WASHINGTON, 24 April (IPS) - U.S. State Department officials confirmed this week that they have been in discussions with Israel and the Kurdish regional government about possible resettlement solutions for the estimated 15,000 Palestinian refugees currently stranded in Iraq.”At this point, we have had no positive response, but we continue to work on this,” said Ellen Sauerbrey, Assistant Secretary of the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, during a press briefing. Read more about U.S. State Department Pushes for Palestinian Resettlement
During the reporting period nine Palestinians, including two children, were killed by the IOF in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Four of the victims were extrajudicially executed by the IOF. Eighteen civilians were wounded by IOF gunfire in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Thirteen of these civilians, including a journalist, four women and four international human rights defenders, were wounded when IOF used force to disperse a peaceful demonstration against the Annexation Wall in Bal’ein. Read more about Weekly Report on Human Rights Violations
RAMADI, 24 April 2007 (IRIN) - Palestinians living in Iraq’s Anbar province have come under increasing pressure from militants to leave or be killed, NGOs and Palestinians say. Palestinians in the capital, Baghdad, have long been threatened by armed groups and harassed by authorities but threats to them in other provinces are a new development, aid workers say. Sunni-dominated Anbar used to protect Palestinians, who are predominantly Sunni too, but times have changed. “Palestinians had been looking for safety and had found it in Anbar province but now they are being targeted [there also]. They have nowhere to go and might be killed if they try to go to another place,” Mahmoud Aydan said. Read more about Iraqi militants force Palestinians to leave Anbar
In the past ten days, Israeli soldiers abducted several shepherds, including a seven-year-old boy, who were grazing their sheep near Israeli settlements in the Southern Hebron District. In none of the cases did they send them to the Israeli civilian police for the required legal processing. On Sunday, 14 April, Israeli soldiers detained seven-year-old Maher Ahmed Moussa Ibnes and his cousin, sixteen year old Nadal Samir Moussa Ibnes in Imneizel. Read more about Israeli military targets young shepherds in South Hebron Hills
In the past 24 hours, Israeli Occupation Forces have escalated attacks in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. They have killed eight Palestinians, including a child. Four of the victims were extra-judicially executed. According to investigations conducted by PCHR: At approximately 05:00 on Saturday, 21 April 2007, IOF moved into Kufor Dan village, west of Jenin. They besieged and opened fire at a house belonging to the family of Mahmoud Nasfat Naddaf, 20, in the west of the village. Read more about Israeli forces kill eight, including child, in weekend attacks
Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law continued in the OPT during the reporting period (12 - 18 April 2007): The IOF extra-judicially executed a Palestinian activist in Jenin after having arrested him. IOF destroyed a Palestinian house in Qalqilya in the context of collective punishment. Six Palestinian civilians (two women, three children and a mentally disabled man) were wounded by IOF gunfire. IOF conducted 33 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. Read more about Weekly Report on Human Rights Violations
Israel arrests, detains, interrogates, prosecutes and sentences Palestinian children pursuant to a set of Military Orders issued by commanding officers of the Israeli occupying forces, a system which has existed since Israel ‘s occupation of the Palestinian territories in 1967. alestinian children are subjected to the same arrest, interrogation, trial and imprisonment procedures as adults, by the Israeli State . Palestinian children, when under the arrest of Israeli soldiers, are not advised of their rights, are not given immediate access to a lawyer or contact with a parent. Palestinian children are assaulted, beaten and tortured during the interrogation process. Read more about Palestinian children do not have the right to a fair trial
On Tuesday afternoon, 17 April 2007, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) extra-judicially executed a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (an armed wing of Fatah movement) near Jenin town in the northern West Bank. IOF shot him dead after having arrested him. According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 12:30 on Tuesday, an IOF undercover unit moved arrived at al-Shuhada intersection on Jenin-Nablus road, traveling in a civilian vehicle with a Palestinian registration plate. The vehicle stopped near a stone treatment compound belonging to Fayez ‘Alawna. Read more about Israeli forces execute Palestinian after arresting him in Jenin
On the occasion of Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, 17 April 2007, we, the mothers and families of Palestinian and Arab prisoners detained in Israeli jails, continue to miss our beloved ones and hope that they will be immediately released. It is we who each day miss our beloved ones, who have been cut off from their sons, daughters and relatives by Israeli Occupation Forces, and have been detained in jails that lack the minimum internationally acceptable detention standards. Read more about Mothers of prisoners call for their release and condemn Johnston kidnapping
During the first weeks of April 2007, Al-Haq documented three cases involving the humiliation, harassment and beating of Palestinian ambulance drivers at checkpoints in the Jenin area. The number of incidents, all of which involved disturbingly similar facts, indicates that, far from being isolated acts, the abuse of Palestinian medical personnel by Israeli soldiers has become a widespread practice. Accordingly, Al-Haq has contacted the Israeli Military Judge Advocate General requesting that investigation be opened into these incidents, the facts of which are summarised below. Read more about Abuse of Ambulance Drivers in Jenin Area
