One Palestinian patient dies in Gaza due to the Israeli siege, while in the West Bank Israeli settlers continue to annex Palestinian lands, these stories and more coming up, stay tuned.

The News Cast

Palestinian sources reported on Monday that a Palestinian patient died in the Gaza Strip on Sunday night due to the Israeli siege imposed on the Palestinian coastal region.

Hind Al Ashkar, from Al Nuserat refugee camp located in central Gaza, had kidney failure, doctors said that she applied several times for the Israeli army to grant her permission to leave Gaza for life saving medical care but the army refused.

With the death of Al Ashkar, the number of Palestinian patients who died due to the 11 month Israeli siege on Gaza now stands at 163.

The Former US president Jimmy Carter on Sunday criticized Israel for its 11 months siege on the Gaza Strip by describing it as "one of the greatest human rights crimes now existing on Earth."

The Nobel Peace Prize winner also has broken the silence about Israel's nuclear power and told reporters at a literary festival in UK on Sunday that Israel has an arsenal of 150 nuclear war heads.

Israeli settlers under the protection of the Israeli army started on Monday morning to install homes on lands that belong to villagers from Bil'in, located near the central West Bank city of Ramallah.

A group of men from the village were staying over night on their land, managed to come close to the trucks installing mobile homes for the settlers and stopped them by standing in front of them. The standoff lasted for several hours and ended when the Israeli army kidnapped a local activist from the village.

In 2007 the villagers of Bil'in won an Israeli high court of Justice decision to remove the Israeli wall that separates the village from its land and move it away. The Israeli army refused to comply with the order for "security reasons."

The court ruling also forbids the settlers from expanding the settlement of Mitetyaho Mizrah which is built on the village land.

On Monday at dawn Israeli troops invaded the village of Zita located near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem and kidnapped three civilians there. During the invasion eyewitnesses said that clashes erupted between local youth and the invading Israeli troops, no injures reported.

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. This report brought to you by Ghassan Bannoura and George Rishmawi.