Zionist IOF troops raided on Wednesday evening the village of Silwad, to the north east of Ramallah and stormed the Abu Obeida Mosque at the centre of the village, more troops raided the village Shiqba to the west of Ramallah.

Locals at Silwad reported that more than 25 military vehicles carrying tens of occupation soldiers raided their village around 10:30 pm and that the occupation soldiers ransacked the mosque and its library.

They also reported that the invading troops confiscated 5 computers used in the mosque's library in addition to paper files in the library.

Shiekh Yaser Hamed, the mosque's Imam said that the attack on the mosque reflects disrespect for faith and places of worship.

A Palestinian youth who was present in the vicinity of the mosque suffered an unprovoked assault by the invading occupation soldiers.

More IOF troops raided the village of Shiqba to the west of Ramallah and stormed and ransacked the village's mosque as well as homes and shops.

Locals said that around six military vehicles raided the village, Thursday around 1:00 am and searched the village's mosque before storming a number of homes and a mobile phone shop and confiscating a number of computers.

Local sources in the village of Beit Rima to the north of Ramallah also reported that IOF troops raided, at dawn Thursday, the village and ransacked the mosque before confiscating a computer and a number of books.

Human Situation In Gaza Reached An Uncontrollable Catastrophic Level

The Hamas Movement warned that the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip reached an uncontrollable catastrophic level, appealing to Egypt to necessarily find a formula enabling the opening of the Rafah crossing on a regular basis until agreeing on a mechanism to operate it permanently.

In a press statement, Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, denied that the civilian scramble that took place Wednesday on the outskirts of the Rafah border crossing was intentional and attributed the incident to the suffocating and miserable living conditions in Gaza and to not implementing what was agreed upon in Cairo about the need for initiating talks to open the crossing.

Dr. Abu Zuhri held PA chief Mahmoud Abbas fully responsible for the suffering of the Gaza people because of his refusal of the formula reached in Cairo to open the Rafah crossing.

The spokesman also castigated Abbas for his statements to the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper in which he said that Hamas has to recognize the international conditions which calls for recognizing the Israeli occupation and ending the resistance before he can open national dialog with Hamas.

Haneyya Calls On Egypt To Open The Rafah Crossing Once And For All

The Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haneyya said on Thursday that what took place on Wednesday at the Rafah crossing was spontaneous and not planed, calling on Egypt to hasten the opening of the border crossing officially.

Haneyya's comments were made during a speech to police officers at their headquarters in Gaza city where he stressed that frustration and the pressures of the siege were to blame for the people's attempt to storm the gates of the crossing.

Haneyya stressed that the Rafah crossing should be officially opened once and for all after reaching an agreement between different parties concerned and called for accelerating the process so as not to keep the Palestinian people hostage to the siege and closure.

He said that these pressure cause some young people to get out of line and cause problems and added that the Egyptian brothers were informed of the keenness of the Palestinian government and people to protect the brotherly relations with Egypt which has been and will always be the strategic depth for the Palestinian people.

He also blamed behind the back arrangements which the Gaza government is not aware of that confuses matters at the Rafah crossing, calling on Egypt to directly coordinate with the Interior Ministry of the Gaza government to ensure the smooth operation of the crossing and prevent problems.

On Wednesday, hundreds of stranded passengers tried to break into the Egyptian side of the crossing out of frustration as only very limited numbers of passengers have been allowed through.

Some stranded students lost the academic year, some lost their work abroad and many patients lost their life due to travel restrictions.