Israel issues demolition order for mosque in East Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli municipality officials delivered a demolition order Friday to the al-Qaaqaa Mosque, a house, and a studio apartment in the Silwan neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem, local sources told Ma’an. Majdi al-Abbasi, from the Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan, said that Israeli municipality members delivered a demolition order to the al-Qaaqaa mosque in the Ein al-Luza area of Silwan.The mosque, built three years ago, is a 110 square meter space that serves 5,000 worshipers.Al-Abbasi added that the Israeli municipality also delivered a demolition order to a studio apartment and its facilities. The studio belongs to Iyad al-Abbasi and was built 12 years ago.A demolition order was also delivered to a home housing six people.Earlier this week an Israeli court ruled to demolish a football field and its facilities in Silwan, a local committee said.
The ruling includes the demolition of a 1.5 dunam (.4 acre) sports field as well as a neighboring warehouse and animal shed.Silwan is one of many Palestinian neighborhoods in occupied East Jerusalem that is seeing an influx of Israeli settlers at the cost of the demolition of Palestinian homes and eviction of Palestinian families.
Israeli authorities have carried out around 370 demolitions of Palestinian property in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank since the start of 2015, displacing an estimated 432 residents, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Thousands of Palestinian residents are at risk of losing their homes, as members of the current right-wing Israeli government continue to champion longstanding policies to obtain a Jewish majority in East Jerusalem.
East Jerusalem was occupied by Israel in 1967 in a move never recognized by the international community, and four decades of Israeli policy in the area have neglected the Palestinian community while fostering the growth of Jewish settlement.
Documents Prove Bedouin Village Slated For Ethnic Cleansing By Israeli Occupation Has Been Owned By Palestinians Since 1800’s
Sussia, the Palestinian village in which structures are slated for demolition, sits on private Palestinian land owned by local people, according to a document of the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration obtained by Haaretz.
Palestinian Detainees Suffer Abuse, Appalling Conditions In Israeli Occupation Prisons
The health condition of two Palestinian detainees, including a hunger-striking detainee, is deteriorating as a result of mistreatment and miserable conditions in Israeli detention centers, said Palestinian Prisoners Club (PPC) and the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Committee.
Palestinian Children Suffer Increasing Levels of Physical Abuse By Israeli Occupation Forces
Palestinian children detained by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank during the first half of 2015 suffered increasing levels of physical violence, according to Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP) research.
Injuries And Destruction As Israeli Occupation Attacks Worshipers At al-Aqsa Mosque
Dozens of Muslim worshipers Sunday were injured, while many suffocated by tear gas during clashes that erupted with Israeli police at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque compound, after groups of Jewish hardliners broke into the Islamic holy site to mark Tisha B’Av holiday, according to local sources and witnesses.
Israeli Extremists Fill Ancient Palestinian Agricultural Water Well With Earth And Rocks Near Salfit
Israeli settlers filled up an ancient agricultural well in the West Bank village of Deir Istiya west of Salfit on Saturday, local farmers told Ma’an.Witnesses said that the settlers filled the well with earth and rocks using “primitive” tools.
Hamas Reopens Gaza Offices Of Mobile Provider After Illegal Closure
The Palestinian phone company Jawwal on Sunday reopened its offices and showrooms across the Gaza Strip less than a week after they were closed by Hamas over accusations of tax dodging.
Israeli Occupation Navy Opens Fire On Gaza Fishermen
Israeli naval forces opened fire on Palestinian fishermen in several locations off the coast of the Gaza Strip with no injuries reported, witnesses said.
Israeli Occupation Troops Targeted Journalists With Teargas
Israeli soldiers last Thursday targeted journalists working for Jordan’s Ro’ya TV with teargas while they were covering a peaceful Palestinian demonstration near Jaba, a village north of Jerusalem.
Israeli Occupation Committed 184 Violations Against Holy Sites In Two Months
At least 184 violations by Israeli authorities against the holy sites in East Jerusalem and Hebron were reported in the recent two months, Sunday reported Yousef Id’ies, Minister of Waqf and Religious Affairs.
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — A Palestinian woman was injured Saturday evening when right-wing extremists threw stones at Palestinian vehicles in occupied East Jerusalem. Israeli police spokeswoman Luba al-Samri said in a statement that the incident took place near “the Tomb of Simeon the Just,” a Jewish site of worship in occupied East Jerusalem near Sheikh Jarrah. She confirmed that a Palestinian woman sustained injuries. Palestinian youths afterward gathered and clashed with the group of right-wingers.Police officers arrested a young Palestinian man and two Israelis and held them for questioning.Saturday’s incidents come amid heightened tensions in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank over the past weeks.In the West Bank, attacks have been carried out by Israeli settlers and military as well as by Palestinian locals.On Friday, a group of Israeli settlers from the illegal Yitzhar settlement in southern Nablus smashed several Palestinian vehicles with stones, days after three Israeli settlers were injured and one killed in a shooting by a Palestinian local in the same area.
