Palestine Today 08 01 2011

Hundreds of residents stranded at Rafah terminal, and Israeli military kills two Palestinians in the West Bank, these stories and more, coming up, stay tuned.


Egyptian Authorities prevented 450 people from entering Egypt through the Rafah border crossing with Gaza on Sunday, despite the recent opening of the crossing.

According to border officials, this denial is not permanent, individuals who were blocked will be given priority soon. Also, those crossing for educational purposes or in need of medical care will have priority this week as well.

The crossing was re-opened in May, but Egyptian authorities have been tightly controlling the number of individuals allowed to pass through each day.

In the West Bank, Palestinian medical sources reported that Israeli troops shot and killed on Monday at dawn two Palestinian youths in Qalandia refugee camp, near Ramallah, and seriously wounded a third.

The sources identified the two slain youths as Motasem Adwan, 22, and Mohammad Khalifa 30. Khalifa is an officer with the Palestinian security forces in Ramallah.

A third resident, identified as Mamoun Awwad, was critically wounded after being shot by a live round in his back.

Local sources reported that a large military force invaded the camp on Monday at dawn, stormed into and violently searched several homes causing excessive damage, and leading to clashes with the residents who hurled stones and empty bottles at them.

The sources added that the soldiers also kidnapped three residents and took them to unknown destinations. Two of them were identified as Anas Manasra and Ayman Al Khateeb.

On his part, the Palestinian Prime Minister, Dr. Salam Fayyad condemned the killing of the two youth and said this is part of the ongoing Israeli criminal policy against the Palestinian people, adding that Israel should be held responsible for these acts of violence.

In a separate incident, a group of fundamentalist Israeli settlers set ablaze, on Sunday evening, 150 Dunams of farmlands that belong to residents of Ein Jaloud village, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

Ghassan Douglas, in charge of the settlements file in the northern part of the West Bank, stated that the armed settlers torched the lands while the army did not even attempt to stop them.

He added that this is not the first attack against Palestinian lands and orchards in the same area, in addition to similar attacks in other parts of the occupied West Bank.


Thats all for today, at the end of our news cast, we would like to extend our best wishes of Happy Ramadan to all our Muslim brothers and sisters in different parts of the world.

Please join us again tomorrow for a summary of important events in the Palestinian Territories. You have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Centre. For more updates please visit our website at www.imemc.org. This report has been brought to you by Husam Qassis and me George Rishmawi