Monday, July 30

Today in Palestine! ~ Headlines July 30, 2007 ~

Brought to you by: Shadi Fadda

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144 Settlements in the West Bank are housing 476,000 Israel settlers

The Palestinian Census Bureau issued a report stating that there are 144 Israeli settlements, housing 476,000 Israeli settlers, spread all over the West Bank, including the occupied city of Jerusalem.  The report, which is for the year 2006, states that 26 of those settlements are in the occupied city of Jerusalem, 16 of them already annexed to Jerusalem.

Al-Hadidiye: Palestinian's denied access to water in an attempt to force them from their homes
This morning's incident is the latest in a series of aggressions from the Occupation in their attempt to push the residents out of the village in order to make way for the settlements. Seventeen families in al-Hadidiye are suffering from the policies that prevent them from accessing water and services, and put them under constant threat of house demolitions. The most recent injustice is the Israeli High Court decision to expel the resident of al-Hadidiye from their village.

Fasayil: Random arrests to induce people to leave their lands
A shepherd from Fasayil, in the Jordan Valley has been detained for three days, falsely accused of "theft of water".

Palestinian Human Rights Center issues report about medical conditions in the coastal region
The Palestinian Center of Al Mizan for Human Rights issued a report on Monday about medical and medicine supply conditions in the Gaza Strip.  The report stated that Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip are not getting safe or effective medicine, adding that governmental and non-governmental health care societies lack the majority of the needed medicine in the coastal region.

Gaza Strip: Rafah Border Crisis Creating Death and Skin Illnesses
The crisis at the Rafah border continues, with fatalities increased to 30 civilians dead as a result of the 6-week-long unrelenting closing, the dead mostly young and elderly. Those at the border are living in the streets, with no shelter and very limited food and medication, under the burning sun in the hottest and most unforgiving days of summer. People are appealing to Israel, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority, as well as the US and EU, to open the Rafah crossing and allow the trapped and ravaged masses back into Gaza. The situation is extremely dire right now, and people have a well-founded fear things will quickly get even worse in the coming days if the border remains closed as it has after promises to open it in the recent past.

Israel Air Strike Hits Gaza
An Israeli aircraft attacked a car carrying Palestinian militants on Monday, wounding two members of Islamic Jihad and the Gaza commander of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Islamic Jihad said.

Several injured in an Israeli air strike targeting a Palestinian car in Gaza City
An Israeli spy plane fired several missiles at a Palestinian car driving on the main highway in Gaza City on Monday in mid-day. Medical sources reported a number of injuries.


Israel OKs W Bank Refuge For Palestinians Fleeing Iraq
Israel has agreed to a U.N. request to let dozens of Palestinians fleeing Iraq enter the West Bank, an Israeli official said Monday, calling the decision the latest in a series of goodwill gestures to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas since he fired Hamas from his government last month.

Olmert may allow Jordanian Army to help PA in West Bank
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is exploring the idea of allowing Jordanian forces, and not NATO troops, into the West Bank to help the Palestinian Authority fight terrorism, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

Arms smuggling into Gaza slower under Hamas- Egypt
The smuggling of weapons, ammunition and drugs through tunnels from Egypt into the Gaza Strip has dropped significantly since the Islamist movement Hamas took control in June, Egyptian military officials said.

Israel preparing plan to ease West Bank travel restrictions
Israel is preparing to remove some of the roadblocks and checkpoints that restrict Palestinian travel in the West Bank as a gesture to Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas, officials said on Monday.


Abbas open to Russian mediation
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has said he would welcome Russian mediation in attempts to heal the rift between the rival Fatah and Hamas movements.


US ups Israeli defence aid to $30bn
PRIME Minister Ehud Olmert has announced a new $30 billion ($35.2 billion) US defence package to preserve Israel's regional military superiority, as Washington readied an Arab arms deal to counter Iran.


US to sell $20b of arms to Saudis, Gulf states
Officials said the arms sales to Saudi Arabia were expected to include air-to-air missiles as well as Joint Direct Attack Munitions, which turn standard bombs into "smart" precision-guided bombs, the report said. They said the common goal of the military aid packages and arms sales is to strengthen pro-Western countries against Iran .

Israel signs off on U.S. arms sale to Saudis
In a break from historic Israeli opposition to U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday his country understands Washington's plan to supply state-of-the-art weapons to Riyadh as a counterweight to Iranian influence.


Israel says U.S. aid to Saudi military is understandable
In a break from historic Israeli opposition to U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday his country understands Washington's plan to supply state-of-the-art weapons to Riyadh as a counterweight to Iranian influence.

US state department 'funding Blair'
Senior UN and British officials have told Al Jazeera that the US state department has been paying Mr Blair's bills, either directly or indirectly, via a trust fund. The amount remains undisclosed.

Abbas arrives in Russia for meeting with Putin
The Abbas-Putin meeting will be the first since the Hamas militant group took over the Gaza Strip.

Fatah and Israel / Allies, Inc.
For the first time in years, senior PA officials and heads of the security organizations in the West Bank are speaking in different tones. The Second Intifada against Israel is over, they say. Now, Fatah must focus its energy against its domestic threat, Hamas.


The Death of Fatah?
According to the writer, the Palestinian Fatah movement was declared dead by a presidential decree; The article follows Fatah since its inception to its time in Jordan, to Lebanon and finally to the West Bank.

Reclaiming Palestine
Today, Palestine and the Palestinians are divided as never before. The West Bank and Gaza are geographically and politically separated, divisions which are exacerbated by the political rift between Fatah and Hamas and the specter of civil war. Meanwhile, stateless Palestinian refugees are largely disconnected from their brethren in Palestine and the Diaspora, as well as from any semblance of a representative national movement. EI contributor Osamah Khalil argues that the time is ripe for Palestinians to reclaim their national movement by demanding the dissolving the PA and the reviving the PLO.


Fayad says Palestinians have the right to resist Israel
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayad said Monday that Palestinians have a legitimate right to resist Israel, even if the phrase does not appear in his government's new platform.

US coordinated security with 'top Hamas agent'
The director of a major Palestinian security force who coordinated security directly with US officials is suspected of being an agent for the Hamas terror organization, WND has learned.

Churchman to brave West Bank to help the children
Canon Geoffrey Marshall, rector at St Giles Church, Wrexham, for five years, has been taking groups of Christian pilgrims on trips to Palestine twice a year for 25 years.  Tomorrow, he is set to travel to the West Bank for three days as a Trustee of the McCabe Education Trust, a charity which makes sure onations from the UK reach those Palestinians most in need. Last year the Trust sent more than £60,000 in direct aid to Palestine.

Hunger, disease spread in Iraq - Oxfam report
Hunger and disease are spreading in Iraq as violence masks a deepening humanitarian crisis, British charity Oxfam said in a report on Monday. The charity said 28 percent of Iraqi children are malnourished, 15 percent of Iraqis regularly cannot afford enough to eat and 70 percent lack clean drinking water, all sharp increases since 2003.

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