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January - June Israeli Crimes Updates

One Palestinian killed, 16 others, including baby, wounded in Gaza

June 6, 2008

Gaza, Beit Layla, Khan Younis -- One Palestinian man was killed on Friday morning and 16 others were wounded during two IOF incursions to the eat of Gaza and Khan Younis as well as an air raid.

The two incursions were met with fierce resistance from the Palestinian resistance and a number of armoured vehicles were blown up, parts of which were found after the withdrawal of the occupation forces.

IOF troops raided the Shejaeyyah neighbourhood near the Nahel Oz crossing were a Palestinian man who was trying to give first aid to a wounded fighter.

Eyewitnesses said that 27-year-old Muhammad Sokkar was hit with an Israeli sniper's bullet when he was trying to help the wounded Qassam fighter. Four fighters were wounded while confronting the invading forces, some of them were wounded in an airstrike that targeted a number of Qassam fighters.

Meanwhile, nine Palestinian civilians, including a baby, were wounded in the northern Gaza Strip when an Israeli airplane targeted the headquarters of the PA security to the west of the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahya.

Eyewitnesses said that an Israeli airplane fired a rocket at the building destroying it and causing great damage to the houses surrounding it as most of the casualties were wounded in their own homes. The wounded were evacuated to the Kamal Odwan hospital.

The air raid also caused damage to an electricity substation which feeds a large part of the town causing a power cut.

A third incursion took place in the southern Gaza Strip where tens of Israeli armoured vehicles raided the village of Khuza'a to the east of Khan Younis. The IOF troops clashed with resistance fighters.

Palestinian medical sources said that three Palestinians were wounded and taken to hospital.

Local sources said that25 tanks and a number of military bulldozers participated in the incursion to the east of the village of Khuza'a and bulldozed a vast area of land.

The Qassam Brigades said that its fighters managed to hit and damage three armoured vehicles and that parts of those vehicles were found after the withdrawal of the IOF troops.

Eight-year-old Palestinian girl killed by an Israeli rocket

June 6, 2008

Khan Younis, (PIC)-- The body of 8-year-old Aya al-Najjar was mutilated on Thursday afternoon by a rocket fired from an Israeli airplane while she was playing in the garden outside her house in the village of Khuza'a in the southern Gaza Strip.

The little girl had just finished her school exams and went home eager to play as she had no more revision to do.

She asked her mother if it was ok for her to play in the garden and the mother agreed.

An apache helicopter hovered over the place, Aya looked at it and carried on playing. Neither her nor her mother expected to be the target of a rocket fired from the apache.

It seems, however, that Zionist hate for everything Palestinian has no limits as Aya was hit directly with the rocket causing her young body to be shredded into little pieces.

Aya was not the first Palestinian child to be targeted by the IOF and will not be the last; Muhammad al-Dora, Iman al-Hams and Iman Hijjo are but three names, of Palestinian children killed by the IOF, in a list of about 1000 Palestinian children killed by the IOF since the start of the Aqsa intifada out of a total of 5000 Palestinians killed during the same period.

Earlier, Palestinian resistance fighters fired a home made missile at an Israeli colony in retaliation to an IOF incursion into the Gaza Strip during which the troops bulldozed tracts of land and uprooted trees.
The attack resulted in the death of one Israeli settler and the wounding of three others, according to Israeli sources.

IOF troops storm charity, wound 4 citizens in Al-Khalil

June 5, 2008

Al-Khalil -- Israeli occupation forces at dawn Thursday stormed Shuyukh village to the northeast of Al-Khalil and broke into and confiscated property of the Islamic charitable society branch in the town.

Eyewitnesses said that soldiers in a big number of armored vehicles barged into the town in a pre-dawn raid and blasted their way into the premises of the charity then confiscated all its property after wreaking havoc in it. The soldiers handed the charity officials an order stipulating closure of the branch for two years.

In a similar manner another IOF unit burst into Beit Ola west of Al-Khalil and ransacked a branch for the same charity before handing its officials an order for its closure for two years.

Meanwhile, four Palestinians including two young women were wounded during an IOF incursion into Beit Ummar, north of Al-Khalil, on Thursday morning. One of the two girls was hit with a bullet in the back while the other was hit with a bullet in the shoulder, the locals said.

They added that the invading troops fired at the angry youths who threw stones at them.

The sources said that one of the wounded was described in a serious condition while two citizens were kidnapped in the process.

In Bethlehem, the IOF soldiers kidnapped four citizens including a 16-year-old girl called Salwa. Her father Rezk Salah did not know why his little girl was detained.

Four other citizens were reportedly kidnapped from Tulkarem city and Allar village, in Tulkarem district at dawn Thursday.

In the Gaza Strip, two Palestinians were wounded and three homes were demolished in an IOF incursion east of Khan Younis district, south of the Strip, the PIC reported said.

He added that the soldiers also destroyed a water well and bulldozed cultivated lands.

Israel uses term "unlawful combatant" to justify detention without charges

June 5, 2008

GAZA, (PIC)- The ministry of detainees and ex-detainees in Gaza stated Wednesday that the Israeli intelligence apparatus started using the term "unlawful combatant", which has no basis in international law, to justify the detention of Palestinian prisoners for an indefinite period without charge.

Riyadh Al-Ashqar, the director of the ministry's information office, underlined that the use of such a term incurs serious legal and human rights consequences where the IOA uses it to continue detaining Palestinian prisoners without pressing any charges or indictment against them or granting them a fair trial at the pretext that there are secret files which prove that they are "unlawful combatants".

Ashqar pointed out that this decision is a gross violation of the minimum standards of human rights and international humanitarian law especially the fourth Geneva convention on the protection of the civilian population because it deprives the detained from their right to defend themselves before the courts.

The Palestinian official appealed to the international community to stop Israel from continuing to violate international law and to impose sanctions on it for violating the laws it signed.

In a related development, the Palestinian official strongly denounced the Israeli military court for extending arbitrarily the four-year imprisonment term of Sheikh Hasan Yousef, a member of the Hamas parliamentary bloc, to six years at the pretext of the secret file.

Meanwhile, the IOF troops at the Container checkpoint in northern Bethlehem detained at noon Wednesday MP Samira Al-Halaiqa, a member of the Hamas parliamentary bloc, and kidnapped journalist Mohamed Al-Qiq who was present with her.

Palestinian eyewitnesses reported the Israeli police kidnapped 45 Palestinian workers in the Khadera town in the Palestinian lands occupied in 1948 at the pretext that they did not hold permits, adding that the policemen maltreated and physically assaulted the workers.

The confederation of unions in the West Bank deplored these arbitrary practices against the impoverished workers who suffer a lot to earn their living, calling on human rights organizations to pressure Israel to stop such acts and get the workers released.

In another development, the IOF troops invaded at dawn Wednesday the Nablus city, northern West Bank, and kidnapped seven Palestinian citizens after breaking into and ransacking a number of houses in different areas of the city.

The IOF troops also kidnapped today 16 Palestinians in the West Bank cities of Jenin, Tulkarem, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Al-Khalil, according to the Hebrew radio.

Palestinian citizen tortured to death in PA jails

June 4, 2008

Al-Khalil -- Informed Palestinian sources revealed Tuesday that a 53-year-old Palestinian citizen, who was kidnapped 15 days ago, died in the Dahria prison in Al-Khalil, southern West Bank, as a result of being subjected to excruciating torture at the hands of PA security officers.

Security sources under the command of PA chief Mahmoud Abbas alleged that the victim died of a heart attack, adding that forensic experts would investigate the cause of his death.

PA security and intelligence officers had already tortured to death in their jails in the West Bank two Palestinians, namely, Sheikh Majd Al-Barghouthi and a Palestinian intelligence officer.

Meanwhile, the PA intelligence apparatus in Tulkarem released four Palestinian citizens affiliated with Hamas who reported that they were subjected to different kinds of torture and maltreatment at the hands of PA officers.

The ex-detainees said that one of the torture means used by PA officers was that they tie their victims to chairs and start to slap and punch them severely in the face.

In another context, the Hamas Movement considered what some media outlets fabricated about the arrest of a moneychanger from Nablus on a charge of transferring funds to it was no more than a new propaganda stunt and part of the fabrications exercised by Abbas's security apparatuses.

Hamas underlined that its financial sources and channels are far away from being compromised by the lackeys of the Israeli occupation.

An American consulate employee of Palestinian origin dies at Israeli roadblock

June 4, 2008

Ramallah -- A 63-year-old American of Palestinian origin died on Tuesday at an Israeli military roadblock in Beit Hanina, occupied Jerusalem, local Palestinian sources reported.

They said that Mohammed Mousa, who carries the American citizenship, suffered an acute heart attack while walking through the Shayah roadblock in Beit Hanina.

Mousa, who has been working in the American consulate in Jerusalem for 40 years, had recently complained of the IOF soldiers manning roadblocks surrounding Jerusalem, according to his family.

The soldiers refused to allow him pass the barrier using his car despite carrying the American citizenship and despite working in Jerusalem for four decades, they added.

Two resistance fighters wounded in IOF shelling

June 3, 2008

Khan Younis -- Two resistance fighters affiliated with the Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, were wounded Tuesday evening in an IOF missile raid in southern Gaza Strip.

Local sources told PIC reporter that an IOF drone fired at least one missile at a group of Quds fighters east of Khan Younis, south of the Strip, injuring two of them.

They said that one of the wounded was in a "serious" condition.

The armed wing had earlier Tuesday declared responsibility for firing five locally made Quds missiles at western Negev in retaliation to IOF crimes.

For its part, the armed wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, took the credit for firing six mortar shells at an IOF military position in Kissufim and for using heavy machineguns to fire at IOF choppers that hovered over Rafah in southern Gaza.

Israeli military court extends prison term of Palestinian MP to six years

June 3, 2008

TluKarem -- The family of prisoner Hasan Yousef, a prominent Hamas leader in the West Bank and a lawmaker, reported that the Israeli military court in the Ofer prison arbitrarily extended his prison sentence from four to six years.

His family said that the Israeli wardens brought MP Yousef from his cell in the Hadarim prison to the Ofer prison court without informing them or his lawyer and added two more years to his four-year imprisonment term.

In another development, the IOF troops kidnapped at dawn Tuesday four Hamas-affiliated Palestinian citizens recently released from the PA jails in Ramallah after they stormed the towns of Faraon and Dir Al-Ghusoon in Tulkarem.

Palestinian local sources reported that the IOF troops kidnapped, after breaking into and ransacking Palestinian homes, four citizens including a teacher called Nafid Abu Obeid and a 17-year-student called Abdelrahman Al-Salman.

Israeli court delays sentence on Dwaik for two months

June 2, 2008

Occupied Jerusalem -- The Israeli Ofer military court on Sunday adjourned its hearing into the trial of Palestine Legislative Council speaker Dr. Aziz Dwaik without passing a sentence.

The court judge said that the hearing was the last before passing a verdict against him and told his lawyers that the sentence would be issued within two months, the speaker's wife told Ramattan news agency in a telephone contact.

She said that the most prominent charge was representing Hamas in the Palestinian legislative elections, and pointed out that her husbands refused to recognize the court.

Dwaik, who appeared in high morale despite his deteriorating health and two years in harsh incarceration, asserted that he was elected as chairman of Palestinian legitimacy and enjoyed immunity and Israel had no right to prosecute him, the wife elaborated.

European MP: Situation in Al-Khalil is barbaric

June 1, 2008

Al-Khalil -- David Hammerstein, a member of the European parliament, condemned Saturday the humanitarian situation in Al-Khalil city, southern West Bank, as barbaric, adding that the city is living under the ugliest form of Israeli occupation.

This came during a visit made by delegates of the European parliament to Al-Khalil where they saw for themselves the suffering of Palestinian citizens in the old town and met with Ali Al-Qawasmi, the head of Al-Khalil reconstruction committee, who briefed the delegation on the harsh living conditions in the city.

For his part, Emad Hamdan, the administrative and financial director of the reconstruction committee, explained to the delegation the Zionist schemes aimed to displace the Palestinian citizens from the old town and expand the Jewish neighborhood in it.

In another context, thousands of Sri Lankan citizens in the capital Colombo participated Saturday in a massive demonstration that was called for by the Palestine solidarity committee in protest at the US complicity in the Israeli crimes committed against the Palestinian people.

The Sri Lankan protesters carried pictures of Hamas leaders and called on their country to sever its relations with Israel.

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May Israeli Crimes Updates

Five Palestinians killed on Friday

May 24, 2008

Khan Younis -- Five Palestinians have been killed on Friday by IOF troops in the central and southern Gaza Strip, three Qassam fighters and two Quds Brigades fighters. Six others were wounded.

The IOF also kidnapped 25 Palestinians during an incursion into the southern Gaza Strip.

The three Qassam fighters, all in their twenties, hailed from Rafah and died when an Israeli airplane targeted them while they were confronting an incursion by the IOF into a border area east of Khan Younis.

Meanwhile, the Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad announced that two of its fighters were killed in an Israeli air raid while they were confronting IOF troops to the east of al-Buraij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

IOF troops kill Palestinian man; wound 12 others at Mintar march

May 23, 2008

At least one Palestinian man was killed, and twelve others were wounded with Israeli bullets as IOF troops stationed at the Mintar crossing point opened their machinegun at hundreds of Palestinian citizens protesting the unjust siege.

Palestinian medical sources confirmed to the PIC correspondent that the fatality, who was identified as Abdul Kareem Ahl (22 years), sustained a bullet in the head, describing condition of the wounded Palestinians as between moderate and serious.

According to PIC sources, a number of IOF tanks advanced quickly towards the agricultural fields close to the crossing, surrounded the demonstrators and randomly shot at the peaceful protesters.

The Gaza Strip had been under crushing economic siege imposed by Israel and its regional and international allies led by the USA for two years now, inflicting severe damage to the Palestinian infrastructure and causing serious health, environmental, and ecological problems in the populated Strip.

Hundreds of Palestinian citizens heeded Hamas's call for a peaceful march towards the crossing point as part of the Movement's actions to break the unjust siege amidst clear regional and international indifference about the fate of the 1.5 million Palestinian individuals living there.

For its part, Hamas Movement described the march as the start of "new stage that aims at breaking the siege with all available means", urging Arab and Muslim Ummah to affirm their solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The Movement also urged Arab states, particularly Egypt, to take a "brave" decision in breaking the repressive economic siege, and of opening the vital Rafah terminal which is purely Palestinian-Egyptian crossing point, stressing that the Arab silence over the suffering of the Palestinian people under the Israeli siege "is no longer justified".

Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, the spokesman of Hamas Movement in the Strip said, in an interview with the PIC, that the march aimed at delivering a message to the world that the Palestinians will no longer tolerate the blockade, and that they will break the siege even if that costs them lives.

"This march serves as clear message to all concerned parties that the Palestinian people will never surrender to the siege, and that they will never give up to the Israeli crime of persecuting the 1.5 million Palestinians in the Strip", underlined Abu Zuhri, emphasizing that the Palestinian populace will do everything despite the price they might pay in order to rescind the blockade.

"There will be no meaning for a truce [with the Israeli occupation government] if it fails to lift the economic siege and to open the crossing points", the Hamas's official stressed.

IOF troops kidnap Hamas leader in Jenin only one month after PA releases him

May 22, 2008

JENIN, (PIC)-- The IOF troops kidnapped at night Wednesday Sheikh Ibrahim Jabr, 45, one of the prominent Hamas leaders in the Jenin refugee camp, just one month after he was released from the PA intelligence jails in Ramallah.

Palestinian local sources told the PIC reporter that a large number of IOF troops stormed the camp, and surrounded and ransacked the Sheikh's house before kidnapping him.

In another context, the Palestinian families of prisoners in occupied Jerusalem appealed to all human rights and legal institutions to urgently intervene to put an end to the arbitrary measures taken by the Israeli courts against their sons.

The Jerusalemite families stated that the Israeli courts issue unfair high sentences against their sons at the pretext of committing "treason" against the security of Israel, adding that one of the arbitrary measures is that these courts impose hefty fines up to $1,500 and sometimes more than that on their sons.

The Asrana legal center said that the IOA deliberately excludes Jerusalemite prisoners from any agreement or deal to release prisoners at the pretext that they hold Israeli IDs, pointing out that the number of the Jerusalemite prisoners are more than 650 Palestinians including 140 under age 18.

IOF troops kidnap Hamas leader in Jenin only one month after PA releases him

May 22, 2008

The IOF troops kidnapped at night Wednesday Sheikh Ibrahim Jabr, 45, one of the prominent Hamas leaders in the Jenin refugee camp, just one month after he was released from the PA intelligence jails in Ramallah.

Palestinian local sources told the PIC reporter that a large number of IOF troops stormed the camp, and surrounded and ransacked the Sheikh's house before kidnapping him.

In another context, the Palestinian families of prisoners in occupied Jerusalem appealed to all human rights and legal institutions to urgently intervene to put an end to the arbitrary measures taken by the Israeli courts against their sons.

The Jerusalemite families stated that the Israeli courts issue unfair high sentences against their sons at the pretext of committing "treason" against the security of Israel, adding that one of the arbitrary measures is that these courts impose hefty fines up to $1,500 and sometimes more than that on their sons.

The Asrana legal center said that the IOA deliberately excludes Jerusalemite prisoners from any agreement or deal to release prisoners at the pretext that they hold Israeli IDs, pointing out that the number of the Jerusalemite prisoners are more than 650 Palestinians including 140 under age 18.

IOA demolishes six Palestinian apartments in occupied Jerusalem

May 22, 2008

The Israeli occupation authority on Wednesday demolished six Palestinian apartments in occupied Jerusalem at the usual pretext of lack of permit, which is almost unobtainable.

Large numbers of Israeli occupation police, border guards and special forces encircled the Tor suburb in eastern Jerusalem and blocked traffic in and out of it before bulldozers of the Jewish-controlled municipality of occupied Jerusalem tore down the apartments.

The proprietor of four of those apartments Amin Al-Abasy was surprised with the measure. He recalled that his four-apartment home was built in 1996 and accommodates his wife and seven children.

He noted that two of the 400-square-meter house were still under construction. Abasy said that he received a demolition notification a year ago and have appealed since then against the decision in Israeli courts.

The landlord of the other two 170 square meters apartments, Majed Al-Salaima, said that he was also surprised with the act that was carried out without prior notice.

Salaima said that he built the two apartments one for his family and the other for his son almost two years ago and they were supposed to accommodate 14 individuals as they were still awaiting final touches.

Municipal teams in the occupied holy city delivered similar demolition notifications to owners of 22 houses in Silwan, one of the Jerusalem suburbs. Some of them have been living in those homes for almost ten years.

IOF shell blows off the head of Palestinian boy, another child killed in West Bank

May 20, 2008

An Israeli occupation forces' shelling of a group of citizens north of the Gaza Strip at an early hour on Tuesday blew off the head of a 13-year-old Palestinian boy.

PIC reporter quoted medical sources as saying that the body of the child Majd Abu Okel was badly mutilated in the blast.

The sources pointed out that a number of other wounded citizens were rushed to hospital.

IOF troops at a late hour Monday fired and killed a 16-year-old Palestinian child at the Hawara roadblock south of Nablus city in the West Bank.

The soldiers blocked Palestinian paramedics from rescuing the child who was left to bleed from three fatal bullet wounds for half an hour until he died, witnesses reported.

