This Week in Palestine Sep. 6-12
HAVANA TIMES — The international Human rights watch this week accused Israel of committing war crimes during the war on Gaza last month, in the meantime Israeli troops killed two Palestinians this week. Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for September 6th, to the 12th, 2014.
The Nonviolence Report
Let’s us begin our weekly report with nonviolent activities organized in the West Bank. Protests this week were reported in the villages of Bil’in, Ni’lin and al Nabi Saleh in central West Bank, as well as Al Ma’ssara in southern West Bank.
In central West Bank, Israeli soldiers attacked the anti wall protests organized on Friday at the villages of Bil’in, Ni’lin and al Nabi Saleh. Israeli troops used tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets to suppress the three protests.
In al Nabi Saleh, protesters were stopped by Israeli soldiers at the village entrance, while in Bil’in and Ni’lin, protesters managed to reach the Israeli wall. Many civilians were treated from the effects of tear gas inhalation at the three protests. In Bil’in Israeli troops kidnapped an international supporter during the protest.
Elsewhere in southern West Bank, Israeli troops stopped the weekly anti wall protest at Al Ma’ssara village entrance. Soldiers forced people back into the village using rifle buts and batons, no injuries were reported.
The Political Report
Human Rights Watch issued a report this week accusing Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza, a day after Israel announced an investigation into military misconduct during its 51-day offensive against the Gaza Strip.
The International Human Rights organization, Human Rights Watch said in a statement published on Thursday that Israel has violated the laws of war when bombarded three schools of the UNRWA in the Gaza Strip.
In the first in-depth investigation on the Israeli war on Gaza, HRW said the three attacks, which occurred on July 24 and 30, and August 3, 2014, and killed 45 people, including 17 children, clearly violate the laws of war as the three schools are clearly marked and are populated by civilians.
Fred Abrahams, special adviser at Human Rights Watch said “The Israeli military carried out attacks on or near three well-marked schools where it knew hundreds of people were taking shelter, killing and wounding scores of civilians.”
The statement comes one day after Israel announced launching a probe into what it called “Possible military misconduct” during its war on Gaza which claimed the lives of over 2150 Palestinians most of which were civilians and 72 Israelis, 6 of which were civilians and the rest were soldier.
In the meantime, a UN official said this week that Israeli forces have used one of UNRWA’s schools the region as a military base.
Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative of the Security-General for Children and Armed Conflict, declared on that the Israeli military bombed 244 schools, 75 of which were run by UNRWA. Speaking of the aftermath of the assault on besieged Gaza, Ms. Zerrougui stated that, of the children wounded during the conflict, one third now suffer from full disability.
Meanwhile, the two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas are do not seem to have ended the division between them in the aftermath of the war on Gaza. Statements by the deputy chair of the Political Bureau of Hamas Mousa Abu Marzouk in which he did not rule out direct talks with Israel create uproar among Fatah leaders who saw such statements, although not surprising, an attempt to replace the legal
representative of the Palestinian people, namely, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, known as the PLO.
Hamas has also issued a statement on Thursday saying that the issue of direct talks with Israel is not on the agenda in internal Hamas discussions.
The West Bank and Gaza Report
This week Israeli troops killed two Palestinians in the West Bank, and attacked Palestinian firemen of the coast with Gaza.
On Monday of this week, a 5-year-old Palestinian girl has died of injuries sustained during the recent Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip. Rahaf Abo Jame’a, from the village of Bani Suhaila in Khan Younis, succumbed to her wounds in an Egyptian hospital while receiving treatment for shrapnel, Which hit her when their house was targeted by an air strike last month.
The 51-day Israeli assault at lest 2,158 Gazans killed and over 11,000 injured. Some 70 Israelis were killed, including 67 soldiers.
Also this week Israeli navy resumed attacked against Palestinian fishermen. Israeli warships, on Monday morning, fired on fishing boats when they entered the six miles’ distance, and marked the five-mile limit to warn the fisherman against crossing over it. Meanwhile on Tuesday, Israeli navy boats attacked at dawn, Palestinian fishing boats near Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, and kidnapped four fishermen.
The Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture states that Israel has violated the recent ceasefire agreement made with the Palestinians, now allowing Gaza fishermen to sail up to only five nautical miles off the coast. As part of the Egyptian mediated ceasefire that ended the Israeli 50 day long war on Gaza last month, it allowed Palestinians to fish within 6 miles off shore line.
In the West Bank this week, Israeli soldiers invaded, on Wednesday at dawn, the al-Am’ari refugee camp, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, shot and killed a young Palestinian man, and wounded several others. Medical sources said resident Issa Salem al-Qatari, 22 years of age, was shot by several live rounds to the chest, and died of his wounds at the Ramallah Governmental Hospital in Ramallah.
On Tuesday, political detainee held by the Israeli army Ra’ed al-Ja’bari, 37, died at Soroka Israeli military medical center. Palestinian Human rights groups say he died because the army refused to provide him with the needed medical care to save his life and he was subjected to torture. He was from the southern West Bank city of Hebron.
Moreover two Palestinians, including an elderly man, were injured, on Tuesday, while working near an Israeli military watch tower, in Bethlehem city in southern West Bank. The two, sustained moderate injuries when an explosive ordnance, dropped by the Israeli army, detonated near them.
Conclusion
And that’s all for today from This Week in Palestine. This was the Weekly report for September 6th, to the 12th 2014 from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our website at www.imemc.org. This week’s report has been brought to you by Samer Jaber, and Ghassan Bannoura.