The Gaza Update

Palestinian medical sources reported that one resident was killed and five were injured, most of them children, in an Israeli military air strike that targeted a Palestinian vehicle in Beit Hanoun, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli air force shelled at least one missile at the car of Mahmoud Abu Nasser, 23, as he was driving near Al Shawwa Gas Station. The body of Abu Nasser was severely mutilated as a result of the blast.

Five residents, including children, were injured and immediately to Al Awda Hospital in Beit Hanoun. An Israeli army spokesperson claimed that the targeted resident was a fighter and that he was trying to lift a homemade Qassam shell launcher that was used earlier in firing homemade shells at the Israeli Negev town of Sderot.

Palestinian sources also reported that two residents were injured during an Israeli army invasion of the Al Sika area in Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip Monday morning. One, identified as Nissren Aby Lilah, 16, was injured in the left leg. The other injured person is a mentally handicapped elderly, now in critical condition due to direct hits in the chest and right leg. Both were moved to Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia.

Local sources said that the army began to install a military post near the area that was invaded last Friday. Currently, army bulldozers are uprooting trees and destroying farm lands. Israeli army sources said that the invasion comes as a response to the firing of homemade shells by Palestinian resistance groups toward the Israeli town of Sderot, located five kilometers from the Gaza border.

Also on Monday, hundreds of Muslim pilgrims heading to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, managed to cross the Rafah Border Crossing, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, after international observers resumed their work there. Five lorries carrying wheat, sugar and rice were allowed into the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom Crossing.

Moreover, Israeli war planes dropped missiles on a home in the Khan Younis refugee camp, in southern Gaza Strip late Sunday night. Although the house was completely destroyed, no casualties have been reported. A local reporter said that Israeli drone planes launched rockets at the house of Hamas activist Arafat Abu Madhi, after a telephone call warning informing the residents of the house to leave. An Israeli army spokesman said that the house was targeted because it was used to store weapons. Palestinians denied the claim.

The West Bank Update

Mohammad Sa'adah, 22, was shot and killed on Monday afternoon by Israeli soldiers stationed at the Huwwara military checkpoint south of the West Bank city of Nablus. Soldiers did not release the body of Sa'adah for some time, then gave his body over to a Palestinian ambulance that took him to Rafidia Hospital in the city. Sa'adah is a resident of Tall village near the city of Nablus.

Local sources said that Israeli soldiers are holding scores of Palestinian civilians at the Huwwara checkpoint and the nearby Beit Iba checkpoint. Soldiers closed the two checkpoints after the incident. The Israeli army claimed that Sa'adah ran towards the soldiers at the checkpoint and tried to attack them with a knife. Soldiers then opened fire at him and killed him.

Eyewitnesses at the checkpoint said tha Sa'adah ran towards a car at the checkpoint when he was shot by a number of soldiers. They said he was not holding a knife as the soldiers claimed. However, soldiers insisted that they found the knife in his clothes while searching the body after killing him.

Also in Nablus, Israeli troops with a cavalcade of jeeps invaded the city on Monday at dawn and seized three residents. Local sources reported that over 12 army vehicles invaded the city from the north entrance of Nablus. Troops searched and ransacked houses in the city center and the northern side of Nablus. The three seized are known as Dia' Al Takrori, 30, Mohamed Mansour, 21, and Khatab Mansour. They were taken to unknown locations, eyewitnesses reported.

On Monday at noon an Israeli Army unit invaded agricultural land, east of the West Bank city of Tubass and ransacked shepherds’ huts there. According to local sources, troops in 3 military jeeps stormed farm lands located east of Tubas, searched and ransacked shepherds’ huts and detained the shepherds for one hour.

Elsewhere, the Israeli forces put a curfew on Al Ezbedat village in the central area of the Jordan Valley, in the eastern part of the West Bank, on Monday morning. Troops invaded the village, forcing people back into their houses in an attempt to impose a curfew on the village. Soldiers fired live rounds and sound bombs to force residents into their homes and used loudspeakers to threaten to shoot anyone who walks outside. Al Ezbedat village is the closest village to the Palestinian – Jordanian border, near the Jordan River.

Conclusion

Thank you for joining us from Occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org brought to you by Caysha Cay & Ghassan Bannoura.