Two AMB fighters killed in Israeli raid

[ 19/03/2009 - 08:11 AM ]

DEIR AL-BALAH, (PIC)--

Two Palestinian fighters of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Emad Mughniya group, were killed in an Israeli air raid early Thursday that targeted them east of Dair El-Balah.

The AMB said in a statement that two of its members were killed while on a "military mission" against Israeli targets east of Dair El-Balah in central Gaza.

It added that Israeli warplanes fired missiles at the two fighters killing them on the spot.

The Israeli occupation army said it was investigating the incident.

Israeli shelling kills two Palestinian fighters in Gaza

Date: 19 / 03 / 2009  Time:  09:35
Gaza – Ma’an –

Israeli shelling killed two Palestinian fighters in the central Gaza Strip early on Thursday morning.

According to the spokesperson of the Al-Aqsa Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah, two members of the group were killed east of the city of Dair El-Balah during a “special mission.”

He said ambulance crews were not yet able to reach the bodies of the two.

Israeli terrorist soldiers kidnap Tulkarem man from home in overnight raid

Date: 19 / 03 / 2009  Time:  12:17
Tulkarem – Ma’an –

 Israeli terrorist soldiers detained a Palestinian man during an overnight raid on his home in the village of Sayda, north of Tulkarem, in the West Bank on Thursday.

Five Israeli military vehicles invaded the village. Israeli soldiers broke into the house of the late Rami Al-Ashqar, formerly affiliated to Islamic Jihad. They also raided the house of Al-Ashqar’s late brother, who was affiliated to Fatah’s armed wing, Al-Aqsa Brigades. Both men were killed by Israeli forces.

The soldiers detained 25-year-old Taleb Fuad Al-Ashqar, a brother of the two slain fighters.

Israeli terrorist soldiers kidnap man from Jericho refugee camp

Date: 19 / 03 / 2009  Time:  11:39
Jericho – Ma’an –

Israeli forces detained a man from Akbet Jaber Refugee Camp in the West Bank city of Jericho on Thursday.

Israeli soldiers raided the camp in the early morning and raided several houses. They took 32-year-old Zakariyah At-Tahhan from his home.

Israeli terrorist forces kidnap two youth from Nablus

Date: 19 / 03 / 2009  Time:  10:23
Nablus – Ma’an –

Israeli terrorist forces kidnapped two young Palestinians during an overnight raid in the Old City of Nablus, in the West Bank on Thursday.

Local sources said Israeli forces detained 18-year-old Radhi Aj’aj and 19-year-old Salim Mahmoud At-Takrouri during raids on their homes.

Israel takes more hostages to pressure Hamas to release terrorist soldier

[ 19/03/2009 - 08:35 AM ]

From Khalid Amayreh

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)--

The Israeli occupation army on Thursday raided many parts of the West Bank, abducting an undisclosed number of political leaders and lawmakers associated with the Palestinian Islamic movement.
 
Palestinian sources said heavily armed troops raided homes of Palestinian politicians shortly before dawn, terrorizing families and vandalizing property.
 
The troops arrested many political leaders and politicians including the former Palestinian deputy Prime Minister Nasseruddin al-Shaer, a lawmaker and university professor.
 
Al-Shaer’s wife said in a telephone interview from their home in Nablus that “ill-behaving soldiers” stormed the home at two o’clock.
 
“They stayed at the home for at least two hours and then they arrested my husband and left.”
 
Al-Shaer had been taken hostage several times in connection with his affiliation with the Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, and his opposition to the terrorist Israeli occupation of the Palestinian homeland.
 
Sources close to the movement said occupation troops raided the towns of al-Khalil (Hebron), Bethlehem, Ramallah in addition to Nablus. These towns are under a nominal Palestinian Authority (PA) control.
 
Other hostages reportedly abducted by occupation forces include Adnan Asfur, Prof. Issam al Ashkar, lawmaker Ayman Daraghmeh, lawmaker Abdul Jabbar al Fokaha, Mazen Rimawi. In al-Khalil, two lawmakers, Prof. Azzam Salhab and Nezar Ramadan, were abducted. In Bethlehem MP Khaled Tafesh was also abducted.
 