They said that the soldiers asked the youth to expose his stomach and when he did they shot him dead.

The soldiers closed the Hawara and Beit Furik road barriers immediately after the incident and stormed the Beit Furik and Beit Dajan villages amidst firing of sonic and flare bombs.

The IOF command claimed that the child was carrying pipe bombs strapped to his stomach.

IOF troops kidnap 19 Palestinians in different parts of West Bank

May 19, 2008

IOF troops kidnapped at dawn Monday 19 Palestinian citizens in different areas of the West Bank especially in Al-Khalil, Nablus and the Jenin refugee camp where they broke into and ransacked dozens of houses and buildings at the pretext of looking for wanted Palestinians.

Palestinian local sources reported that a large number of the Israeli Golani and Shimshon brigades reinforced by a military chopper kidnapped a Palestinian ex-detainee called Omar Al-Aramin, 54, in the area of the Rashaida Arabs in Al-Khalil after chasing him for hours and took him to an unknown destination.

The IOF troops kidnapped Aramin many times and recently demolished his house. Two weeks ago, he went on hunger strike in protest at the continuing abduction of Palestinian women in Israeli jails.

IOF troops boarding dozens of military vehicles also stormed the Jenin refugee camp and the Laban village in the south of Nablus amid intensive gunfire and kidnapped an elderly citizen called Hussein Al-Haj, 60, from the camp and five young men from the village.

Eyewitnesses said that the IOF troops imposed a curfew on the Laban village and blocked its inhabitants from going to the mosques for prayer during which they ransacked dozens of houses.

In another context, the Nafha society for the defense of human and prisoners' rights reported that the IOA filed a fabricated indictment against prisoner Hamza Abu Khamis after he spent eight months in administrative detention without any trial.

Khamis was kidnapped in September 2007 and administratively detained in the Israeli Hasharon prison. His father also is in administrative detention in the Negev prison and one of his brothers was sentenced to 12 years in the jalbo prison.

The mother told the society that the IOA prevents her and the family from visiting her husband and two sons in Israeli jails without any reason.

She also appealed to human rights organizations to enable her along with the rest of the family to visit her husband and sons and to work on getting them released for the lack of evidence against them.

In a written press release received Monday by the PIC, prisoner Nasser Uwais, a prominent leader of the Aqsa Brigades the armed wing of Fatah, who is serving 14 life sentences in the Israeli Hadarim prison, said that the Fatah leadership do nothing for its prisoners and do not provide them with minimum care or follow-up.

Uwais affirmed that the only prisoners who do not receive financial allocations from their Movements are the prisoners of Fatah, adding that the Fatah prisoners want to know what the Fatah central committee do with the movement's money.

IOA renews administrative detention of Hamas leader

May 17, 2008

Jenin -- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has renewed the administrative detention of Sheikh Khaled Al-Haj, one of the Hamas Movement's leaders in Jenin, for the second time without trial or charge.

The wife of Haj said that the IOA handed him a notification on the extension of his detention for six months at the pretext of having a security file against him despite the absence of any charge.

She charged that her husband's detention was "arbitrary and oppressive" and was legally baseless. Haj was arrested 14 months ago from his home in Jenin.

"My husband spent ten months in jail without trial and then was held in administrative detention," the wife said, adding that the Israeli military court turned down his lawyer's appeal for his release.

Haj, who was frequently held in IOA jails in the past, was Hamas's spokesman in Jenin.

In a similar incident, the Israeli military court in Ofer cancelled an earlier ruling to release Adli Ya'ish, the mayor of Nablus, who was slated to be freed by the end of May. Ya'ish was detained since 24/5/2007.

Meanwhile, the Israeli higher court in occupied Jerusalem refused demands for the release of Ya'ish's deputy Mahdi Al-Hanbali, who was arrested on 31/5/2007 and was not indicted so far.

New Zionist organization assaults Palestinians in Pisgat Ze'ev settlement

May 16, 2008

Occupied Jerusalem -- The Hebrew Kol-Haeer newspaper reported Friday that the Israeli police discovered last week a new extremist organization composed of young settlers under age 18 living in the Israeli Pisgat Ze'ev settlement who planned and committed assaults against Palestinians to force them out of the settlement.

An indictment was placed before the central court in occupied Jerusalem against 11 Israeli young men affiliated with this organization which also included an explanation of how they committed assaults on two Palestinian young men in the settlement.

The police said that the Zionist gang also planned to attack Palestinians on the anniversary of the Nakba, which was marked last Thursday, but their arrest prevented the intended attack from happening, but police did not rule out the occurrence of other assaults on Palestinians by the members of this organization.

According to the indictment, on the night of the Holocaust anniversary 18 days ago, the accused Zionists and their partners gathered near a store in downtown Pisgat Ze'ev in compliance with a statement published on the Internet calling for assaulting any Arab who may arrive at the scene.

The indictment added that after the assailants found their preys who were two Palestinian young men under age 18 they attacked them using knives and batons and fled when they saw a police car approaching.

The indictment said that the two Palestinian young men sustained serious injuries, where one received stabs in the back of his thorax and also in the right ear and the other suffered injuries in the upper part of his body.

Herds of Jewish settlers attack Palestinian village

May 15, 2008

Nablus -- Scores of extremist Jewish settlers from the settlement of Yizhar, on Friday afternoon, attacked residents of the nearby Palestinian village of Asira al-Qibleya to the south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

Local sources said that around forty settlers entered the village and started throwing stones at Palestinian houses causing damage to some houses. An IOF patrol forced the settlers to leave the village, but no arrests were made in lines of the settlers who mounted the aggression.

The same village was attacked last week by settlers from the same settlement. The settlers set the crop fields on fire and attacked the house of Jamal Saleh at the edge of the village.

Villagers rushed to the scene to try and put the fire out and protect the Saleh family. The settlers assaulted them causing serious injuries to 16-year-old Abdelrahim Abdellatif and 44-year-old Rebhi Asayrah. The two were taken to the Rafidia hospital in Nablus.

Asayreh said that on the day of the attack at noon he had a technician at home repairing the fridge when he received a phone call on his mobile to let him know that the settlers set fire to some fields near the settlement which is built on land stolen from the villagers.

He rushed to the scene and found the villages have gathered there and were trying to put out the fire, while youth started throwing stones at the settlers to push them back despite the fact that some of the settlers carried firearms.

He said he saw about 10 settlers wearing white and carrying cans of petrol which they poured over the crops in other fields and setting them on fire causing damage to tens of dunums (one dunum= 1000 square meters) of crops.

Asayreh said that the fire fighters arrived after 15 minutes and started to tackle the fire, and 5 minutes later, two IOF jeeps followed by about 20 soldiers and a group of settlers arrived. The villagers moved back and two soldiers drew closer and called Asayreh, one of the soldiers hit him in the stomach with his fist, the other got a plastic tie out and tied up his hands behind him.

A settler, who had a stone in his hand, drew closer and tried to hit Asayreh on the face, but Asayreh ducked quickly avoiding the blow. The soldiers then held him and allowed the settler to hit him on the left cheek while he had the stone in his hand. Then they threw him to the ground on his face and started kicking and beating him for 15 minutes during which he said he heard heavy firing of live ammunition.

Asayreh's ordeal did not stop here, when the kicking stopped, they sat him up and one of the settlers tore Asayreh's shirt and blindfolded him with it. Then they started beating him again, then dragging him on his face and beating him. The cycle of dragging and beating took place three times, on the fourth time he was dragged and thrown into a pit and left there. He managed to remove his blindfold by scratching it on the stones and he found he was in this pit which he estimated to be one meter deep. He managed to drag himself out and walked back to the village to get his wounds treated.

Four Palestinians killed in IOF incursion in Gaza

May 14, 2008

Four Palestinians were killed on Wednesday during IOF troops' incursions in south and north of the Gaza Strip including three civilians and a resistance fighter, medical sources reported.

The sources told PIC reporter that an unidentified citizen was killed in IOF shooting in an incursion east of Jabalia, north of Gaza.

They added that two civilians were also killed in IOF shelling at a group of citizens in the same area.

They identified the two as Khadar Salama and Ibrahim Salha, and noted that both bodies were burnt.

Witnesses said that a number of IOF armored vehicles advanced east of Jabalia and bulldozed vast areas of Palestinian agricultural lands amidst intensified firing at residential neighborhoods.

Earlier on Wednesday a Palestinian fighter affiliated with the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, was killed and three others wounded in an IOF incursion in Khuza'a and Abasan villages east of Khan Younis, south of Gaza.

Medical sources said that Mohammed Habib was killed in an IOF air raid that targeted a group of resistance fighters.
 

IOF troops kill Palestinian mother of seven children in Abasan

May 8, 2008

Khan Younis -- The IOF troops deliberately shot dead before midnight Wednesday a 35-year-old Palestinian mother of seven children called Wafa Daghma as they were withdrawing from the Abasan town in Khan Younis. Palestinian medical sources said she was shot in the head

The IOF troops had destroyed during the incursion five houses belonging to citizens from the families of Abu To'eima, Daghma and Qara in Abasan and killed a Palestinian fighter called Mahmoud Abu Muslim, 21, and wounded 20 others, seven of them were Qassam fighters during aerial and artillery attacks.

During the Israeli rampage in the town which started at dawn Wednesday, the IOF troops bulldozed vast tracts of agricultural lands and other property belonging to farmers. They kidnapped 40 Palestinian citizens and took them to the Palestinian lands occupied in 1948.

The IOF troops withdrew after they found fierce resistance by the Palestinian fighters spearheaded by the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, where a number of RPGs and mortar shells were fired at the invading troops during the confrontations.
 

IOF soldiers kidnap son, son-in-law of detained MP

May 6, 2008

Al-Khalil Younis -- IOF soldiers in a pre-dawn raid on Tuesday broke into and ransacked the home of detained MP Dr. Azzam Salhab in Al-Khalil city before kidnapping his son and son-in-law, local sources reported.

They said that an IOF force in 3 army jeeps encircled the home of Salhab, who has been detrained in occupation jails for almost three years, shortly after midnight Monday.

Wife of the lawmaker said that the force stayed for half an hour in the vicinity of the house before starting to throw stones at its windows and doors in order to wake them up. She said that her elder son Noman got out to see what they want and they took him in one of their jeeps after blindfolding and handcuffing him.

The soldiers then ordered all family members out of the house before ten of them stormed and wreaked havoc in it, the wife said.

She noted that another unit encircled the home of her son-in-law Bilal Al-Muhtaseb and then kidnapped him.

Two other citizens in the city were also rounded up by IOF troops who kidnapped last night and at dawn Tuesday 27 Palestinian young men in the West Bank including 20 in Bethlehem district.

IOF troops blow up two Palestinian homes in Nablus, kidnap youth

May 6, 2008

Nablus -- IOF troops blew up two Palestinian homes in the Old city of Nablus during a brief incursion on Monday night that witnessed intensive firing of live bullets and sonic bombs, local reported.

They said that an IOF unit in more than 20 army vehicles stormed the city and encircled one of its suburbs. The sources noted that a special force had blasted the two homes before arrival of the military jeeps.

Locals believe that the raid targeted arresting or assassinating a Palestinian wanted activist.

On Tuesday, however, IOF soldiers kidnapped Saleh Samara, 19, from his family home in Azmut village, east of Nablus.
 

IOF troops kill Palestinian youngman at checkpoint in Al-Khalil

May 3, 2008

Al-Khalil -- The IOF troops deliberately killed at a late hour Friday a Palestinian youngman called Khaled Al-Zaarir as he was returning from his job through a checkpoint south of Al-Khalil city, southern West Bank; thus, the number of Palestinians killed since the Palestinian factions announced acceptance of an Egyptian plan for calm in Cairo rose to four victims.

Israeli media outlets reported that a Palestinian citizen who was seriously wounded at night Friday by IOF troops manning a checkpoint south of Al-Khalil city died of his wounds Saturday morning in an Israeli hospital, alleging that the victim was holding a knife when he was killed.

Palestinian local sources affirmed that Zaarir was returning from his job when the IOF troops quarreled with him and intentionally opened fire at him at the checkpoint.

The sources also said that IOF troops broke into and ransacked the house of Zaarir in his hometown after they killed him.

In another context, a fighter of the Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, called Osama Al-Hobi was proclaimed dead Friday evening after sustaining serious wounds in an Israeli aerial attack that targeted him along with Awad Al-Qiq, a leader of the engineering and manufacturing unit in the Brigades who was killed in the attack.

IOF kidnaps 363 Palestinians including mentally retarded persons in April

May 3, 2008

The Israeli occupation forces rounded up 363 Palestinians in the past month of April using "savage means" such as sabotaging gates and humiliating detainees, the Palestinian center in defense of prisoners said.

It issued a statistics report charging that the IOF troops were deliberately spreading panic and terror in their operations, describing the practice as "inhuman" and "barbaric".

The IOF troops used hounds to terrorize civilians, it said, noting that the soldiers beat up detainees and their families during the kidnap in violation of international laws and treaties.

The center pointed out that the soldiers rounded up children, women and even mentally retarded persons, and added that most of the kidnapped were from Nablus district.

In a related development, IOF soldiers Friday night kidnapped five Palestinians east of Yatta town, Al-Khalil district, after they were attacked by Jewish settlers.

Locals said that dozens of Jewish settlers attacked the homes of Palestinian farmers in the area and the Palestinians tried to defend themselves but an IOF force backed up the settlers and arrested five of them.

Report: PA security kidnapped 80 Palestinians in April

May 3, 2008

Gaza -- A report issued by the Hamas information office stated that the PA security apparatuses within the context of security coordination with Israel kidnapped 80 Palestinians affiliated with Hamas in the West Bank in April.

Regarding the Israeli aggression on the Palestinian people during the same month, the IOF troops killed 79 Palestinians including 18 children, 75 of the victims were killed in the Gaza Strip, according to the report.

In another context, the Islamic bloc in the Arab-American university in Jenin, northern West Bank, announced it would boycott the students' council elections of this year in protest at the arbitrary acts exercised by the PA security apparatuses against its members and the absence of free democratic atmosphere.

In a statement, the bloc underlined that the ongoing abductions of its cadres by the PA militia to prevent them from exercising free student activity are in violation of the most basic human rights.
The statement pointed out that the students, affiliated with the Fatah youth group which are protected by the PA security apparatuses, use threats and offensive acts against the Islamic bloc students.

Most of the student blocs in the university had withdrawn from the students' council which is controlled by the Fatah youth group in protest at its policy of alienation and factional discrimination against the other student blocs, but due to the pressures made on the blocs, which amounted to the kidnapping of representatives of those blocs, some of them backtracked on their withdrawal.

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April Israeli Crimes Updates

Zionist troops kill Palestinian girl, wound 10 citizens

April 26, 2008

Beit Lahia -- A Palestinian child was killed and ten other citizens were wounded in an Israeli occupation forces' incursion that started shortly after midnight Friday and continued till dawn Saturday, medical and local sources reported.

The medical sources told PIC correspondent that that the little girl, Mariam Marof, was killed in the IOF troops' shooting west of Beit Lahia, and added that two women and two members of the Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, were among the wounded.

Local sources said that an IOF unit encircled the home of a Hamas activist in Beit Lahia, north of Gaza Strip, before violent clashes erupted in the vicinity of the house which was set ablaze.

The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas Movement, said that one of its groups spotted the infiltrating IOF unit and engaged its members before blasting four devices in the advancing force.

The armed wing said that IOF choppers and gunboats then started indiscriminate shelling of the area before tens of IOF armored vehicles and tanks advanced to back up the invading unit.

Qassam fighters fired ten mortar shells and a short range Qassam missile at the intruding force, it added.

For its part, the Quds Brigades said that an IOF drone fired a missile at a group of its fighters who were repelling the invading soldiers wounding two of the group members.

The armed wing underlined that the fighters engaged the invaders, as local sources said that the soldiers retreated Saturday morning after facing "stiff resistance". 

Relatives banned from visiting detained MP for 20 months

April 26, 2008

Nablus -- The Israeli prisons authority has been barring relatives of detained Palestinian MP Mahmoud Musleh from visiting him in Ofer jail ever since his detention 20 months ago despite suffering acute rheumatism.

The MP told the lawyer of the Nafha legal society that ever since his arrest on 27/8/2006 no clothes or any other personal needs were allowed for him.

The lawmaker was arrested along with more than 50 of his PLC colleagues and ex-ministers on that same day.

The lawyer met eight detained PLC members during his recent visit to Ofer and Nitzan prisons.

Israeli settlers deliberately shoot Palestinian young man in Salfit

April 26, 2008

Gaza -- A Palestinian young man called Essam Eissa, 24, from the Yasouf village in Salfit, northern West Bank, was seriously wounded after Israeli settlers deliberately shot him Friday with internationally forbidden dumdum bullets.

His family said that Eissa was shot by Zionists of the Tafoh settlement adjacent to the village, adding that six settlers stormed the Tal area, north of the village, and intentionally opened fire at him as he was near his house.

The Yasouf village suffers from round-the-clock raids carried out by settlers or IOF troops.

In retaliation to the ongoing Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people, the Salahuddin Brigades, the armed wing of the popular resistance committees, and Abu Rish Brigades, an offshoot of the dissolved armed wing of Fatah, claimed responsibility for attacking at noon Friday an IOF patrol near the Artah area in Tulkarem.

In a joint communiqué received by the PIC, the two Brigades said that their fighters managed to inflict casualties in the ranks of the IOF troops.

In another context, the Hamas Movement hailed the heroic operation carried out by the Palestinian resistance at dawn Friday in Tulkarem, which left an Israeli officer and a soldier killed.

MP Mushir Al-Masri, the secretary-general of the Hamas parliamentary bloc, stated that this operation was an important message to the Israeli occupation that the Palestinian resistance is hard to break and can force Israel to agree to calm in Gaza and the West Bank.

Earlier, the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, and the Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, announced in a joint communiqué their responsibility for the Nitzanei Oz operation in Tulkarem.

Two Israeli guards killed in resistance attack

April 25, 2008

Tulkarem -- Two Israeli guards were killed, Friday morning, at Nitzanei Oz industrial zone to the west of the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem, according to Israeli and Palestinian sources.

The Israeli radio said that a lone Palestinian gunman opened fire at the two guards killing them instantly. The gunman withdrew before IOF troops and ambulances rushed to the scene.

Local sources said that IOF troops in large numbers invaded the border village of Ertah and raided Palestinian homes and ransacked them.

Many Palestinian labourers were also arrested by the IOF while on their way to work.

Meanwhile, the Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, and the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for the attack in a joint statement in which they published the details of the attack.

The statement said that a resistance fighter who is wanted by the Israeli occupation and Abbas's security forces has managed to slip at 5:15am into the village of Qalanswa to the West of Tulkarem, then headed towards the Nitzanei Oz industrial zone and opened fire at the guards and tried to advance into the industrial area but was met with heavy machine gunfire forcing him to withdraw with moderate wounds.

The two armed wings said that the attack is a present to the people of Gaza who are reeling under an oppressive siege and a message to the Israeli occupation that they reject truce unless it is comprehensive with the resistance reserving the right to retaliate to Israeli occupation breaches.

Israel air raid kills Palestinian citizen and wounds his family members.

