9 may 2019
By UN News: Millions of dollars in emergency funding is needed in Gaza to save the shattered limbs of some 1,700 people who have been seriously injured in demonstrations against Israel along the border fence, a top UN humanitarian official said on Wednesday.
In an appeal for $20 million to help victims hurt during protests dubbed the Great March of Return – weekly rallies on Fridays by Gazans that began a year ago, leaving 29,000 people injured, many by live ammunition – Jamie McGoldrick, Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), said that more resources were urgently required.
“The health structures really are in bad shape and that’s why we have put this appeal out for $20 million to address the needs of those 1,700 people, but also to support the health system”, he said.
“Of that 29,000, 7,000 have been shot with live ammunition and those are the ones who have been treated at facilities that are under very serious stress anyway”, Mr. McGoldrick added.
To date, some 120 amputations have taken place since the beginning of the demonstrations, according to the UN official, with 20 children among the amputees.
‘Running against the clock’
“We are running against the clock for some of these cases and osteomyelitis – bone infection – will be a crisis, and the need is to treat that, prevent that, otherwise we will have amputations,” he said. “The technical abilities of doctors on the ground to carry out treatment required for the 1,700 (injured demonstrators) just doesn’t exist.”
Speaking in Geneva following a lull in deadly violence over the weekend at the Israel-Gaza border between militant groups in Gaza – which is controlled by Hamas – and Israeli security forces, Mr. McGoldrick insisted on the need for dialogue to address the dire economic and humanitarian situation there.
He confirmed that UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, was in Cairo to reinforce the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal reportedly mediated by Egypt, adding that he hoped this would allow humanitarian deliveries to resume “because we were prevented from doing work, because of the insecurity and instability”.
Today, average household debt in Gaza is $4,000, the UN official explained, noting that average salaries are $400 a month. The situation has been made worse by chronically high youth unemployment and the fact that the UN’s $350 million humanitarian appeal for 2019 is funded at only 14 per cent.
“It’s not going to get any better, it’s getting worse,” he said. “If you look at the number of shops that have closed because of debt…people are using all sorts of means, selling assets, doctors going abroad leaving the family and sending remittances back, we’re hearing that the indebted nature of some of the poorest families is quite heavy.”
During the recent military activity, hundreds of rockets were launched from Gaza by Palestinian militants into southern Israel, and hundreds of airstrikes and tank rounds were fired in return, causing 29 fatalities in Gaza and four in Israel, along with some 200 casualties on each side.
“The situation is very precarious,” Mr. McGoldrick said. “And I think the need for a political solution is all the more highlighted because of how easy it is to slip into something very quickly.”
In an appeal for $20 million to help victims hurt during protests dubbed the Great March of Return – weekly rallies on Fridays by Gazans that began a year ago, leaving 29,000 people injured, many by live ammunition – Jamie McGoldrick, Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), said that more resources were urgently required.
“The health structures really are in bad shape and that’s why we have put this appeal out for $20 million to address the needs of those 1,700 people, but also to support the health system”, he said.
“Of that 29,000, 7,000 have been shot with live ammunition and those are the ones who have been treated at facilities that are under very serious stress anyway”, Mr. McGoldrick added.
To date, some 120 amputations have taken place since the beginning of the demonstrations, according to the UN official, with 20 children among the amputees.
‘Running against the clock’
“We are running against the clock for some of these cases and osteomyelitis – bone infection – will be a crisis, and the need is to treat that, prevent that, otherwise we will have amputations,” he said. “The technical abilities of doctors on the ground to carry out treatment required for the 1,700 (injured demonstrators) just doesn’t exist.”
Speaking in Geneva following a lull in deadly violence over the weekend at the Israel-Gaza border between militant groups in Gaza – which is controlled by Hamas – and Israeli security forces, Mr. McGoldrick insisted on the need for dialogue to address the dire economic and humanitarian situation there.
He confirmed that UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, was in Cairo to reinforce the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal reportedly mediated by Egypt, adding that he hoped this would allow humanitarian deliveries to resume “because we were prevented from doing work, because of the insecurity and instability”.
Today, average household debt in Gaza is $4,000, the UN official explained, noting that average salaries are $400 a month. The situation has been made worse by chronically high youth unemployment and the fact that the UN’s $350 million humanitarian appeal for 2019 is funded at only 14 per cent.