Israeli military checkpoints have been the site of frequent violence since the start of Ramadan, with two Palestinians killed by Israeli forces at checkpoints and several more injured.In June, a Palestinian stabbed and wounded an Israeli border policeman at the Damascus Gate of occupied East Jerusalem’s old city before being shot by the policeman.An average of two Israeli civilians per week have sustained injuries by Palestinians so far in 2015, with two Israelis killed, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.In the same time period, however, an average of 39 Palestinians have been injured by Israeli forces each week, and 15 have been killed.The number does not include incidents of injury by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank.
JERUSALEM, July 2, 2015 (WAFA) – Israeli police Thursday banned a Palestinian young man’s entry into Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and physically assaulted a small girl inside the Mosque compound in East Jerusalem.
WAFA correspondent reported that police banned Tamer Shala‘ta, from Sakhnin, entry into the Mosque compound for 17 days and fined him 8,000 NIS (about $2120).
This came a day after Shala‘ta was detained from inside the Mosque compound and moved to an interrogation center purportedly for chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ to protest the presence of Israeli settler groups that forced their way into the compound.
Meanwhile, a special unit police officer physically assaulted a young girl inside the compound purportedly for shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ in protest of the presence of more Israeli settler groups.
The 10-year-old child, who remains unidentified, sustained wounds in her legs and was treated at the scene.
This came as thousands of Palestinians from across the West Bank headed early Thursday to pray in Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in preparation for the third Friday of Ramadan, passing into East Jerusalem via the various military checkpoints that surround the city.
Israeli military checkpoints surrounding the city, especially Qalandiya and Bethlehem checkpoints are having traffic congestions, forcing hundreds of Palestinian drivers heading to the Mosque to park their vehicles on sidewalks extending from Qalandiya to al-Ram.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinian worshipers from the Gaza Strip continue to be prevented from reaching East Jerusalem to pray.
They were prevented from doing so after Israeli authorities revoked their permits to visit the Islamic holy site during the previous week after a rocket landed from Gaza into southern Israel.
JERUSALEM (Ma’an) – Officers of the Israeli municipal council of Jerusalem on Monday posted confiscation orders on vast areas of private Palestinian land in the East Jerusalem town of al-Isawiya, says a local committee member.Muhammad Abu al-Hummus told Ma’an that the maps and confiscation warrants were left in the land in the southern outskirt of al-Isawiya. The warrants, signed by the mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barakat, say that the land will be planted with trees so as to serve as a public park because “its owners have deserted it.” Slamming the Israeli move, Abu al-Hummus said it would be an “introductory step before confiscating the land” to build the so-called national park.
“What public is the occupation municipality talking about? The people of al-Isawiya need these lands to build houses and schools for their children rather than open parks,” said Abu al-Hummus. The claims that the land was deserted are “false,” added Abu al-Hummus highlighting that vast areas were planted with trees but “crews of Jerusalem municipality and the Israeli nature authority from time to time level the land and uproot all trees.” Abu al-Hummus pointed out that “the so-called national planning and zoning committee” had decided in September 2014 to cancel the national park project which was supposed to be established on 740 dunams of Palestinian land of al-Tur and al-Isawiya neighborhoods.
JERUSALEM, June 30, 2015 (WAFA) – Anti-Arab, racist graffiti were spray-painted in an area near Beit Safafa, a small Arab neighborhood in southeastern Jerusalem, according to an Israeli police report.
Israeli police said that racist graffiti calling for slaughtering Arabs were sprayed in the location, while damages were caused to the locks of a nearby hair salon belonging to a Jerusalemite resident.
Israeli police claimed that an investigation was opened into the case.
Meanwhile, the Israeli daily, Haaretz, reported on a similar incident in Jerusalem, where racist graffiti was found on Tuesday morning near the Max Rayne Hand In Hand bilingual school, a Jewish-Arab institution, in Jerusalem.
According to a 2015 OCHA Protection of Civilians report, covering the period between February 28 and March 2, Israeli settlers reportedly set fire to a Greek Orthodox Church in East Jerusalem and to a mosque in Jab’a village, in Bethlehem, on 25 February. In both incidents, racist graffiti was spray-painted on the buildings’ walls.
“Hate graffiti (including the phrase “Death to Arabs”) was also sprayed this week on the walls of the Urif Secondary School for Boys in Urif village (Nablus),” reported OCHA.
On June 21, Israeli extremists sprayed racist graffiti on the walls running along a street in Tabariya, such as ‘Death to Arabs.’ This incident came only a few days after Israeli extremists set fire to the church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fish in Galilee on Thursday, which led to the injury of two people, including a monk, and caused considerable damage to valuable property estimated at several million shekels.
The act of spraying anti-Arab graffiti has become a frequent occurrence in the West Bank and Jerusalem; many incidents of Israeli settlers’ hateful vandalism were reported by Palestinians targeting their property, including Muslim and Christian holy sites, where settlers often leave their price tag signature.
Price tag refers to an underground anti-Arab and Palestinian Israeli group that carries out terrorist acts against Palestinians in the occupied territories and inside Israel.
