Palestine Today 102307
Audio Dept. | 23.10.2007 15:21 | Palestine | World
Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org, for Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007.
In the West Bank, Israeli forces kidnap 14 civilians across the region. In the Gaza Strip meanwhile, the Israeli Finance Minister urges the World Bank to suspend all activities in the coastal region. These stories and more coming up. Stay tuned.
The West Bank
Palestinian security sources reported Tuesday morning that the Israeli army had invaded several areas of the West Bank in pre-dawn raids, kidnapping at 14 Palestinian civilians.
In the northern west bank city of Jenin, two Palestinian resistance fighters were killed when the Israeli army invaded in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Nine Palestinians, including three brothers, were also kidnapped in the invasion. Elsewhere, a total of five Palestinian civilians were kidnapped from Nablus, Bethlehem and Hebron.
Later on Tuesday, The Israeli army attacked a peaceful demonstration organized by the families of political detainees to protest against the recent events in the Negev detention facility. Soldiers showered the protest with tear gas and sound bombs, and several people were admitted to hospital for gas inhalation. Later in the afternoon, Israeli soldiers provoked local school-children, chasing them down with jeeps. Israeli jeeps also almost hit IMEMC's cameraman Ghassan Bannoura, in an attempt to prevent him from documenting events.
Around 11,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention centers on Tuesday announced a one-day hunger strike to protest against Monday's events in the Negev detention center which left one detainee, Mohammad Al Ashkar, dead, and at least 50 others injured.
The Gaza Strip
An Israeli air strike on Tuesday afternoon killed a member of the Popular Resistance Committees as the man drove along a coastal road in the region. Eyewitnesses to the attack indicated that a missile completely destroyed the car. The Israeli army confirmed the attack, but refused to give further details.
A Jordanian News Network on Tuesday announced that the deposed Hamas government in Gaza has signed an agreement with Egyptian security officials to bring an end to the smuggling of weapons through tunnels in the Rafah area of the southern Gaza Strip. The network reported that the agreement was signed under the understanding that Palestinians would be allowed access to Egypt for educational and medical purposes.
The Hamas government, for its part, denied the accuracy of the report stating that they would continue to resist until the occupation fell.
In a meeting with World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Monday, Israeli Finance Minister Roni Bar-On urged the body to cease all projects in the Gaza Strip. Suggesting that the World Bank should cooperate with so-called moderates, Bar-on stated that "there is no room to include Hamas in this framework."
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 John Smith and Ghassan Bannoura.
The West Bank
Palestinian security sources reported Tuesday morning that the Israeli army had invaded several areas of the West Bank in pre-dawn raids, kidnapping at 14 Palestinian civilians.
In the northern west bank city of Jenin, two Palestinian resistance fighters were killed when the Israeli army invaded in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Nine Palestinians, including three brothers, were also kidnapped in the invasion. Elsewhere, a total of five Palestinian civilians were kidnapped from Nablus, Bethlehem and Hebron.
Later on Tuesday, The Israeli army attacked a peaceful demonstration organized by the families of political detainees to protest against the recent events in the Negev detention facility. Soldiers showered the protest with tear gas and sound bombs, and several people were admitted to hospital for gas inhalation. Later in the afternoon, Israeli soldiers provoked local school-children, chasing them down with jeeps. Israeli jeeps also almost hit IMEMC's cameraman Ghassan Bannoura, in an attempt to prevent him from documenting events.
Around 11,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention centers on Tuesday announced a one-day hunger strike to protest against Monday's events in the Negev detention center which left one detainee, Mohammad Al Ashkar, dead, and at least 50 others injured.
The Gaza Strip
An Israeli air strike on Tuesday afternoon killed a member of the Popular Resistance Committees as the man drove along a coastal road in the region. Eyewitnesses to the attack indicated that a missile completely destroyed the car. The Israeli army confirmed the attack, but refused to give further details.
A Jordanian News Network on Tuesday announced that the deposed Hamas government in Gaza has signed an agreement with Egyptian security officials to bring an end to the smuggling of weapons through tunnels in the Rafah area of the southern Gaza Strip. The network reported that the agreement was signed under the understanding that Palestinians would be allowed access to Egypt for educational and medical purposes.
The Hamas government, for its part, denied the accuracy of the report stating that they would continue to resist until the occupation fell.
In a meeting with World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Monday, Israeli Finance Minister Roni Bar-On urged the body to cease all projects in the Gaza Strip. Suggesting that the World Bank should cooperate with so-called moderates, Bar-on stated that "there is no room to include Hamas in this framework."
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 John Smith and Ghassan Bannoura.
Audio Dept.
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Also this year in "Palestine"
24.10.2007 04:46
Vehicle on fire during clashes between Hamas and Fatah militants in Gaza City, May 2007
© APGraphicsBank
Hundreds of Palestinians lost their lives as a result of the inter-factional political violence that engulfed the Gaza Strip in the past year. Fighting between security forces and armed groups loyal to the two main Palestinian political parties caused the deaths of many unarmed bystanders not involved in the confrontations, including children.
Both sides -- Fatah, headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and Hamas of then Prime Minister Isma’il Haniyeh -- committed grave human rights abuses. They showed a flagrant disregard for the human rights of a civilian population already worn down by decades of Israeli occupation, military campaigns and blockades. These have caused a sharp deterioration in the humanitarian situation of the 1.5 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip.
As armed clashes became more frequent and intensified, Fatah and Hamas gunmen unlawfully killed and maimed captured rivals and hostages. They used indiscriminate and reckless fire in and around residential neighbourhoods.
Neither medical nor educational facilities were immune as they and residential buildings were both attacked and used as firing positions from which to mount attacks. Homes and public properties were damaged and beleaguered residents were virtually imprisoned in their own homes for days by the fighting.
After Hamas’ violent takeover in the Gaza Strip in June, President Abbas’ decision to suspend operations of PA security forces and judicial institutions in the Gaza Strip created a legal and institutional vacuum there. This opened the way for Hamas to establish a parallel security and law enforcement apparatus, but one which lacks appropriately trained personnel, accountability mechanisms or safeguards.
Unsurprisingly, arbitrary detentions and torture or other ill-treatment of detainees by Hamas forces are now widespread and the initial improvements in the security situation that followed Hamas' takeover are fast being eroded.
In the West Bank, there has also been a marked deterioration in the human rights situation under the emergency government set up by President Abbas in June. Arbitrary detention of suspected Hamas supporters by Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces has become routine. Detainees are often subject to torture or other ill-treatment and Fatah gunmen have launched revenge attacks against Hamas supporters and their properties with impunity.
Amnesty International is calling on both the PA and Hamas to take swift and decisive measures to stop and prevent the increasingly widespread human rights abuses committed by those acting under their authority and to put an end to the impunity enjoyed by security forces and armed groups.
The organization is also calling on the international community to hold all the Palestinian parties accountable to the same human rights standards and to ensure that the population of the Gaza Strip is not punished for the positions and actions of the Hamas de-facto administration and that emergency assistance essential to fulfilling fundamental human rights is never used as a bargaining tool to further political goals.
Amnesty International