On Saturday evening, 30 May 2009, armed clashes occurred between members of the Izzedin al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas) and Palestinian security services. The incident took place in the northern West Bank town of Qalqiliya. The clashes continued until the early morning of Sunday, 31 May 2009, and resulted in six deaths (two members of the Izzedin al-Qassam Brigades, the owner of a house in which the two members harbored and three security officers). A number of other persons were also wounded. Read more about Six killed in Palestinian Authority house raid
TELAVIV (IRIN) - Reports published recently by various organizations paint a grim picture of life in Gaza more than four months after the 23-day Israeli offensive ended on 18 January. At the end of April 2009, UNRWA and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) completed their assessments of damage caused during the offensive: Some 3,500 houses were totally destroyed or are beyond repair and many others have yet to be repaired. Read more about Gaza housing, water situation still dire
RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - “I heard voices, I turned around to look, and saw a group of Israeli settlers assaulting my brother Hammad,” says Abdallah Wahadin, 82, a Palestinian farmer from Beit Ummar near the southern West Bank city of Hebron. “Three of them surrounded me, while a fourth threw a rock at the back of my head. Lots of blood ran down onto my clothes. Other settlers then joined them,” Wahadin told the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. Read more about West Bank rights violations on the rise
Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani28 May 2009
CAIRO (IPS) - Residents along Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip are still awaiting compensation for property damaged by air strikes during Israel’s recent onslaught against the Hamas-run enclave. “The Egyptian government wasn’t responsible for the damage, which came entirely as a result of Israel’s assault on Gaza,” Governor of North Sinai Mohamed Abdel Fadil Shousha told IPS. “The situation, therefore, is complicated.” Read more about Israeli strikes threaten Egyptian border towns
*GAZACITY (IPS) - The lives of hundreds of critically ill Gazans continue to be jeopardized by the power struggle between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah, and political blackmail by Israel. Mohammed Zibdeh, 12, who has cancer of the brain is waiting in Gaza City for a permit to travel to Israel for advanced treatment. He is dependent on a ventilator connected to his throat for survival. Last year Mohammed was able to secure a permit to travel to an Israeli hospital where he received chemotherapy for his brain tumor, causing the tumor to shrink significantly. Read more about Power struggle killing patients
On the morning of 4 May 2009, Israeli troops set fire to Palestinian crops along Gaza’s eastern border with Israel. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reported that 200,000 square meters of crops were destroyed, including wheat and barley ready for harvest, as well as vegetables, olive and pomegranate trees. Local farmers report that the blaze carried over a four-kilometer stretch on the Palestinian side of the eastern border land. Eva Bartlett reports for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Israel destroying Gaza's farmlands
KHUZAA, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) - Khuzaa is a small farming village perched on a gentle slope east of Khan Younis. Tthe relative quiet of this rural border town, about 25 kilometers southeast of Gaza City, was shattered 10 January when Israeli forces launched an all-out, three-day assault that killed 16 civilians and destroyed many of Khuzaa’s houses and its agricultural land. Read more about Returning to the scene of a Gaza war crime
The United Nation’s watchdog on torture has criticized Israel for refusing to allow inspections at a secret prison, dubbed by critics as “Israel’s Guantanamo Bay,” and demanded to know if more such clandestine detention camps are operating. In a report published on Friday, the Committee Against Torture requested that Israel identify the location of the camp, officially referred to as “Facility 1391,” and allow access to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Jonathan Cook reports. Read more about UN watchdog demands access to Israel's secret prisons
RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - Israel has found a cheap and easy way to get rid of its waste, much of it hazardous: dump it into the West Bank. “Israel has been dumping waste, including hazardous and toxic waste, into the West Bank for years as a cheaper and easier alternative to processing it properly in Israel at appropriate hazardous waste management sites,” Palestinian Environmental Authority deputy director Jamil Mtoor told IPS. Read more about Israel treats West Bank as its garbage dump
JERUSALEM (IPS) - Even as Pope Benedict XVI tried his best during his recent Holy Land visit to pay reverence to the attachment of all three monotheistic faiths to Jerusalem, on the ground a less lofty imprint is already furthering Israeli control over the Holy City in a way that could threaten the claims of all but Jews to Jerusalem. Read more about In Jerusalem, a "beautification" stranglehold