IOF troops round up West Bankers

April 24, 2008

Nablus -- IOF troops at dawn Thursday kidnapped seven Palestinians in the city of Nablus including three brothers while others were rounded up in line with daily IOF arrests campaigns in various West Bank areas.

Locals reported that the soldiers wreaked havoc in all houses stormed in the city and the nearby Balata refugee camp.

Three other Palestinians were kidnapped at the Zatara roadblock to the east of Salift.

In Al-Khalil district, ten Palestinians were rounded up from the village of Dura on Wednesday while a child was hospitalized after an Israeli settler ran over him at the entrance to Arub refugee camp south of Al-Khalil city.

Witnesses said that the 6-year-old child Rafat Al-Titi was rushed to an Israeli hospital in view of his condition.

IOF troops stormed Jenin at an early hour on Thursday amidst intensified hovering of Apache gunships but no arrests were reported.

Israel air raid kills Palestinian citizen and wounds his family members

April 24, 2008

Beit Hanoun -- An Israeli warplane bombed at dawn Thursday a house in the Beit Hanoun town, northern Gaza Strip, belonging to a Palestinian citizen called Daoud Al-Kafarnah, 52, which led to his death and the injury of a number of his family members including children.

Palestinian eyewitnesses reported that an Israeli drone fired one air-to-ground missile at the house in the Damrah street, adding that many ambulances are grounded because of lack of fuel making it difficult for the emergency services to operate.

The eyewitnesses added that more than 25 IOF tanks and armored vehicles advanced amid intensive gunfire towards the vicinity of the agricultural college in the town reinforced by aerial cover.

Israeli drones also fired one missile at least at a group of Palestinian fighters affiliated with the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, east of Beit Hanoun. Medical sources said three fighters sustained slight injuries in the aerial attack.

Another group of the Qassam Brigades fighters survived after midnight Thursday an Israeli air raid when an Israeli air-to-ground missile missed the group and hit a Palestinian house in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, causing great material damage without any reported casualties.

An Israeli aerial attack on Palestinian fighters affiliated with the Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, caused serious-to-moderate injury to three of them during confrontations Thursday morning with the IOF troops in the new Abasan town, southern Gaza Strip.

In the context of its retaliations to the ongoing Israeli incursions, the Qassam Brigades took the credit for detonating at an early hour Thursday two anti-personnel explosive devices in an Israeli special force that infiltrated into the east of Qarara in southern Gaza.

The Brigades also announced that its fighters managed after midnight Wednesday to detonate a landmine in an Israeli armored vehicle and fired five mortar shells and one RPG at Israeli tanks and armored vehicles in Beit Hanoun.

The Brigades added that its fighters also fired at dawn Thursday five mortar shells at the invading IOF troops in the Swailem area, north of Beit Hanoun, and an RPG at an Israeli tank after midnight Wednesday in the Sika street, pointing out that an Israeli military bulldozer towed the targeted tank.

IOA fuel supplies not enough

Gaza -- MP Jamal Al-Khudari, the chairman of the popular anti siege committee, on Wednesday asserted that the fuel supplies provided by the Israeli occupation authority for the Gaza electricity generation station were not enough and would be consumed within two to three days.

Khudari, in a press release, said that stores of the Gaza electricity generation station could accommodate 20 million liters of fuel, which should be immediately filled. The IOA provided only one million liters of fuel on Wednesday.

The Palestinian people in Gaza are still subjected to IOA arbitrary practices, he said, charging the IOA with creating the fuel crisis and "when it solves a small bit of the crisis it appears before the world as if it was offering big concessions".

The MP also pointed out that the IOA did not allow entry of petrol or cooking gas into Gaza, which maintained the paralysis in all life aspects for the 14th consecutive day.

Khudari said that there was no breakthrough achieved in the crisis in Gaza and the problem is still pending. He appealed to the world to intervene and end the Israeli mass punishment policy against the Palestinian people.

He underlined that the fuel supplies are not provided for free but rather are paid and should not be liable to "Israeli blackmail".

The world community should end its "suspicious silence" and pressure the IOA into breaking the siege immediately, the lawmaker concluded.

Acute shortage of foodstuffs in Gaza due to fuel crisis

April 22, 2008

The ministry of national economy in Gaza issued Tuesday an urgent warning of an acute shortage of basic foodstuffs as a result of the fuel crisis that slashed the number of vehicles carrying food commodities into the Strip.

In a press statement received by the PIC, the ministry called on international human rights organizations to save the lives of 1,500,000 citizens from an impending humanitarian catastrophe as a result of lack of basic foodstuffs and to pressure the Israeli occupation to allow in fuel supplies.

The statement pointed out that a number of storekeepers complained to the ministry that the wholesalers in Gaza became unable to deliver goods to them quickly because they use carts pulled by animals to transport goods.

In the context of fuel crisis, Dr. Basim Naim, the health minister in Gaza, warned that the ministry's ambulances became unable to transport patients or injuries during Israeli attacks on the Strip because of lack of fuel supplies, pointing out that doctors and medical assistants also cannot arrive at hospitals because of lack of transport means.

Acute shortage of foodstuffs in Gaza due to fuel crisis

April 22, 2008

The ministry of national economy in Gaza issued Tuesday an urgent warning of an acute shortage of basic foodstuffs as a result of the fuel crisis that slashed the number of vehicles carrying food commodities into the Strip.

In a press statement received by the PIC, the ministry called on international human rights organizations to save the lives of 1,500,000 citizens from an impending humanitarian catastrophe as a result of lack of basic foodstuffs and to pressure the Israeli occupation to allow in fuel supplies.

The statement pointed out that a number of storekeepers complained to the ministry that the wholesalers in Gaza became unable to deliver goods to them quickly because they use carts pulled by animals to transport goods.

In the context of fuel crisis, Dr. Basim Naim, the health minister in Gaza, warned that the ministry's ambulances became unable to transport patients or injuries during Israeli attacks on the Strip because of lack of fuel supplies, pointing out that doctors and medical assistants also cannot arrive at hospitals because of lack of transport means.

Gaza will plunge into darkness within 24 hours

Aril 22, 2008

The Palestinian authority of energy and natural resources in Gaza warned that the power station will shut down and Gaza will plunge into darkness by Wednesday evening because the fuel supply in the station almost ran out.

The energy authority underlined that the lack of fuel will also lead to the collapse of the whole electricity system in Gaza, adding that it will not be possible to exclude crucial human services such as hospitals, sewage pumps, and water wells from the coming power outage.

The comprehensive power outage is threatening to stop feeding hospitals with electricity needed to operate medical devices which means mass death of patients in intensive care units, those who depend on respirators and dialysis machines as well as premature babies in incubators.

For his part, MP Jamal Al-Khudari, the head of the popular committee against the siege, appealed to the international community to intervene urgently to end the siege and the consequent fuel crisis.

Khudari also warned that the only power station in Gaza will stop fully on Wednesday evening if it is not immediately provided with necessary fuel.

IOA bars Gaza patients from leaving for treatment

April 22, 2008

Occupied Jerusalem -- Doctors for Life international has complained that Israel's general security apparatus, the Shabak, was tightening conditions for allowing Gaza cancer patients to travel for treatment.

The international organization said that it tabled 12 requests with the Israeli security apparatus over the past few weeks for treatment of cancer patients from Gaza but no response was given so far.

The Shabak claimed that Palestinians were forging medical documents just to leave the Gaza Strip and head to other areas. It said that the 12 requests were referred to the coordination and liaison department.

In a related development, a 60-year-old Palestinian woman died on Monday due to the tight Israeli siege.

One of the relatives of the old woman, Fulla Abu Dakka, told the popular committee against the siege that she left for Egypt to undergo a kidney transplant operation but died there due to the delay in receiving proper treatment.

The number of siege victims thus rose to 136 in the past ten months including many children and women.

IOF troops demolish two Palestinian homes in Jerusalem

April 3, 2008

Occupied Jerusalem -- Israeli occupation policemen on Wednesday escorted and protected municipal bulldozers in occupied Jerusalem while flattening two Palestinian homes for the second time for "lack of construction permit".

A large number of those policemen encircled the two homes and blocked citizens from approaching. The policemen forcibly evacuated owners of the two homes and their families before damaging water, electricity and TV wires then destroying the buildings.

Legal sources said that around 20,000 Palestinian homes are threatened with demolition by the Israeli occupation authority in occupied Jerusalem at the pretext of lack of legal permit, which is never obtained when asked for.

IOF troops kidnap 103 Palestinians last March only in Al-Khalil

April 3, 2008

Al-Khalil -- The Palestinian prisoner club said Wednesday the IOF troops kidnapped during last March 103 Palestinian citizens including 15 patients and 11 children in Al-Khalil city, southern West Bank.

In a report received by the PIC, the club stated that the IOF troops during its kidnapping campaigns deliberately beat the kidnapped citizens and destroy furniture during home raids as happened during the kidnapping of Tariq Erziqat who suffers from rheumatism in his joints, where the IOF troops beat and forced him to carry heavy bags.

In another context, the popular committee against the siege appealed Wednesday to the UN and international community to intervene urgently to prevent Israel from continuing to close charities in Al-Khalil which support thousands of orphans and poor families in the West Bank who have no other breadwinners.

The committee underlined that the Israeli occupation exploits the international silence on the siege on Gaza to escalate its aggression on the West Bank especially its assaults on charities, which take care of orphans and poor families, through closing them and confiscating their contents.

The committee urged the charitable societies and human rights organizations in the world to necessarily move to save thousands of orphans and poor families in the West Bank who are totally dependant on charities there.

In another context, Israeli military sources said that the IOF troops kidnapped 18 Palestinian citizens in different parts of the West Bank on Wednesday at the pretext that they were wanted, adding that all the detainees were taken to intelligence centers for investigation.

Israeli court imprisons Palestinian child for passing near the separation wall

April 2, 2008

Occupied Jerusalem -- The Israeli Ofer military court on Wednesday sentenced a Palestinian child from occupied Jerusalem to four months imprisonment after "convicting" him of walking near the separation wall.

Asrana (our prisoners) legal center said in a statement that Mohammed Abu Eid, 16, from Badu village north of Jerusalem was also fined about 400 dollars after the court charged him with passing near the apartheid wall in the village.

The IOF soldiers had arrested and beaten up the boy before his arrest last January after passing in front of the separation wall built on the village's lands. He was hospitalized for treatment after the assault.

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March Israeli Crimes Updates

Rabbi calls for hanging Arab children from trees

March 29, 2008

Nazareth -- The chief Rabbi of Safad, Shmuel Eliyahu, urged the Zionist state to exact "a horrible revenge" on Palestinians in retaliation for their attacks to serve as a deterrent.

In an article published in the newsletter "Eretz Yisrael Shelanu", which will be distributed to Synagogues this weekend, Eliyahu criticises the leaders of the Zionist state for not taking or allowing revenge against the family Alaa Abu Dheim who carried out the Merkaz Harav attack in Jerusalem.

"A state that really respects the lives of its citizens would have hanged the 10 sons of the terrorist on a tree 50 amot [25 meters] tall, so that others would see it and be afraid," wrote Eliahu, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Eliahu called on the Zionist state to take "horrible revenge" for the attack at the Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

"We have to exact a revenge that is so painful, it will burn into the souls of all our enemies the message that Jewish blood is more valuable than gold and platinum."

On Wednesday, Mossawa Center, an Arab human rights group, called on the Attorney General to take legal action against the rabbi for inciting racism and violence.

IOF troops kill Qassam fighter, wound two others in Khan Younis

March 29, 2008

Khan Younis -- A Palestinian resistance fighter of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, called Bilal Al-Astal, 17, was killed and two others were wounded during confrontations on Friday with a special Israeli force that infiltrated into an area east of Al-Karara in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip.

In another context, the IOF troops told Palestinian medical parties Friday evening that they shot dead a Palestinian citizen in the north of Gaza near the security fence but Palestinian ambulances could not transport his body that night for security reasons.

In retaliation to the Israeli ongoing infiltrations, crimes and siege, the Qassam Brigades announced in a communiqué received by the PIC that its fighters managed at dawn Saturday to detonate two anti-personnel explosive devices at infiltrating Israeli special forces followed by heavy gunfire in two separate areas north of Beit Hanun, northern Gaza.

The Palestinian center for human rights said that the IOF troops within the security coordination with the PA security apparatuses in the West Bank carry out an average of seven incursions daily, adding that during the week between 19th and 26th of March, there were 48 Israeli incursions at least in the cities, towns and villages of the West Bank.

The center explained that during the incursions, the IOF troops opened fire indiscriminately and deliberately at Palestinian citizens, stormed and ransacked dozens of buildings and houses and kidnapped 82 Palestinians including 15 boys and one girl, thus increasing the number of the kidnapped since the beginning of this year to 777 Palestinians.

IOF troops kill Palestinian teenager, block ambulance from collecting his body

Beit Hanun -- IOF soldiers last night killed a Palestinian teenager for coming close to the security fence between northern Gaza Strip and Palestinian lands occupied in 1948.

Medical sources said on Saturday that the unidentified Palestinian youth was barely 18 and was hit with IOF bullets near the "border fence" north of Beit Hanun.

They told PIC correspondent that IOF informed the Palestinian medical teams that a Palestinian was killed near the fence but would not allow ambulances to collect his body Friday night citing alleged security reasons.

IOF sources said that soldiers spotted an "armed" man while approaching the security fence and fired at him. They claimed that the Palestinian tossed a grenade at the soldiers before being killed, and said that no casualties were suffered in lines of the soldiers.

Meanwhile, in southern Gaza, 27-year-old Rami Qudaih was wounded on Saturday morning when IOF tanks fired their machineguns at Palestinian agricultural lands and houses east of Khuzaa, in Khan Younis district.

Medical sources told PIC that Qudaih was hit in his right leg, describing his condition as "moderate".

The Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad Movement, said that its fighters fired a locally made Quds missile at the Migen settlement east of Khan Younis on Saturday morning.

In the West Bank town of Qabatia, Jenin district, the same armed wing said that its fighters engaged invading IOF troops that infiltrated into the town early Saturday in search of Jihad activists.

Israeli Siege Violates Children's Right of Education

March 28, 2008

Gaza -- The Ministry of Education and Higher Education said that the Israeli siege on Gaza and the closure of all the Gaza border crossings for the past nine months bluntly violates Gaza's children's Right to Education.

The ministry added that the siege imposed by Israel harms the most important elements of the educational process such as school books, computer and science labs, school libraries and students' personal needs, adding that there is a 50% shortage of books for elementary school students and a 30% shortage for middle school students. There is also a shortage of 259977 books in UNRWA schools and a 15% shortage of books in private schools.

The Ministry pointed out that the severe shortage in school utilities such as computer labs, science labs, and libraries in addition to the fact that school computers cannot be repaired due to the lack of spare parts. It is also not possible to buy new computers because they are not available in the Gaza market.

Furthermore, schools face large shortages in science lab equipment and materials. School libraries do not receive any new books and there are large shortages in school uniforms and shoes. These factors have collectively affected Gazan students. Their school performance has deteriorated and teachers are forced to teach the theoretical parts of the curriculum and not the practical parts. This situation has put students, parents and teachers under great psychological pressures.

The Ministry added that Israel, through continuing its siege on Gaza, violates its legal obligations and responsibilities towards children's right to education.

Israel has delayed and prevented the entrance of all educational equipment, especially school books and printing paper for the second season of the 2007/2008 school year.

The siege has also prevented the implementation of the "School Internet Project" in addition to the Italian Project, which included the installation of ten computer labs with 15 computers, one printer and a network for each lab, and the Islamic Development Bank project, which was to open 13 computer labs in Gaza schools.

The Ministry, while strongly condemning Israel's violation of the Right to Education, called on International Organizations, especially the UNESCO, to stand in the face of Israel's violations. It also called on Human Rights Groups, especially those concerned with children's rights, to put pressure on Israel and to help spread public awareness of the occupation's crimes against those children.

The ministry also called for controlling prices of student utilities in the Gaza market, the computerization of school books and making use of the internet in order to overcome the shortage in printed books.
 

Zionist IOF troops kidnap Palestinian young woman

Nablus -- Zionist IOF soldiers at dawn Thursday kidnapped a 26-year-old Palestinian young woman from her parent's home in Rafidia suburb, Nablus city, local sources reported.

The sources said that the soldiers broke into the home of Samir Kenan and abducted his daughter Hanadi after ransacking the house.

Relatives of the young woman said that the troops violently stormed the family home before taking away Hanadi, who is a post graduate student at Najah University. They recalled that the IOF troops had earlier kidnapped Hanadi's brother.

In another unrelated development, detained PLC speaker Dr. Aziz Dwaik is scheduled to attend a hearing into his case in Ofer detention center on Thursday along with other detained MPs affiliated with Hamas's parliamentary bloc.

The Israeli occupation authority is holding 47 Palestinian MPs in custody including Dr. Mariam Saleh, who was kidnapped from her home to be the first female legislator held by the IOA.

60 seriously injured Palestinians arrive in Istanbul for medical treatment

March 27, 2008

Istanbul -- Under the auspices of IHH, a Turkish relief committee, 60 Palestinians from those who sustained serious injuries in the last Israeli aggression on Gaza arrived aboard a private plane in Istanbul to receive medical treatment in Turkish hospitals.

The seriously wounded Palestinian will be receiving appropriate medical treatment and surgical operations in Turkish hospitals. Many of the survivors of the Israeli massacre in Gaza will be provided with prostheses and will be provided with psychological support within an integrated program during their stay in Turkey.

For its part, IHH announced that it held meetings with the Egyptian government prior to the travel of the wounded Palestinians to Istanbul which resulted in the latter's approval to allow 60 cases to travel for medical treatment.

IHH underlined that there are dozens of serious injuries in the Egyptian hospitals such as the case of a Palestinian child called Shukri Khader, 11, who became paralyzed after sustaining three bullet wounds in his body one is in his hip.

IOF troops demolish two houses, bulldoze agriculture lands

March 27, 2008

Khan Younis -- Zionist IOF troops on Wednesday demolished two Palestinian homes and bulldozed 100 dunums of agriculture lands in Qarara town east of Khan Younis, to the south of the Gaza Strip, locals reported.

They told PIC correspondent that the lands were cultivated with olive trees and vegetables, and added that the soldiers were still firing indiscriminately at citizens this afternoon.

In the West Bank, Hebrew media reported that IOF soldiers rounded up 13 Palestinians in various areas including the commander of the Qassam Brigades in Tulkarm.

Meanwhile, IOF command on Wednesday dismantled the Mintad outpost east of Qarara which has been repeatedly attacked by Palestinian resistance in Gaza especially the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.

Witnesses reported that Zionist tractors were seen removing the outpost amidst feeling of satisfaction among the nearby Palestinian residents who suffered a lot from shelling and random firing from this position that killed a number of inhabitants.

Palestinian woman dies of Gaza blockade

March 25, 2008

Gaza -- Jazia Abu Hilal, 65, died on Tuesday in Gaza city after long suffering of a chronic disease which she could not get treated in Gaza and at the same time could not travel abroad for treatment due to the Israeli siege.

The popular committee against the siege said that the death of the old woman brought the number of Palestinian patients who died in Gaza Strip as a result of the Zionist occupation forces (Zionist IOF) siege to 118.

Death threat is still looming over a big number of chronically ill Palestinians in the besieged Strip due to absence of proper medication and the travel ban.