“It’s not going to get any better, it’s getting worse,” he said. “If you look at the number of shops that have closed because of debt…people are using all sorts of means, selling assets, doctors going abroad leaving the family and sending remittances back, we’re hearing that the indebted nature of some of the poorest families is quite heavy.”
During the recent military activity, hundreds of rockets were launched from Gaza by Palestinian militants into southern Israel, and hundreds of airstrikes and tank rounds were fired in return, causing 29 fatalities in Gaza and four in Israel, along with some 200 casualties on each side.
“The situation is very precarious,” Mr. McGoldrick said. “And I think the need for a political solution is all the more highlighted because of how easy it is to slip into something very quickly.”
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The neighborhood of Salaymeh, next to Salaymeh checkpoint (160), has been the center of tensions between Palestinians and Israelis, in the city of Al-Khalil (Hebron).
This checkpoint cuts off an already poor and struggling neighborhood from the rest of the city. At these checkpoints that are throughout Hebron, Palestinians are stopped, delayed, searched, asked for ID, and sometimes denied passage. The checkpoints are a daily humiliation and intimidation of the local people, by the occupying Israeli army. The checkpoint at Salaymeh is also used every day, by children on their way to and from school,and who are subject to the same treatment by the soldiers. From the moment the children start looking like teenagers, they go from being treated like children to being treated as criminals. In order to cope with this, the children have to learn to handle themselves as adults from a very early age, and, as a result, they are forced to grow up far too quickly. There is massive tension, at the checkpoints, because the children are angry and frustrated, and the soldiers are hostile and confrontational. There are frequent clashes between the children and the soldiers. The soldiers will throw tear gas and stun grenades and, sometimes, even shoot rubber-coated metal bullets at the children, for throwing rocks at the checkpoint. This response, which happens on an almost daily basis, is completely disproportionate – adults using military weapons against children on their way to school. |
In the past week, 2 children have been abducted and illegally detained by soldiers, in Salaymeh. Both of them were 14 years old, from Jerusalem, and were visiting their cousin in Al-Khalil. The children were dragged from school, frisked, forced on their knees and handcuffed by the soldiers. One of them was let go after 2 hours, while the other was taken to a military base, where he was interrogated without his lawyer or parents present.
An international activist who was documenting this incident was also detained by the soldiers, she describes her detention as follows:
“I’ve been at Salaymeh checkpoint every other day for a month and a half, just trying to document the soldier’s harassment of the children, keeping in contact with the UN, so they can hopefully help if children are arrested. I am always mindful not to antagonize the soldiers and try to interact with them as little as possible. My hope is that an international presence will result in less violence, because the soldiers will know they are being watched and may be held accountable.
“On the day that I was detained, I was filming a soldier as normal, who threatened to arrest another activist who I was with. Because I’d witnessed a lot of broken rules and violence by the army, during my time at Salaymeh checkpoint, I knew it was important to keep filming. The commander asked me to move away, and, when I kept filming, she told me that she would have another soldier move me with force.
When I didn’t stop filming, she told me to come with her and that she had the authority to make arrests. I was very unsure of what to do in this situation – I had been told before that soldiers could not make arrests, but I was confused, and I was afraid of what might happen so I complied and went with her. I later found out that what the commander had said was, in fact, a lie and that she had absolutely no legal authority to detain me.
“I was kept at Salaymeh checkpoint for an hour and a half, being told that the police would come, but they never did. I was then put into a military van without being told where I was being taken. They then drove me around the city, back and forth, for half an hour, which was very confusing.
I still don’t know why they did this but I believe now that they were trying to shake off the UN who were trying to find out where I was being held, in order to assist me. Eventually, I was taken to a military base where they were also holding the Palestinian child who had been arrested. We were both held there for over 5 hours.
During this time, I was marshaled around, sporadically questioned, never given any food or water and never having anything explained to me. I was told that I would never be able to return to the country and that I would be deported that day. The whole time, I was denied access to my lawyer and I was never given any reason for why I was being held.
“What struck me the most about being detained with the Palestinian child was that, as an international, I was treated far better. I, an adult, was not handcuffed, and I was allowed to keep my things. He however, a child, was handcuffed, restrained, frisked, and they took his phone and his things.
