West Bank update

A young Palestinian woman was injured on Thursday afternoon when Israeli soldiers fired at her while she was standing at the Bathan military checkpoint, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

Eyewitnesses reported that soldiers opened fire at scores of Palestinian civilians who had been stranded at the checkpoint all morning. Dr. Ghassan Hamdan, the director of the medical relief services in Nablus stated that Tahani Bani-Odah, 23, sustained critical wounds due to direct live gunfire.

Dr. Hamdan also stated that soldiers did not allow the medical team to hospitalize the girl; instead they abducted her and took her to an unknown location.

On Thursday the Israeli army released a statement saying that in co-operation with Shin Bet, they have abducted Anwar Ahmad Daoud I'mir, 44, in Ramallah.

They added that he is a Hamas activist based in the West Bank city of Tulkarem. According to Palestinian media sources, he is accused of setting up Tulkarem's Hamas infrastructure, and of being a West Bank Hamas leader. He has been 'wanted' by Israel since 2002.

The Israeli army abducted seven Palestinian men during morning invasions into several part of the West Bank on Thursday. Israeli army forces invaded the villages of Al Shawoura and Taqua, to the east of Bethlehem city in the southern West Bank. Another force attacked Aida refugee camp in the northern part of the city. Four residents were abducted in total.

The town of Abu Dees, east of Jerusalem in the central West Bank, was also invaded by the Israeli army on Thursday morning. Soldiers attacked and searched the house of Farouk Halabia, 19, then abducted him. Two more Palestinians were also abducted from the northern West Bank city of Nablus and the nearby Balata refugee camp on Thursday at dawn.

Jerusalem

The Israeli police in the city of Jerusalem released Shikh Raed Salah, the leader of the Islamic movement inside the green line, on Thursday morning while controversial demolition near the Aqsa mosque continued. According to media sources the police released Salah after issuing an order which states that he is not allowed in the old city of Jerusalem.

Salah was arrested on Wednesday midday for protesting near the site of the controversial demolition at the bridge to the Mugrabi (Moroccan) Gate, in the old city of Jerusalem. According to Palestinian media, the Israeli police installed more checkpoints around and in the Old City and assaulted and arrested tens of Palestinian civilians on Thursday.

In Hebron city in the southern West Bank, clashes erupted after a large number of Palestinian civilians took to the streets on Thursday afternoon to protest the controversial demolition by Israel of the Mugrabi Bridge near Al Aqsa mosque. Ten Palestinian civilians have been injured during the clashes, medical sources reported.

Palestinian media sources reported on Thursday that the Supreme Judge of Palestine, Tayseer Al-Tamimi has called for the Muslim world to simultaneously express their outrage at the excavations being carried out near the holy Al Aqsa mosque on Friday.

Israeli police restricted access to the Al Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem for the third consecutive day, allowing only Muslim men over the age of 45 with Israeli identity cards and Muslim women to enter the Mosque compound. The previously tight restrictions were strengthened on Sunday, then again on Tuesday morning before Israeli bulldozers started demolishing the bridge to the Mugrabi Gate, one of the main entrances to the Al Aqsa Mosque.

City council members and state officials sent an urgent letter to the Attorney General Menachem Mazuz stating that the illegality of the excavation was well known by municipal bodies. However, this outcry was ignored. The Israeli government had recently decided to demolish the bridge, citing the need to build a road for Jewish settlers.

The Gaza Update

Palestinian medical sources confirmed that Ahmad Abu Eida, 8, died yesterday night of wounds he sustained during infighting last Thursday in the central Gaza Strip.

Eida was shot and wounded in what are considered the fiercest gun battles between Fatah and Hamas supporters in recent months, where some hundred Palestinians have been killed and hundreds others wounded. Rival Palestinian factions have been holding talks in the Saudi Arabian city of Makkah since yesterday, in an attempt to put an end the infighting and agree on a national unity government that would lift the internationally-imposed embargo.

Conclusion

Thank you for joining us from Occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, brought to you by Polly Bangoriad and Ghassan Bannoura