Palestine Today 012908

Tuesday January 29, 2008 17:47 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC - Audio Dept.

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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org, for Tuesday January 29th, 2008.

Egypt starts to close its borders with Gaza, and the Israeli army kidnap 8 civilians from several parts of the West Bank. These stories and more coming up stay tuned.

The News Cast

Palestinian sources in Gaza confirmed that the Egyptian troops started to close the borders between Egypt and the southern coastal city of Rafah on Tuesday. Earlier on Tuesday morning Cairo announced that its troops will completely re-seal the breaches in the wall that Palestinians made at the Rafah-Egypt borders.

Last week Palestinian civilians and resistance groups opened around a dozen holes in the Rafah –Egypt border wall, after two weeks of an Israeli siege that left the 1.5 million Gaza residents lacking food, water, and medicine and fuel supplies.

Most of the holes are now closed; witnesses told media agencies on Tuesday, while Egyptian sources said that there are two holes in the border wall that are left open still. The number of Palestinians crossing into Egypt to shop for supplies has declined in the past three days, after the border Egyptian city of Al Arish ran out of supplies.

The Egyptian troops refused to allow shop owners in Al Arish to restock their shops, effectively lowering the number of Gazans coming into the city for shopping.

On Tuesday, owners of fuel companies in Gaza refused to receive the Israeli shipments of fuel entering Gaza protesting the fuel cuts Israel is making. However the companies did receive the reduced supply of processed fuel for running the only power generator in Gaza and the natural gas used for cooking and heating.
As for car fuel, the Gaza Strip needs 120, 000 litres per day, for the past 12 days Israel have allowed only 50, 000 litres pre day, 10, 000 litres are for the UN in the coastal region and 40, 000 for the gas stations, which is only 10% of what is needed. As for diesel, Israel have been shipping 350, 000 litres per day while Gaza needs 700, 000 litres per day.

Meanwhile in the West Bank on Tuesday the Israeli army attacked several West Bank cities and towns and kidnapped 8 civilians. Palestinian sources stated that the invasions took place in Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarem and Ramallah areas in the West Bank.
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 brought to you by Caroline Jones and Ghassan Bannoura.

palestine | english audio report | audio report ghassanb at imemc dot org