It was shocking and angering, to me, that this child was treated so much worse than me – it made it very obvious to me that the treatment of Palestinians undoubtedly has its roots in racism.”
An international activist who was documenting this incident was also detained by the soldiers, she describes her detention as follows:
“I’ve been at Salaymeh checkpoint every other day for a month and a half, just trying to document the soldier’s harassment of the children, keeping in contact with the UN, so they can hopefully help if children are arrested. I am always mindful not to antagonize the soldiers and try to interact with them as little as possible. My hope is that an international presence will result in less violence, because the soldiers will know they are being watched and may be held accountable.
“On the day that I was detained, I was filming a soldier as normal, who threatened to arrest another activist who I was with. Because I’d witnessed a lot of broken rules and violence by the army, during my time at Salaymeh checkpoint, I knew it was important to keep filming. The commander asked me to move away, and, when I kept filming, she told me that she would have another soldier move me with force.
When I didn’t stop filming, she told me to come with her and that she had the authority to make arrests. I was very unsure of what to do in this situation – I had been told before that soldiers could not make arrests, but I was confused, and I was afraid of what might happen so I complied and went with her. I later found out that what the commander had said was, in fact, a lie and that she had absolutely no legal authority to detain me.
“I was kept at Salaymeh checkpoint for an hour and a half, being told that the police would come, but they never did. I was then put into a military van without being told where I was being taken. They then drove me around the city, back and forth, for half an hour, which was very confusing.
I still don’t know why they did this but I believe now that they were trying to shake off the UN who were trying to find out where I was being held, in order to assist me. Eventually, I was taken to a military base where they were also holding the Palestinian child who had been arrested. We were both held there for over 5 hours.
During this time, I was marshaled around, sporadically questioned, never given any food or water and never having anything explained to me. I was told that I would never be able to return to the country and that I would be deported that day. The whole time, I was denied access to my lawyer and I was never given any reason for why I was being held.
“What struck me the most about being detained with the Palestinian child was that, as an international, I was treated far better. I, an adult, was not handcuffed, and I was allowed to keep my things. He however, a child, was handcuffed, restrained, frisked, and they took his phone and his things.
It was shocking and angering, to me, that this child was treated so much worse than me – it made it very obvious to me that the treatment of Palestinians undoubtedly has its roots in racism.”
8 may 2019
The Israeli police on Wednesday arrested a number of Palestinian youths after they were attacked by Israeli settlers in the Old City of Jerusalem. video video
Quds Press said, quoting eyewitnesses, that scores of Israeli settlers in the early morning hours stormed Aqabat al-Saraya area and placed Israeli flags on a building they have seized recently.
The settlers clashed with Palestinian youths living in the area, chanted racist slogans, and insulted them.
The Israeli police intervened to protect the settlers, arrested a number of Palestinian youths, and transferred them to a nearby detention center.
Quds Press said, quoting eyewitnesses, that scores of Israeli settlers in the early morning hours stormed Aqabat al-Saraya area and placed Israeli flags on a building they have seized recently.
The settlers clashed with Palestinian youths living in the area, chanted racist slogans, and insulted them.
The Israeli police intervened to protect the settlers, arrested a number of Palestinian youths, and transferred them to a nearby detention center.
Israeli soldiers abducted, on Wednesday at dawn, ten Palestinians, including a young woman and two children, from their homes in several parts of the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) has reported.
The PPS said the soldiers abducted Fatima Yahia Suleiman, 19, from her home in Beit Safafa town, near occupied Jerusalem, in addition to one child, who remained unidentified at the time of this report, from Jerusalem.
The soldiers also invaded and searched many homes in the southern West Bank governorate of Hebron, and abducted two Palestinians, identified as Baha’ Thabet Najjar, from Yatta town, and Zakariya Fayeq Nassar, 15, from the al-Fawwar refugee camp.
A third Palestinian, Islam Bassam D’eis, 19, from Hebron, was taken prisoner in nearby Bethlehem.
Furthermore, the soldiers invaded a home, owned by members of Abu Es’eifan family, in Wad al-Hasseen area, in Hebron city, and assaulted the family, causing them to suffer various cuts and bruises.
