Palestine Today 1111 2010

Today, the news summary coincides with the sixth anniversary of the late Palestinian President and leader Yasser Arafat's death.

With regard to this fact, the Fatah movement reported that its request to be allowed to hold a public ceremony commemorating Arafat was rejected by the Hamas police in Gaza City.

On Thursday morning, thirty Palestinian students were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation after Israeli soldiers fired tear gas bombs at them in the village of Beit Ummar, near northern Hebron. They were commemorating the anniversary of the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat's dead.

Also on Thursday, two Palestinian children and an elderly woman were wounded when an Israeli settler from the settlement of Tekoa, southeast of Bethlehem, attacked them with stones.

Palestinian sources in Jerusalem reported that bulldozers belonging to the Israeli controlled Jerusalem municipality demolished a sheep and horse farm in al-Issaweyeh village in North East Jerusalem.

Israeli soldiers also invaded, on Wednesday night, the village of Bil’in, near Ramallah, and searched the home of a local organizer of nonviolent protest against the Annexation Wall. This was the second invasion in the same day.

In addition, AFP reported that the talks between the two main Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah, which finished in Damascus on Wednesday, ended without an agreement regarding to the security issues. However, the two factions agreed to continue the talks after the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha next week.

With regard to Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, the U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton declared at a videoconference with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Washington that the U.S. will not support any unilateral step related to the Israel-Palestinian dialogue.

An Egyptian daily also reported that it managed to obtain documents from the Egyptian ministry of Trade and Finance revealing that a number of Egyptian businessmen imported Egyptian flags that were made in Israel. Meanwhile, the Egyptian Customs Authority stated that there is no official ban on imports from Israel.

That sums up our news for today, thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem, you have been listening to Palestine Today, from International Middle East Media Center. For more updates, please visit our website at www.imemc.org. This report has been brought to you by Husam Qassis and Ane Irazabal.