Zionist occupation forces (Zionist IOF) shoot, critically wound Palestinian youth

March 26, 2008

Nablus -- Zionist occupation forces (Zionist IOF) on Tuesday night shot and critically wounded a Palestinian young man at the Hawara military road barrier south of Nablus city after claiming he did not listen to their orders.

The young man, from Orta village, was hit with a bullet that penetrated his abdomen and got out from his back. His condition was described as "difficult".

The Zionist IOF soldiers mounting armored vehicles on Wednesday morning stormed the city of Nablus along with Beit Al-Ma and Balata refugee camps to the east and west of Nablus and stormed many homes but no arrests were reported.

The soldiers also burst into the villages of Burka and Yasid to the north of Nablus city and broke into and ransacked many citizens' homes.

Meanwhile, tens of Zionist IOF armored vehicles stormed the city of Jenin at dawn Wednesday and broke into a number of buildings including the premises of the Nafha legal society defending rights of Palestinian prisoners in occupation jails.

Society employees said that the soldiers broke the office's furniture in their barbaric rummage through the headquarters.

The soldiers also broke into an apartment believing a wanted activist was inside before realizing they were mistaken then retreated from the city amidst firing of live bullets and sonic bombs.

Hit-and-run Israeli driver runs over Palestinian young man

March 24, 2008

An Israeli setter driving a car wounded a Palestinian young man called Jihad Sharawneh, 20, very badly when he deliberately sped up and ran over the young man near Na'lin village west of Ramallah city.

Palestinian eyewitness reported that the settler fled the scene, while the young man was bleeding and groaning with pain, adding that he got fractures in his limbs.

Meanwhile, another Israeli settler on Sunday kidnapped two Palestinian children called Iyad Al-Hindi, 14, and his cousin Bilal Al-Hindi, 17, as they were grazing sheep on the outskirts of the Laban village, east of Salfit in the northern West Bank, according to local sources.

The sources added that the settler took the two children to the Israeli Shilo settlement and let them go after questioning them.

In another context, the IOF troops withdrew Monday morning from the vicinity of the Arab American University in Jenin as well as the towns of Talfit and Zababdeh in the Jenin district after deploying about 200 armored vehicles in the area on Sunday.

The IOF troops alleged that this military operation was not aimed at the university or the surrounding villages, but it was only a military maneuver.

The deployment of tens of Israeli military hardware and troops in the area yesterday had raised fears among the university students and the people of the area who thought it was in preparation for a large-scale invasion of the area.

The IOF troops also invaded at dawn Monday the Tubas town in the West Bank and kidnapped a Palestinian citizen called Mu'een Fukaha, 22, while many military vehicles stormed the Jenin city.

Palestinian Killed as Israeli Troops enter Gaza

March 24, 2008

Israeli occupation troops killed an unarmed Palestinian and wounded another during a clash with Palestinian fighters on the border of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on Monday, hospital officials and militant sources said.

They said gunmen from the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) faction fired at an Israeli bulldozer near the southern town of Khan Yunis. Occupation forces shot back, hitting two civilians, one fatally, hospital officials said.

The PRC said the Israeli bulldozer and a small infantry unit were on the Gazan side of the border at the time. Palestinians said the dead man was a 65-year-old farmer who was on his land at the time.

An Israeli spokesman had no immediate comment on the incident, which came during a relative lull in Gaza violence as Egypt tries to broker a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel.

Troops of Zionist occupation forces (Zionist IOF) kidnap six Palestinians and Abbas's security kidnap six others

March 22, 2008

Zionist IOF troops, Thursday night and Friday morning, kidnapped six Palestinians in the northern West Bank, while Abbs's security men kidnapped six Hamas supporters.

Zionist IOF troops raided the Balata refugee camp east of Nablus in the early hours of Friday, broke into a number of homes and ransacked them before kidnapping Muntaha al-Khatib (an 18-year-old girl).

The Zionist IOF had kidnapped earlier on Thursday another 18-year-old girl called Ayat al-Qaisi whose fiancé was killed 3 weeks ago by the Zionist IOF and three of her brothers are captives in Israeli occupation jails.

A Palestinian young man was also kidnapped while leaving Nablus through the notorious Hawwara roadblock where he was detained for 3 hours before being taken to the Hawwara military post.

In nearby Baita village, to the south of Nablus, three more young men were kidnapped one of them taken from an ambulance which was taking him to the Rafidia hospital in Nablus as he was wounded in the stomach when the troops invaded the village, Thursday evening, and started firing in all directions before imposing a curfew on the village.

Meanwhile, Abbas's security kidnapped six Hamas supporters, two in the Tulkarem district, one of them in the Jenin area, two in Nablus and one in al-Khalil district.

Two Qassam fighters die in yet unknown explosion

March 21, 2008

Gaza -- Two members of the Qassam Brigades (QB), the armed wing of Hamas Movement, were killed on Thursday in an explosion south of Gaza city, medical sources said.

The sources told Palestinian Information Center that Noor Jundia and Mohammed Banar were killed in the explosion, which the QB did not explain so far.

The blast rocked the Badr position of the QB, the sources said, noting that two others were wounded in the incident.

Reports said that it was the result of an IOF shelling while others said that it was an internal incident. No official report from QB was available so far.

Islamic Jihad well prepared for new confrontations with IOF troops

March 21, 2008

Gaza -- Khaled Al-Batesh, the prominent political leader of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Gaza strip, has urged on Thursday the Palestinian people and the Palestinian resistance factions to gear up for new confrontations against the Israeli occupation.

"The IOF troops [persisting] aggressions against our people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip occur at a time talks and efforts were focusing on reaching a "Tahdea" (truce) which the Israeli occupation government wants to impose by force after she failed to achieve its goals in Gaza militarily", Batesh asserted in a statement he issued Thursday and a copy of which was obtained by the PIC.

He also asserted that the Israeli occupation government was "exhausting time and draining the Palestinian people's capabilities" before the upcoming Arab summit in the Syrian capital Damascus in order to preempt any possible Arab support for the Palestinian people.

Batesh also warned that if the [Israeli] occupation army persisted in its aggressions on the Palestinian people, then, he added, a new confrontation with the IOF troops prior to the Arab summit will be inevitable.

"The Movement calls on its fighters and knights as well as all Palestinian resistance factions to remain vigilant and to prepare themselves for new round of confrontations on the Palestinian land as we will never remain arms folded while our legal rights are being circumvented, and the Israeli aggressions continue ", Batesh underlined.

Troops of Zionist occupation force (Zionist IOF) kill Palestinian old man

March 20, 2008

Khan Younis -- Soldiers of Zionist occupation forces (Zionist IOF)s on Thursday shot at and killed a 65-year-old Palestinian man east of Khan Younis district, south of the Gaza Strip, medical sources reported.

The sources told Palestinian Information Center correspondent that the old Man, Hussein Abed, was hit with a bullet in the chest fired by those troops who advanced into the area east of Qarara town.

Witnesses said that the old man was riding a donkey-driven cart when the bullets hit him while many other citizens miraculously survived the shooting.

They said that the soldiers were mounting three tanks and escorting tractors that bulldozed agricultural areas near the Sreij gate in Qarara and fired at the old man who was heading to his field.

Meanwhile, the Islamic women movement in Hamas issued a statement denouncing the Zionist IOA's renewal of administrative detention of captive Noura Al-Hashlamoun, a mother of six children, for the seventh time running. Hashlamoun went on hunger strike to protest the detention despite her kidney problems.

It also denounced the extension of MP Dr. Mariam Saleh's detention for the fourth time without any charge despite her immunity as a member of parliament.

The women movement held the Israeli prisons authority fully responsible for life of Palestinian women captives especially the sick ones, and condemned the IPA for transferring to hospital the 40-day-old infant Yousef away from his imprisoned mother Fatma Al-Zak, 42, who have been held in custody for eight months. The child was suffering serious high temperature.

It asked freedom loving peoples and institutions catering for women rights to act in support of those captives.

Troops of Zionist occupation forces (Zionist IOF) kidnap 7 members of one family in northern Gaza

March 19, 2008

Beit Hanun -- Troops of Zionist occupation forces (Zionist IOF) on Wednesday kidnapped seven members of a Palestinian family east of Beit Hanun city to the north of the Gaza Strip after wreaking havoc in the family home.

Eyewitnesses reported that the soldiers advanced into eastern Beit Hanun and encircled a house for Salah family amidst intensified firing.

They added that the soldiers arrested Assad Fahmi Salah, his three sons, and his brother Sa'eed and his two sons.

The occupation forces bulldozed large areas of cultivated lands in the area while artillery shells slammed in fields east of Gaza city.

A Palestinian society for prisoners and ex-prisoners denounced the Zionist IOF kidnapping of seven civilians after savagely breaking into their home.

Wa'ed society said that the kidnap fell in line with the policy of holocaust against Gaza and the mass punishment imposed on the Strip.

In retaliation to Zionist IOF atrocities, the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas Movement, on Wednesday fired a number of mortar shells at a Zionist IOF position east of Gaza.

Israeli air strike wound five Palestinians in Gaza; resistance retaliates

March 18, 2008

Gaza -- At least five Palestinians, including three members of the Islamic Jihad, were wounded on Tuesday night after an Israeli reconnaissance plane targeted their vehicle in Beit Lahai city, north of Gaza Strip, Palestinian security and medical sources confirmed to the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) correspondent.

According to the sources, the Israeli drone unleashed an air-to-surface missile at a car in which the three Islamic Jihad fighters were traveling, wounding them and two passers by.

The sources described the condition of at least two of the wounded Palestinian as "very serious".

However, eyewitnesses in the area opined that the shelling was carried out by an Israeli tank stationed at the boarder of the Gaza Strip and not by a drone.

In the West Bank, large numbers of Zionist occupation forces (Zionist IOF) backed by military vehicles and jeeps ended a military incursion into the village of Zababda , east of Jenin, at dawn Tuesday arresting an Imam of a local mosque identified by local residents as Fathi Kutait, 40, who is reportedly one of Hamas supporters in the village.

According to the village's inhabitants, the Zionist IOF troops claimed that they were searching for "wanted" Palestinian activists; but they failed to arrest any of them although they ransacked and searched tens of Palestinian homes in the village.

Meanwhile, the Qassam Brigades (QB), the armed wing of Hamas Movement, said in a military communiqué it issued and a copy of which was obtained by the PIC that its fighters shot at Israeli choppers hovering over the Dier Al-Balah city in central Gaza Strip.

A couple of days ago, the Israeli army acknowledged that the "ground defenses" of the QB succeeded in hitting an Israeli Apache chopper for the first time since four decades.

The QB also fired a number of mortar shells at the site of the Israeli military aerostat east of Khan Younis city, south of Gaza Strip.

For its part, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the PFLP, took the credit for firing three locally-made rockets at the Israeli military airstrip, east of Al-Buraij camp in central Gaza Strip.

Both Palestinian armed wings asserted in a separate military communiqués that the rocket and mortar attacks were in retaliation to the continued Israeli aggression on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"We vow to use all [the weapons] we possess in confronting the Israeli enemy, and we vow to defeat its coward army at the thresholds of the steadfast Gaza Strip", underlined the QB in its military communiqué.

Hundreds of Palestinian citizens were killed an wounded, the bulk of them civilians including many children, with IOF troops' weapons in Gaza Strip and the West Bank since the start of this year.

Palestinian young man takes a revenge on extremist rabbi in a stabbing struggle in occupied Jerusalem

March 18, 2008

Occupied Jerusalem -- A Palestinian young man stabbed on Tuesday morning a rabbi working for a Zionist extremist society outside the Damascus Gate in occupied Jerusalem and ran away.

Palestinian sources in the city said that the stabbed Israeli settler, 49, is a rabbi in the Ateret Kohanim society which is working on confiscating Palestinian lands in Jerusalem by all means and settling Jews in the holy city to change the demography of the city.

Israeli medical sources said that the rabbi stabbed in the neck while he was walking with a bodyguard in Jerusalem and described his wounds as serious.
Israeli police presence in Jerusalem has been intensified since Monday morning because of the tension which exists in the city as Jewish extremists tried to attack the family of Alaa Abu Dehim, who carried out the Jerusalem attack more than a week ago.

Israeli court bans family visits to Sheikh Abul Haija for five years running

March 18, 2008

Jenin -- The Israeli military court has turned down a request by detainee Sheikh Jamal Abul Haija, one of the Hamas leaders in the West Bank, to allow him family visits after being denied that right for five years.

The wife, Asmaa Abul Haija, said, after the ruling was passed on Monday, that her husband had filed a complaint against the Israeli prisons authority (IPA).

She noted that the court refused to allow her husband to speak during the hearing to respond to the prosecution and intelligence's allegations, which demanded that the ban on his wife and his daughter Banan, a lawyer, and other adult sons be continued since they were all ex-detainees and the Sheikh still posed "dangers" to the Zionist security despite being behind bars!

Asmaa said that the intelligence representative also demanded continued isolation of the Sheikh, who has been in solitary confinement ever since his detention in June 2003.

The intelligence representative in court claimed that Sheikh Abul Haija was still practicing "hostile activity" against Zionist security, she said, adding that the court refused to listen to the defense lawyer and to her husband's requests.

The court only allowed his children under 16 years old to visit him, the wife said, noting that her two children Sajed and Hamza recently tried to visit their father but were also banned from seeing him.

She appealed to international institutions and human rights groups to pressure the IPA to halt its "arbitrary" measures against her husband, who is serving a life sentence along with 20 years and who suffers real difficulties in isolation since one of his hands was amputated after IOF soldiers fired at him during his arrest.

Zionist regime (Zionist IOA) extends detention of the Palestinian female MP

March 17, 2008

Nablus -- The Israeli occupation authority ahs extended the detention without trial of MP Dr. Mariam Saleh for four more months after failing to level any charge against her, the Nafha legal society said.

It denounced the "arbitrary, repressive" decision, describing it as an "assault on the Palestinian people's right to choose their own representatives."

The director of the society stated that the Zionist regime (Zionist IOA )has stripped itself of all values of humanity, mercy and ethics, explaining that it "deals with the Palestinians not like human beings with rights, which the entire world had recognized, but rather like creatures that do not deserve to live".

He stressed that the Palestinian people's unity and steadfastness are the real guarantees for the return of their rights, liberation of prisoners and forcing the IOA to evacuate the occupied lands.

For his part, Ahmed Al-Tibi, the Arab member of the Israeli parliament, sent a message to Israeli war minister Ehud Barak asking him to order the immediate release of Dr. Mariam.

"Saleh was elected in a democratic manner and was not accused of anything," he argued, charging that her arrest was a kind of "political arrest with no legal basis, thus she should be released at once".

40-day-old Palestinian baby in Israeli jails falls ill

March 17, 2008

Gaza -- The Nafah society for the defense of human and prisoners' rights was informed by an ex-detainee in Israeli jails that a 40-day-old baby called Youssef Al-Zak was transferred to a clinic in the Israeli Hasharon prison with high temperature.

The society stated that the baby was born in the prison 40 days ago to Fatima Al-Zak, 42, a prisoner in the Hasharon prison who was kidnapped from the Shujaiyeh neighborhood in Gaza eight months ago.

The society pointed that there is another Palestinian baby in the prison called Ghada Abu Omar, a one year old, born to prisoner Khoula Zitawi who was sentenced to two years.

The society appealed to human rights organizations to intervene to rescue the two babies imprisoned with their mothers and to work for the release of more than 400 women and children inside Israeli jails.

The situation for Israeli Arabs is not much better, Israeli Arabs reported that an Israeli police officer in Kfar Saba verbally assaulted two Palestinian young men from the Taiba city and tried to beat them with a baton, but other officers at the police station stopped him. He uttered racist slurs against them like "death to Arabs."

The police officer took the two young men to the police station for questioning after he found a baton in their car and tried to attack them after he finished his interrogations which last half an hour. The Israeli police justified the officer's behavior saying that he was under the influence of alcohol.

Zionist IOF troops kill four Palestinian resistance fighters in northern Gaza

March 17, 2008

Gaza -- The Zionist IOF troops killed three resistance fighters affiliated Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement and another fighter affiliated with Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, and wounded a number of Palestinian citizens including two women in the east of Gaza city.

Palestinian security and medical sources told the Palestinian Information Center reporter that three fighters of Al-Quds Brigades called Basil Shabet, Mohamed Al-Sha'er and Hasan Shaqqura were killed after an Israeli warplane fired a number of air-to-ground missiles at them near the Shayma school in Beit Lahia.

Mahmoud Hammouda, 19, affiliated with Al-Qassam Brigades was also proclaimed dead after he sustained serious injuries on Saturday afternoon in Israeli artillery shelling of Beit Lahia.

The Israeli artillery shelled on the same day a residential area in east of Gaza which led to the injury of three Palestinian citizens including two women.

Palestinian local sources reported that 15 Israeli military vehicles stormed the towns of Qabatiya and Deir Abu Da'eef in east of Jenin, northern West Bank, where the Zionist IOF troops broke into and ransacked a number of houses there at the pretext of looking for fugitives.

The Palestinian citizens in the Burka village, north of the Nablus city in the West Bank, also reported that the Zionist IOF troops reinforced by armored vehicles invaded the village at noon Friday amid heavy gunfire which caused a state of panic and fear among the citizens.

The Burka residents said that the Zionist IOF troops invaded their village many times which led many shops to shut down.

Two more victims of Zionist state of Israel IOA siege

March 15, 2008

Two Palestinian citizens died on Friday evening in the Gaza Strip after long suffering of chronic diseases and inability to travel abroad for treatment due to the Israeli occupation authority's siege laid to the Strip.

Medical sources said that Ibtisam Abu Mousa, 28, and Ahmed Al-Nouri, 60, died after being denied access to hospitals outside the Strip.

The number of Palestinian patients who died in Gaza ever since the IOA siege was tightened thus rose to 112 victims including a number of children.

Hundreds others are suffering from diseases with no treatment in the Strip available for them, and with the tight siege they could not travel for treatment abroad.

Netanyahu urges Olmert to resign over Palestinian primitive rockets

March 14, 2008

Nazareth -- Former Israeli prime minister and chairman of the rightist Likud Party Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday called for the resignation of Israeli premier Ehud Olmert after failing to stop Palestinian home-made rockets fired on Israeli colonies.

Netanyahu was reported to have said during a meeting with the EU envoys in Tel Aviv that an Israeli premier who calls on his citizens to get used to the Palestinian missile attacks isn't eligible to continue in office and must resign and be replaced with another premier capable of fighting the Palestinian resistance.

But according to Hebrew sources, Netanyahu was in the office of Olmert after he uttered such statements as both Israeli leaders held a meeting in which Olmert acquainted his arch political rival with the latest security and political affairs in accordance with the law.

Meanwhile, the Hebrew radio reported that six Palestinian home-made rockets slammed into the Israeli colonies of Sderot and Kfar Azza in the 1948-occupied Negev Desert. The radio said that no casualties were reported in the attack.

Palestinian resistance factions maintained that their missile attacks on the Israeli settlements and the IOF troops' position were in retaliation to the relentless Israeli killing of innocent Palestinian citizens in Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The Israeli occupation government had been imposing crippling economic sanctions against the Gaza Strip since two years, and closed all exits of the Strip since last June, turning life of the 1.5 million Palestinian individuals living there into a hell.

