The rival Palestinian parties Fatah and Hamas have failed to reach an agreement in Cairo. While four Palestinians reported dead in Gaza. These stories and more, coming up.

Nonviolent Activities

Let's begin our weekly report with the nonviolent activities in the West Bank with IMEMC's Dina Awwad:

Bilin

The residents of Bil'in village, near the central west Bank city of Ramallah, marched towards the wall today after Friday prayers. The protest was joined by Israeli and international activists.

The protesters' banners condemned Israel's ongoing policies and its violence against civilians. The protest began in the center of the village then headed towards the Apartheid Wall which is being built on Bil'in's land.

An Israeli army unit positioned behind the wall prevented the crowd from going through the gate and fired tear gas canisters to break up the crowd. Two Journalists were injured, while dozens suffered from gas inhalation.

Nil'in

Also near Ramallah scores of villagers from Nil'in, along with their international supporters, held their weekly protest on Friday at midday against the illegal Israeli wall being built on village land.

As soon as the protesters reached the construction site, Israeli soldiers showered them with tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets. They also fired live ammunition rounds.

Six were injured, amongst them a boy who sustained serious wounds and was moved to a hospital in Ramallah city. Dozens were treated for gas inhalation.

Israeli troops attacked the village early on Friday morning and fired tear gas at residential buildings. Local sources say that clashes took place between the invading troops and local youth. No injuries were reported.


For IMEMC.org this is Dina Awwad


The Political report

The rival Palestinian parties Fatah and Hamas have failed to reach an agreement in Cairo on delicate dialogue issues. In Israel a new government was installed this week. IMEMC’s Dave Thompson with the Story:

As representatives of more than a dozen Palestinian factions ended meetings within the national unity talks in Cairo, the remaining delegates of the rival Fatah and Hamas announced on Thursday that they had failed to bridge the gap between them on a number of contentious issues. A statement by the Hamas government in Gaza, emailed to media outlets, criticized what Hamas termed Fatah's commitment to a peace process that has so far failed to achieve anything for the Palestinian people.

Meanwhile, Fatah's spokesperson in the West Bank, Fahmi Azza'areer said that his party is pursuing the highest interests of the Palestinian people. Both parties were reported to have agreed to resume dialogue by April 26th, again in Cairo. Over the past few months Egyptian mediators have been attempting to broker an agreement between the two sides.

One of the thorniest issues is the political agenda to be adopted by a future unity government. Hamas wants a conciliation government to be formed before general elections in 2010, while Fatah insists that such a government should have a clear-cut agenda before elections are held.

Four months after the formation of the first ever unity government in February.2007 the parties split, with Hamas seizing power in Gaza whilst Fatah formed its own caretaker government in the West Bank. Since coming to power in January 2006, Hamas has shunned peace talks with Israel until the Israelis end their occupation of the Palestinian territories.

The U.S, European countries and Israel have boycotted Hamas, demanding the party recognizes Israel, renounces violence and accepts previously-signed peace agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), before the movement can be brought into any peace process.

In Israel a new rightist Israeli government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, was installed this week. The new Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Liberman, outlined his diplomacy for the upcoming period, saying "The 2007 U.S-sponsored Annapolis conference for peace in the Middle East is no longer valid".

The ruling Hamas party in Gaza, in its statement to the media, said that it sees the approach of this new government as merely ' a continuation of Israel's racist policies towards the Palestinian people which has never recognized their right to self-determination'. Atef Eisa is a Palestinian resident in Gaza:

Actuality (In Arabic-Voice Over done already)

Also this week, the annual Arab summit meeting took place in the Qatari capital Doha, despite the absence of some Arab leaders including President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. The summit restated its support for the 2002 Arab peace initiative, agreed in Beirut, whereby the Arab countries will agree to a comprehensive peace deal with Israel in return for Israel ending its occupation of Arab territory, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem, seized in 1967.

But Arab leaders also agreed that as Israel continues to reject the offer, they cannot rule out the possibility that it will at some point be withdrawn.. Mokhaimar Abu Se'da is a Gaza political analyst and a university professor.



In the meantime, Washington reaffirmed its commitment to peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, based on the 2007 Annapolis summit, which calls for a two-state solution.

For IMEMC.org this is Dave Thompson.


The Gaza Repot

The Israeli military continued to attack Gaza this week with four Palestinians reported dead. From Gaza IMEMC’s Rami Al Meghari reports:


Palestinian medical sources in the Gaza Strip reported on Friday morning that a Palestinian fisherman was slightly injured when the Israel Navy shelled several fishing boats in Palestinian territorial waters off Gaza.

