2 Palestinians Killed, 17 Kidnapped including 22-Year-Old Woman, by Israeli Occupation Forces Invading Various Cities

Death toll of Sunday's incursion in Rafah rises to five as Palestinian man dies of his wounds today

Date: 18 / 02 / 2008 Time: 12:15
Gaza – Ma'an –

A 42-year-old Palestinian civilian named Awni Abu Taha on Monday succumbed to his wounds which he sustained on Sunday during Israeli incursion in the Shuka area in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Muawiya Hassanain, the director of ambulance and emergency services in the Palestinian Health Ministry said the man was found after the Israeli forces withdrew, adding and that Abu Taha had been shot in the head.

He was evacuated to the Gaza European Hospital where he died his on Monday. This brings Sunday's death toll to five after four activists affiliated with Hamas' armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades and the Popular Resistance Committees' armed wing the An-Nasser Salah Addin Brigades were pronounced dead on Sunday.

Israeli occupation forces kidnap Palestinian woman in Nablus
Date: 18 / 02 / 2008 Time: 17:19
Nablus – Ma'an –

Israeli occupation forces kidnapped 22-year-old Tasbeeh Khayyat on Monday in the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

The Nafha Society, which defends Palestinian prisoners and human rights, said that Israeli forces stormed a street in Nablus and kidnapped the woman after ransacking her home.
Khayyat is a student in the engineering faculty at the Al-Najah National University.

The Nafha Society condemned the action and affirmed that there has been a notable escalation in Israeli forces seizing Palestinian women.

They highlighted that seven Palestinian women have been kidnapped since the beginning of 2008.

Israel occupation forces tighten closures in the northern West Bank, killing one woman
Date: 18 / 02 / 2008 Time: 13:42
Bethlehem – Ma’an –

Despite claims that movement for Palestinians in the West Bank has become easier, Israeli occupation forces have recently started to impose the most stringent restrictions on movement in the West Bank since 2003, even leading to civilian casualties and death, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PHCR) said on Sunday.

PCHR’s investigation on February 13, 2008 reported that Israeli occupation forces closed dozens of roads, including agricultural roads, with large boulders and other barriers, and set up checkpoints on main roads, especially in the northern West Bank. Older checkpoints have been reopened, such as the Al-Badhan checkpoint northeast of the West Bank city of Nablus and the Yitzhar settlement checkpoint south of the city.

Movement between governorates, and sometimes even within governorates, in the northern West Bank through stationary checkpoints is prohibited for Palestinians under the age of 35. Palestinians are often forced to wait for hours at checkpoints despite freezing temperatures before being searched, and are frequently mistreated and humiliated by Israeli border guards.

These restrictions lead to the death of 59-year-old Fawzia Abdul Fattah El-Darak. Her husband tried to bring her to the hospital in the West Bank city of Tulkarem after she began to experience severe chest pain, but her Palestinian Red Crescent Society ambulance was not allowed through the checkpoint south of Dair Al-Ghusoun, northeast of Tulkarem. The woman’s family then attempted to bring her across in a private taxi, informing the Israeli soldiers of her condition, but were again denied entry. The woman later died of a heart attack in her village.

In response to these restrictions, PCHR has called upon the High Contracting Parties of the 4th Geneva Convention of 1949 “exert immediate pressure on Israel to abide by International Humanitarian Law, and to stop the policy of collective punishment against the civilian population in the occupied Palestinian Territories,” so that patients can “move freely in order to access essential health care.” PCHR also said that it holds Israel responsible for the deaths of Palestinian patients denied access to healthcare.

Israeli occupation forces raid Huwwara and Beita near Nablus
Date: 18 / 02 / 2008 Time: 11:42
Nablus – Ma’an –

Israeli occupation soldiers invaded the northern West Bank towns of Huwwara and Beita, south of Nablus, and raided the headquarters of the Ministry of Waqf and Religious Affairs in Huwwara on Sunday morning.

Ma’an’s reporter in Nablus said that the invading forces imposed a curfew on the towns and fired flash and sonic bombs.

The head of Huwwara’s Municipal Council, Samir Mur’ib, said that Israeli occupation forces forcefully entered and ransacked several homes, breaking the doors.

Sixteen Palestinians kidnapped in West Bank
Date: 18 / 02 / 2008 Time: 11:29
Bethlehem – Ma'an –

Israeli occupation forces on Monday morning kidnapped 16 Palestinians in several West Bank districts.

Hebrew sources said the detainees were from the cities of Nablus, Jenin and Ramallah in the West Bank.

Eyewitnesses told our Nablus correspondent that Israeli occupation forces raided the city and seized an employee, 40-year-old Abdul-Hakim Al-Qadah, of the Ministry of Waqf and Religious Affairs.

Local sources in the Palestinian town of Abu Dis in east Jerusalem told Ma'an that Israeli forces stormed the town overnight and ransacked more than ten houses under the guise of searching for "wanted Palestinian activists." They seized three young men, 18-year-old Mahir Badir, 18-year-old Raed Badir and 27-year-old Khalid Bahar.

The sources added that the Israeli soldiers ransacked the home of Yousuf Badir whose son Ahmad was arrested last week. After evacuating the rest of the family they kidnapped Ahmad's parents for more than three hours whilst searching the home.

In the city of Tulkarem, the northern West Bank, Ma'an's reporter stated that Israeli occupation forces entered the city and its refugee camp early in the morning and kidnapped three young Palestinian men. During the abduction, the Israeli occupation soldiers attacked the mother of one of the detainees, 50-year-old Salha Bani 'Uda, who was later taken to hospital.

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