This week saw a fresh round of negotiations between various Palestinian and Israeli officials, while the Israeli army continued to attack Palestinians killing 14 this week among them six children, these stories and more coming up stay tuned.

Nonviolent Resistance in Palestine

Let's begin our weekly report with news of nonviolent action in the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem against the wall and settlements. IMEMC's Hannah Orwell has more :

Bil'in

Seven peaceful protesters were injured on Friday when the Israeli army attacked the weekly nonviolent protest organized in the village of Bil'in, located near the central West Bank city of Ramallah.

As is the case each week, the villagers of Bil'in were joined by international and Israeli peace activists. Once assembled, the demonstrators marched towards the construction site of the illegal wall. Upon arriving at an earlier-installed military barricade, Israeli soldiers showered the civilian protesters with tear gas, sound bombs and rubber-coated steel bullets.

Seven demonstrators were injured in the attack, among them Iyad Bornat, Mustafa Abu Rahma, and Abullah Abu Rahma. A number of protestors managed to circumvent the barricade and reach the location of the wall. Upon reaching the illegal wall, soldiers beat and arrested two peaceful demonstrators.

Bethlehem

Also on Friday, villagers of Um Salamonah, located to the south of Bethlehem city in the southern part of the West Bank, marched to village-owned land scheduled for illegal confiscation.

Side by side with Israeli and international supporters, villagers marched to the land. While soldiers tried to halt the peaceful demonstration, farmers and supporters were eventually allowed to reach their land. Witnesses told IMEMC that approximately 100 Israeli soldiers observed the protest from a nearby military post.

For IMEMC.org this is Hannah Orwell

Political report

Political news this week has been dominated by a fresh round of negotiations between various Palestinian and Israeli officials in the build-up to the U.S.-proposed peace conference, scheduled to be held in November. IMEMC’s John Smith has more.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with his Israeli counterpart Ehud Olmert on Tuesday in Jerusalem. While the meeting was closed to the press, it is thought that the two leaders discussed bilateral relations and common ground concerning the Washington-proposed international conference on Middle East peace, due to be held this fall. The conference will be held in November with the participation of Palestinians, Israelis, Arab and international representatives.

Of the proposed conference, President Abbas expressed hope that it could achieve real progress in the region; progress that he hoped would take the shape of practical results which will enable the Palestinians to practice

their right to self-determination and create an independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital. Abbas warned, however, that the conference would stall if these core issues were not addressed and if Hamas’ control over the Gaza Strip was used as an excuse to abandon negotiations.

In a similar vein, Palestine’s permanent representative at the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, told the UN Security Council that Israel must ease security measures across the occupied Palestinian territories if the conference is to achieve any real progress.

Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum criticized Fayyad and Abbas for yielding to what he termed “Israeli and American dictations,” arguing that the conference would lead only to the acceptance of an unsustainable and unfair settlement which would fail to grant the Palestinians the rights guaranteed to them under international law.

In other news, deposed Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh welcomed on Monday a statement by the French President Nicolas Sarkozy, indicating that he was willing to hold talks with Hamas. Haniyeh commended the French President for his remarks, and stated that his government is willing to hold direct talks with France and the European Countries. Haniyeh also noted that the deposed government is committed to the agenda defined by the Mecca unity agreement.

Elsewhere, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stated Saturday that he is firmly against any exchange of territory between the Israeli administration and a future Palestinian state. Speaking after a meeting with the Chairman of the Israeli Hadash party, MK Mohammed Barakeh, Abbas stated that he would oppose any strategy which sought to exchange Arab areas of Israel in return for settlement blocs in the West Bank.

Abbas’ comments come a week after the Israeli daily Haaretz published the details of a plan proposed by Shimon Peres in which the PA would receive territory equivalent to 100% of the total area occupied in 1967 in return for ceding a number of West Bank settlement blocs to Israel.

The Israeli government could consider a prisoner swap deal for the release of the captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. According to a document leaked from the Israeli Prime Minister’s office, the Kadima party-led Israeli government has suggested the deal in light of the failure to thus far secure the release of the soldier, who has now been held for over one year.

For IMEMC.org, this is John Smith.

The Israeli attacks
The West Bank

During the week, the Israeli army conducted at least 21 military invasions into the occupied West Bank. During those invasions the Israeli army killed four Palestinian and kidnapped at least 46 others. IMEMC's Liane Sahouri has more:

An undercover unit of the Israeli army killed one Palestinian resistance fighter and injured three others after ambushing the men in the city of Jenin on Saturday. The soldiers showered the vehicle of the resistance fighters with live rounds, killing Ala Abu Suror, aged 30, the leader of the Al-Quds Brigades in the city, and injuring

three others, one critically. The critically injured man, later identified as Mustafa Ateeq, 22, died of his wounds on Sunday afternoon. Also in the northern West Bank, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a leader of the Al-Quds Brigades on Friday. The man was killed after the army invaded Saida village, north of Tulkarem in the northern part of the West Bank. A 13 year old child was also shot and killed in the attack.

In other news, an Israeli soldier mistakenly drove his vehicle into the centre of Jenin on Monday. Security forces of the Palestinian Authority detained the soldier before handing him over to officials of the Israeli army. Previous to his detention, the soldier had been surrounded by local civilians who set fire to his car but did not harm the man.

In the southern West Bank, an Israeli settler ran over a Palestinian woman in the old city of Hebron in the early hours of Monday morning. The woman, later identified as Mariam Khalil, sustained moderate injuries to different parts of her body and was transferred to a local hospital for treatment.

Also in Hebron, Israeli forces invaded various neighborhoods of the city on Thursday morning, kidnapping one man and wounding his sister. The man, later identified as Maher Abu Turkey, 22, was taken an unknown location, while his sister, Sawsan Abu Turkey, 20, was transferred to a local hospital for treatment.