The Israeli government is yet to declare the group and its acts as terrorism despite a sharp rise in their attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and inside Israel.
Settlements are illegal under international law as they violate Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the transfer of the occupying power’s civilian population into occupied territory.
Collective Punishment: Israeli Occupation Bars Palestinians From Gaza From Traveling To Jerusalem For Ramadan
Worshipers from the Gaza Strip will be barred from travelling to Jerusalem for prayer in the Al-Aqsa mosque this week after rocket fire from Gaza, the coordinator of Israeli government activities in the Palestinian territory said Wednesday.
Israeli Occupation Arrests Seven Minors In Jerusalem Following Ramadan Night Prayers
Israeli police last night arrested seven Palestinian minors while they were leaving al-Aqsa Mosque compound following Taraweeh (Ramadan night prayers), according to local sources.
Israeli Occupation Warplanes Target Farmland North of Gaza
Israeli warplanes targeted a farmland in the town of Beit Hanoun to the north of the besieged Gaza Strip with at least one missile on Wednesday before dawn, reported local media sources and witnesses.
Israeli Occupation To Remove Palestinian Owned Agricultural Structures Near Bethlehem
The Israeli authorities on Wednesday notified a local resident of Kisan, a village to the east of Bethlehem, about their intent to demolish agricultural structures that he owns, according to local sources.
JERUSALEM, June 24, 2015 (WAFA) – Israeli police last night arrested seven Palestinian minors while they were leaving al-Aqsa Mosque compound following Taraweeh (Ramadan night prayers), according to local sources.
The children were identified as Noor-Eddin Abu Hadwan, 15, Omar al-Tawil, 15, Morad Alkam, 14, Mohammad Jaber, 13, Omar Yasin, 14, Mohammad Tayeh, 16, and Saleh Ishti, 15.
A total of 1,545 Palestinians, including minors, women and elderly were detained since the beginning of 2015, reported Abdel Nasser Ferwana, the director of the Bureau of Statistics in the commission of detainees’ affairs.
The rate of arrests has reached 9.6% from January till April, which exceeded the rate documented for the same period in 2014, said Ferwana.
About 258 Palestinians under the age of 18 are among the detainees in Israeli jails, in addition to 77 women, the statement reported.
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) – Worshipers from the Gaza Strip will be barred from travelling to Jerusalem for prayer in the Al-Aqsa mosque this week after rocket fire from Gaza, the coordinator of Israeli government activities in the Palestinian territory said Wednesday.The announcement came after rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit an open area near the town of Ashkelon in the western Negev during the early hours of Wednesday, causing no damage or casualties.The 500 men and women scheduled to leave the strip Thursday and Friday will not be allowed to travel because “the security conditions around the crossing aren’t stable,” Yoav Mordechai said, adding that the recent rocket fire landed “not far from the Erez crossing” on the Gaza-Israel border.Mordechai said that Israeli authorities would reevaluate the security conditions next week in order to determine future travel by Gazans into Jerusalem, emphasizing the role that Gaza’s current governing power Hamas plays in the decision.“Hamas is responsible for depriving worshipers of prayer in Al-Aqsa mosque during Ramadan,” Mordechai said.“I am not saying that Hamas fired the missile, but Hamas is responsible because it controls the Gaza Strip.”A round of sporadic rocket fire from the Gaza Strip towards Israel this month has been claimed by smaller political groups allegedly aiming to undermine Hamas’ control of the strip. Hamas has attempted to vamp down on such groups who are reportedly growing more active.The rocket fire comes despite the August 26 ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and Hamas last summer that ended a devastating war inside of the Gaza Strip.Meanwhile, near daily Israeli incursions continue into the coastal enclave that have left three Palestinians dead and dozens injured since September.’Relaxed’ restrictionsWednesday’s travel restrictions come as a major blow to Palestinians planning to travel to the mosque compound in East Jerusalem during the holy month of Ramadan.While Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are subject to strict limitations on movement into East Jerusalem, part of the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel has historically made gestures ahead of and during Ramadan, partially easing restrictions.In response to this year’s good-will gesture, the director of the Palestinian Ministry of Endowment Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib told Ma’an that every Palestinian Muslim has the right to pray at the holy site during Ramadan, criticizing heavy Israeli restrictions on access.“All the people of Palestine have the right to access the city and pray in the Al-Aqsa Mosque in full freedom without the need for permits,” he said.Several Palestinians have been detained or barred from the compound by Israeli forces this week, and heavy security has been seen around Jerusalem’s old city since the start of Ramadan.Israeli easing of restrictions came on the condition that security wasn’t “breached.”After an Israeli hiker was killed in the occupied West Bank and an Israeli policeman was stabbed in East Jerusalem last week, Israel on Sunday revoked entry permits for residents of the West Bank village home to the Palestinian who had stabbed the policeman.It also cancelled permission for 500 West Bank Palestinians to fly via Israel’s Ben Gurion airport.
Occupied: Headlines From Palestine 