Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Palestine Today 102307

Audio Dept. | 23.10.2007 15:21 | Palestine | World

Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Centre, www.imemc.org, for Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007.


In the West Bank, Israeli forces kidnap 14 civilians across the region. In the Gaza Strip meanwhile, the Israeli Finance Minister urges the World Bank to suspend all activities in the coastal region. These stories and more coming up. Stay tuned.

The West Bank

Palestinian security sources reported Tuesday morning that the Israeli army had invaded several areas of the West Bank in pre-dawn raids, kidnapping at 14 Palestinian civilians.
In the northern west bank city of Jenin, two Palestinian resistance fighters were killed when the Israeli army invaded in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Nine Palestinians, including three brothers, were also kidnapped in the invasion. Elsewhere, a total of five Palestinian civilians were kidnapped from Nablus, Bethlehem and Hebron.
Later on Tuesday, The Israeli army attacked a peaceful demonstration organized by the families of political detainees to protest against the recent events in the Negev detention facility. Soldiers showered the protest with tear gas and sound bombs, and several people were admitted to hospital for gas inhalation. Later in the afternoon, Israeli soldiers provoked local school-children, chasing them down with jeeps. Israeli jeeps also almost hit IMEMC's cameraman Ghassan Bannoura, in an attempt to prevent him from documenting events.

Around 11,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention centers on Tuesday announced a one-day hunger strike to protest against Monday's events in the Negev detention center which left one detainee, Mohammad Al Ashkar, dead, and at least 50 others injured.

The Gaza Strip

An Israeli air strike on Tuesday afternoon killed a member of the Popular Resistance Committees as the man drove along a coastal road in the region. Eyewitnesses to the attack indicated that a missile completely destroyed the car. The Israeli army confirmed the attack, but refused to give further details.

A Jordanian News Network on Tuesday announced that the deposed Hamas government in Gaza has signed an agreement with Egyptian security officials to bring an end to the smuggling of weapons through tunnels in the Rafah area of the southern Gaza Strip. The network reported that the agreement was signed under the understanding that Palestinians would be allowed access to Egypt for educational and medical purposes.

The Hamas government, for its part, denied the accuracy of the report stating that they would continue to resist until the occupation fell.

In a meeting with World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Monday, Israeli Finance Minister Roni Bar-On urged the body to cease all projects in the Gaza Strip. Suggesting that the World Bank should cooperate with so-called moderates, Bar-on stated that "there is no room to include Hamas in this framework."

Conclusion

Thank you for joining us from occupied Bethlehem. You have been listening to Palestine Today from the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org, brought to you by John Smith and Ghassan Bannoura.


Audio Dept.
- e-mail: info@imemc.org
- Homepage: http://www.imemc.org

Comments

Hide the following comment

Also this year in "Palestine"

24.10.2007 04:46

Hundreds killed in Gaza Strip violence

Vehicle on fire during clashes between Hamas and Fatah militants in Gaza City, May 2007
© APGraphicsBank
Hundreds of Palestinians lost their lives as a result of the inter-factional political violence that engulfed the Gaza Strip in the past year. Fighting between security forces and armed groups loyal to the two main Palestinian political parties caused the deaths of many unarmed bystanders not involved in the confrontations, including children.

Both sides -- Fatah, headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and Hamas of then Prime Minister Isma’il Haniyeh -- committed grave human rights abuses. They showed a flagrant disregard for the human rights of a civilian population already worn down by decades of Israeli occupation, military campaigns and blockades. These have caused a sharp deterioration in the humanitarian situation of the 1.5 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip.

As armed clashes became more frequent and intensified, Fatah and Hamas gunmen unlawfully killed and maimed captured rivals and hostages. They used indiscriminate and reckless fire in and around residential neighbourhoods.

Neither medical nor educational facilities were immune as they and residential buildings were both attacked and used as firing positions from which to mount attacks. Homes and public properties were damaged and beleaguered residents were virtually imprisoned in their own homes for days by the fighting.

After Hamas’ violent takeover in the Gaza Strip in June, President Abbas’ decision to suspend operations of PA security forces and judicial institutions in the Gaza Strip created a legal and institutional vacuum there. This opened the way for Hamas to establish a parallel security and law enforcement apparatus, but one which lacks appropriately trained personnel, accountability mechanisms or safeguards.

Unsurprisingly, arbitrary detentions and torture or other ill-treatment of detainees by Hamas forces are now widespread and the initial improvements in the security situation that followed Hamas' takeover are fast being eroded.

In the West Bank, there has also been a marked deterioration in the human rights situation under the emergency government set up by President Abbas in June. Arbitrary detention of suspected Hamas supporters by Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces has become routine. Detainees are often subject to torture or other ill-treatment and Fatah gunmen have launched revenge attacks against Hamas supporters and their properties with impunity.

Amnesty International is calling on both the PA and Hamas to take swift and decisive measures to stop and prevent the increasingly widespread human rights abuses committed by those acting under their authority and to put an end to the impunity enjoyed by security forces and armed groups.

The organization is also calling on the international community to hold all the Palestinian parties accountable to the same human rights standards and to ensure that the population of the Gaza Strip is not punished for the positions and actions of the Hamas de-facto administration and that emergency assistance essential to fulfilling fundamental human rights is never used as a bargaining tool to further political goals.

Amnesty International


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech