This Week in Palestine, March 4th, 2015

As the Palestinian Authority work for an international peace conference, Israeli troops kill four Palestinian civilians this week. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.


The Nonviolence Report

Let’s begin our weekly report as usual with the nonviolent activities organized in the West Bank. two youth injured meanwhile scores others were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation when Israeli troops attacked nonviolent protests organized in West Bank villages. IMEMC’s Majd Batjali with the details :

In Kufer Kadum in northern West Bank two civilians were lightly wounded and many residents were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation as Israeli troops attacked the weekly protest there. Troops later stormed the village and fired tear gas into residents homes,

Meanwhile in the villages of Bil’in and Ni’lin, in central West Bank, Israeli soldiers attacked the protesters as soon as they reached the gate in the wall that separates local farmers from their lands. Many protesters suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation and were treated by field medics at both locations.

At the nearby al Nabi Saleh village, troops attacked protesters at the village entrance. Israeli soldiers fired several rounds of rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas at protesters and nearby homes. Many residents suffered effects of tear gas inhalation as a result.

Moreover, at least 400 Israeli and Palestinian peace activists marched in a nonviolent protest organized at settlers’ road 60, near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem. The protest on Friday was organized by Combatants for Peace Movement, in collaboration with a number of Palestinian and Israeli NGOs.

For IMEMC News this Majd Batjali.


The Political Report

This week, the Palestinian Authority hopes for convening an international peace conference that helps push peace forward. IMEMC’s Rami Al Meghari has more:

In a meeting with European members of parliament from Belgium, Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, called for convening an international peace conference that would help push the peace process forward.

The president's meeting with the parliamentarians, took place in the West Bank city of Ramallah and was described as fruitful, as the PA's president briefed the delegation on latest developments in the region including Palestinian efforts for reconciliation, underway.

In the meantime, Israel claimed that the Islamist Hamas party in Gaza has been able to recollect it's strength, since the end of last Israeli war on the territory. More recently, some analysis suggested that Israel might intend to carry out further large-scale attacks on the occupied Palestinian territories, within Israeli attempts to undermine Hamas's capabilities, including underground tunnels, which Israel accuses Hamas of rebuilding, since then.

In another news from Gaza, the Islamist Hamas party demanded the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah to press for operating an Israeli electricity line that would ensure at least 100 Mega Watt of power supply for the coastal enclave.

Hamas called on the various Palestinian factions to press for the electricity supply, which is less than 12 hours a day, across the Gaza Strip. Hamas had agreed in June 2014, to quit government for the best of a consensus government in Ramallah. Up to this moment, a consensus government, formed by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, has not taken effect in Gaza.

On a related note, rival Hamas and Fatah parties have been recently engaged in talks, mediated by Qatar, in order to sort out obstacles, ahead of forming a unity Palestinian government.

For IMEMC News, I am Rami Almeghari in Gaza.


The West Bank and Gaza Report

Four Palestinian were killed this week by Israeli gunfire during separate attacks in the West Bank, meanwhile in Gaza a tunnel workers is killed during an accident. IMEMC’s Ghassan Bannoura reports:

A Palestinian youth was killed on Tuesday at dawn by Israeli troops’ gunfire after the army invaded Qalandia refugee camp, near occupied Jerusalem. Eyad Sajdiyya, 22, was killed by an Israeli army sharpshooter. The slain Palestinian was a fourth-year journalism student at Al-Quds University and a member of the Qalandia Media Center.

Media sources said that dozens of Israeli military vehicles invaded the camp while military helicopters flew overhead. The invasion led to clashes between the soldiers and dozens of local youngsters, who hurled stones and empty bottles at them. An additional seven youth were injured in the clashes one critical.

Moreover, Israeli soldiers shot and killed, on Wednesday morning, two Palestinians in the Eli illegal Israeli settlement, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, allegedly after they attempted to stab a soldier. The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the two slain youthas Labeeb Azzam, and Mohammad Zaghlawan both 17, from Qaryout village, south of Nablus. The two left their homes on Tuesday evening, and never returned; their families and other villagers looked for them all night long until they heard the news of their death.

Later in the week, Israeli soldiers killed, on Friday morning, a Palestinian woman driving her car close to the Gush Etzion settlement block, on the main Bethlehem-Hebron road, south of Bethlehem. The Israeli army claimed that Amani Sabateen, 34, from Husan town west of Bethlehem, tried to ram soldiers with her car, and that one officer was mildly wounded before the army shot her dead. The wounded officer was moved to Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem. Sabateen family said that she was killed in cold blood and that she did not try to hit soldiers with her car.

Also this week, the Israeli army conducted at least 67 military invasions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. During these invasions, Israeli troops kidnapped at least 77 Palestinian civilians, including 13 children.

In the Gaza Strip, medical sources announced that a young man was killed, on Thursday evening, after a siege-busting tunnel collapsed on him, suffocating him under the rubble.

Earlier in the week, Israeli troops stationed near the southern Gaza Israel borders opened fire at Palestinian farmers forcing them to leave their lands. Meanwhile The Israeli navy, on Monday, attacked and abducted nine Palestinian fishermen while they were on board two fishing boats offshore Gaza, according to local sources. The navy also seized the two fishing boats and dragged them to Ashdod seaport, as well. On Tuesday of this week the navy also opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats forcing them to go back to shore.

For IMEMC News this is Ghassan Bannoura.


Conclusion

And that’s all for today from This Week in Palestine. This was the Weekly report for February 27, to March 4, 2016. From the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our website at www-dot-imemc-dot-org, This week’s report has been brought to you by Maher Qasiess and me Eman Abedraboo- Bannoura.