated with chemicals and animal waste. The water causes people to vomit, often violently. Demonstrators dressed in plastic dresses, hats, gloves, and masks to avoid the effects of the chemical water and its noxious smell, which has been used several times before.

Palestinian killed in a tunnel accident in Rafah

Saturday August 08, 2009 02:36 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

Palestinian medical sources reported on Friday at night that a resident was killed in a tunnel collapse accident along the Gaza-Egypt border in Rafah district, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

The sources told the Palestine News and Information Center, WAFA, that the body of resident was identified as Ahmad Al Dabary, 25, was located under the rubble and was moved to Abu Yousef Al Najjar Hospital in Rafah.

The number of residents killed in tunnel accidents in Gaza arrived to 113.

Jewish settlers raid Palestinian village, carry out religious rituals

[ 07/08/2009 - 03:36 PM ]

SALFIT, (PIC)--

Israeli occupation forces (IOF) troops a companied a group of illegal Jewish settlers as they raided Kafr Haris, a Palestinian village to the north-west of the northern West Bank city of Salfit, according to local sources.

Local sources said that the so called border guards raided the village and ordered shop keepers to close their shops and go home. Then they installed check points at the main road junctions of the village and barred residents from moving around the village while settlers arrived in droves into the village to carry out some religious rituals under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces.