Palestine Today 060909
Audio Dept. | 09.06.2009 14:50 | Palestine | World
Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org for Tuesday June 9th, 2009.
The Israeli military invades areas in the Gaza strip and demolishes homes in the West Bank, these stories and more coming up stay tuned.
The News Cast
Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip reported Tuesday morning that a Palestinian fighter managed to disable an armored Israeli military bulldozer near the Nahal Oz Crossing, east of Gaza City.
Eyewitnesses reported that the bulldozer was directly hit by an explosive device while the army was invading the area. Israeli troops fired tank shells at areas surrounding the explosion site, and also fired rounds of live ammunition at dozens of homes.
Troops also uprooted farmlands and destroyed greenhouses.
30 Palestinians were injured on Tuesday afternoon when a gas tank exploded at a gas station located in in the town of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.
Local sources said that the injured were moved to nearby hospitals for treatment; doctors reported that among the injured there are two critical cases. Witnesses said that nearby houses were damaged by the fire caused by the explosion. No official statement has been released about the cause of the explosion.
Elsewhere on Tuesday the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem demolished two Palestinian-owned houses located inside the walls of the old city. On Tuesday midday Israeli troops arrived and forced Mohamed Goshah to demolish his own house.
The family told media that soldiers attacked them and kidnapped one family member and another young man who was at the location. The family added that the soldiers told Mohamed that he has to demolish his home now or a 25,000 USD fine would be imposed on him.
Earlier in the day the Israeli military demolished another Palestinian house near the church of the Holy Sepulchre. The owner Khalil Al Hartoni, said that military police came to his home forced his family out, then arrested his brother before demolishing the house. He added that his home was first demolished fourth months ago.
The municipality says the two houses were built without the needed building permissions. Since Israel occupied the city of Jerusalem in 1967, the authorities have rarely given Palestinian residents permission to build houses. The Israeli government has continued to build Jewish settlements in and around East- Jerusalem, an act which violates International law.
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 has been brought to you by Ghassan Bannoura.
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Hamas female suiciders captured on way to kill Palestinian officers
09.06.2009 17:18
Hamas female suiciders captured on way to kill Palestinian officers
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
June 9, 2009, 6:04 PM (GMT+02:00)
Hamas is escalating its attacks on fellow Palestinians to demonstrate that US presidential envoy George Mitchell's peace talks in the region, starting Tuesday, June 9, were a mission impossible so long as Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah were at war. DEBKAfile's counter terror sources disclose that Monday night, three Palestinian female members of Hamas, one of whom wore a bomb vest, were captured in the West Bank town of Qalqilya on their way to kill Palestinian Authority security officers.
The reappearance of suicide bombers on the West Bank is extremely troubling, say military sources, because of the likelihood that they will next attack their old targets in Israel.
This supposition is well founded. On June 7, DEBKAfile revealed exclusively that the Islamist terror organization had been ordered by Damascus headquarters to unleash a new campaign of violence against PA and Israeli targets alike – a first in Palestinian annals.
Ahead of its foiled triple suicide attack, Hamas circulated the photos of six senior Palestinian security officers in Qalqilya over the caption: "These commanders are sentenced to execution." The most prominent was Hussam Sheik Hamed, who is accused of liquidating several Hamas operatives in the town last month. DEBKAfile's security sources emphasize that as matters stand today within the Palestinian camp, President Obama, the Saudi king Abdullah and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak can forget about making headway in their peace moves.
Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal made this clear to Egypt's intelligence minister Gen. Omar Suleiman who summoned him to Cairo from Damascus Tuesday to try and persuade the rejectionist leader to come to terms with the rival Fatah and give the Obama peace diplomacy a chance.
Meshaal refused point blank to call off Hamas' terror campaign against fellow Palestinians. As a pre-condition for reconciliation, he said the US-trained Palestinian Authority security force must end its crackdown on Hamas gunmen. He totally rejected President Obama's call from Cairo to give up violence, reinforcing the message carried by the Hamas-led massive cross-border assault on Israeli forces from Gaza Monday.
Meshaal had a special message for the Egyptian government too.
Shortly after his conversation with Gen. Suleiman in Cairo, Hamas staged its first ever Qassam missile strike on Egyptian security forces guarding the Sinai-Gazan border. This was Hamas' first missile attack ever against Egypt. It was meant to support a fresh Palestinian attempt to break through the border for the first time since January 2008. The missiles exploded 3 kilometers inside Sinai.
In Ramallah, guards escorting the convoy of Palestinian Authority official Saad al Rahim, opened fire on a vehicle racing at high speed on the same road, certain that a Hamas bomb car was about to ram them.
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