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Israeli Occupation Forces Storm Al-Aqsa Mosque with Settlers, Torture Prisoners, Raze Houses, Bulldoze Agricultural Land, Kidnap 18 Palestinians

March 10, 2015

 

Extremist Jewish Israeli settlers “Students for The Temple” storm Aqsa Mosque	IOF razes seven houses in northern Jordan Valley

95% of Palestinian political prisoners are being subjected to torture in Israeli occupation prisons	Tibi: Israeli racism against 1948 Palestinians at a peak

 

Extremist Jewish Israeli settlers “Students for The Temple” storm Aqsa Mosque

Click to Enlarge OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)--

Extremist Jewish settlers called “Students for The Temple” stormed Tuesday the Aqsa Mosque from al-Magharebah Gate under tight security measures by Israeli Special Forces.  

The settlers organized provocative tours in the facilities of the holy Mosque amidst large numbers of Palestinian worshipers who responded by chants of Allahu Akbar.

The PIC reporter quoted a worker at the Palestinian Ministry of Awqaf as saying that the settlers’ tour guide carried banners representing the alleged Temple of Solomon and offered explanations of the myth claiming that the alleged Temple was in the place of the Aqsa Mosque.  

Many of the Palestinian worshipers have recently maintained vigil at the Aqsa Mosque including students of Jerusalemite schools.

The Israeli policemen are still enforcing tight security measures against Jerusalemite women, regardless of their age, and holding the identities of some of them while passing through the Mosques’ various gates.  

The Israeli policemen arrested on Monday three Palestinians in addition to a woman at the exit gates, and banned entry of a Jerusalemite woman into the holy site for two months.

One day earlier, three Jerusalemite women were also banned from entering the Aqsa Mosque for different periods just because of shouting with chants of Allahu Akbar against the settlers’ breaking into the holy site.

95% of Palestinian political prisoners are being subjected to torture in Israeli occupation prisons

Click to Enlarge RAMALLAH, (PIC)--

The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) disclosed on Tuesday that 95% of the Palestinian prisoners are being subjected to torture by the Israeli Occupation Authority (IOA).
 
Head of the PPS Qadoura Fares said in a press statement that the report published by Haaretz Hebrew newspaper on torturing Palestinian prisoners is fabricated and merely based on lies regarding the number of the prisoners subjected to torture.

He highlighted that the newspaper got these false pieces of information from the Israeli intelligence apparatus "Shabak".
 
He added: "Citing a lawyer in the fabricated report is a failed attempt to lend some credibility to it."
 
The PPS statement pointed out some torture methods used against Palestinian prisoners from the moment they are arrested until they are moved to the Israeli jails and detention centers, including shooting the prisoners and leaving them bleeding for hours, being mauled by police dogs, severe beating by hands, rifle butts and boots, in addition to handcuffing and blindfolding the detainees for long hours in the open.
 
A report by Haaretz newspaper published on Friday disclosed that the acts of torture by Shabak interrogators against the Palestinian prisoners notably increased to reach 59 cases during last year, while they were 16 cases in 2013, 30 cases in 2012, 27 cases in 2011, and 42 cases in 2010.

IOF razes seven houses in northern Jordan Valley

Click to Enlarge JORDAN VALLEY, (PIC)--

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) razed Tuesday morning seven Palestinian houses in northern Jordan Valley.

Eyewitnesses told the PIC reporter that the IOF stormed the area long with three army bulldozers and announced it a closed military zone.    

The eyewitnesses revealed that the Israeli bulldozers completely destroyed seven houses which were providing shelter to more than seventy individuals mostly women and children who have now become homeless.

The demolition process has been implemented amid the presence of many pressmen and foreigner activists. The IOF soldiers, however, barred the journalists from approaching the area during the destruction process.    

The IOF notified the houses’ owners of the demolition order one month ago under the pretext that the houses were built on lands owned by Israel. The owners, for their parts, confirmed having official documents that prove their ownership of the lands.   

Tibi: Israeli racism against 1948 Palestinians at a peak

Click to Enlarge JENIN, (PIC)--

The head of the Arab Movement for Change in 1948 Occupied Palestine Dr. Ahmad Tibi said the Israeli racism against the Arabs is at its peak. He called on the Arab masses in1948 Occupied Palestine to get united in face of the phenomenon.  

In a symposium held in al-Zababdeh town to the south of Jenin Monday evening, Dr. Tibi said, “Israeli discriminative laws have been remarkably increasing which force the Arabs inside 1948 Occupied Palestine to get united to face the coming dangerous phase”.

For his part, Chairman of the Joint Arab List Ayman Odeh said the appropriate response to the racism of the Israeli occupation against Palestinians of 1948 Occupied Palestine is unity of the Arab votes and masses.       

Army Kidnaps 18 Palestinians Near Bethlehem

Tuesday March 10, 2015 12:53 by IMEMC & Agencies

Israeli soldiers invaded, on Tuesday at dawn, Teqoua’ town, east of the West Bank city of Bethlehem, and kidnapped eighteen Palestinian youths, including several siblings, after storming dozens of homes and detonating the front doors of some of them, and assaulted many residents.

Head of the Teqoua Local Council Tairseer Abu Mfarreh said the soldiers threatened to conduct an even bigger invasion into the town, and to repeatedly invade it, “should Palestinian youths continue to hurl stones at army jeeps, and settlers’ vehicles.

Abu Mfarreh stated more than 200 soldiers invaded the town, and that the soldiers placed the warning on the local council’s main door.