Two weeks ago, the Israeli occupation government unleashed a military operation in Gaza Strip with the aim to reduce the number of Palestinian retaliatory attacks against Israeli colonies.

The Israeli invasion against Gaza Strip lasted for five days in which the IOF troops used internationally-prohibited weapons and killed and wounded around 500 Palestinian citizens, the bulk of them were civilians.

Nevertheless, Israeli security officials including Avi Dichter, the minister of internal security among other Israeli officials and legislators asserted that the military operation has failed to achieve it goals as the Palestinian primitive rockets continued falling on Israeli targets and colonies.

Qassam Brigades clash with IOF troops in Qalqilya

Qalqilya -- Resistance fighters affiliated with the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas clashed with IOF troops during an IOF incursion, at dawn Friday, into the northern West Bank city of Qalqilya.

The clashes took place at Nablus street and the Brigades said in a statement on Friday that its fighters were confronting the invading troops in an attempt to defend the Palestinian people against "this barbaric Zionist holocaust which the enemy is bringing to the West Bank after the Gaza Strip."

The Brigades further said: "We, in the Qassam Brigades, stress our right to defend our people in the face of usurping Zionists and we find it strange that Abbas's security agencies in the West Bank carry out campaigns of arrest and pursue resistance fighters during the day while the occupation forces carry out the same task at night in a very naked collaboration and unprecedented security coordination with the murderers of our people."

The number of IOF incursions into West Bank cities, villages and refugee camps has risen to an unprecedented level in the light of security coordination between the occupation forces and Abbas's security agencies.

Human rights organisation condemns storming of news agency offices

March 14, 2008

Gaza -- The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) on Thursday condemned the storming of the headquarters of the Ramattan Press Agency in Ramallah by members of the Palestinian Preventive Security Service (PSS) and arresting a journalist on Wednesday, stressing that the Palestinian basic law guarantees freedom of expression.

PCHR said in a press statement: "PCHR believes that this attack constitutes an assault on press freedoms and the right to freedom of expression, and stresses that the rights to freedom of expression and to receive and impart information are ensured by the Palestinian Basic Law and international human rights instruments."

"According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 12:00 on Wednesday, 12 March 2008, armed members of the PSS, accompanied by 3 officers in civilian clothes, stormed the headquarters of Ramattan Press Agency in al-Wehaidi Building in al-Masyoun neighborhood in Ramallah. They requested Nawaf Ibrahim al-‘Aamer, 48, an editor, to accompany them. However, he asked them to show an arrest warrant, and they showed a warrant issued by the Attorney General’s office allowing entering the headquarters and arresting him. Members of the PSS confiscated all belongings of al-‘Aamer and a computer set. They also broke into the dormitory of the agency’s staff and confiscated all documents in the room where al-‘Aamer lives. They then arrested him," the statement read.

The journalist was subjected to six rounds of interrogation before he agreed to allow the PSS agents see and download all his e-mails, after which he was released at 4:00 am on Thursday on condition that he returns for further interrogation at 2:00 pm the same day, according to his testimony to PCHR.

PCHR expressed deep concern at this assault which "constitutes a violation of the Amended Basic Law" and at "the recurrence of assaults against the right to freedom of expression."

Furthermore, PCHR called for protection of journalist and media institutions and called on the Palestinian Authority to arrest perpetrators of the attack on Ramattan news agency.

Zionist IOF troops close down Palestinian radio station

March 12, 2008

Jenin -- Zionist IOF soldiers on Tuesday stormed and wreaked havoc in the Sout Al-Quds radio station in Jenin and ordered its closure after confiscating its equipment, local sources reported.

They said that the soldiers stormed the building of the private radio station, owned by Islamic Jihad Movement, and confiscated its broadcasting equipment and computers. They also sealed the station's main gate.

A statement by the radio station's administration charged that the Zionist IOF closure of Sout Al-Quds offices in Jenin proves anew its persecution of journalists, and constitutes a fresh attempt to silence truth and voices calling for national unity and resistance.

In Salift district, locals in Marada village reported that Zionist IOF soldiers occupied a three-storey building at dawn Tuesday and turned it into a military watchtower.

The locals said that soldiers blocked traffic in and out of the village, closed schools and public buildings and imposed a curfew.

In Al-Khalil city, thousands of students and teachers hit the streets on Tuesday protesting the Zionist IOF closure of charitable societies that used to provide free education to orphans and poor students.

Participants asked the PA to protect private institutions and the Zionist IOF to revoke its decision.

In another Zionist IOA atrocity, Nafha legal society said that Palestinian detainee Omar Daoud, from the Qalqilia city in the West Bank, was subjected to severe torture rounds during his interrogation at the Jalama detention center in violation of all human rights.

It said that Daoud was forced to sit in a painful position for 16 hours, deprived of sleep and forced to face very cold air currents.

The society appealed to the human rights groups to save the Palestinian detainees in Israeli interrogation centers and asked them to expose such practices.

132 martyrs including 66 children in IOF holocaust in Gaza

March 11, 2008

Zionist occupation forces (Zionist IOF) killed 132 Palestinians including 66 children over a period of eight days during the genocide committed by those forces in northern Gaza in the period from 27/2 to 5/3/2008, an official report by the health ministry in the PA caretaker government said.

It added that the wounded in the same period reached 370 including 92 children, 3 paramedics and 3 reporters.

The report noted that a number of families lost many of their members in the bloodbath.

The public works ministry said that the Zionist IOF bloody incursion inflicted material losses estimated at about six million dollars.

Zionist IOA blocks Italian minister from visiting Gaza

March 11, 2008

Gaza -- The Israeli occupation authority barred on Monday Massimo Toschi, the Italian minister for international cooperation and peace, from visiting Gaza to inspect the humanitarian condition there in the context of the tight Israeli siege imposed on the Strip more than eight months ago.

In a statement, the health ministry in Gaza said that the IOA blocked the Italian minister from entering Gaza in order to prevent the world from knowing the ongoing Israeli crimes committed against the Palestinian people, pointing out that Toschi was scheduled to visit a number of Gaza hospitals and institutions.

For its part, the popular committee against the siege headed by MP Jamal Al-Khudari strongly denounced the IOA for barring the Italian minister from visiting the Gaza Strip, charging that the arbitrary measure comes within the Israeli policy which tries to prevent anybody especially international personalities from reporting the real image and tragedy in Gaza to the world.

It pointed that the IOA had already prevented many delegations from entering Gaza and banned the entry of humanitarian aid to its people as well.

The committee underscored that such practice was part of the genocidal war waged by the IOA against the besieged Palestinian people in Gaza which aims to tighten its grip on their lives and to block international solidarity with them.

DCI-Palestine branch: IOF troops kill 24 children in Gaza, prepare for more

March 10, 2008

Tulkarm -- The Defense for children – Palestine branch has described as "serious" the Israeli leaders' statement about their intention to intensify offensives on the Gaza Strip especially the populated areas.

The DCI in a statement said that field reports from Gaza indicate that many children were killed in the Zionist IOF campaign on the Strip last Wednesday, noting that 24 children were among the victims of that campaign while tens others were wounded including many in very serious conditions.

The organization expressed concern over the continuing threats of Israeli leader to escalate aggression on the Strip, recalling a statement for Israeli internal security minister Avi Dichter on 20/1/2008 in which he said that halting firing of missiles from Gaza should be achieved regardless of the price to be paid by the Palestinians.

DCI in Palestine charged that the Zionist IOF massacres against civilians were tantamount to war crimes and "a grave violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention".

It reviewed a number of incidents in which Palestinian children were targeted by Zionist IOF soldiers and warned the world community of maintaining its silence towards Zionist crimes in the Strip. It asked the world to adopt immediate measures to force the IOF troops' to respect international agreements, and to provide protection for the Palestinian civilians.

DCI asked the EU to pressure the Hebrew state to ensure commitment to human rights laws, and asked its members to investigate Zionist violations of those laws in the occupied lands and brining those responsible for them before justice.

Zionist MP calls for restricting Palestinian movement in occupied Jerusalem

March 9, 2008

Nazareth -- Israeli MP Dani Yatum, the former intelligence chief, has called for restricting movement of Palestinian citizens in occupied Jerusalem and to activate monitoring of traffic between east and west of the city.

He told the Israeli army radio on Saturday that Arab holders of blue IDs, which allow them freedom of movement inside Jerusalem, should be banned from this privilege.

Israeli security sources said that Alaa Abu dehaim, 24, who lives in Jabal Al-Mukabir in eastern Jerusalem, was the one who attacked the Jewish institute in western Jerusalem killing 8 of the students, who also serve in the Israeli army, and wounded 40 others.

For his part, the general commissioner of occupation police said that Abu Dehaim was adamant on carrying out the attack and no one could have stopped him even if a security guard was at the entrance to the institute.

Meanwhile, a Zionist IOF soldier was declared dead on Sunday after sustaining serious wounds in the attack on his armored vehicle east of Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, last Thursday.

A Zionist IOF soldier was instantly killed in the incident and three others injured including one seriously who was declared dead on Sunday morning.

In a related incident, the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas Movement, afternoon Saturday fired three mortar shells at an IOF base east of Khan Younis city, and added in a statement that its fighters would confront the "enemy" with all available means.

Zionist settlers try to burn one of the Aqsa gates

March 8, 2008

Occupied Jerusalem -- A group of Zionist settlers tried midnight Thursday to burn one of the gates of the holy Aqsa Mosque but the attempt was foiled when one of the guards spotted the smoke billowing from the area.

The guards reported that the settlers threw a petrol soaked piece of cloth on Sakina corner close to the Silsila (Chain) gate in the western side of the Aqsa Mosque.

They said that one of the guards spotted the smoke and smelled fire near the gate, which prompted him to inform the head guard and the Israeli occupation police officer present in the area. He then opened the gate, saw the blaze and started putting it off, which he did after almost half a meter of the wooden gate was destroyed.

The sources said that the five cameras in the Silsila gate and a nearby border police center could not detect the culprit, according to the police allegations.
 

Zionist IOF troops killed 110 Palestinians including 27 children in a week

March 8, 2008

Gaza -- A report issued by the Palestinian center for human rights (PCHR) said that the Israeli violations of international and humanitarian laws seriously escalated in the Gaza Strip during the period between 28th of February and 5th of March, where the Zionist IOF troops killed 110 Palestinian citizens in the Gaza Strip including 27 children and six women.

The report, which prepared statistics and details about the genocides committed by Israel during the few past days in Gaza, added that the Zionist occupation forces (Zionist IOF) also wounded 236 Palestinians including 58 children and 11 women, pointing out that a large majority of Palestinian deaths and injuries were unarmed civilians.

According to the report, 69 of the Palestinian victims including 20 children and three women were killed in a two-day military operation waged by Zionist IOF troops against the northern Gaza Strip in Jabalia preceded by intense air strikes.

It underlined that the IOF troops employed their sophisticated arsenal and used excessive force without any consideration to the lives of Palestinian civilians, where Zionist IOF warplanes fired 36 missiles in the middle of densely populated areas.

The report said that occupation forces also obstructed the work of medical crews and even fired at them, killing a paramedic and wounding another one seriously as well as destroying a number of Palestinian ambulances.

Some of the heinous facts cited in the report was that four Palestinian children, including three from the same family, were killed by Israeli air strikes when they were playing football near their homes, while a fifth child was killed by an Israeli missile while grazing animals in Beit Lahia.

Zionist IOF troops kill Palestinian young man en route from his work

March 6, 2008

Al-Khalil -- The Zionist IOF troops killed on Wednesday evening a Palestinian young man called Mohamed Aslamiya, 23, and wounded another en route from their work to the Idna town, west of Al-Khalil city in the West Bank.

Palestinian eyewitnesses told the PIC reporter, that Israeli soldiers intercepted the young man and shot him dead, adding that a large number of IOF soldiers stormed the Idna town amid intensive and random gunfire imposing a curfew and announcing the area as a closed military area.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank a Palestinian old woman died of heart attack when IOF soldiers broke into her home in a pre-dawn raid on Thursday, her relatives said.

They said that Zakia Al-Amori was terrified due to the Zionist occupation forces (Zionist IOF) savage storming of her home to capture her nephew who is wanted by those forces.

Palestinian medics arrived to her home in Balata refugee camp east of Nablus city and tried to save her life but to no avail, the relatives said.

In another context, Dr. Muawya Hassanain, the director-general of ambulance and emergency at the health ministry in Gaza, reported that the medical crews recovered a body of Palestinian citizen called Naim Hamdiya, 45, from the ruins of a house in Jabalia in northern Gaza Strip.

Dr. Hassanain explained that the victim disappeared in the second day of the Israeli bloody incursion in Jabalia and then was found buried under the rubble, adding that with this new death, the number of Israel's holocaust victims rose to 127 Palestinians including at least 25 minors.

In a statement received by the Palestinian Information Center, Riyadh Al-Ashqar, the director of the information office at the ministry of detainees and ex-detainees strongly denounced the Zionist authority for releasing an Israeli settler who killed a Palestinian child called Mohamed Shreiteh, 15, in the West Bank two days ago, charging that Israel encourages its settlers to murder Palestinians.

Ashqar underlined that while the Zionist authority refuses to release thousands of Palestinian prisoners especially those who spent dozens of years in Israeli jails and some of them suffer from various diseases at the pretext that their hands were stained with blood, it releases an Israel settler that killed in broad daylight a Palestinian child.

The ministry appealed to human rights organizations especially those concerned with children's rights to raise their voices, which have remained silent for a long time, and start to work on stopping the Israeli crimes and arbitrary acts against the Palestinian children, pointing out that the Zionist authority detains in its jails more than 350 Palestinian children.

Zionist IOF soldier killed in Palestinian resistance attack

March 6, 2008

Gaza -- A Zionist occupation forces (Zionist IOF) soldier was killed on Thursday after Palestinian resistance elements detonated an explosive device in a Zionist IOF jeep near the Kissufim military position east of Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip.

Hebrew media reported that the soldier was killed while others were wounded in the attack. Eyewitnesses in the area said that jeep was directly hit and completely destroyed by the ensuing fire.

An eyewitness told Palestinian Information Center correspondent that the blast directly exploded in the jeep putting it on fire.

He added that the blaze continued for 15 minutes before a number of Zionist IOF armored vehicles arrived to the scene accompanied by a military ambulance vehicle and a helicopter to evacuate the casualties.

Violent clashes were reported in the area between Zionist IOF troops and resistance fighters during which the Zionist IOF troops fired at civilian neighborhoods, locals reported.

The Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, took credit for the attack.

Hamas vows reprisal to the Zionist IOF murder of Palestinian children

March 5, 2008

Khan Younis -- The Hamas Movement on Wednesday vowed to retaliate strongly to the Zionist occupation (Zionist IOF) troops' massacres in the Gaza Strip especially the shedding of innocent children's blood.

A statement issued by the Movement's office in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, said that the "Nazi entity" would pay a heavy price for the killing of Palestinian children and would regret the day when it shed this innocent blood.

It noted that Israeli occupation does not care less about international laws that stipulate sparing children and civilians at times of military action.

Hamas underlined that Israeli occupation is encouraged by Arab, Islamic and international silence vis-à-vis those crimes.

The Movement finally held the Zionist occupation authority fully responsible for consequences of its crimes along with all those who watch idly.

Zionist IOF troops murder infant girl, wound her mother in central Gaza

March 5, 2008

Gaza -- The Zionist IOF troops murdered a 20-day-old infant girl called Amira Abu Asr, wounded her mother and assassinated a leader affiliated with the Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, during their incursion into the Abu Al-Ajeen village to the east of Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza Strip.

Palestinian medical and local sources told the Palestinian Information Center reporter that the infant was shot in the head; whereas, her mother was seriously wounded and her father was kidnapped during their visit to the house of Yousef Al-Samiri, a prominent Islamic Jihad leader.

Eyewitnesses explained that Israeli special forces reinforced by a number of tanks and air cover invaded the villages of Al-Karara and Abu Al-Ajeen and stormed the Samiri's house amid intensive gunfire, adding that the IOF troops also kidnapped Samiri's elder son and wounded a Palestinian citizen.

Later, medical sources in the Aqsa martyrs hospital stated that they received the body of Samiri who was reportedly killed after escaping from his house.

For its part, the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, announced that its fighters fired a number of mortar shells at the invading Zionist IOF troops and an RPG shell at an Israeli military jeep in the villages, while its anti-aircraft units warded off the Israeli planes.

The Palestinian people in Gaza fear that these Israeli military operations would be a complement to the Israeli massacre committed east of the Jabaliya town, northern Gaza Strip, which resulted in the death of 124 Palestinians including 40 children and 14 women, and the destruction of the invaded areas' infrastructure.

Jewish fanatics desecrate historical mosque

March 5, 2008

Jewish fanatics on Tuesday broke into and ransacked the yards of the historical Hasan Bek Mosque in Yaffa north of Palestine occupied in 1948, the Aqsa Foundation reported.

The AF, which caters for Islamic holy shrines in occupied Palestine, described as "serious" the "sinful attack" especially when this particular Mosque was the target of several attacks in the past.

It noted that many other Islamic holy places were targeted by Jewish fanatics, describing the attacks as "racist".

The Foundation condemned the attack and held the Israeli occupation authority fully responsible for the incident and all similar incidents.

Zionist occupation troops kill Palestinian another teen in Ramallah, amidst large protest demos

March 3, 2008

Ramallah -- Zionist occupation soldiers on Monday shot dead a Palestinian teenager north of Ramallah during a demonstration protesting the Zionist IOF genocide in the Gaza Strip as similar marches swept the West Bank.

Local sources said that students of the Mazra Al-Gharbia village organized a protest march that headed towards a nearby settlement but were met with live bullets on the part of Zionist IOF soldiers and guards of that settlement.

The demonstrators threw stones at the soldiers and the Zionist IOF retaliated by firing bullets that hit and killed Mohammed Saleh Shreiteh, 18.

All shops in Ramallah city closed down after the incident in mourning the death of Shreiteh and the Gaza martyrs.

Similar demonstrations were organized in Al-Khalil city and its refugee camps and villages on Monday and Sunday night during which clashes were reported between the stone throwing Palestinians and the heavily armed Zionist IOF troops.

The Zionist IOF soldiers at dawn Monday raided Nablus city where three citizens were kidnapped after their homes were ransacked. The soldiers had imposed a curfew on the Hawara town south of Nablus since yesterday that was still in force today.

In Jenin, the occupation forces rounded up six citizens in two villages in the district.

In retaliation to the Zionist IOF atrocities, the PFLP armed wing the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades fired four mortar shells at the IOF military position in Kissufim east of Gaza on Monday morning.

Three upgraded home made missiles also slammed into the coastal city of Ashkelon, in the 1948 occupied lands, north of Gaza inflicting damage on a seven-storey building. Four other missiles fell on Sderot north east of Gaza.

Israeli air strikes on Gaza kill four fighters, bomb PLC's office and foundry

March 3, 2008

Gaza -- A series of Israeli air raids on Gaza killed at dawn Monday four Palestinian resistance fighters and destroyed a PLC office in Khan Younis and a foundry in Rafah, both in southern Gaza.

Palestinian medical sources announced the death of two Qassam fighters and injury of others in two Israeli air raids on western Gaza and a police station in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

Two other Palestinian fighters affiliated with the Brigades of Martyrs were also proclaimed dead in Israeli air strikes that led as well to the injury of many others east of Shujaia.

