This Week in Palestine, August 18, 2017

As Palestinian retreat demands of settlement construction halt, Israeli attacks in the West Bank leave two dozen injured 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. Israeli troops attacked anti wall and settlement protests on Friday organized at a number of west Bank villages, as a result many residents were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation.

protests this week were organized in the central West Bank villages of Bil’in, Ni’lin and Al Nabi Saleh in addition to In Kufer Qadum village in northern West Bank

Israeli soldiers attacked protesters in Al Nabi Saleh before even leaving the village. At the nearby villages of Bil’in, and Ni’lin, residents and their supporters reached the Israeli wall.

In Kufer Qadum troops also attacked the villagers and their international supporters at the village entrance. Later troops stormed the village and fired tear gas at protesters.


The Political Report

This week, Palestinians emphasize on the demand that Israeli should halt all settlement activities before resuming peace negotiations. IMEMC’s Rami Al Meghari has more:

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, requested a fund for a new Israeli settlement, to be erected on the occupied Palestinian territories. Netanyahu’s request comes while Palestinians insist that return to the negotiation table with Israel is conditioned with Israel halting all settlement activities.

In the meantime, top Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said that underway peace efforts aim at realizing a two-state solution on the occupied Palestinian territories.

At the internal Palestinian level, speaker of the Hamas-led Palestinian parliament in Gaza, Ahmad Bahar, asserted on the resistance as the best option to end the Israeli military occupation. Bahar marinated that resistance capacities have improved and that the resistance factions can deter any upcoming Israeli attack. Meanwhile, efforts to end political Palestinian split , are yet to bear fruits.

For IMEMC News, I am Rami Al Meghari in Gaza.


The West Bank and Gaza report

More than two dozen civilians were injured this week as troops invade West Bank communities, while troops attack fishermen in Gaza. IMEMC’s Ghassan Bannoura reports:

Israeli soldiers shot and injured, on Monday morning, a Palestinian worker, east of the West Bank city of Bethlehem, while trying to enter occupied East Jerusalem for work. Eyewitnesses said the soldiers shot Anas al-Harsh, 25, in his right leg. He is from the at-Reehiyya village, near the southern West Bank governorate of Hebron.

This week Israeli troops escalated their demolishing campaign targeting Palestinian homes. Israeli occupation forces, on Monday morning, demolished three homes in the Khashm Al-Daraj area of Yatta town, southern Hebron hills, southern West Bank. The homes were funded by the European Union, and were demolished by Israeli soldiers who broke into the area with bulldozers, closed it off, and began the demolishing.

Israeli Soldiers demolished, Tuesday, a commercial building, and a two homes, owned by two Palestinians, in occupied East Jerusalem. Israeli soldiers invaded, on Wednesday at dawn, the village of Kobar, northwest of the central West Bank city of Ramallah, and demolished a home belonging to the family of a Palestinian who stabbed, last month, three Israelis to death, in their home at a nearby colony. The soldiers also injured 26 Palestinians during ensuing clashes.

Medical sources in Ramallah said the soldiers shot 26 Palestinians during the clashes; one of them is a cameraman who works for Palestine TV.

Later in the week, Dozens of Israeli soldiers invaded, on Thursday at dawn, Deir Abu Mashal village, northwest of Ramallah, and detonated the family home of Adel Ankoush, who was killed along two other Palestinians, on June 16th 2017, after attacking Police officers with knives and guns, killing an Israeli border policewoman.

During the week, Israeli forces conducted at least 56 military invasions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and in Jerusalem. During these invasions troops detained at least 56 Palestinian civilians, including 11 children.

In this week, Gaza, At least three Israeli army tanks, and three armored military bulldozers, invaded on Monday morning, Palestinian agricultural lands, fired live rounds and bulldozed large sections close to the border fence, east of the al-Boreij refugee camp, in central Gaza.

Elsewhere, Israeli navy ships opened fire, on Wednesday morning, targeting several Palestinian fishing boats near the coast of Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. The attack did not lead to casualties, abductions or property damage, but forced the fishermen back to shore without being able to fish and provide for their families.

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 August 12, to the 18, 2017. 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 George Rishmawi and me Eman Abedraboo-Bannoura.