Click on Link to download or play MP3 file || 5m 0s || 4.57 MB || or copy and paste link into your browser or media player || http://portland.indymedia.org/media/media/2007/01/353148.mp3Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org, for Wednesday January 31st, 2007
A Palestinian security officer member was shot and wounded in northern Gaza, while in the West Bank 21 Palestinians were abducted by Israeli soldiers during last night, and a Palestinian home is destroyed by occupation forces early this morning. These stories and more coming up, stay tuned.
Gaza strip Update
Palestinian medical sources said on Wednesday that a Palestinian presidential \\\’Force 17\\\’ member was shot and wounded in the Saftawi area of northern Gaza.
Dr. Mo’awiya Hasanein, director of the emergency department at the Alshifa hospital of Gaza, confirmed that Bashir Issa, 40, was hit in the pelvis and right leg and was transferred to the Kamal Edwan hospital in northern Gaza.
Witnesses said that gunfire was shot from a black car in the Saftawi area
This drive-by shooting is the first since Tuesday’s agreement on a ceasefire between Fatah and Hamas that put an end to five consecutive days of bloody infighting, which claimed the lives of at least 35 Palestinians and wounded more than one hundred others.
Apparently, the cease-fire declared between Palestinian rival factions, Fatah and Hamas, is fragile and it is possible for a third party to foil it.
The West Bank Update
According to an Israeli media source 21 Palestinians were arrested during last night and the early hours of Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Palestinian media sources reported that a witness from the northern West Bank city of Nablus stated that a large numbers of Israeli troops entered the city, broke into houses and abducted eight citizens. They were taken to an unknown location.
In contradiction, Israeli media reported that ten people were abducted in this area. Israeli forces also stormed the northern West Bank city of Jenin and entered Burqin village, Palestinian media sources say.
Troops searched houses before abducting nine civilians and taking them to an unknown location. Palestinian sources added that four other citizens, including two security members, were also abducted by Israeli soldiers who had stormed the city of Jenin at dawn on Wednesday.
Early on Tuesday morning, eight-year old Nadeen Raddad was wounded in the head when she was hit with a stone thrown by an Israeli soldier in the village of Saida near Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, Palestinian sources reported.
The Palestinian Prisoner\\\’s Society in Bethlehem issued a monthly report today, stating the total number of Palestinians abducted by the Israeli Occupation Forces in the West Bank District of Bethlehem during the month of January. It amounted to 85 residents including twenty two minors and one girl.
Abdullah Al Zeghari, head of the Prisoner\\\’s Society in Bethlehem said that most of the abductees are imprisoned in the detention Center of Kfar Atzion south of Bethlehem, while others were moved to the interrogation centers of Al Maskoubeyah and Asqalan. During theses invasions the army abducted 24 residents from the town of Biet Fajjar, 8 from the village of Nahaleen and 15 from Ayada refugee camp. Those abducted from Ayda refugee camp include one girl identified as Ashjan Abu Surur, a university student, and her mother. The pair was moved to Al Maskoubeyah interrogation Center.
Palestinian media sources reported that on Wednesday morning a Palestinian home in the northern West Bank city of Nablus was destroyed by Israeli Occupation Forces.
Witnesses stated that Israeli soldiers, backed up by a number of military vehicles and a bulldozer destroyed a house in Hitteen Street after storming the Old City. Sources say that the house belongs to a civilian named Abu al-Abed al-Ratrout.
It emerged today that Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, has approved shifting the route of the Annexation Wall at least five kilometers eastward from the Green Line in the area of Modi\\\’in Ilit settlement. According to a brief submitted by the state of Israel to the High Court of Justice, the move is a measure to take in the two Israeli settlements of Nili and Na\\\’aleh. The move will lead to the creation of two Palestinian enclaves, inhabited by at least 20,000 residents, while the two settlements have 1,500 settlers living there.
It also emerged today that a private meeting between a group of senior British MPs and prominent members of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority took place in Ramallah last week. The Commons Select Committee on International Development strongly criticized the boycott of the Hamas led government, and in an all-party report stated that the boycott had \\\’stripped Hamas of any real accountability for its performance to the Palestinian people, and caused widespread misery and hardship among Palestinians.\\\’
The report also called for the international community to \\\’hold Israel to the agreement it signed in November 2005 to facilitate movement of goods from Gaza.\\\’
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, brought to you by Polly Bangoriad.
