This Week in Palestine June 7-13
HAVANA TIMES — Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for June 7th to the 13th, 2014.
This week Israeli attacks left two Palestinians killed, meanwhile the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas says he is willing to resume peace talks with Israel.
The Nonviolence Report
Let’s us begin our weekly report with nonviolent activities organized in the West Bank. Three journalists were among those injured when Israeli troops attack the weekly anti wall and settlements protests organized in west Bank village.
Protests this week were reported in the villages of Bil’in, Ni’lin and al Nabi Saleh in central West Bank, Kufer Qadoum in the north as well as Al Ma’ssara in southern West Bank. IMEMC’s Majd Batjali with the story:
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. Three journalists were injured in Bil’in, and many civilians were treated from the effects of tear gas inhalation at the three protests.
Meanwhile Israeli troops attacked villagers of Kufer Qadoum and their supporters with tear gas and rubber coated-steel bullets. As a result many civilians were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation.
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
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas says he is willing to resume peace talks with Israel, if Israel commits to releasing last batch of Palestiian detainees, agreed upon last summer. In response, Israeli sources argue that Israel can only return back to table, once Abbas breaks up with Hamas.
In a meeting in Ramalla with his Fatah party leaders, President Mahmoud Abbas, said that he is willing to resume peace talks with Israel, following a recent unity deal with the rival Hamas party.
Abbas reaffirmed the same outlines for a Palestinian government; embracing peace as a strategic choice for realizing a Palestinain state on 1967 border lines, including east Jerusalem as it’s capital. Abbas also asserted that the newl-born unity technocrat government does execlude Hamas.
Meanwhile, Israeli sources echoed the same willingness, but provided that Abbas retreats a latest agreement with Hamas. Israel still contends that the new cabinet includes Hamas, which according to Israel, aims at the destruction of the Israeli state.
In the meantime, the Palestinian cabinet, headed by former PA’s Prime Minister, Rami Alhamdallah, has begun operating and was able to sort out a financial crisis in Gaza, after Hamas elements prevented local banks from functioning for one week, over salaries.
A spokesperson for the technocrat cabinet stated that the state of Qatar pledged a financial support for the salaries of Hamas employees since 2007, for a period of three months.
In the Gaza Strip, Khaled Albatch,a leader of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza, responded to the detainees hunger-strike , underway now in Israeli detention camps, by saying that the only option is capturing Israeli soldiers in order to pressure their release.
More than 140 Palestinian administrative detainees have gone into a hunger strike for seven weeks, now to demand being either released or tried. Administrative detention is a long-time Israeli policy that detains Palestinians for a period of six months, on no charges. Currently, 200 out of 5,000 detainees are administrative.
The West Bank and Gaza Report
Two men and a child are killed in the Gaza strip this week, meanwhile Israeli daily invasions and kidnappings of civilians continue in the West Bank.
A Palestinian man was killed, and two were seriously injured, on Thursday morning, when an Israeli war jet fired a missile targeting a fighter northwest of Gaza city.
The al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, said the fighter has been identified as Mohammad Nasr (Abu Al-Khattab), 24 years of age.
His body was severely mutilated when an Israeli missile struck him as he was driving his motorcycle in the Sudaniyya area. Two civilians were injured in the blast, one seriously, the Palestinian TV has reported. The Israeli army said it targeted fighters planning to attack Israeli targets.
On Wednesday evening, a Palestinian child was killed and a young man was wounded in an explosion that took place in a home in the at-Tuffah neighborhood, in Gaza City, medical sources said. Also on Wednesday Palestinian militants fired a rocket which hit an open area in southern Israel, according to Israeli officials. The rocket hit the Eshkol region, without causing any casualties or damage.
Earlier in the week, Israeli soldiers, stationed across the eastern border of Gaza City, fired dozens of rounds of live ammunition targeting a number of homes, and farmlands, east of Gaza city. Damage was reported but no injuries.
On Sunday a Palestinian fisherman from Gaza died of his wounds according to media sources. He was shot and critically injured by the Israeli navy, off the coast of the northwest part of the Gaza Strip last week.
In the West Bank this week, Israeli forces conducted at least 76 military invasions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. During these attacks, Israeli troops kidnapped at least 28 Palestinians, including 4 children.
In Jerusalem, on Tuesday, Israeli military bulldozers razed large areas of Palestinian-owned land in the neighborhood of Wadi Al-Joz, near the walls of the Old City, according to local witnesses. Local sources said that forces and police surrounded the area, towed a number of Palestinian vehicles from the area, causing severe damage to the cars as well as preventing Palestinians from approaching as bulldozers razed the land, for which no reason was given.
Also this week, Chairperson of the Israeli Medical Association (IMA), Dr. Leonid Eidelman, stated that the association refuses the force-feeding of hunger striking Palestinian political prisoners, adding that Israeli physicians respect the wishes of the detainees. Eidelman stated that Israeli doctors will not force-feed the detainees, holding extended hunger strikes; as such an issue would violate the detainees’ right.
More than 100 Palestinian political detainees held by the Israeli army started their strike more than 48 days ago. At least 70 detainees have been moved to twelve Israeli hospitals, heavily guarded by Israeli soldiers, and shackled in their hospital beds. Held under Administrative Detention policies, without charges or trial, the detainees are demanding to be released or have their day in court.
Conclusion
And that’s all for today from This Week in Palestine. This was the Weekly report for June 7th to the 13th, 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 George Rishmawi, and Ghassan Bannoura.