One Palestinian patient dies due to the Israeli siege imposed on the Gaza Strip, while the Israeli government approves more settlements in the West Bank, these stories and more coming up… stay tuned.

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A Palestinian teenage girl died on Wednesday due to the Israeli siege imposed on the Gaza Strip. Palestinian medical sources in the Gaza strip reported that Dua' Omran, 18, was unable to leave Gaza to get the medical treatment she needed to survive due to the Israeli army closure of the strip.

The Israeli army closed all entrances and exits serving the Gaza strip in late June, shortly after Hamas took total control of the Gaza strip. Despite of the withdrawal in September 2005, Israel still controls all entry and exit points in the Gaza Strip, and since the beginning of September 2007, all borders have been completely sealed, even for patients in dire need of medical treatment.

The Physicians for Human Rights, based in Israel, filed an appeal in the Israeli High Court mid October on behalf of eleven extremely ill Palestinian patients, in a bid to allow them to leave Gaza for lifesaving medical treatment.

Since then, four of the patients have been allowed to pass, while three have died of their illnesses. In late November, the High Court ruled that the four patients should receive permission to exit Gaza to receive treatment in either in Israel, the West Bank or Egypt, and gave the Israeli government one week to respond. The ruling was not final, and came after a two and half week delay during which two of the patients died. In the end the army refused the court ruling and the high court dismissed the case shortly after.

So far 42 Palestinians have died due to being prevented by Israel to leave Gaza for medical treatment; the youngest was Ibraheem Abu Nahal, only one year and half years old. In earlier reports media sources in Gaza said that the army was demanding Palestinian Patients leaving Gaza to give up information about resistance leaders or they will not be allowed out of the costal region.

On Wednesday Ze'ev Boim, the Israeli housing minister gave the green light to start building a new settlement near Jerusalem. According to the Israeli media the new settlement will be located at lands taken from the Palestinian villages north of Jerusalem. The new settlement will contain 10,000 housing units, the sources said.

Recently the Israeli government has continued building new settlements and expanding already existent ones in the West Bank and Jerusalem, The European Union and the United States officials have urged Israel to stop its settlement activity, by deeming such moves as "threatening to the Peace process". Earlier this week Israeli government officials told Reuters that their government will continue to add houses inside West Bank settlements but will not expand them. They added that Israel do not need further approvals to build new settlements.

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 Caroline Jones and Ghassan Bannoura.