Activists set up new protest village northwest of Jerusalem

Source :  Maan News Agency

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Palestinian activists on Friday established a new tented protest village northwest of Jerusalem, the second such initiative against Israeli settlement building in as many weeks.

Activists set up three tents and a small building in the area near Beit Iksa, naming the village al-Karamah (Dignity).

Locals said around 400 Palestinians performed Friday prayers in the open area.

Saed Yakrina, an activist from nearby village Beit Ijza, said the camp was "a message to Israel and all democratic societies that we are human, and we want peace."

Activists from across the political spectrum, mainly from nearby villages, have gathered and will sleep in the tents overnight, he told Ma'an.

Beit Iksa, surrounded by Israeli settlements, is set to be entirely encircled by Israel's separation wall, cutting it off from Jerusalem.

Israeli authorities ordered the confiscation of 500 dunams of the village's land three weeks ago, and do not permit any new building in the town, Yakrina said, noting that Israeli settlements were still expanding.

"We are looking for a life without checkpoints, walls and settlements," he said.

Israeli forces immediately shut down the military checkpoint at the entrance to Beit Iksa to prevent more activists and supporters from accessing the protest site, witnesses said.

On Wednesday, Israeli forces tore down the tented village Bab al-Shams, set up to protest Israel's plans to build the "E1" settlement on the land, severing the West Bank from Jerusalem.

Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouthi on Friday said Bab al-Shams and al-Karama were a new dimension in the Palestinian struggle and that more protest villages would be established.

"The spirit of popular resistance which Bab al-Shams disseminated is being strengthened today in other areas including Izbat al-Tabib and Beit Iksa," the secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative said in a statement.

A rally was held in Izbat al-Tabib in the Qalqiliya district of the northern West Bank on Friday to protest Israeli plans to demolish a school in the village.

The rally showed that popular resistance against Israel's occupation is spreading, Barghouthi said.

Israeli security forces complete evacuation of E1 Palestinian outpost

Source :  Xinhua | English.news.cn

JERUSALEM, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Israeli security forces completed the evacuation of the Palestinian outpost in the E1 territory early Thursday morning with the removal of 25 tents.

Police spokesperson Mickey Rosenfeld confirmed to Xinhua that the evacuation took place late Wednesday night and lasted an hour without any unusual incidents or disturbances.

Early Sunday the outpost was evacuated from its inhabitants yet the tents remained standing due to a court injunction.

The eviction was made possible after the Supreme Court on Wednesday canceled a temporary injunction it had issued over the weekend barring Israeli security forces from taking down the 25 tents.

The court accepted the state's claim that the tent-city is a " magnet for disturbances of public order." However, the ruling also stated that the removal of the tents was not an "irreversible step " and it would continue discussion petitions against the removal of the tents. One petition was filed on Tuesday night charging the outpost was erected on private Palestinian lands.

On Friday, about 250 Palestinian activists, part of the group called the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, erected the tents-city called Bab al-Shams (Gate of the Sun) at the controversial territory as protest of the Israeli government decision to expand settlements there with 3,500 housing units.

The E1 territory connects east Jerusalem with the West Bank. By building Jewish settlements there, the Israeli government is in fact obstructing a possible territorial continuity for a future Palestinian state.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an order to evacuate the premises over the weekend, as Israel charged that at least some of the settlements are erected on a military exclusion zone.

The Supreme Court halted the decision to remove the tents after four Bedouin families claimed the land was theirs. The government appealed the decision, saying there's an urgent need and security concerns that demand quick evacuation, fearing a nationalist- motivated uprising among Palestinians.

The State Attorney's Office said that letting the outpost remain could cause unrest and prompt "national and international consequences" and maintained that the court could evacuate the people but leave the tents.

Early Sunday, the activists were evacuated. About 60 of them tried to return to the camp on Tuesday but were pushed back by Israeli border guards.

Egypt resumes Qatar fuel shipments to Gaza

Source : Maan News Agency

EL-ARISH, Egypt (Ma'an) -- Egyptian authorities have resumed shipping Qatari fuel into the Gaza Strip via an Israeli- controlled crossing after unrest blocked the delivery route for over two months, a Palestinian official said Monday.

Amr Hadhoud, the Palestinian representative at the Al-Auja crossing, said all obstacles to the shipments have been overcome.

Violent clashes between Sinai armed groups and Egyptian forces in November led to a suspension in deliveries.

Hadhoud said that ten trucks carrying 450,000 liters of diesel arrived at al-Auja crossing on Sunday. Four trucks then crossed into the Gaza Strip, Sunday, and the other six are scheduled to cross Monday.

The Qatari fuel is part of 27 million liters donated by the Gulf state to ease Gaza's energy crisis. It was delivered to Egypt and is being transferred to Gaza with Israeli cooperation through the Sinai border region.

Palestinian officials said 10 million liters have already arrived in Gaza

Israeli army shoots Gaza farmer

Source : Xinhua

GAZA, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Israeli forces shot and wounded a Palestinian farmer in northern Gaza Strip Monday, marking a violation of a recent Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.

Ashraf Al-Qedra, a spokesman of the Hamas authority's health ministry, said the 21-year-old farmer was seriously wounded by a gunshot in his head.

The farmer was working his land in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, which is close to the security fence separating Israel and Gaza.

On Friday, the Israeli army also shot dead a Palestinian who was among a group of Gazans approaching the fence in eastern Gaza City. The victim became the third Palestinian killed near the border since a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect on Nov. 21 and ended a eight-day fighting that left over 170 Palestinians and six Israelis killed.

Hamas said the terms of the ceasefire granted the Palestinians access to a strip of land along the border with Israel, which has been a no-go zone for years. Israel said it has eased restrictions along the border, but still prohibits people to come up right to the fence for security reasons.

The hamas health ministry said 50 Palestinians have been injured since Nov. 21, while the fishermen's syndicate said up to 30 fishermen have been briefly detained off the Gaza coast, where the ceasefire deal expanded the permitted fishing zone from three to six nautical miles.

Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Hamas, said the group was keeping a record of what he described as "Israeli violations" and was informing Egypt about them.

Jewish settler runs over Palestinian boy

Source : Al Akhbar English

An Israeli settler ran over a seven-year-old boy with his car Sunday morning as he walked to school in the West Bank town of Abu Dis, Palestinian media reported.

The boy, Ali Jahalin, was hit near the illegal Kedar settlement east of Jerusalem on his way to the Jahalin school.

He was rushed to Makasid hospital after Israeli ambulances refused to transfer him, the school’s vice principal, Sa’ed Sabah, told WAFA news agency.

He is being treated for moderate wounds.

The incident occurred one day after Israeli soldiers shot dead an unarmed Palestinian man south of Hebron.

Soldiers shot Uday Darwish, 21, in the back on Saturday as he fled from their patrol south of Hebron.

He was trying to cross the Green Line into Israel where he reportedly works without a permit.