PA acts against West Bank Hamas members

A coalition between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas looks no closer for the present, as the PA as escalated detention campaigns against Hamas members in the West Bank:

 http://english.alresalah.ps/en/post.php?id=4805
Occupied West Bank (Alresalah.ps) 31 Aug --

PA security apparatuses have escalated detention campaigns against political leaders and supporters of Hamas in the occupied West Bank. The PA forces detained 8 Hamas-affiliatedmembers and handed two others orders for investigation in the province of Tubas Nader Sawafta, one of the eight detainees, has been engaged in a hunger strike, ever since he was imprisoned by the PA forces, his family confirmed.
http://english.alresalah.ps/en/post.php?id=4805

Israeli State starts building on site of Bedouin village

Bedouin village site (MaanImages)

BEERSHEBA (Ma'an) -- Israeli excavators on Sunday morning, 16th August, began work on the infrastructure for two Jewish-only colonies in the former Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in the Negev desert.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=767205

Elsewhere:

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The healthcare system in the Gaza Strip is on the verge of collapse, Gaza's Ministry of Health said on Monday, warning that hospitals could stop operating within hours due to the territory's energy crisis.

Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesperson for the ministry, said that "Shifa Hospital, Kamal Adwan hospital, the European Gaza Hospital, and Rantisi Hospital could stop offering services because they are about to run out of fuel."

"The current situation is the worst since the Ministry of Health was created in the Gaza Strip," he added.

The Gaza Strip, which receives its electricity from Israel, Egypt, and its one power plant, has been struggling to produce enough power for months.

The hospitals depend on private generators in addition to the power grid, but Israel's eight-year blockade has severely limited the supply of fuel to the coastal enclave.

The healthcare crisis been exacerbated by the blockade as well as three devastating wars since 2008.

The World Health Organization says there is a chronic shortage of pharmaceutical supplies and medicine in Gaza, with patients in need of tertiary care prevented from traveling from the territory due to the blockade, which Egypt maintains in Gaza's south.

Meanwhile, Israel's military offensive on Gaza last summer damaged or destroyed 17 out of 32 hospitals as well as 50 out of 97 primary health centers, according to a UN Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs report last September.

Six hospitals were forced to close during the conflict and four primary health centres were totally destroyed, the UN added.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=767226

Exteme zionists remove gloves for activists

HEBRON, Occupied Palestine 21 August  ISM al-Khalil Team
-- A group of twenty-five extreme Jewish zionists from France attacked three international activists in front of the shops near the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, H2 area this afternoon. When the activists appeared the group of extremists, the zionists started to clap their hands and sing songs while they moved forwards. The activists pulled out their cameras to record what was happening and the extremists responded by threatening the activists in Hebrew, knocking the cameras away and destroying one, pushing and spitting on the activists. The military occupation forces did not try to prevent the violence. Instead of holding the extremists accountable for their actions, the army allowed them to walk away and formed a line to prevent the activists from continuing as they were going. A little later the same group of extremists reached the house in which other international activists are
living. They tried to climb up onto the stairs leading to the front door of the house and enter the building. They did not succeed and walked in the direction of the illegal Tel Rumeida 'settlement' next to the house of the activists. They returned to the house after another half hour and challenged the activists to come outside the house and fight on the street. They chanted about Israel and sang songs in Hebrew. The zionists then left the house and returned to the area in front of the Ibrahimi Mosque. There they attacked Palestinians and vandalised one of the shops. The tables in front of the shop were smashed on the ground and ceramic products were thrown into pieces on the street. Later, two local Palestinians, while being beaten up by the extremists, were arrested. One or more of  the zionists was
detained by the Israeli police.
While marching around H2 area and attacking Palestinians and international
activists, the extremists held up the now well-known  yellow flag with a fist
 symbolising the Kahane political group together with the Israeli national flag.
Kahane is a far-right political group which was barred from the Knesset in
1994, considered to be a terrorist organisation by Israel.
http://palsolidarity.org/2015/08/extreme-right-wing-zionists-with-the-kahane-group-attack-palestinians-and-international-activists-in-hebron/

Zionists extend wall despite ruling

< http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.671636>
Haaretz 18 Aug by Nir Hasson *-- *The Defense Ministry resumed construction
on Monday of the separation barrier near Beit Jala, south of Jerusalem,
even though the High Court of Justice had invalidated the building of the
barrier in that region and ordered the state to reconsider it. On Monday,
heavy equipment came to the area and uprooted olive trees and earthwork in
preparation for the barrier’s construction in the Cremisan Valley,
between the city of Beit Jala and the 'settlement' colony of Har Gilo and the
village of Walaja. After nine years of legal proceedings, the High Court of
Justice in April accepted a petition against the route of the barrier that
had been filed by landowners, the Walaja town council and the Roman
Catholic Cremisan Monastery and its related convent. The convent and the
monastery would have been separated from one another by the barrier, while
the landowners said they would be separated from their lands. “The
respondents must swiftly reconsider the various alternatives for the
separation fence route in this section,” the justices wrote. Despite this,
only three weeks after the ruling, attorney Giat Nasser, who represents the
residents and the Beit Jala municipality, received a letter from the
Defense Ministry saying it had decided to continue building the barrier
along the invalidated route, except for 200 metres near the monastery and
convent that would remain a “hole” in the barrier. “They apparently haven’t
reconciled themselves to the ruling,” said Nasser. “What they’re doing is
‘feeding’ the court, stage by stage. After they build the fence they’ll say
it’s already up, then they’ll ask to build the loops around the
monasteries, because there won’t be any choice.” Nasser filed another
petition against the barrier last month and asked for an interim injunction
to prevent the work from starting. But although such an injunction had been
in place for nine years, Supreme Court Justice Uri Shoham refused to renew
the injunction, allowing the work to proceed. Now Nasser is demanding an
urgent hearing of his petition. “This is the quietest area and there are no
problems here,” Beit Jala Mayor Nicola Khamis said on Monday. “Today they
uprooted 1,500-year-old trees. How they want us to live here in peace, I
don’t know.”