The Israeli warplanes also bombed out the office of the Hamas parliamentary bloc in Khan Younis and an iron foundry in Rafah without any casualties being reported so far.

In the context of Israeli air raids on Gaza, Palestinian security sources told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) reporter that the Israeli warplanes fired at a late hour Sunday their air-to-ground missiles at an iron foundry in the Sahaba street in Gaza and a carpentry workshop in the Beit Hanun town, northern Gaza Strip, inflicting considerable material damage.

Medical sources reported that the Israeli air raid on the foundry resulted in the injury of four Palestinian citizens and spread panic among children and women in the Sahaba street.

According to a Palestinian report, the number of Israeli massacre's victims on Sunday had risen to 10 Palestinians in Gaza and one in Al-Khalil city, southern West Bank.

Palestinian medical sources told the PIC reporter that two Palestinian bodies were carried to the Kamal Odwan hospital in northern Gaza Strip on Sunday evening.

The family of Abdelrahim Saleh, 17, identified the body of their son who was killed during Saturday massacre.

The Zionist IOF troops had killed since the early hours of Sunday eight Palestinian citizens in Gaza including a 14-year-old child called Mahmoud Bahar while three bodies were pulled out from under the rubble of a house destroyed on Saturday by Israeli warplanes.

In the West Bank, the Zionist IOF troops killed at noon Sunday a Palestinian child called Mohamed Masalma, 14, in the Beit Awa town in Al-Khalil district, southern West Bank, and wounded more than 40 others in the wake of a march staged by school students in protest at the Israeli massacres committed in the Gaza Strip.

In another development, the Zionist IOF troops withdrew at dawn Monday from Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip after they were met with ferocious resistance by the Palestinian armed wings spearheaded by the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.

Palestinian citizens reported that they found Israeli military uniforms, traces of Israeli soldiers' blood and parts of human bodies.

In the aftermath of the withdrawal, Zionist IOF officers acknowledged that the Palestinian resistance reflected its preparedness and organization in confronting any Israeli incursion.

According to the Hebrew radio, Zionist IOF officers also changed the aim of Israeli attacks on Gaza which was mainly to stop the rocket attacks carried out by the Palestinian resistance into saying after the withdrawal that the main goal of the Israeli operations against Gaza were to clarify to Hamas that the Zionist IOF troops would continue to target its cadres without hesitation if the rocket attacks continued.

In retaliation to the ongoing Israeli aggression against Gaza, the Qassam Brigades took the credit for firing a number of homemade rockets on Sunday morning on the Israeli Sderot and Nahal Oz settlements in a clear indication that the original aim of warding off those rockets in the Zionist IOF incursion was a failure.

Israeli warplanes targets cabinet building in Gaza

March 2, 2008

Gaza -- In the framework of Israeli calls for targeting official institutions, the Israeli warplanes fired at dawn Sunday air-to-ground missiles at the headquarters of the Palestinian cabinet in western Gaza inflicting big material damage but one of the missiles did not explode.

In an exclusive statement to Palestinian Information Center (PIC), Taher Al-Nunu, the spokesman for the caretaker government, stated that the Israeli occupation wants to topple this government in order to replace it with a "puppet government".

Avigdor Lieberman, the head of the extreme-right Yisrael Beitenu (Israel our home) party, had urged the Israeli government to destroy all civil and financial institutions in Gaza including banks and post offices in order to cripple Hamas's ability to administrate Gaza.

The Israeli occupation forces have resumed at dawn Sunday air strikes on Gaza, where Israeli warplanes destroyed the house of a Hamas member in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, in addition to a civilian car in Jabaliya, northern Gaza, which led to the death of a Palestinian citizen called Khalil Izzaddin and the injury of other.

Israeli media outlets were allowed Saturday to publish some news concerning the ferocious fighting in the northern Gaza Strip, where it revealed that the Palestinian resistance spearheaded by the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, managed to kill six veteran soldiers of the invading IOF troops in one stroke and wounded 22 others during rocket attacks and armed clashes.

Israeli TV channels also unveiled that the Qassam fighters were about to kidnap Israeli soldiers if it were not for Israeli warplanes which appeared suddenly and started to fire intensively at them.

The Qassam Brigades announced on the same day that one of its groups managed in the morning to ambush the invading IOF troops east of Jabaliya and detonate an explosive device as they approached a farm which inflicted a number of deaths and injuries in their ranks.

The Brigades added that after the ambush, the group also successfully killed three of the invading troops and wounded many others.

The Brigades continue to ward off the IOF troops which tries to infiltrate into east Jabaliya and east of the Tofah neighborhood, where the QB fired dozens of rockets and mortar shells at them.

In another context, hundreds of Israeli settlers of the coastal Ashkelon settlement went on marches on Saturday night in protest at the failure of IOF troops in preventing or decreasing rocket attacks on their settlement which were intensified lately by the Palestinian resistance despite the large-scale military operations against Gaza.

The Ashkelon protesters, who were joined by Sderot settlers, burnt tires, blocked the movement of vehicles on the main street, chanted slogans against Israeli premier Ehud Olmert and his internal security minister Avi Dichter, and demanded the resignation of war minister Ehud Barak.

For its part, the leadership of the internal front in the Israeli army called for opening the fortified public shelters in Ashkelon before settlers.

In retaliation to the ongoing Israel aggression on Gaza, the Qassam Brigades has announced in a communiqué received by the PIC that its fighters managed at dawn Sunday to detonate a homemade anti-tank landmine in an Israeli tank east of Jabal Al-Kashif in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip.

In earlier communiqués received by the PIC, the Brigades took the credit for firing nine homemade rockets at night Saturday, despite the intensive flying of Israeli warplanes, on the Israeli Kfar Saad settlement, the Kissufim military post and a group of Israeli vehicles in the Tofah neighborhood.

Zionist IOF shelling kills more Palestinians

March 02, 2008

GAZA, (PIC)-- Three Palestinians including a 12-year-old girl were killed on Sunday at the hands of the invading Zionist occupation forces (Zionist IOF) in northern Gaza Strip, medical sources reported.

They said that Nirmin Abu Seif, 12, was killed east of Jabalia in IOF shelling while Wisam Abed Rabbo was killed in Beit Hanun along with Khaled Rayyan, the nephew of Dr. Nazzar Rayyan, one of the Hamas political leaders. Khaled was a member of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.

IOF bloodbath in Gaza on Saturday claimed the lives of more than 60 Palestinians and wounded 150 others.

Meanwhile, the minister of Awkaf and religious affairs in the PA caretaker government, Dr. Yousef Mansi, denounced in a statement on Sunday the IOF air raid on a mosque in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, on Saturday that killed six Palestinians and demolished a major section of the mosque.

He described as "serious" the IOF targeting of a Mosque in a flagrant violation of the sanctity of places of worship.

The minister compared what the IOF troops were doing in Gaza to the Moguls when they conquered Baghdad during which they destroyed its mosques and killed its religious leaders in absolute disregard of their sanctity.

Mansi asked the Arab and Islamic countries to support the Palestinian people and to support Palestine's mosque and holy shrines.

Zionist IOF bloodbath continues, killing more than 46 Palestinians, 11 children

March 01, 2008

Gaza, Jabalia -- The Zionist Israeli occupation forces (Zionist OIF) ongoing barbaric bloodbath east of Jabalia in northern Gaza claimed the lives of 46 Palestinians, including 11 children, and wounded at least 160 others amidst unprecedented world silence.

Medical and security sources said that three citizens were killed in an Israeli missile raid east of Gaza city Saturday evening.

Zionist IOF Apaches an hour earlier fired two missiles at another civilian home killing another three citizens and wounding 13 in the powerful explosions that leveled the three-storey building.

Four citizens were also killed in a Zionist IOF air raid on an area near a mosque in Jabalia town including a child, medical sources reported.

They added that six others were killed east of Jabalia Saturday afternoon including two members of the Qassam Brigades.

In the morning and until noon Saturday 30 Palestinians were killed in the Zionist IOF massacre that started with a Zionist IOF incursion east of Jabalia before dawn Saturday.

The Palestinian center for human rights said that all civilians killed in the Israeli savage raid were murdered inside their homes.

14 more Palestinians killed in ongoing Zionist IOF massacres in Gaza

March 01, 2008

Jabalia -- oppressive Zionist occupation troops killed at least 14 Palestinians, including three children, and wounded 35 others during a pre-dawn incursion on Saturday into eastern Gaza city that was met with resistance on the part of Palestinian factions.

Medical sources told PIC that among the casualties was Eyad Al-Ashram, 27, the field commander in the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas Movement.

Field and medical sources in the northern Gaza district told PIC that Musleh Abdullah, 22, of the Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad Movement, was also killed east of Jabalia in northern Gaza.

The medical sources underlined that the 12-year-old child Jacqueline Abu Shibak along with her brother Eyad, 17, were killed in the indiscriminate Zionist IOF warplanes' shelling.

Four other martyrs were located in the area including the 14-year-old child Mahmoud Obaid while the Qassam Brigades reported that another field commander, Abdul Hamid Hamada, who is an expert in the manufacturing unit, was among the martyrs.

Reports indicated that six other martyrs were not yet identified, two of them members in the Qassam Brigades.

The number of victims of Zionist IOF escalating aggression since Wednesday thus rose to 50 while tens others were wounded some of whom in critical conditions.

The Qassam Brigades had reported that its fighters were engaged in "violent confrontations" with the invading IOF troops east of Jabalia town.

The armed wing said that its members spotted a Zionist IOF special unit while trying to infiltrate into the area and engaged its members with machineguns and anti-armored and anti-personnel projectiles. It added that 44 mortar shells were fired at the invading force.

The QB had issued a statement late Friday asserting that the continued IOF "foolishness" in Gaza would only lead to escalating resistance.

Noting that nine children were killed in the Zionist IOF military strikes since Wednesday, the armed wing said that the "blood of Gaza children will entail strong reprisals on Zionists".

2 Zionist occupation soldiers killed as number of Palestinian casualties rise to 100

March 01, 2008

Jabalia -- The Israeli occupation forces killed 25 Palestinians including six children and wounded 75 others on Saturday in its ongoing genocide in the northern Gaza Strip while two IOF soldiers were killed.

Medical sources told Palestinian Information Center correspondent that that victims grouped members of one family, and added that the number of martyrs in the Zionist occupation forces annihilation campaign that started on Wednesday (27/2) had reached 62 other than 200 wounded some of whom are in very serious conditions.

The IOF command acknowledged that two of its soldiers were killed while three others were wounded in the clashes east of Jabalia that started with an IOF pre-dawn raid on Saturday, according to Al-Jazeera TV network.

The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, had affirmed that its fighters managed to kill three IOF soldiers east of Jabalia and wounded others.

The Israeli deputy war minister had threatened Gaza with a bigger "holocaust" if resistance missiles continued to fall in Israeli towns surrounding the Strip.

The Palestinian home made missiles on Saturday hit Ashkelon injuring three Israelis while a number of others slammed into Sderot spreading panic.

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February Israeli Crimes Updates

21 Palestinians killed, including 9 children, in Israeli attacks

February 29, 2008

Gaza, Nablus -- The death toll resulting from the ongoing Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip and the West bank has reached 21 from dawn on Thursday till 8:30 PM local time of the same day.

Nineteen Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip in 18 Israeli airstrikes on different parts of the Gaza Strip. Nine of those killed were children, four of the children from the same family. The four children aged 7,8, 11 and 14 from Jabalya were playing football near the Salam Mosque in Jabalya when an Israeli missile struck them mutilating their young bodies.

Meanwhile, two resistance fighter affiliated with the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades were killed in Nablus by IOF troops that raided the Balata refugee camp east of Nablus and clashed with them.

Palestinian prisoner dies in Israeli jail, the health of another deteriorating

February 29, 2008

GAZA, (PIC)-- A Palestinian prisoner from the Gaza Strip died, Friday morning, in an Israeli jail as a result of medical neglect and the health condition of another prisoner from the West Bank is rapidly deteriorating.

Fadel Hammoudah Shahin, 46, died in the desert jail of Beersheba as a result of sever deterioration of his health due to lack of medical attention rampant in Israeli jails, according to sources in the PA ministry of prisoners and ex-prisoners.

Shahin was serving an eight and a half year sentence. He was captured by the IOF four years ago at the Matahen roadblock between the central Gaza Strip and the Southern Gaza Strip.

The ministry also stressed that it is medical neglect that caused his health problems to accumulate as he started suffering from a number of ailments before his death despite appeals by the ministry and human rights organisations to allow the prisoner access to proper medical treatment.

Meanwhile, the family of paraplegic prisoner Rabi' Ali Harb, from the village of Skaka, near the northern West Bank town of Salfit, appealed to human rights organisations to intervene to get their son released to receive the necessary medical treatment.

Prisoners at the Israeli Ramlah prison where Harb is imprisoned said in a letter smuggled out of the prison that Harb's condition is deteriorating as his kidneys are failing and he is constantly suffering from high temperature. The prisoners called on the Red Cross to intervene and save his life.

Harb was arrested by the IOF more than a year ago in Ramallah after he received bullet wounds to his spine and shrapnel in his kidneys.

Human rights societies stress that there are more than a thousand sick Palestinian prisoners who need urgent medical attention in Israeli jails.

More Palestinians killed and maimed by the oppressor Zionist occupation forces (IOF)

February 29, 2008

Gaza, Cairo -- Five Palestinians were killed and 11 were wounded Thursday night and Friday in Israeli airstrikes against targets in the Gaza Strip. Three children were amongst the wounded.

A car belonging to the Energy Authority was struck with an Israeli missile, Thursday night, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, killing one person and wounding the other. The two Palestinians travelling in the car were employees of the Energy Authority and were on their way to restore electricity to al-Amal suburb in Khan Younis.

Earlier Israeli occupation airforce attacked a house in Jabalya, in the northern Gaza Strip, and the Workers Union headquarters in Gaza city killing one civilian wounding a number of others, including a six-month-old baby who received a wound to his right eye, the child's condition was described as serious.

On Friday morning Israeli apache helicopters attacked the house of Martyr Khalil Ahel, commander of the military manufacture unit of Salahudding Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, completely destroying the house and wounding some of his neighbours. Ahel was assassinated on Thursday along with Mohammad al-Helo when Israeli occupation airforce struck the car they were travelling in near the Shifa hospital in Gaza city.

The Zionist occupation forces missile raid kills 5 Qassam members

February 27, 2008

Khan Younis -- Five members of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas Movement, were killed on Wednesday in a Zionist occupation forces missile raid that targeted their bus in Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip.

Medical sources in the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis city said that a sixth Qassam member was critically injured and was undergoing surgery in the hospital.

Eyewitnesses said that a Zionist occupation forces Apache fired two missiles at the bus directly hitting it, and added that Zionist Apaches fired at another vehicle in the vicinity of the first one but no casualties were reported.

The interior ministry in the Palestinian Authority caretaker government denounced the new Israeli bloodbath, saying that anyone hinging hopes on peace with the "Zionists" was dreaming.

Ehab Al-Ghussain, the ministry's spokesman, urged PA chief Mahmoud Abbas to end his "absurd negotiations" with the Hebrew state and to return to the embrace of his people and its resistance project.

He described any proposed calm with the "Zionist enemy" in the light of such incessant aggression and massacre as "frivolous".

Meanwhile, Abbas further incited against the Gaza Strip through claiming in a press interview that Al-Qaeda was present in Gaza with the knowledge of Hamas, which is the de facto ruler of the Strip.

He also reiterated previous allegations, in an interview with the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper, that Hamas had planned his assassination in Gaza, a matter that was categorically denied by Hamas.

Israeli air strike kills Quds fighter and injures two others in Gaza

February 27, 2008

Gaza -- An Israeli air strike killed at dawn Wednesday a Palestinian fighter affiliated with the Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, called Zaki Abu Zeid, 20, and wounded two others east of the Breij refugee camp, central Gaza Strip.

Palestinian medical sources told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) reporter that the martyr died of serious shrapnel wounds resulting from an Israeli air-to-ground missile fired at a group of fighters affiliated with the Quds Brigades during their attempt to ward off an Israeli special force that tried to infiltrate into the camp.

The sources added that other two wounded fighters arrived as well at the hospital one of them was badly injured.

The Zionist occupation troops shot dead on Tuesday a Palestinian farmer called Hassan Abu Sabt, 27, while he was near his farmhouse in the Abu Dhaher neighborhood east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to Palestinian eyewitnesses.

Medical sources informed the PIC reporter that the farmer, who was a father of three children, was shot three times in his stomach by the IOF troops.

Dr. Mohamed Agha, the agriculture minister in the caretaker government, strongly denounced the murder of farmer Abu Sabt, underlining that Israel continues its policy of destruction against humans and flora ignoring all international laws.

In a statement received by the PIC, Dr. Agha called on human rights organizations to pressure the Israeli occupation to stop its policy of destruction against agricultural lands and projects that serve the Palestinian citizens, and to document Israel's crimes and arbitrary practices against Palestinian farmers.

4 resistance fighters killed in Zionist occupation forces raids

February 25, 2008

Khan Younis -- Zionist occupation forces air raids killed three members of the Qassam Brigades south and east of Gaza Strip in two separate raids at dawn Monday while the body of a member of the Salahuddin Brigades was found near the Gaza airport following Zionist oppressive occupation troops' withdrawal from the area.

Qassam sources told Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that Hussam Abu Hein, 21, was killed at an advanced position in Shujaia suburb east of Gaza city.

The sources noted that the two others Hani Abu Salah and Thaer Musbah were killed in a Zionist occupation forces air raid east of Khan Younis south of the Strip while two members of the Nasser Salahuddin Brigades were wounded.

They said that Zionist occupation forces drones fired two missiles at an advanced position east of Khan Younis, and noted that one of the wounded was in a serious condition. Locals reported seeing an Apache firing missiles and heavy machineguns in the area.

Medical sources said that the martyrs' bodies were rippled with shrapnel of the missiles.

The sources also reported that the body of Midhat Awad, 22, of the Salahuddin Brigades was found near the airport after the invasion soldiers withdrew from the area.

Locals said that he took part in confrontations against the Zionist occupation soldiers on Sunday in that area.

Meanwhile, oppressive Zionist occupation troops stormed Balata refugee camp east of Nablus city and rounded up five citizens in a pre-dawn raid on Monday, locals reported.

In retaliation to atrocious Zionist occupation forces crimes, the Qassam Brigades declared responsibility for firing 25 home made projectiles at aggresive Zionist occupation forces positions in the vicinity of the Gaza international airport south of the Strip on Sunday.

The Nasser Salahuddin Brigades fired an RPG at a Zionist occupation forces APC east of Rafah crossing and directly hit it at an early hour on Monday, the armed wing's communiqué said. It also added that its fighters fired at and hit a Zionist occupation forces serviceman in the same area.

Zionist occupation forces missile kills three Palestinian citizens

February 23, 2008

Beit Hanun -- A Zionist occupation forces land-to-land missile blasted in one of the fields near Beit Hanun town north of Gaza Strip on Saturday evening and killed three Palestinian citizens, medical sources reported.

The sources told PIC correspondent that Hazem Yasser, 21, Ibrahim Abu Jarad, 22, and Assaad Za'anin, 23, were instantly killed in the explosion.

