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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, for Wednesday February 15th, 2012.

Palestinians on hunger strike as Khader Adnan keeps his fast for the 60th day, meanwhile the Gaza Strip in a power blackout for lack of fuel, these stories and more, coming up, stay tuned.

Dozens of Palestinians declare a hunger strike in support of the Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan who his 60 day of fasting. Palestinian medical sources said Adnan is facing death if not treated properly as many of his main organs including his heart and stomach are in a very bad shape.

A report by Physicians for Human Rights stated that Adnan’s health is seriously deteriorating and that he might die at any moment as his immunity system is not functional any more.

Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets in a number of West Bank towns and cities in support of Adnan, while a number of Palestinians protested at Ofer Military jail near Ramallah. Troops fired tear gas and metal bullets at the protesters. Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, member of Palestinian parliament was wounded with a metal bullet to his foot.

Adnan was kidnapped from his home on December 17, 2011 and was placed under administrative detention, he declared hunger strike the day after demanding his immediate release.

In other news, Palestinian media sources said that eight Palestinians have been kidnapped overnight across the occupied West Bank.

Israeli forces detained a young man from his home in the Salem village east of Nablus. Israeli soldiers broke into the house of Abdul Rahman Eshtayeh, 22, a student at Al-Najah University in Nablus and kidnapped him.

Two other brothers were kidnapped in Tubas near Jenin. The two were identified as Musharaf and Ashraf Abu Salama. In the meantime, Israeli forces kidnapped three Palestinians in Hebron in the southern West Bank. The kidnapped were identified as Mohannad Juneidi, Hamdan Taha form Hebron and Haiyel at-Til 57 years old from the nearby Al-Thahriyeh town.

The Gaza Strip’s only power station, which supplies the Palestinian coastal region with up to two-thirds of its energy was shut down on Tuesday because of a shortage of fuel from Egypt.

The shortage led to widespread blackouts for nearly 1.5 million Palestinians who live in Gaza. The local power company warned that households would receive only six hours of electricity a day until the problem was resolved.

Gaza’s Energy Authority said ‘measures taken’ on the Egyptian side of the border meant not enough fuel was entering the territory, however did not provide further details.

Hospitals, water supply stations and swage water processing stations will seriously suffer from this blackout which can be life threatening to hundreds of patients in Gaza hospitals.

That’s all for today from the IMEMC News, this was the Wednesday February 15th daily roundup of news from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We hope you will join us again tomorrow. This has been brought to you by Husam Qassis and me, George Rishmawi.

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