A Palestinian worker died on Tuesday after he was chased by policemen in Israeli territory. The man, identified as Fahim Mustafa Hamdan, 45, a resident of Salem village, located near Nablus, died as he hid in a garden with no cover from the extreme summer heat. It is thought that the man died as a result of heatstroke.

For IMEMC.org, this is Liane Sahouri.

The Gaza strip

In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army killed 12 Palestinians this week, among them seven children. IMEMC's Rami Al Mughari has more:

The Israeli army admitted to the “accidental killing” of three innocent Children on Thursday morning. While a spokesperson for the army had stated on Tuesday that the slain children were somehow involved in resistance, suggesting that they had been used to collect rocket launchers, a military probe revealed that the children were merely playing in the area. There have been no indications that those involved in the attack will be subject to a criminal investigation.

One Palestinian was severely injured on Tuesday afternoon after an Israeli army tank stationed at the northern Gaza-Israel borders opened fired at him. Eyewitnesses said that the man, later identified by medical sources as Raed Rafatey, 34, was unarmed when he approached the border. Medical sources reported that the man suffers from severe learning difficulties and is unaware of his actions.

On Wednesday, two children were killed when the army fired a surface-to-surface missile at a group of residents in the Abu Safiyya area, located in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. Elsewhere, a third child died of wounds sustained last Thursday when the Israeli army fired a tank shell at a house in Beit Lahia, also in the northern part of the region.

On Monday, the Israeli army killed a Palestinian man in the Juhr Al Deek area of the Gaza Strip, located near the border with Israel. The man was later identified as Fared Abu Thaher, 43.

Earlier on Sunday, a Palestinian infant from Gaza City died at the Erez crossing while waiting to be transferred to an Israeli hospital for medical treatment. Also on Monday, Samier Asfour, 28, died of wounds sustained last

Thursday when an Israeli air strike targeted a group of people in Abassan village, east of Khan Younis. A total of six people died in the subsequent invasion of the area.

Palestinian medical sources said that two Palestinian men were killed by the Israeli army fire near Al Mintar commercial crossing in the northern part of the Gaza strip. The Israeli army said that the two men were trying to cross the borders into Israel.
For IMEMC.org this Rami Al Mughari in Gaza.

Internal unrest

11 Palestinians were injured on Friday afternoon when the Executive force opened fire on Fatah protestors in the Gaza Strip. Eyewitnesses noted that the Fatah leader Abed Al Fattah Hmeed, also known as Abu Ala, was among those attacked.

Citing fraud and unaccountability, the Ramallah-based Palestinian government, headed by Salam Fayyad, this week decided to close 103 Palestinian charitable societies. The deposed Hamas administration criticized the move, branding it an attempt to undermine and compromise those people are organizations supportive of Hamas’ political agenda. Sami Abu Zuhri, spokesman for Hamas in Gaza, spoke to IMEMC:

"The allegation that these societies are involved in fraud and financial corruption is baseless, as many of them belong to the interior ministry and there is a continuous auditing of their budgets. Definitely the government and the designated societies will reject such a decision, but we have to refer here to the fact that Fayyad's government, making use of its international contacts, will practice pressure on the banks, in a bid to weaken performance of such organizations".

Beneficiaries of the Al-Salah society in the central Gaza Strip, a major Hamas-linked organization, joined Abu Zunhri in his criticism. Halima Abu Eisa, a 45-year-old widow and a mother of two, spoke to IMEMC:

Actuality (In Arabic):

"I pray from the depth of my heart that the one who wants to close the societies, may he/she become blind. I currently live under very difficult situation as the Al-Salah society has stood by me and extended its hand for help. Yesterday, I received my monthly allowance of 900 shekels ($250 dollars). I am a sick woman and I suffer from pains in all over my nerves as well as a problem of my sight".

Mohammad Al-Hurani, a Ramallah-based Fatah official, justified the decision as part of a crackdown on corruption and unaccountability:

Actuality – Arabic

“To be objective, I believe that the decision was partially politicized, especially after Hamas has not only closed societies in the Gaza Strip, but has rather taken control over them. I do believe that this decision came concurrent with a developmental plan that is intended at improving living conditions of middle and lower classes of the Palestinian society and to achieve this end, the authority should adopt centralization in administering service-based organizations”.

The decision was also criticized by the Gaza-based Palestinian Human Rights center, who noted that the closure would deprive many Palestinians of their basic needs.

The security forces of Hamas and Fatah this week continued to clash, with Fatah forces arresting at least 10 members of Hamas in the West bank, and Hamas forces arresting at least 15 Fatah supporters in the Gaza Strip.

Scores of Palestinian journalists staged Tuesday a protest against a perceived crackdown on the freedom of the press by the Hamas-linked executive force. The protest was held at the monument to the ‘unknown soldier’ in Gaza city.

Last Friday, the executive force dispersed a demonstration following Friday prayers in the city. Mohammad Awad, secretary general of the deposed Hamas government in Gaza, confirmed earlier in a statement that his government is keen to maintain the freedom of press throughout the Palestinian territories.

The Al-Aqsa brigades, the armed wing of Fatah, announced on Wednesday that three members of the organization had been shot and wounded by the executive force in Gaza city.

The Hamas movement stated on Tuesday that gunmen of the al-Aqsa brigades shot and injured one member of the organization in the northern West Bank city of Nablus after kidnapping him on Monday evening. The man was later identified as Firas Al Qotob, 30.

Conclusion

And that’s just some of the news this week in Palestine. For constant updates, check out our website, www.IMEMC.org. Thanks for joining us from Occupied Bethlehem, this Deryck Beaumont.