The soldiers also assaulted Jamal Abu Es’eifan while trying to document the invasion and violation on video, and held the entire family in one room for more than an hour.
In addition, the soldiers invaded Osarin village, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and fired a barrage of gas bombs, many striking homes, during protests the erupted following the invasion.
The soldiers also closed Madama village gate, which links between many villages and towns, south of Nablus.
In Azzoun town, east of the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia, the soldiers searched many homes and abducted Mohammad Monir Mashal, 25, and four former political prisoners, identified as Odai Samir Aby Haniyya, 28, Ja’far Abdul-Karim Salim, 24, Mohammad Nidal Mashal, 24, and Luay Anwar Mashal, 26.
On Tuesday afternoon, the soldiers abducted Salim Ahmad Walad Ali, a former political prisoner from Sanour town, southwest of Jenin, in northern West Bank.
The PPS said the soldiers abducted Fatima Yahia Suleiman, 19, from her home in Beit Safafa town, near occupied Jerusalem, in addition to one child, who remained unidentified at the time of this report, from Jerusalem.
The soldiers also invaded and searched many homes in the southern West Bank governorate of Hebron, and abducted two Palestinians, identified as Baha’ Thabet Najjar, from Yatta town, and Zakariya Fayeq Nassar, 15, from the al-Fawwar refugee camp.
A third Palestinian, Islam Bassam D’eis, 19, from Hebron, was taken prisoner in nearby Bethlehem.
Furthermore, the soldiers invaded a home, owned by members of Abu Es’eifan family, in Wad al-Hasseen area, in Hebron city, and assaulted the family, causing them to suffer various cuts and bruises.
The soldiers also assaulted Jamal Abu Es’eifan while trying to document the invasion and violation on video, and held the entire family in one room for more than an hour.
In addition, the soldiers invaded Osarin village, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and fired a barrage of gas bombs, many striking homes, during protests the erupted following the invasion.
The soldiers also closed Madama village gate, which links between many villages and towns, south of Nablus.
In Azzoun town, east of the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia, the soldiers searched many homes and abducted Mohammad Monir Mashal, 25, and four former political prisoners, identified as Odai Samir Aby Haniyya, 28, Ja’far Abdul-Karim Salim, 24, Mohammad Nidal Mashal, 24, and Luay Anwar Mashal, 26.
On Tuesday afternoon, the soldiers abducted Salim Ahmad Walad Ali, a former political prisoner from Sanour town, southwest of Jenin, in northern West Bank.
7 may 2019
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Azmi Doghmush, a building owner in Gaza, says that he received a taunting phone call from an Israeli intelligence officer on Sunday: “Sheikh Doghmush! How are you doing?… Count down five minutes and watch my proficiency and accuracy in toppling your building, but keep 50 meters away.”
The seven-story al-Qamar residential building in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood in the Gaza City was then leveled by six Israeli missiles. “He was honest, while my lifetime dream was turned into fallen dominoes,” Doghmush, 50, said. The anonymous officer gave all tenants in the building five minutes to evacuate, he said. “I was screaming hysterically, this is a joke, don’t do it, this is foolish! |
Five minutes is not enough to pick up even a pencil, but the officer insisted that the countdown is running.”
Despite the smoke still rising from the ruin Monday, former tenants of the building attempted to retrieve all they could find in the rubble of the high-rise.
The Al-Qamar building was home to more than 40 residents and commercial tenants including a beauty salon, mini market and tires service store. The bombings over the weekend caused damage to 310 residential buildings, fishing ports, and two universities across Gaza, and completely destroyed 18 residential buildings and family homes, a mosque, several schools, three media offices, and three ambulances.
“My son’s new mini market, equipped with food for the Holy Ramadan, is under rubble, but that seems no less horrible than when I saw a paranoid man with only his knickers on fleeing out after the call,” Doghmush said.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza confirmed that 25 Palestinians, including two infants, a toddler, and two pregnant women, were killed in the Israeli airstrikes, before an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire agreement between Israel and Palestinian factions in the besieged enclave was declared.
For Azmi Doghmush, this military escalation is a “real war” and could be just one in a series of wars since the last conflict of July-August 2014, when 2,251 people, including 1,462 civilians, were killed over seven weeks, according to the UN.
