Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets in Dheisha refugee camp to lay to rest 18-year-old Baraa Hamamda on Friday. The teen was shot dead by Israeli forces when clashes broke out due to Israeli forces invading the camp during a pre-dawn raid.
Four Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces early Friday morning, while two Israelis were shot and killed by Palestinian gunmen in the deadliest day for Palestinian civilians in more than one year. The attack on the Israelis resulted in Israeli forces blockading the Al Aqsa mosque compound.
An Israeli military court on Monday extended the detention of Palestinian lawmaker Khalida Jarrar for at least another 48 hours, threatening the politician with administrative detention, a policy that allows Palestinian prisoners to be held without charge or trial for indefinitely renewable six-month periods, according to documentation from the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.
The UN Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) voted 12 to three on Friday to recognize Hebron’s Old City and the Tomb of the Patriarchs as a World Heritage Site, with six countries abstaining — a move acclaimed by Palestinian officials and slammed by their Israeli and American counterparts. The committee simultaneously added Hebron to the list of World Heritage Sites in Danger.
“This demand to stop payment to prisoners is a condition by Israel to avoid making any peace treaties with the Palestinians,” says Akram Atallah of Palestinian Authority’s detainees commission. “People want to talk about settlements and borders and water issues, [and] Israel wants to make this issue with prisoners the crux of a deal to make peace?”
Peace Now says the number of settlement tenders already approved for 2017, which will not be affected by Netanyahu’s reported freeze, are higher than the total number of new tenders approved per year in more than 15 years, while the number of individual housing units approved so far in 2017 is more than any year since 1992.
Israeli authorities on Friday rescinded 250,000 Israel entry permits from Palestinians hours after a deadly…
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has shut down at least 11 news websites from being accessed in the occupied West Bank, all of which are reportedly affiliated with either the Hamas movement or Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah rival, Mohammed Dahlan. Several sites said they were trying to work around the blockage issues to reach readers.
Majda Tantesh, 42, lives in the Beit Lahia city in the northern Gaza Strip. Like all of Gaza, the city only gets a few hours of electricity a day. After Monday’s Israeli Security Council ruling, approving the Palestinian Authority’s request to cut Gaza’s electricity supply by 40 percent, Majda told Mondoweiss she only expects things to get worse.
Palestinian leaders announced the end of the prisoner hunger strike as a major success last week, but Israel has denied it ever negotiated and stated no demands were met. Reports have since emerged alleging a secret meeting took place between Israeli and Palestinian officials where the two sides set terms to end the strike but neither has disclosed the deal. Sheren Khalel talks with one hunger striker who says if the reports are true the strike can easily start again. “In two or three months if we see the demands haven’t been met, we will go back on strike, and the next time won’t be the same as the last, a second hunger strike would be much stronger,” Ali Brijieh says. “If the Israelis think that we are not able to do another hunger strike, I can promise you they’re wrong.”