An Infant dies in Gaza for lack of medical supplies, while settler vandalism continue in the West Bank, these stories and more are coming up, stay tuned.

Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian olive orchards near Nablus on Wednesday.

Ghassan Daghlas, in charge of setter and settlement issues in the Northern West Bank, reported on three incidents near Nablus. He said that settlers attacked olive trees belonging to the 'Odeh family in the town of Huwwara, and smashed and stole their olives before leaving the village.

Daghlas stated that another attack included the village of Yanoun, south-east of Nablus, where Israeli settlers looted 25 olive trees. He confirmed that at the beginning of every harvest season, settlers steal olive trees, uproot them and steal the fruit, and prevent farmers from reaching their fields. In another incident in this area a settler from 'Yitzahar' settlement stabbed a horse belonging to a Palestinian citizen from the village of 'Ein Yabus while he was on his way to harvest his own olive trees.

Meanwhile, in East Jerusalem, a citizen from the Batn al-Hawa neighborhood of Silwan reported that soldiers invaded many houses, intimidating women and children, and arresting men and boys. Other nearby neighborhoods were subjected the same abuses during the night.

Staying in Jerusalem, Israeli online paper Ha'aretz reported that Israel plans to renovate sections of the occupied Old City of Jerusalem. Plans include opening a gate in the City’s walls to facilitate access to the Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall. If approved, a tunnel will be dug under all archeological layers of ancient Jerusalem leading to 600 vehicle underground parking garage.

Israel claims that construction would not affect the foundation or archeological layers. The Jerusalem municipality states that the main technical obstacle in the new plan is its high cost.

Advocates of the plan say it would attract visitors to the Western Wall. The plan is opposed by both Jewish Quarter inhabitants and Islamic leaders.

In the southern West Bank, the Israeli military intensified restriction of movement around Hebron Wednesday, setting up checkpoints around four surrounding villages and conducting searches of vehicles and passengers.

In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources reported Tuesday that a 30-day old infant died due to severe shortages in medical supplies and medical equipment in Gaza hospitals. The cause of death was due to the siege imposed by Israel.

The infant was identified as Mo’taz Abu Nada who was born with a heart defect and needed urgent surgery. The infant’s death raises the number of deaths due to the Israeli siege, since June of 2006 to 377. Many were infants and children.

In related news, Zaher Beerawi of "Viva Palestina 5" stated that Egypt promised to facilitate the entry of the convoy into Egypt and guarantee that humanitarian supplies get into the Gaza coastal region.

Egypt and Viva Palestina have a shared humanitarian goal, he said.
In addition to the supply list and the vehicles being sent to Gaza, Egypt demanded information about the activists accompanying the supplies. Beerawi met with representatives of Egypt and Syria who agreed to cooperate with Viva Palestina and allow the convoy to proceed to Gaza with some reservations.

Egypt has all needed information and will inform the organizers when it can sail from Syria to Egypt. George Galloway, spokesman for Viva Palestina, stated that the enemy is the Israeli occupation. He added that Israel’s attack on the Freedom Flotilla had pushed more supporters to participate in humanitarian acts that encourage an end to the siege and to Israeli aggression.

The convoy plans to leave Syria this Friday carrying 380 activists from 35 countries.

That concludes our news for today. Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today a program of the International Middle East Media Center. For more updates and details of these stories, please visit our website at www.imenc.org. This report was brought to you by Hussam Qassis and Cheryl Hogan.