Both Ramadan and Salhab were only recently freed from a lengthy incarceration in Israeli dungeons and detention camps.
 
A Hamas spokesman in Bethlehem described the latest abductions as “acts befitting gangs and common criminals.”
 
“This is another proof that Israel is a criminal gang, not a state. So, this is another reason why Hamas will not recognize Israel,” said Yousuf (not his real name).
 
Israel, a state where the fascist-minded military establishment controls the justice system, routinely rounds up Palestinian activists and their relatives  and holds them as hostages or bargaining chips for the purpose of pressuring the Palestinian society to stop its enduring struggle for freedom and independence from Jewish colonialism and military occupation.
 
Israel continues to detain as many as 10,000 Palestinian political and resistance prisoners in detention camps all over the apartheid state.
 
Many of the prisoners, including nearly 40 lawmakers, are held for years without charge or trial.
 
Human rights organizations estimate that Israel arrested as many as 800,000 Palestinians since its occupation of the West Bank since 1967.
 
On Tuesday, the Israeli government instructed the “Justice Minister” to concoct ways to round up Palestinian activists from the West Bank in order to pressure the Hamas government to release an Israeli military prisoner.
 
Earlier this year, Israel waged a Nazi-like blitzkrieg against the Gaza Strip during which the Israeli occupation army carried out a series of massacres against the civilian population.
 
The 22-day campaign, in which lethal and internationally-prohibited weapons were used, killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, the vast bulk of them innocent civilians, including hundreds of children.
 
One of the undeclared goals of the blitz was to free the imprisoned soldier.

Hamas: Israel will fail to blackmail us through kidnapping our leaders in WB

[ 19/03/2009 - 11:48 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

The Hamas Movement highlighted Thursday that the kidnapping campaign waged by Israel against its leaders in the West Bank and the threats to escalate violations against Palestinian prisoners would never succeed in blackmailing it into making concessions on the prisoner swap deal or any issues related to the rights of the Palestinian people.

Dr. Salah Al-Bardawil, the spokesman for the Hamas parliamentary bloc, underlined in an exclusive statement to the PIC that all these repressive measures are exposed attempts to pressure Hamas and force it to release the Israeli captive soldier without any price.

Dr. Bardawil said that these Israeli attempts would be doomed to failure like previous ones because Hamas never retreated from its positions regarding the Palestinian rights and constants.

For his part, Dr. Ahmed Bahar, the acting speaker of the PLC, strongly denounced the kidnapping campaign waged by Israel against Hamas leaders and lawmakers in the West Bank, saying that this campaign is aimed to blackmail the Palestinian resistance into making concessions on the issues of occupied Jerusalem and prisoners and also accepting the international quartet's terms

In an exclusive statement to the PIC, Dr. Bahar, who is currenlty in Doha in line with a tour of a number of Arab and Muslim countries, called on the Palestinian resistance to cling to its demands regarding the swap deal and not to bow to Israel's blackmails.

In the same context, Abdel-Nasser Farwana, a specialist in prisoners' affairs, stated Wednesday that the IOA recently introduced new measures against Palestinian prisoners that are more repressive than the violations committed against detainees in Guantanamo prison.

Farwana added that the IOA escalated its blatant violations of international law regarding the rights of Palestinian prisoners in its jails and also stepped up its use of the terms "unlawful combatant" and "enemy combatants" against Gaza prisoners in an unprecedented way, which means they lost their basic rights mentioned in the Geneva convention and their detention would continue endlessly.

In another context, media sources reported that the IOA expanded the detention of three Hamas lawmakers and added six months to their previous sentences issued against them.

The family of imprisoned MP Mohamed Attal said that the IOA expanded his sentence from 38 to 44 months. The IOA also added six months to the sentences previously issued against MPs Fadl Hamdan and Khalil Al-Rabe'i.