“More conflicts will erupt till doomsday as long as the US wrestler Donald Trump is in office; exploiting the Arabian Gulf’s cash and it siding with Israel,” he added.
Trump said on Sunday the United States fully supported Israel’s response to a barrage of rockets fired from Gaza and called for an end to the Palestinian militant attacks, warning Gazans such actions would bring them “nothing but more misery.” He said on Twitter.
“Once again, Israel faces a barrage of deadly rocket attacks by terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. We support Israel 100% in its defense of its citizens…. To the Gazan people – these terrorist acts against Israel will bring you nothing but more misery. END the violence and work towards peace – it can happen!”
Among the victims were a family: Iman al-Ghazali, 30, and her husband Ahmad, 31, and their daughter Maria, 4 months. The family were reported killed as an Israeli warplane fired missiles into their apartment in Zayed Residential buildings, in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, Sunday.
A neighbor of the slain al-Ghazali family, Abdul-Raheem Haidar, 62, said that he was praying in a nearby mosque when it was shaken as if by an earthquake. “At that second I felt my heart shrink, that a real thriller movie is playing outside,” Haidar said yesterday, as his daughters moved their belongings to a truck. The family must relocate due to massive damage to their home, which was next to the al-Ghazali’s apartment.
Muna Haidar, one of those daughters, held up her hands, still trembling since the strike took place. “In this Holy month? I have never imagined that we could be homeless one day, but it becomes an undeniable truth,” Muna, 27, told Mondoweiss. “They were a lovely family (al-Ghazali) with a cute infant, but the Paradise could be safer than Gaza’s endless wars and falling rockets.
“Where is Mr. Obama? I guess he was more equitable with the Palestinians. Today we would prefer the blue devil to Trump.”
She took a last look at the wrecked home and added, “The slain mother Iman and I were planning for three days to prepare beef ravioli for today’s breakfast.”
Despite the smoke still rising from the ruin Monday, former tenants of the building attempted to retrieve all they could find in the rubble of the high-rise.
The Al-Qamar building was home to more than 40 residents and commercial tenants including a beauty salon, mini market and tires service store. The bombings over the weekend caused damage to 310 residential buildings, fishing ports, and two universities across Gaza, and completely destroyed 18 residential buildings and family homes, a mosque, several schools, three media offices, and three ambulances.
“My son’s new mini market, equipped with food for the Holy Ramadan, is under rubble, but that seems no less horrible than when I saw a paranoid man with only his knickers on fleeing out after the call,” Doghmush said.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza confirmed that 25 Palestinians, including two infants, a toddler, and two pregnant women, were killed in the Israeli airstrikes, before an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire agreement between Israel and Palestinian factions in the besieged enclave was declared.
For Azmi Doghmush, this military escalation is a “real war” and could be just one in a series of wars since the last conflict of July-August 2014, when 2,251 people, including 1,462 civilians, were killed over seven weeks, according to the UN.
“More conflicts will erupt till doomsday as long as the US wrestler Donald Trump is in office; exploiting the Arabian Gulf’s cash and it siding with Israel,” he added.
Trump said on Sunday the United States fully supported Israel’s response to a barrage of rockets fired from Gaza and called for an end to the Palestinian militant attacks, warning Gazans such actions would bring them “nothing but more misery.” He said on Twitter.
“Once again, Israel faces a barrage of deadly rocket attacks by terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. We support Israel 100% in its defense of its citizens…. To the Gazan people – these terrorist acts against Israel will bring you nothing but more misery. END the violence and work towards peace – it can happen!”
Among the victims were a family: Iman al-Ghazali, 30, and her husband Ahmad, 31, and their daughter Maria, 4 months. The family were reported killed as an Israeli warplane fired missiles into their apartment in Zayed Residential buildings, in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, Sunday.
A neighbor of the slain al-Ghazali family, Abdul-Raheem Haidar, 62, said that he was praying in a nearby mosque when it was shaken as if by an earthquake. “At that second I felt my heart shrink, that a real thriller movie is playing outside,” Haidar said yesterday, as his daughters moved their belongings to a truck. The family must relocate due to massive damage to their home, which was next to the al-Ghazali’s apartment.