Witnesses said that bodies of the three young men were scattered over the area of the explosion.

Thousands of citizens, infuriated with the new Israeli bloodbath, flocked to the Beit Hanun government hospital chanting angry anti-occupation slogans.

Zionist occupation troops kidnap PFLP activist

Nablus -- Zionist occupation troops on Saturday kidnapped Majdi Mabrouk, a member of the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the PFLP armed wing, from his family home in Beit Ein Al-Ma refugee camp in Nablus city.

The Zionist occupation soldiers blasted their way into the Mabrouk family home wounding Majdi's sister in the explosion before kidnapping the PFLP activist who has been wanted for Zionist occupation forces spy agencies for a long time.

Witnesses said that two other citizens in the refugee camp were wounded by shrapnel of sonic bombs that were fired in abundance during the raid by the Zionist occupation forces soldiers.

Zionist occupation troops kidnap 10 Palestinians in the West Bank

February 22, 2008

Nazareth, Al-Maghazi -- Zionist occupation troops kidnapped 10 Palestinians in different parts of the West Bank on Thursday night and Friday morning according to Israeli military sources.

The oppressive Zionist occupation forces described the Palestinians kidnapped as "wanted persons" for the occupation.

Six of the Palestinians were kidnapped from the villages of Zeita and Atteel near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem, two others were kidnapped near the northern West Bank city of Qalqilya, one was kidnapped in the Abu Deis village near Jerusalem and another was kidnapped from the village of Sourif, near Bethlehem.

These kidnappings are taking place in a joint campaign where Zionist occupation troops make night raids in various parts of the West Bank and Abbas's security forces make day raids.

On Thursday, security forces answerable to Abbas kidnapped four Hamas supporters in the West Bank, three in the Tulkarem district and one in the Ramallah district.

Two Palestinian resistance fighters killed in the central Gaza Strip

Two Palestinian resistance fighters affiliated with the Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, were killed on Friday morning and two others were moderately wounded in an Israeli airstrike that targeted them to the north east of al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian security and medical sources.

The Quds Brigades confirmed that a group of resistance fighters affiliated with the Brigades were targeted to the east of the refugee camp and that the group was on a reconnaissance mission monitoring the movement of a special Zionist occupation force with which the group clashed before it was targeted by the Israel airforce.

Israeli airforce, Thursday night, targeted a number of resistance positions in the northern and southern Gaza Strip without causing any injuries. The Qassam Brigades used heavy machine-guns against the Israeli warplanes.

Qassam Brigades sources on the ground informed the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) correspondent that a group of its resistance fighters were targeted by an Israeli drone to the east of Gaza city. Another Israeli drone fired at least one rocket against a group of resistance fighters affiliated with the Quds Brigades to the east of Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip. No casualties were reported in either attack.

Zionist occupation troops raid Rafah, continue arrest campaign in West Bank

February 21, 2008

Rafah -- Zionist occupation troops advanced into eastern Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, at dawn Thursday escorted by seven tanks and two bulldozers amidst indiscriminate firing, local sources told PIC correspondent.

The sources said that the incursion in the vicinity of Gaza international airport targeted a number of buildings. They noted that resistance fighters engaged the invading soldiers.

The Qassam fighters, affiliated with Hamas Movement, fired five mortar shells at the soldiers, a communiqué for the armed wing said.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank Zionist oppressive soldiers kidnapped 18 citizens from Beita village in Nablus district after imposing a curfew on the town at dawn Thursday.

In Al-Khalil district, Israeli aggressive troops kidnapped three citizens including a municipal council member in Sa'ir and Sorif villages, north of Al-Khalil city, in a pre-dawn raid.

Locals reported that the soldiers deliberately destroyed furniture and wreaked havoc in the stormed houses.

Among the kidnapped was Ahmed Al-Hawr, 21, who was released from occupation jails on 19/8/2007. The soldiers severely beat him up in front of his parents, his father said.

In another development, Israeli security sources told Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth published on Wednesday that Hamas's armed wing was trying to develop a pilotless plane.

They claimed that the Lebanese Hizbullah party had relayed the know-how to Hamas.

Zionist occupation troops shoot dead seven-year-old Palestinian child in Deir Balah

February 20, 2008

Deir Al-Balah -- The oppressive Zionist occupation troops shot dead a seven-year-old Palestinian child called Tamer Abu Sha'ar during their incursion on Tuesday in the Abu Al-Ajeen area east of Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza Strip.

Dr. Moawiya Hassanain, the director-general of emergency and ambulance in the health ministry, told the Palestinian Information Center, reporter that the boy was shot by the brutal Zionist occupation troops in the head and was rushed in a very serious condition to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The atrocious Zionist occupation troops reinforced by tanks and bulldozers invaded the area amid intensive gunfire as the bulldozers started to destroy Palestinian agricultural lands, according to local sources.

For its part, the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, claimed its responsibility for firing three mortar shells on an Israeli infantry force in Deir Al-Balah in retaliation to the Israeli attempts to infiltrate into the Gaza Strip.

In another unrelated context, the Islamic Jihad Movement underlined that investigations it conducted into the Breij massacre categorically confirmed that the massive destruction that happened in the camp was as a result of a destructive bomb used by the Israeli occupation to shell the house of Ayman Al-Fayed, a leader of the Quds Brigades which also led to death of many Palestinian women and children.

Khaled Al-Batesh, an Islamic Jihad leader, stated that the testimonies gathered by medics and citizens revealed that the bodies of the victims were not charred or had shrapnel signs, which proves that the destructive explosion was not internal, as some allege, adding that this was also confirmed by the director of the Aqsa Martyrs hospital, the paramedics who transferred the bodies of the victims and some human rights organizations.

Palestinian child seriously wounded in heartless Zionist occupation troops shooting

February 19, 2008

Gaza -- A 9-year-old Palestinian child was seriously wounded when devilish Zionist occupation troops advanced into Abul Ajeen area east of Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza on Tuesday evening and shot indiscriminately at civilians.

Medical sources told Palestinian Information Centers that Tamer Abu Sha'ar was hit with a bullet in the head and that his condition was "very serious".

Witnesses in the area said that the criminal Zionist occupation troops invaded Abul Ajeen after they had retreated earlier today due to ferocious resistance on the part of Qassam and Quds Brigades' fighters (affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad respectively).

The Hamas's armed wing said its fighters fired six mortar shells at and engaged the invading troops forcing them to withdraw.

The Jihad's armed wing said that its members fired machineguns and a number of hand grenades at the invading forces and inflicted casualties in their lines.

Earlier today the Quds Brigades declared responsibility for firing two homemade rockets at the Israeli Sderot settlement to the north of Gaza Strip.

Hebrew press said that one of the missiles slammed into a factory causing big material damage.

Zionist occupation troops shoot dead seven-year-old Palestinian child in Deir Balah

February 19, 2008

Nablus -- The international Tadamun (solidarity) society for human rights revealed that the oppressive Zionist occuppation troops had killed more than 195 Palestinians at military checkpoints spread in Gaza Strip and the West Bank since the beginning of the Aqsa Intifada in September 2000 as a result of its arbitrary measures especially against patients and elderly people.

The Tadamun society pointed out that the brutal Zionist occupation troops deliberately delay the Palestinian citizens at its barriers at the pretext of security measures.

The society underlined that these Israeli violations are classified as war crimes against the Palestinian civilians because they are contrary to the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilians at wartime.

The society stated that the repeated calls and appeals of human rights organizations did not alleviate the suffering of Palestinian citizens stuck at Israeli barriers, adding that the problem lies in the Israeli occupation and some of its allied countries which encourage these Israeli violations at the pretext that they understand the Israel motives and acts.

In another unrelated development, the Palestinian prisoner's club and the family of prisoner Najeh Abu Shahin appealed to the legal and human rights organizations to intervene to stop the violence exercised against Abu Shaheen in Israeli jails.

In a statement, the club reported Tuesday that prisoner Abu Shaheen was beaten while being transferred from the Israeli Negev desert prison to the Salem military court and upon his arrival to the court he filed a complaint with the judge, but he was beaten again by Israeli wardens in reprisal for his complaint against them.

The club added that the Israeli prisons authority transferred another Palestinian prisoner called Sultan Tashtoush from the Negev prison to the Aylon isolation prison 22 days ago, where he suffers from very bad psychological and health conditions as well as a stomach ulcer.

The club said that Tashtoush went on hunger strike for ten days and threatens to strike again if his isolation continues.

8 Palestinians killed and 60 wounded in an Israeli air strike

February 16, 2008

Al-Breij -- The Israeli occupation has committed a new massacre in the Gaza Strip on Friday evening when US-supplied F-16's bombed the house of Ayman al-Fayed, a commander in the Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad in the Breij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

The attack resulted in the total destruction of the house of al-Fayed as well as neighbouring houses in this crowded area of the Breij refugee camp.

The Palestinian Information Center correspondent was informed that commander Ayman al-Fayed (42 years) was martyred in the attack along with his wife Marwah Azzam, and their two children Ayoub and Basma.

Medical sources also informed our correspondent that the Aqsa Martyrs Hospital could not receive all the wounded and many of them had to be taken to Nasr and Shifa hospitals.

Dr. Muaweyah Hasaneen, the general director of emergency department at the Palestinian ministry of health stated that eight Palestinians were killed and 60 were wounded in the attack, at least 10 of them in a critical condition.

The sound of the huge explosion was heard many miles away and smoke was seen rising from the scene of the attack. This attack brought back to memory a similar attack when Israeli occupation airforce bombed a block of flats to kill Sheikh Salah Shehada, the general commander of the Qassam Brigades, five years ago killing 15 Palestinians many of them children.

Local residents expressed anger at the massacre and called on the armed wings of Palestinian factions to retaliate.

Zionist military court extends administrative custody of oldest Palestinian detainee interned

February 14, 2008

Salfit -- An Israeli military court has extended the administrative detention, without trial or charge, of Walid Khaled the oldest detainee interned by the oppressive Zionists in the history of Palestine.

Khaled, who hails from Skaka village, Salfit district, has been in administrative custody for more than six years, which brought to 14 years the overall years he spent in Israeli captivity that he served on gradual stages during which he spent only few months outside jails.

The family of the detainee denounced the "oppressive ruling", and asked for his immediate release and for pressuring the aggressive Zionist authority in this regard.

Khaled, who is the director of Palestine newspaper in the West Bank, had memorized the holy Koran while in captivity and wrote a number of books and poems.

Oppressive Zionist occupation troops kidnap 30 Palestinians in Gaza

February 14, 2008

Rafah -- Oppressive Zionist occupation soldiers kidnapped 30 Palestinians at dawn Thursday in the vicinity of Gaza international airport to the east of Rafah south of the Gaza Strip, local sources reported.

They added that special Israeli occupation forces infiltrated into the area before dawn one day after a similar incursion that was met with stiff resistance.

The soldiers broke into civilian homes and rounded up all males from 15 to 50 years old for interrogation in Zionist occupation forces basis.

Meanwhile, the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas Movement, fired 8 mortar shells at a Zionist oppressive occupation special unit east of Khan Younis, south of the Strip, late Wednesday.

The same armed wing fired 8 other mortars at a group of Zionist occupation forces armored vehicles in the vicinity of the airport also on Wednesday in retaliation to those soldiers' incessant incursions and infiltrations into the Strip.

The Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad Movement, on Wednesday took the credit for firing four locally made missiles and two mortar shells at Israeli positions adjacent to the Strip.

The armed wing said that one of its missiles hit an Israeli house in Sderot inflicting material damage while two settlers were treated for shock.

Situation in Gaza worsening

February 13, 2008

Gaza -- The director of the Red Cross office in Gaza on Wednesday warned that the situation in the Gaza Strip was worsening as a result of long hours of power outage, reduction in fuel supplies and shortage of basic materials.

He said that the ICRC was facing great difficulty in sending medicine and relief material into the besieged Strip.

The infrastructure in the Strip is greatly damaged, he said and doubted the possibility of revitalizing it. The Red Cross official said that the only solution is building it anew.

MP Jamal Al-Khudari, who received the Red Cross director in his office, said that the international institutions should exert more efforts to help the Gaza population.

Khudari, who is also heading the popular anti siege committee, said that those institutions should work on pressuring the Zionist occupation to end the siege on Gaza and to expose the Zionist practices against the Palestine populace.

The siege is a kind of mass punishment and in violation of international law, norms and agreements, the lawmaker asserted, adding that the world should pressure for lifting that siege.

Khudari explained to the Red Cross delegation the "destructive impacts" of the siege on all aspects of life in Gaza.

Meanwhile, a higher coordination committee was declared in Gaza city on Wednesday grouping government and non-government organizations to discuss means of lifting the "oppressive siege" on Gaza, a statement issued after the meeting in the council of ministers said.

It added that the committee would soon lay out a plan of action in a bid to revive the question of the siege and to win Arab and international support against that siege.

The committee is to organize a series of activities in harmony with Arab and international ones to break "the unjust siege, which heralds a human and health disaster", the statement underlined.

Israeli prisons authority refuses to treat seriously ill captive

February 13, 2008

Jenin -- Relatives of Yasser Nazzal, held in Israeli occupation jails, have called for his immediate release after being denied badly needed medical treatment in captivity.

The relatives along with the prisoner's committee expressed absolute concern over the life of Nazzal, who is suffering a serious medical condition. The committee in a statement appealed to the human rights and international organizations to pressure the Israeli prisons authority (IPA) to extend urgent treatment to him.

It said that the IPA transferred Nazzal from Megiddo jail to Shatta jail and refused his request to be held for treatment in Ramle prison hospital.

The committee said that Nazzal, who has been held in custody for more than a year, suffers chronic inflammation in the chest and lung deficiency. He was under intensified medical care before his arrest.

The IPA refused all requests by Yasser and his lawyer to allow entry of medicine for his case and even refused to allow a medical committee to check his condition, the committee said.

Relatives of the detainee asked the Red Cross to follow up his case and to press the IPA to allow his medication especially when reports from the jail affirmed that his health condition was very bad.

Zionist occupation authority demolishes 30-year-old Palestinian home

February 13, 2008

Occupied Jerusalem -- The Israeli-controlled municipality of occupied Jerusalem has bulldozed a Palestinian home built in Wadi Al-Joz suburb over 30 years ago, the proprietors said.

Saadi Aramin, the son of the owner Aisha Aramin, said that his mother had repeatedly tried to obtain a construction permit but to no avail, and noted that his grandfather and uncles had resided in that house.

He said that the municipality tractors arrived to their home on Tuesday without prior notice and flattened the small house after Israeli occupation policemen and border guards sealed off the entire suburb.

Aramin said that the municipality ordered the demolition of the house three years ago but his mother managed to win a court ruling blocking the act on temporary basis. The municipal court held a hearing two months later and ordered his mother to pay a fine, which she could not afford, he elaborated.

Aramin said that they tried for a year and a half to obtain a permit but the municipality insists on refusing any building request in the Arab suburbs of Jerusalem.

The municipality workers knocked down the house without allowing the inhabitants to get the furniture out.

Zionist oppressive occupation troops storm Jenin shortly after soldier stabbed

February 13, 2008

Jenin -- Zionist oppressive occupation soldiers mounting dozens of armored vehicle stormed Jenin city shortly after midnight Tuesday and broke into many civilian quarters in the city after ordering inhabitants out of their homes, locals reported.

They said that the occupation forces were calling on the people via loudspeakers to get out of their homes then they ransacked those homes.

Two citizens were kidnapped in the operation, one of them is reportedly a Hamas supporter.

The sources noted that the Palestinian teenager who attacked a Zionist oppressive occupation soldier with a knife was identified as Alaa Abdul Latif.

Zionist occupation forces sources claimed that the teen confessed to attacking the soldier to avenge the occupation forces' aggressions in Palestinian lands.

The Zionist occupation forces siege on the Jenin district is still in force for the second week at the pretext of warding off human bombing attacks.

Meanwhile, in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian member of the national resistance brigades, the DFLP armed wing, was wounded at dawn Wednesday while confronting a Zionist occupation forces invading unit east of Rafah, south of the Strip.

Palestinian young man joins his brothers killed in Israeli air raid

February 11, 2008

Gaza -- Palestinian medical sources announced Monday morning the death of Saleh Nabhan, 22, after he sustained last Thursday morning serious injuries in the same Israeli air raid that killed his two brothers Sa'id and Jawdat near the Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip.

Dr. Muawya Hassanain, the director general of ambulance and emergency at the health ministry, stated that Nabhan was in a critical condition and the third martyr of the same family, adding that with this new death, the number of the victims killed during the last Thursday air raid rose to nine Palestinians.

In another context, Palestinian medical sources announced the death of a Palestinian woman suffering from kidney failure called Fathia Abu Warda, 40, after the Zionist occupation forces insisted on barring her from traveling abroad for medical treatment.

With the death of Abu Warda, the number of the siege victims rose to 95 Palestinians.

Infiltrating Israeli special force kills Palestinian resistance fighter in Jabalia

February 11, 2008

Jabalia -- An Israeli special force killed a fighter of the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the PFLP, called Rami Karim during fierce armed clashes with them east of Jabalia town, northern Gaza Strip, on Sunday, while his fellow fighters managed to return to their bases safely, according to the Palestinian Information Center reporter.

The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades claimed on the same day its responsibility for engaging with the Israeli special force in Gaza.

In a related context, a group of the Salahuddin Brigades, the armed wing of the popular resistance committees, survived on Sunday an Israeli attempted assassination after an Israeli missile targeted their car in the Beit Hanun town, while two Palestinian citizens present in the targeted scene were injured and transferred to a nearby hospital.

A field commander of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, was assassinated by an Israeli air strike before midnight Saturday in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, as he was walking in the Salam neighborhood. Separate Israeli air raids targeted a site belonging to the Qassam Brigades in Khan Younis and the house of Atiya Abu Nekira, a prominent Qassam leader in the Shaboura refugee camp.

Palestinian medical sources announced Sunday that a Palestinian citizen called Saleh Nabhan, who was in a state of clinical death at the Shifa medical complex, died of serious wounds he sustained several days ago in an earlier Israeli air raid.

In another development, Palestinian local sources told the Palestinian Information Center reporter that about 17 military armored vehicles advanced at late hour Sunday into east of Jabalia and the Tofah neighborhood, eastern Gaza Strip, amid random bombardment, where the invading Zionist occupation troops were met with fierce resistance by Palestinian fighters spearheaded by the Qassam Brigades.

The sources said that the Israeli incursion was carried out following an Israeli air raid that targeted a group of Palestinian fighters in the Jabal Al-Rais in Jabalia without knowing the fate of this group yet.

In a communiqué received by the Palestinian Information Center PIC, the Qassam Brigades announced that its fighters engaged in fierce armed clashes with the invading Zionist occupation troops in the Tofah neighborhood, the Nahal Oz area and east of Jabalia and fired 25 mortar shells, two homemade short-range rockets and detonated an anti-personnel explosive device at them.

The armed wing added that its fierce attacks on the invading Zionist murderer troops caused chaos and panic in their ranks who found themselves stuck and unable to withdraw from the east of Jabalia.

In another context related to the Israeli unjust siege, Palestinian medical sources announced Saturday evening the death of an elderly patient called Yousef Farwanah, 69, in the Khan Younis city, southern Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli ban imposed on the travel of Gaza patients to receive medical treatment abroad.