A Palestinian civilian was reported injured on Wednesday when a bomb left by the Israeli military exploded near him east of Jabalya town in the northern Gaza Strip. Also in the Strip, a 30-year old woman died on Tuesday night at a Gaza city hospital after she was denied permission to travel to Egypt for medical treatment.

Abeer Ahmad Al Agha, a mother of five, was hospitalized at the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza. She suffered second-degree burns in the lower part of her body in an accident while cooking a meal for her children last week.

Two Palestinian resistance fighters were killed on Tuesday morning by Israeli shelling which targeted the Al Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. At least three more fighters were injured in clashes with Israeli troops stationed at the Kissufim crossing on the eastern border between Gaza and Israel.

A Palestinian woman from the Gaza Strip was reported to have died at an Egyptian hospital on Monday. She had sustained critical wounds during the Israeli operation Cast Lead earlier this year.

Meanwhile a Palestinian farmer was moderately injured on Monday by Israeli gunfire near the northern borders of the Gaza Strip. Doctors said he had been working on his land near the Khan Younis border crossing when troops opened fire at him.

Palestinian fighters clashed with Israeli border troops early on Monday morning at the northern Gaza-Israel border. Medics said one Palestinian fighter had been moderately injured and moved to a local hospital for treatment.

Meanwhile, the Israeli Authorities have decided to partially open the Karm Abu Salem and the Eretz crossings this week to allow the entry of 115 trucks filled various kinds of aid and 45 trucks filled with grain. 19 trucks loaded with aid for UNRWA and other international organisations are to be allowed through as well as 83 trucks for the private sector.

The Gaza Strip has been short of food supplies since Israel imposed a tight siege on the coastal region in June of 2006. Palestinians have been using tunnels dug between the Gaza Strip and Egypt to bring in food.

For IMEMC.org this Rami Al Meghari in Gaza.


The West Bank report

This week the Israeli military conducted at least 20 invasions into Palestinian communities in the West, during those attacks Israeli troops kidnapped 27 Palestinian civilians, including 10 children, this and more by IMEMC’s Ghassan Bannoura:

This week’s invasions were focused in the cities of Hebron Bethlehem Nablus and Jenin. Meanwhile settlers continued to take over Palestinian homes in West Bank.

On Thursday a group of extremist settlers attacked and occupied four stores in the Clothes Market in the Old City on Hebron. The market is adjacent to the illegal Abraham Avinu settlement outpost.

A group of Israeli settlers took over a Palestinian-owned house located in Jerusalem's old city Thursday morning. According to the owners the settlers were aided by the police. Later in the day, the Israeli Jerusalem Municipality demolished a Palestinian-owned shop. The municipality claimed that the shop was built without permits.

The Israeli government has intensified its demolition campaign. The Jerusalem municipality handed out demolition orders to 176 Palestinian families in March alone – double the number issued in February.

In related, a Palestinian man wielding an ax killed one young Israeli settler and injured another in a settlement near Bethlehem on Thursday midday. Israeli medical sources said the 13-year-old victim died of his wounds shortly after reaching the hospital. A Palestinian group calling its self Imad Mughniyah, clamed the attack. They say it is retaliation to the ongoing Israeli attacks on Palestinians and their land.

On Monday morning a group of extremist Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian youth in Silwan town, south of the Old City of Jerusalem. The boy sustained moderate wounds. Local sources reported that the settlers escalated their attacks against the Palestinians in East Jerusalem while the Israel Police and the so-called border guards failed to restraint them.

Eight Palestinian civilians were injured on Monday midday when Israeli troops attacked a nonviolent protest in the Ithna village near Hebron city. The protest was organized at the villages' lands where Israel is building the Wall. The protest was in commemoration of the 33 anniversary of the Land Day. Another three civilians were injured in a similar event in Hebron city on Sunday.

Palestinians mark land day On March 30, of every. In that day in 1976 Israeli military and police forces attacked non-violent demonstration organized against wide-scale land confiscation in the town of Sakhnin in the Galilee, killing six Palestinian residents of Israel. At least 100 were wounded and 300 arrested by Israeli forces as well.

For IMEMC.org this is Ghassan Bannoura.


Conclusion

And that's just some of the news this week in Palestine. For constant updates, please check out our website, www.IMEMC.org. Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. This week's report has been brought to you by Cory Balsam.