Muna Haidar, one of those daughters, held up her hands, still trembling since the strike took place. “In this Holy month? I have never imagined that we could be homeless one day, but it becomes an undeniable truth,” Muna, 27, told Mondoweiss. “They were a lovely family (al-Ghazali) with a cute infant, but the Paradise could be safer than Gaza’s endless wars and falling rockets.
“Where is Mr. Obama? I guess he was more equitable with the Palestinians. Today we would prefer the blue devil to Trump.”
She took a last look at the wrecked home and added, “The slain mother Iman and I were planning for three days to prepare beef ravioli for today’s breakfast.”
At least 830 housing units sustained damage or were completely destroyed during the last Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip, according to an initial report by the ministry of public works and housing.
According to the report, 130 housing units were reduced to rubble and 700 others were partially damaged during the recent Israeli attacks on Gaza.
However, field crews from the ministry are still working on collecting information on more housing units that sustained destruction or damage before providing final statistics in this regard.
According to the report, 130 housing units were reduced to rubble and 700 others were partially damaged during the recent Israeli attacks on Gaza.
However, field crews from the ministry are still working on collecting information on more housing units that sustained destruction or damage before providing final statistics in this regard.
Israeli forces forced 15 Palestinian families to evacuate from their homes in northern Jordan Valley, in the northern occupied West Bank, on Tuesday, in order to make way for active military training.
Mutaz Bisharat, a Palestinian official who monitors settlement activity in the Jordan Valley/Tubas district, said that Israel ordered 15 families, consisting of 98 individuals, mostly women and children, to evacuate the in the Hamsa al-Fawqa area, in the Jordan Valley.
The evacuation orders obliges the families to evacuate their homes for the next four weeks for three days per week; on Sunday from 1:00 p.m., on Monday from 4:00 p.m. to Tuesday 10:00 a.m., and on Wednesday from 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Palestinian residents of the Jordan Valley regularly face evacuations and interruption due to Israeli military exercises on or near their land. The district of Tubas, meanwhile, is one of the occupied West Bank's most important agricultural centers.
The majority of the Jordan Valley is under full Israeli military control, despite being within the West Bank. Meanwhile, at least 44 percent of the total land in the Jordan Valley has been reappropriated by Israeli forces for military purposes and training exercises.
According to the Palestinian nonprofit the Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ), more than 400,000 dunams (98,842 acres) of the 720,000 dunams (177,916 acres) that make up the total area of the Jordan Valley has been transformed into closed military and firing zones, with at least 27,000 dunams (6,672 acres) confiscated for illegal Israeli settlement building.
The Israeli rights group B'Tselem has emphasized the detrimental effects such trainings have on communities that are dependent on farming and shepherding. "B’Tselem’s research has found that over the course of the military maneuver, ten sheep and goats died in the evacuated communities. In addition, ammunition remnants from the military training caused fires."
Israeli military training exercises in the Jordan Valley have increased dramatically since 2012 and are one of many tools used to forcibly displace rural Palestinian communities, NGO Jordan Valley Solidarity says, part of a historic process of creeping annexation of the valley by Israel's military.
Forming a third of the occupied West Bank and with 88 percent of its land classified as Area C, the Jordan Valley has long been a strategic area of land unlikely to return to Palestinians following Israel's occupation in 1967.
Mutaz Bisharat, a Palestinian official who monitors settlement activity in the Jordan Valley/Tubas district, said that Israel ordered 15 families, consisting of 98 individuals, mostly women and children, to evacuate the in the Hamsa al-Fawqa area, in the Jordan Valley.
The evacuation orders obliges the families to evacuate their homes for the next four weeks for three days per week; on Sunday from 1:00 p.m., on Monday from 4:00 p.m. to Tuesday 10:00 a.m., and on Wednesday from 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Palestinian residents of the Jordan Valley regularly face evacuations and interruption due to Israeli military exercises on or near their land. The district of Tubas, meanwhile, is one of the occupied West Bank's most important agricultural centers.
The majority of the Jordan Valley is under full Israeli military control, despite being within the West Bank. Meanwhile, at least 44 percent of the total land in the Jordan Valley has been reappropriated by Israeli forces for military purposes and training exercises.
