Three Palestinians die in Gaza due to the Israeli siege and the military kidnaps civilians in the West Bank, these stories and more coming up, stay tuned.

The News Cast

Three Palestinian patients died on Monday due to the ongoing Israeli siege imposed on the Gaza Strip, the Health Ministry reported.

The Ministry stated that Huda Sha'ath, 7 months-old, and Salem Matar, 45, died in Gaza hospitals, while Niven Al Mogharbi, 21 and mother of three, died in Egypt.

The Israeli military imposed a crippling siege on the Gaza Strip in June 2007, leaving the 1.5 million Palestinians living there without the needed basic supplies. Gaza hospitals arrived to a point where they can’t treat their patients.

Gaza patients have to endure a lot, in order for them to get life saving medical care they must go either to Israel or Egypt, but it is impossible to go there without a special permit. The process to obtain a permit takes a long time. Some people die waiting the approval. In other cases like the case of Niven Al Mogharbi, the patients arrive too late for treatment.

Elsewhere nine Palestinian civilians were kidnapped on Monday by the Israeli military during pre dawn invasions targeting a number of West Bank communities.

Palestinians sources said that the invasions took place in the city of Ramallah, in the central West Bank, and the cities of Nablus and Jenin in the north. The Israeli military announced that its troops found a hunting rifle and ammunition in one of the kidnapped men’s houses in Nablus

Internally, a Palestinian man, known to be a member of the Hamas movement died on Monday morning in the custody of the general Palestinian intelligence in the city of Hebron, in the southern West Bank. The general Palestinian intelligence said the man tried to escape from prison and jumped from a second floor detention cell and died from the fall.

The Hamas movement accused the Palestinian security forces of torturing the man to death. His death comes one day after both Fatah and Hamas held reconciliation meetings in the West Bank and Gaza. After hours of talks, the factions agreed to release political prisoners.

Earlier this month clashes between the Fatah controlled Palestinian Authority forces and Hamas left nine people dead in the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia.

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.