Palestine Today 121207

In Gaza, Israeli jet-fighters kill one Palestinian man, while troops attack and serve closure notices on media outlets in the West Bank, these stories and more coming up stay tuned.

The News Cast

Local media sources in the central Gaza Strip reported on Wednesday that a Palestinian resistance fighter of the Al Quds Brigades, of the Islamic Jihad, had been killed when an Israeli tank fired a shell on a group of the Saraya fighters in eastern Gaza Strip. In a statement, faxed to press, the brigade reported that Sameh Al Aydi, was killed while he and other comrades were firing rocket-propelled grenades at an Israeli military outpost south east of Gaza.

On Tuesday The Israeli army killed six Palestinian resistance fighters, when Israeli tanks rolled into southern Gaza. The Israeli military warned last week of what it calls ' attrition operations' against the Strip, in a ' bid to stop homemade shell fire from Gaza onto nearby Israeli towns'.

In September, Israel declared Gaza a 'hostile entity' and by October it had imposed a series of apparently 'punitive measures', including a reduction of fuel supplies as well as further tightening of the six-month-old siege. Palestinian media sources suggest that since late November, the Israeli army has killed 40 Palestinians in the occupied territories; the majority of which were residents of Gaza.

Also on Wednesday in the West Bank, Israeli military forces abducted four Palestinians, including one child and one woman, during search campaign of homes in the city of Hebron and nearby villages. While in the northern part of the West Bank, early Wednesday morning, Israeli troops attacked and shut down several media offices and agencies, working in the city of Nablus. Sources in the city said that troops attacked the Afaq TV station in Nablus. Soldiers assaulted an employee of the station who was on duty at the time of the raid, before confiscating broadcasting equipment and computers.

Following the raid the army issued the station with a closure notification. The notice was written in Hebrew and Arabic and signed by Israeli army chief, Jadi Alof. It demanded the closure of the TV station and all its branches, with a right to appeal within 14 days. The military claim the closure was due to illegal activity being conducted at the station which the army views as a terrorist group, loyal to Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations.

According to the same sources the military attacked other media offices named "An Najah press" and "Al Ruwad press", where they confiscated computers and documents. The organizations attacked all had licenses from the Palestinian Authority, which controls Nablus city.

For the first time since 1976, a team of Palestinian race car drivers left Ramallah and drove to Jordan in their own vehicles. The team will participate in the final round of the 2007 Jordanian racing championship of al Aqapa next Friday.
Internally, Palestinian security forces stormed the village of Yasid, north of the West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday, and arrested 13 people; at least four of which were members of the Hamas movement. The Palestinian Preventive Security Director for Nablus, Akram Rajoub, told local media that all of the detainees were arrested on 'penal and security charges'.

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 Brian o'cionnaith and Ghassan Bannoura.