Palestine Today 021009

Israeli troops attack a protest in the southern West Bank, and Israeli settlers shoot a boy near Bethlehem. These stories and more coming up, stay tuned.

The News Cast

Israeli troops attacked a nonviolent protest on Tuesday afternoon organized by the villagers of Ithan, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron. The demonstration was organized to protest the illegal Israeli wall being built on village land. The march began in the center of the village and headed toward the site of the wall. Soldiers surrounded the protestors and prevented them from reaching the site, local sources reported.

The villagers stood in front of the soldiers, waving Palestinian flags while speeches were delivered by local organizers before the protest ended quietly, added local eyewitnesses.

On Monday night, a Palestinian boy from the village of Husan, near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, was injured by an Israeli settler, reported local sources. Medical sources stated that Ali Hamamrah, 15, sustained bullet wounds in his leg and was receiving treatment in Bethlehem hospital.

Villagers reported that the boy was playing in the street when settlers from a nearby settlement drove past and opened fire, injuring the boy. They stated that Israeli settlers have increased their attacks on the villagers and their lands in recent weeks. Israeli troops usually aid the settlers in their attacks, the Husan villagers added.

After the ruling Hamas party in Gaza returned all of the aid supplies confiscated last week to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees [UNRWA] warehouses in Gaza City and Rafah, UNRWA have, on Tuesday, lifted the suspension of the import of humanitarian supplies into Gaza.

UNRWA suspended its aid imports into the Palestinian coastal region on Thursday February 5th.

The agency’s food distribution operation reaches 900,000 refugees in Gaza, but this continues to be jeopardized by the Israeli government’s decision to deny entry to three trucks of nylon pellets used in making the sacks in which the food packages are to be distributed.

The Israeli military have also prevented UNRWA from importing 12 truck- loads of bulk paper to print books in Gaza. Five trucks of exercise books, for some 200,000 schoolchildren have also been blockaded by Israeli authorities. Sixty per cent of children in UNRWA schools are without their full complement of textbooks, the agency concluded.

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. This report has been brought to you by Ghassan Bannoura and George Rishmawi.