According to the Palestinian nonprofit the Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ), more than 400,000 dunams (98,842 acres) of the 720,000 dunams (177,916 acres) that make up the total area of the Jordan Valley has been transformed into closed military and firing zones, with at least 27,000 dunams (6,672 acres) confiscated for illegal Israeli settlement building.
The Israeli rights group B'Tselem has emphasized the detrimental effects such trainings have on communities that are dependent on farming and shepherding. "B’Tselem’s research has found that over the course of the military maneuver, ten sheep and goats died in the evacuated communities. In addition, ammunition remnants from the military training caused fires."
Israeli military training exercises in the Jordan Valley have increased dramatically since 2012 and are one of many tools used to forcibly displace rural Palestinian communities, NGO Jordan Valley Solidarity says, part of a historic process of creeping annexation of the valley by Israel's military.
Forming a third of the occupied West Bank and with 88 percent of its land classified as Area C, the Jordan Valley has long been a strategic area of land unlikely to return to Palestinians following Israel's occupation in 1967.
Violent clashes broke out on Monday evening between Palestinian young men and Israeli police forces in Issawiya district, northeast of Occupied Jerusalem.
Local official Mohamed Abul-Hems said that the skirmishes started when police forces stormed Issawiya from its western entrance and embarked on intensively firing stun and tear gas grenades at Palestinian citizens.
Abul-Hems added that the police forces set up roadblocks at all entrances to Issawiya and another one near al-Arba’ein Mosque, where their intercepted cars, brutalized local citizens and checked their IDs.
He pointed out that the Israeli police had also stormed the district on Sunday, assaulted citizens and deliberately caused damage to property and cars, especially near al-Arba’ein Mosque.
Local official Mohamed Abul-Hems said that the skirmishes started when police forces stormed Issawiya from its western entrance and embarked on intensively firing stun and tear gas grenades at Palestinian citizens.
Abul-Hems added that the police forces set up roadblocks at all entrances to Issawiya and another one near al-Arba’ein Mosque, where their intercepted cars, brutalized local citizens and checked their IDs.
He pointed out that the Israeli police had also stormed the district on Sunday, assaulted citizens and deliberately caused damage to property and cars, especially near al-Arba’ein Mosque.
A Palestinian was shot and injured by Israeli forces, east of Beit Hanoun, in the northern besieged Gaza Strip.
According to local sources, Israeli forces opened fire at a group of Palestinians workers, near a waste collection site, east of Beit Hanoun.
Sources confirmed that one of the workers, whose identity remained unknown, was shot and injured in his foot.
Medical sources said that the Palestinian, in his twenties, was transferred to the Indonesian Hospital, in northern Gaza, to receive medical treatment.
The reason for the shooting remained unknown.
According to local sources, Israeli forces opened fire at a group of Palestinians workers, near a waste collection site, east of Beit Hanoun.
Sources confirmed that one of the workers, whose identity remained unknown, was shot and injured in his foot.
Medical sources said that the Palestinian, in his twenties, was transferred to the Indonesian Hospital, in northern Gaza, to receive medical treatment.
The reason for the shooting remained unknown.
Thirteen Palestinian schools in the besieged Gaza Strip were severely damaged in the Israeli escalation across the Strip, which claimed the lives of 27 Palestinians and injured at least 154 others, on Tuesday.
The Palestinian Ministry of Education in Gaza said in a statement that the windows and doors of 13 schools were completely damaged, as well as the walls cracked.
The ministry also said that the shrapnel of the Israeli missiles and debris of the targeted buildings directly hit the classrooms.
The ministry expressed its “strong condemnation” regarding the Israeli escalation on Gaza, which damaged basic infrastructure in all fields, and stressed that this is a violation of the international laws and conventions.
The ministry called for the international community to halt Israeli practices and hold Israel accountable for its violations.
The Palestinian Ministry of Education in Gaza said in a statement that the windows and doors of 13 schools were completely damaged, as well as the walls cracked.
The ministry also said that the shrapnel of the Israeli missiles and debris of the targeted buildings directly hit the classrooms.
The ministry expressed its “strong condemnation” regarding the Israeli escalation on Gaza, which damaged basic infrastructure in all fields, and stressed that this is a violation of the international laws and conventions.
The ministry called for the international community to halt Israeli practices and hold Israel accountable for its violations.
