This Week in Palestine, August 1st, 2014 -- Gaza Special Coverage

This week Israeli attacks cased a Humanitarian ceasefire to collapse. Death toll in Gaza have reached over 1493 with no end to Israeli attacks on the coastal region. These stories and more, coming up, stay tuned.

A 72-hour ceasefire collapsed only 90 minutes after it went into effect on Friday morning when the Israeli military shelled the southern Gaza Strip City of Rafah. According to Palestinian medical sources at least 47 Palestinians were killed on Friday. The Israeli military claims the shelling came in response to a group of Palestinian fighters who ambushed Israeli soldiers inside Rafah area and managed to capture an Israeli soldier alive, according to Israeli sources.

Meanwhile, Hamas said the attack on the soldiers took place before the cease-fire went into effect, and Israel used the capture of the soldier as a pre-text to break the cease-fire. From Gaza IMEMC’s Rami Al Meghari:

The Palestinian Ministry of health reports that more than 1493 killed and at least 8000 injured since Israeli started its war on Gaza on July 8th.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced the cease-fire in a statement Thursday and was to be followed by negotiations in Cairo. However, due to this violation of the cease-fire, Egypt said it will not welcome the negotiating teams unless a ceae-fire is in effect.

Israel accepted the 72-hour cease fire apparently to ease the pressure it is under after targeting a school that belongs to the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip, killing more than 15 Palestinian civilians who took the school as a shelter after their homes were destroyed by Israeli bombardment. Israel demands any cease-fire to include allowing its troops to search for and destroy tunnels, meanwhile the Palestinian resistance demands a lift of the imposed siege before any long-term cease fire can be accepted. Fuad Kokaly, member of the Fatah bloc of the Palestinian Parliament comments.

On the ground Palestinian and international aid workers are racing time while being under constant threat of attacks by Israeli war planes to get supplies to residents in Gaza. Recent reports show that more than 240,000 people have now fled their homes.

Refugees have nowhere safe to go or clean water and food supplies since Israeli destroyed water and electricity systems. The Destruction of sanitation plants risks raw sewage contaminating the water and increasing the risk of disease. IMEMC spook to Alun McDonald from Oxfam:

In the West Bank this week two youth were killed by Israeli troops gunfire during clashes that erupted at a number of west Bank communities when Israeli soldiers attacked pro-Gaza protests. Friday saw an increase of clashes.

One youth was killed in the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem on Friday midday, few hours later another youth was killed near the central West Bank city of Ramallah. Meanwhile 70 civilians were injured in Hebron. Palestinian medical sources said that soldiers used live ammunition and tear gas against the unarmed protesters all over the West Bank.


Conclusion

And that’s all for today from This Week in Palestine – Gaza Special Coverage . This was the Weekly report for July 26th, to August 1st, 2014 from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our website athttp://www.imemc.org. This week’s report has been brought to you by George Rishmawi, and me Ghassan Bannoura.