The soldiers detonated front doors of many Palestinian homes in the town, before invading and violently searching them, and kidnapped eighteen Palestinians, the Ajyal Radio News has reported.

Teqoua’ has been subject to escalating violations, invasions and assaults carried out by invading Israeli soldiers, and settlers living in nearby illegal colonies.

For Second Time In 2 Days; Soldiers Bulldoze Lands Near Bethlehem

Tuesday March 10, 2015 10:46 by IMEMC & Agencies

Israeli soldiers bulldozed large areas of Palestinian lands, in Kisan village east of the West Bank city of Bethlehem, to build an “industrial zone” that would serve near illegal Israeli colonies.

Hussein Ghazal, head of the Kisan Village Council, told the WAFA News Agency that the soldiers bulldozed, during early morning hours, large areas of Palestinian agricultural lands near the northern entrance of the village.

The lands belong to residents of Sa’ir town near Hebron, and members of the ‘Obeyyat family in Bethlehem.

Ghazal said the destruction targeted large areas of Palestinian farmlands, and that Israel intends to bulldoze and uproot more than 600 Dunams (148.26 Acres) to build an Industrial Zone that would serve illegal Israeli colonies.

He added that the Israeli plan would completely isolate the village, as it will become fully surrounded by Israel’s illegal colonies.

A photo of mourners as they attend a memorial service for 18-year-old Saji Darwish, who was shot dead by soldier in March 2014.(MaanImages/Birzeit University)

 

Clashes in West Bank and Jerusalem, Several Injured by Israeli Occupation Soldiers' Fire

Tuesday March 10, 2015 22:07 by IMEMC News & Agencies

Lands leveled in occupied East Jerusalem

Seven Palestinian students were injured by rubber-coated steel bullets, Tuesday, as clashes broke out near Ofer detention center in Ramallah, witnesses said. Several Palestinians were injured in clashes which took place in Kafr Aqab, while in al-Issawyia, occupied East Jerusalem, a number of lands were leveled by Israeli forces.

Students from Birzeit University had gathered to mark the anniversary of the death of 18-year-old Saji Darwish, who was killed by Israeli forces last year.

Israeli occupation soldiers fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at the peaceful march, according to Ma'an. One student, Bayan Safi, was assaulted before being detained and interrogated at Ofer jail.

Two Israeli occupation soldiers were hit with rocks during the clashes, one in the face and one in the leg.

Soldiers shot and killed 18-year-old Saji Darwish near the illegal settlement outpost of Givat Assaf last March, after he allegedly threw stones at vehicles belonging to Israeli settlers in the area. See imemc.org/article/67217

Darwish is the 26th youth to be killed by Israeli forces while a student at Birzeit, according to the Birzeit University Public Relations Office.

Thousands of students attended a memorial service in the center of campus for the slain youth last year.

Meanwhile, clashes with Israeli forces left dozens of Palestinians injured in Kafr Aqab, northern Jerusalem, on Tuesday, according to medics.

The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that nine demonstrators suffered injuries from live fire to their lower extremities, and one was left in critical condition.

Activists told Ma'an News Agency that dozens more sustained light-to-moderate injuries from rubber-coated steel bullets, and many suffered the effects of tear-gas inhalation.

The clashes broke out after Israeli bulldozers leveled land in the Qalandiya airport area, close to Kafr Aqab. Israel has declared the area a closed military zone.

Sources said that the land was being leveled to continue the building of the separation wall, which already effectively separates the districts of Samir Amis and Kafr Aqab from Jerusalem.

Witnesses said that the ongoing clashes broke out sporadically throughout the day.

On Monday, Israeli occupation forces delivered demolition notices to buildings in the Qalandiya airport area near the wall.

Kafr Aqab was annexed by Israel along with the rest of East Jerusalem in 1980 and falls under its full jurisdiction. However, it has been cut off from the city since the construction of the wall.

In the East Jerusalem town of al-Issawiya, on Tuesday morning, large numbers of Israeli troops and municipality inspectors escorting bulldozers and excavators came into the southeastern outskirts of the town, where they demolished stone walls and steel structures used by local farmers as store houses and livestock barns.

Local follow-up committee member Muhammad Abu al-Hummus said the bulldozers deliberately ruined the dirt roads used by farmers to access their fields.

The land is located in an area Israeli authorities have earmarked for a national park, in a controversial plan known as "11092", which aims to turn 700 dunums of land in the Palestinian towns of al-Issawiya and al-Tur into Israeli parkland.

A statement from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, in 2013, previously stated that "the plan is part of the Israeli government's plans to create a Jewish demographic majority in the occupied city."

In September 2014, an Israeli planning council suspended the plan until the needs of the Arab towns could be assessed. However, the council, which previously approved the annexation of the 700 dunums, said that approval of the plan could be justified and was not fundamentally illegal.

According to Abu al-Hummus, the local Israeli municipality has ignored the plan's suspension.

"Israeli forces brush aside court decisions and decisions made by different committees when it comes to implementing settlement expansion plans," he said.

The land leveled on Tuesday is owned by the Abu Asab, Ubeid, Dari, Abu al-Hummus and Ulayyan among others.

East Jerusalem was seized by Israel along with the West Bank in 1967 during the Six-Day War, and since then, the Israeli government has undertaken a policy of "Judaization" across the city, constructing Jewish settlements and demolishing Palestinian homes.

There are now believed to be more than 300,000 illegal Israeli Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem.

The international community views East Jerusalem as part of the Palestinian territories and recognizes the annexation and settlement programs as illegal under international law.

 

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