With the death of Farwanah, the number of Palestinian patients who died as a result of the Israeli siege imposed on Gaza 8 months ago rose to 92 most of them, women, infants and children.

Israeli police kidnap four Palestinian minors in Nazareth

February 11, 2008

Occupied Jerusalem -- The Israeli police in the Palestinian lands occupied in 1948 announced that they kidnapped four Palestinian minors in the Nazareth city at the pretext of their participation in throwing stones on Saturday at three cars belonging to Israeli settlers.

The Hebrew radio claimed that the stones led to the injury of an Israeli woman and caused material damage to the cars, adding that the minors will appear in court on Friday.

In another related context, the Hebrew radio said Sunday that the oppressive Zionist troops continued for the second week respectively their broad campaign of pursuit against Palestinian workers in the Palestinian lands occupied in 1948 where they rounded up more than 700 workers at the pretext of not holding work permits.

A number of workers reported that Israeli policemen waged raids on their work places in workshops and agricultural lands and took them to detention centers, where they were forced to sign pledges not to return to work inside the green line as well as exorbitant fines imposed on them if they returned.

For its part, the Palestinian general federation of trade unions deplored the unjust Israeli measures and called on human rights organizations to document these violations and file them with domestic and international courts.

During his visit to the Israeli Etzion prison in the West of Bethlehem, the lawyer of the Palestinian prisoner club revealed that the aggressive Israeli authority is exercising a retaliatory mass punishment inside the prison against a number of family members of those who carried out the Dimona operation.

Israel decides to assassinate Hamas leaders

February 10, 2008

Occupied Jerusalem -- The Israeli occupation government has decided on Sunday to target Hamas political leaders inside and outside occupied Palestine as its occupation army relentlessly kills leaders of its armed wing along with Palestinian civilians on daily basis.

According to Hebrew media outlets, the decision was taken during a security meeting called for by Israeli premier Ehud Olmert, in which Israeli war minister Ehud Barak, Israeli chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi, and intelligence chief Yuval Diskin participated.

The meeting, according to Hebrew sources, ended up with a clear decision calling for the assassination of Hamas political and military leaders without discrimination.

The Israeli army radio suggested that the Zionist occupation troops will start targeting "specified targets", suggesting that the Israeli occupation government will start targeting political leaders of Hamas Movement, including Palestinian Authority premier Ismail Haneyya and the Movement's supreme political leader Khaled Mishaal among other leaders of the Movement.

According to Olmert, the oppressive Zionist troops will do their best to hit all the Movement's leaders who were responsible for unleashing rockets on Israeli colonies and the Zionist occupation forces locations adjacent to Gaza Strip.

Other fanatic Israeli ministers, including Ze'ev Boim among other radical ministers, urged their government to start the killings by targeting Haneyya, saying "There should be no distinction between the political and military echelons of Hamas, and we have to deal with Haneyya as we have dealt with [the late Hamas political leaders] Ahmad Yassin and Abdul Aziz Al-Rantisi".

When asked whether Haneyya was on the Israeli assassination list, Israeli minister Haim Ramon replied, "Everyone directly or indirectly involved in unleashing rockets on Sderot is a target for assassination".

But Ramon refused calls on the Zionist occupation troops to launch full-scale invasion of the Gaza Strip in response to the home-made Palestinian missiles, asserting "Our presence in Gaza will cost us a very high price".

Clearly demonstrating the real face of the Israeli occupation government, Israeli minister Meir Sheetrit urged his government to completely wipe out entire suburbs in Gaza Strip, alleging "by then the Gaza inhabitants will realize the seriousness of our stand".

The Hebrew Ma'ariv daily newspaper revealed that the Israeli occupation government appeared reluctant to carry out a large military invasion of the Strip, quoting Israeli security sources as saying, "policy doesn’t change because of an event despite the seriousness of that event".

According to the paper, a full-scale Israeli invasion of the Strip could delay the release or jeopardize the life of captured Zionist occupation forces serviceman Gilad Shalit who had been in captivity in Gaza Strip for 18 months now.

Oppressive Zionist occupation forces kills Qassam leader, targets steel foundry in Gaza

February 10, 2008

Rafah -- A Palestinian resistance commander of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas Movement, was killed Saturday night in an Israeli air strike that targeted him while walking past a local mosque in Rafah city.

Palestinian medical and security sources identified the victim as Mohammed Mutair, 23, confirming that he sustained serious wounds all over his body before he succumbed to his injuries shortly after he arrived to the city's Abu Yousef Al-Najjar hospital.

For its part, the QB mourned the fighter, adding that he participated in several armed attacks against the Israeli occupation troops in Gaza Strip.

In Bani Suhaila town, east of Khan Younis city, an Israeli F-16 warplane fired an air-to-surface missile at a QB post, inflicting big damage on it but no casualties were reported in the strike.

In a military communiqué it issued and a copy of which was obtained by the Palestinian Information Center (PIC), the QB underlined that they will never relax the armed resistance against the Israeli occupation in spite of the intensified Zionist occupation atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Adding to the Zionist occupation forces bloody crimes in Gaza Strip, another Israeli F-16 warplane struck a steel foundry in the populated Al-Zaitun suburb, east of Gaza city, wounding ten Palestinian civilians, most of them women and children.

Eyewitness in the area revealed that the Israeli strike took place during night time while people were sleeping, explaining that the air strike completely destroyed the foundry.

In an apparent retaliation to the IOF aggressions against the Palestinian civilians, Palestinian resistance fighters hit the Israeli colony of Sderot with two locally-made rockets, wounding two Israeli settlers, one of them reportedly in critical condition.

Israeli security sources acknowledged the Palestinian reprisal attack, adding that the rocket directly hit a gathering of Israeli settlers in the colony.

The Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, claimed responsibility for the attack, asserting it was in retaliation to the Zionist occupation troops' crimes against the Palestinian civilians in Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

On Friday, the QB unleashed a number of its home-made missiles at the same colony, wounding at least three Israeli settlers and destroying a house in the settlement, according to Israeli records.

Medical sources warn of depletion of stocks of medicines in Gaza hospitals

February 9, 2008

Gaza -- Palestinian medical sources warned Saturday that medicines in hospitals and health centers will soon run out of stock as a result of the ongoing Israeli siege imposed on Gaza for eight months, pointing out that the oppressive Israeli authority bars the entry of many types of important medicines.

In a press release, the medical sources stated that many operating rooms and intensive care units may be forced to close soon because of the acute shortage of medicines which in turn could lead to a health catastrophe threatening the lives of tens of Palestinian patients.

The sources added that a multitude of medical appliances were rendered out of order due to serious shortage of spare parts which led to a decrease in the quality of health services and dozens of delayed surgical operations.

According to the sources, some sections at the Shifa medical complex stopped working normally as nine dialysis machines out of 30 were no longer operational which reflected negatively on kidney patients who wait long hours for their turn to come.

In a related context, other Palestinian medical sources announced on Friday the death of a Palestinian patient called Munir Mukherez, 49, as a result of the Israeli siege and inability to travel abroad for treatment, thus raising the siege death toll to 91 victims.

Zionist occupation troops gear up for Gaza invasion

February 9, 2008

Occupied Jerusalem -- A full-scale Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip became a possible scenario after the IOF troops failed to stop home-made Palestinian missiles unleashed by Palestinian resistance fighters on Israeli colonies adjacent to Gaza Strip, Hebrew press sources asserted.

According to the sources, the Israeli occupation government wants to prevent three possible threats that deeply disturb them; the first threat is the ability of the Palestinian rockets to hit the strategic Ashkelon city with more accuracy.

The second threat, the sources added, was the nightmare of possible Palestinian armed attacks in the Israeli depth starting from Gaza Strip; and the third threat was Israel's fears of Hamas's growing popularity in Gaza and its ability to develop its military capabilities despite all the troubles it had confronted, the sources pointed out.

They noted that the Israeli leadership failed to confront those three threats, the thing that pushed it to seriously think to accept the army's plans of carrying out a large-scale military invasion of the Strip.

But the sources ruled out that the planned invasion could be unleashed this month, citing "unsuitable climate conditions", opining that the invasion could take place next month.

In Ashkelon city that was occupied in 1948, the Israeli war ministry allocated around 300,000 dollars to fortify the city against possible Palestinian retaliatory attacks.

The Hebrew Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper revealed that the ministry's decision was prompted by Israel's fears that the Palestinians might unleash "long-range" rockets against the city.

"Something not good is happening today in the south [the 1948-occupied Negev desert] and we have to prepare ourselves according to those events", the paper quoted an Israeli security source as saying.

Since the US-hosted the peace conference in Annapolis city, the Zionist occupation troops carried out a series of brutal aerial and land bombarding of Gaza Strip in addition to several incursions into Gaza, killing scores of Palestinian citizens, including children and women, and wounding hundreds others, many of them critically.

Palestinian resistance fighters had repeatedly affirmed that the missile attacks on the IOF locations and colonies were only in retaliation to those Zionist occupation aggressions, and that they fall in line with the Palestinian people's right of self-defense.

Hamas foiled attempt to misuse Jordanian aid to Gaza

February 9, 2008

Gaza -- The legitimate PA government under premier Ismail Haneyya has unveiled Saturday that it had successfully foiled an attempt by the PA leadership in Ramallah to seize the Jordanian aid convoy that was donated to Gaza inhabitants with the aim to distribute them among members of a "certain" faction.

In a press conference he held in Gaza city, Ziad Al-Zaza, the economy minister in the PA constitutional government, explained that officials of the PA Red Crescent breached an understanding with his ministry stipulating that all Arab and foreign donations should be passed to and distributed by the UNRWA to the poor and needy Palestinian families.

According to Zaza, the PA leadership in Ramallah "connived" with the PA RC to divert the Jordanian donations to Ramallah city in order to distribute them to members of the PA security forces loyal to PA chief and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas and other members of a "certain Palestinian faction", in clear allusion to Fatah movement.

Zaza's remarks came at the backdrop of allegations uttered by Jordanian and PA media outlets alleging that Hamas Movement seized the donation and distributed it to its members.

"We have handed over the seized items to the UNRWA in order for it to justly distribute them to those who deserve them. We also recorded, documented, and video-taped those items and sent a copy of it to the Jordanian charitable bureau, the party that donated the assistance", asserted Zaza.

However, he explained that not all the seized items were donated by Jordan as there were other generous donations given by charitable organizations in Kuwait and syndicates in other countries.

Yet, he made it clear that the PA legitimate government has no objection to donating relief items to any Palestinian party provided that those items aren’t registered in the name of the Palestinian people.

Oppressive Zionists isolate Jenin as it reduces fuel, electricity supply to Gaza

February 9, 2008

Jenin -- A hermitic closure was imposed by the Israeli occupation forces on Jenin Friday night that isolated it from the rest of the West Bank cities, alleging that information pointed to possible Palestinian attacks in the Israeli depth originating from that city.

Local Palestinian sources pointed out that the Israeli occupation troops installed military barriers and mobilized patrols at the main junctions that connect Jenin with Tulkarm city and the Jordan Valley.

Eyewitnesses in the area revealed that the Israeli occupation army sealed off entrances of a number of Palestinian towns surrounding Jenin with sand barriers, thus isolating the Palestinian vital city from the rest of the world.

A number of Palestinian citizens were stranded at the city and failed to return to their homes in nearby cities after the Israeli occupation troops declared Jenin a closed military zone.

Palestinians in Jenin district are subjected to continuous the Israeli occupation troops' search campaigns that usually ransack their homes, as the Israeli occupation army claims it is searching for Palestinian resistance fighters.

More vicious aggressions of Zionist occupation forces were applied on the tiny Gaza Strip as theoppresive Israel started Friday reducing amount of fuel and electricity supplies to the populated Strip where 1.5 million Palestinian citizens are living in tragic human conditions after nearly two years of crushing economic siege imposed by Israel and the USA.

Local observes asserted that the aggresive Israeli authority decision fall in line with the Zionist state scheme to punish the Gaza Strip inhabitants.

The spokesman of the Israeli deputy war minister Matan Vilnai said that oppressive Zionist occupiersl will eventually reduce by 5% electricity supply given to Gaza; yet, another Israeli official refused to describe the Israeli step as "punishment".

"We have dissociated ourselves from them (Gaza inhabitants) after we pulled out our soldiers and settlers [in 2005] and we want them to administer their own affairs by themselves as they have a generation station and they can get electricity from Egypt. We want them to stop relying on us", alleged Vilnai through his spokesman.

Under international laws, any occupation force is duty-bound to answer the basic life needs of the people it occupies.

Israeli drones kill five Palestinian fighters in Gaza

February 7, 2008

Gaza -- Israeli reconnaissance planes have killed at dawn Thursday seven Palestinians including six resistance fighters from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in aerial attacks on their advanced positions in northern Gaza Strip, said the Palestinian Information Center correspondent in the area.

According to our correspondent, five of the martyrs were members of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas Movement, while the sixth martyr was a member of the Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, and the seventh a civil engineer.

Sources in the two armed wings said that the fighters were monitoring Zionist occupation forces troops' movements in the northern Gaza areas prior to the Israeli air strikes.

"The Zionist enemy is still unleashing its ugly massacres against the steadfast Palestinian people [on daily basis], particularly in the [besieged] Gaza Strip", said the Qassam Brigades in a statement it issued and a copy of which was obtained by the Palestinian Information Center.

The statement furthermore asserted, "The criminal Israeli enemy is targeting the honorable men of the Palestinian resistance, spearheaded by the Qassam fighters who teach the occupation painful lessons in the art of resoluteness and challenge, and who sacrifice their souls for blessed Palestine till victory is achieved".

"Our message to the Zionist enemy is: the battle is ongoing, and we shall remain steadfast like mountains on this land till occupied Palestine is liberated", the QB statement furthermore, stressed.

For his part, representative of Hamas Movement in Iran Dr. Abu Osama Abdul Moti stressed, "The Palestinian blood is precious and no one could undermine it".

In an interview with the PIC, Abdul Moti pointed out that the QB attack on the Israeli city of Dimona was meant to send a number of messages to the Israeli occupation government mainly that the Israeli apartheid wall couldn’t prevent Palestinian resistance fighters from carrying out armed attacks against Israeli targets.

The second message, he added, is that the Palestinian resistance fighters can reach any point in occupied Palestine after they succeeded in reaching the most secured and the strategic Dimona city where the Israeli nuclear reactors and facilities are located.

"This [ability of the Palestinian fighters to reach Dimona without being detected] is per se a big victory to the Palestinian resistance", asserted Abdul Moti.

He also described the attack on Dimona as "natural response" to the persistent Zionist occupation forces atrocities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank that reaped tens of Palestinian lives, and wounded hundreds others over the past couple of months.

"The armed operation in Dimona affirms that our people won't surrender to pressures of Israel, the USA, and their agents in the illegitimate PA government of Salam Fayyad", the Hamas representative pointed out, adding that the PA-Israeli "futile" negotiations will end up in big failure.

Zionist brutal troops shoot resistance activists, leave them bleed to death

February 4, 2008

Jenin -- The Zionist criminal troops ambushed three Palestinian resistance activists affiliated with the Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad Movement, at dawn Monday in Qabatia village, south of Jenin, and left them bleed to death after shooting them.

Medical sources said that Ammar Zakarna, 20, and Ahmed Abu Zaid, 32, were killed in the IOF shooting while Naji Nazza, 21, was in critical condition after IOF bullets hit him in the abdomen and thigh. He underwent a series of operations in Jenin government hospital and his condition was still described as "serious".

Local and media sources I Jenin said that Israeli special forces ambushed the three activists in the western suburb of Qabatia and fired at them.

They said that Nazzal was the first to be hit and the two others tried to evacuate him but they were shot on the spot.

The sources said that Zionist aggressive occupation soldiers blocked access of ambulance vehicles into the scene leaving Zakarna and Abu Zaid bleed to death while Nazzal was left to bleed until his condition was very serious.

Abu Zeid is survived by a wife and two children an 8-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy. Nazzal escapade several arrest attempts the latest was 8 months ago when he was surrounded in Qabatia vegetable market but he managed to escape.

Meanwhile, the National Resistance Brigades, the DFLP armed wing, said its fighters engaged an infiltrating IOF unit in Gaza airport area at dawn Monday.

The Zionist occupation troops kidnap two Palestinians

February 3, 2008

Jenin -- The oppressive occupation Zionist troops on Sunday kidnapped two Palestinians one in Kufr Dan village west of Jenin and another form Beit Dajan village east of Nablus, local sources reported.

They said that the Zionist occupation troops in ten military vehicles stormed Kufr Dan shortly after midnight Saturday and encircled the house of Subhi Abed, ransacked it then kidnapped his son Mustafa, 24.

Witnesses said that the soldiers fired bullets and sonic bombs in abundance and forced the inhabitants of the house to stay in the cold outside during their barbaric search.

In Beit Dajan, the soldiers kidnapped 32-year-old Wael Hanini while crossing Beit Forik barrier at the entrance to the village.

People present at time of the incident said that the man was a known PFLP activist.

The oppressive Zionist occupation soldiers had rounded up many PFLP supporters in Beit Dajan a few days ago.

Locals in Salem village east of Nablus said that the Zionist occupation soldiers wreaked havoc in the village at an early hour Sunday but did not arrest anyone.

Meanwhile, the Nafha legal society catering for prisoners' affairs reported on Sunday that Israeli jailors in Hawara detention camp south of Nablus last Friday forced Palestinian detainees to strip in order to be searched despite the prevailing severe cold weather.

Israeli settler shoots at, wounds 4 Palestinians

February 3, 2008

Bethlehem -- An Israeli settler opened fire from his machinegun at a group of Palestinian young men in Khudar town, west of Bethlehem, wounding four of them, eyewitnesses reported.

They said that the armed settler got out of his car at a nearby bypass road and walked near to the old town of Khudar and fired at the youths when he saw them injuring four in their legs and feet.

Young men in the village angered by the shooting then started throwing stones and empty bottles at settlers' vehicles passing near their town.

Zionist occupation soldiers rushed into the town and fired rubber coated bullets and gas canisters to disperse the youths.

Meanwhile, in Gaza, the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas Movement, fired five mortar shells at an Zionist occupation authority military position east of Gaza city before midnight Saturday.

The armed wing said that the attack was in response to the "Zionist vicious massacres and oppressive siege against our steadfast people in the Gaza Strip".

Jerusalemite loses 90% of his eyesight in Israeli captivity

February 3, 2008

Occupied Jerusalem -- The Nafha society catering for prisoners' rights has appealed to legal organizations worldwide to save the remaining eyesight of Shehda Tawam who is held in the Israeli desert prison of Negev since September 2005 without charge or trial.

Tawam, who hails from the occupied Jerusalem district village of Jaba, is the father of seven children the youngest being a 6-year-old. He was arrested on 27/9/2005 and held in administive detention since then at the pretext of the presence of a "secret" security file against him.

Liberated prisoner Omar Salim, who was released a few months ago from Negev, said that Tawam had lost 90% of his eyesight and the prison authority did not treat him properly despite his repeated demands.

Um Mohammed, wife of Tawam, said that her husband was planning a surgery in his eyes, shortly before his arrest, when he sensed a great deterioration in his sight. She charged that her husband was now almost blind thanks to the Israeli prisons authority.

She appealed the Nafha society in a telephone contact to urge human rights societies and the Red Cross to