Attacks on Gaza fishing continue since 2014 massacre

There have been 1312 reported attacks against fishermen since the end of the 2014 major attack on Gaza, as detailed in this report:.


GAZA, Occupied Palestine 11 Aug by ISM, Gaza Team -- Two days ago, on
Sunday’s night at 3am, the occupation forces kidnapped fishermen Mohamed
Ismail Sharafi, 34 years old, and Mohamed Saidi, 22 years old, in Gaza City
waters. According to the testimony of the other fishermen that were working
with them the night of the attack, around 10 boats, one of the two
fishermen was injured by live ammunition before being kidnapped. The
aggression took place at 5 miles off shore and their boat was also taken to
Ashdod. Two weeks ago Ahmed Sharafi, Mohamed’s brother, was shot in his
back with live ammunition while working with his father.
Since the end of the last Zionist massacre against Gaza there have been
1312 reported attacks against the fishermen. Since then, 22 boats have been
stolen; 26 fishermen have been injured; one fisherman, Tawfiq Abu Riela,
has been assassinated; 28 boats have been disabled by bullet fire; 2 big
fishing boats have been sunken by rocket fire, one in Deir El Balah at 300m
from the coast and one in Gaza City at 5 miles; 51 fishermen have been
kidnapped while working and 3 fishermen remain prisoners until now. Those
facts, among other practices of the occupation forces, have caused the
quantity of fish caught to decrease from 1600 tons the year before the
massacre to 1000 tons the year after. At the same time the number of
fishermen who work in the Gaza Strip has decreased from 3000 to 1000 and
the fishermen who keep working have seen how their monthly income decreased
from 2000 ILS to the actual 100 ILS. This last year, just in Beach Camp, 50
children of fishermen have left school in order to work carrying flour
sacks at the doors of UNRWA for 1 ILS each sack. It’s becoming something
common that the fishermen families have to choose between their children
and decide which ones will go to school and which ones will have to work in
order to support the family.
http://palsolidarity.org/2015/08/1312-reported-attacks-against-fishermen-since-the-end-of-2014-massacre-on-
gaza/

Israeli naval forces open fire on Gaza fishermen, no injuries reported

 GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 12 Aug -- Israeli naval forces opened fire on Palestinian
fishermen off the coast of Gaza City early Wednesday, witnesses said. The
fishermen said that they came under fire as they were sailing off the coast
of Sudaniyya in northwestern Gaza City. No injuries were reported, but some
of the boats were hit with gunshots, causing the fishermen to return to shore. http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766991

Farmers attacked near Nablus

NABLUS (Ma’an) – Israeli colonisers on Saturday morning attempted an attack on Palestinian farmers in village of Qusra south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, a local official said.

Dozens of 'settlers' from the illegal Esh Kodesh outpost descended on farmers in their fields between the outpost and Qusra, said Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official who monitors 'settlement' activity in the northern West Bank. He said the attackers intended to scare the farmers and push them to abandon their fields.

Dozens of local men from the village -- members of voluntary local guard committees -- confronted the colonists, Daghlas added.

The colonists - 'settlers' - and locals clashed and threw stones at each other until the settlers were forced to move back.

In June 2014, villagers from Qusra held more than 15 'settlers' captive after they raided the village and tried to uproot Palestinian olive trees. Shortly after that they were transferred to Israeli military forces via Palestinian liaison officials.

Since 1967, the Israeli state has established over 150 colonies and some 100 outposts in the occupied West Bank, with a settler population of more than 500,000 across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, in contravention of international law.

Outposts like Esh Kodesh are often established by Israeli 'settlers' who set up tents or small mobile homes on private Palestinian land.

Some settlers act without approval to expand settlements or create new ones in the West Bank, building outposts that are illegal even by Israeli government standards.

In many cases, these settlement outposts are "legalized" by the Israeli State, and in rare cases they are dismantled. Such outposts generally receive armed protection by Israeli forces.

Residents living throughout the Nablus district have witnessed a considerable spread of outposts and colonies in the area in recent years, despite the "peace process".
In February, Israeli 'settlers' set up five mobile homes near Palestinian land and close by the Esh Kodesh outpost.
Residents of the Jewish-only Esh-Kodesh outpost regularly harass and attack Palestinians from nearby villages, invading villages or targeting agricultural areas belonging to local farmers.
Many of the attacks are intended to make life difficult for locals in order to force them to leave and allow settlers to expand their settlements.
Would-be colonists living in the Nablus region have become notorious for violent and extremist behaviour against local Palestinians that is often carried out in the presence of Israeli military forces and rarely investigated by the Israeli State.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766794

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"Settler" attack becomes mainstream

The latest attack by hardline Zionists against Palestinians, in which an 18-month child was killed during an attack on a home, has been recognised by the mainstream press including the BBC. The Today interviewer managed to get the Zionist spokesman, Mark Regev, to answer the question asked, e.g. about the percentage of complaints about previous 'settler' violence that have resulted in prosecution. Although he is usually well-armed with all relevant names and dates, on this occasion he was unable to lay his hands on the facts. He claimed that for this, as with all actions by unaligned groups, there would be prosecution and justice. He did not volunteer any information about the Israeli army's (and hence the state's) usual support for the 'settlers' in all circumstances.