Israel bombs sites in Gaza, arrests 11 Palestinians in Ramallah
Israeli warplanes on Wednesday morning bombed several sites across the besieged Gaza Strip, according to WAFA.
The agency reported that the Israeli fighter jets bombed a site to the southwest of the Gaza city, and another in the city of Rafah in the southern coastal enclave.
Meanwhile, Israeli artillery opened fire on agricultural lands close to al-Bureij refugee camp and to the east of Rafah city.
Two million Palestinians live the Gaza Strip, which has been subjected to a punishing and crippling Israeli blockade for 12 years and repeated onslaughts that have heavily damaged much of the enclave’s infrastructure.
Gaza’s 2-million population remains under “remote control” occupation and a strict siege, which has destroyed the local economy, strangled Palestinian livelihoods, plunged them into unprecedented rates of unemployment and poverty, and cut off from the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories and the wider world.
In another development, Israeli settlers fenced off large swaths of Palestinian-owned grazing land in the northern Jordan Valley, according to local sources.
Aref Daraghmeh, an activist, told WAFA that a group of settlers had been fencing off large tracts of pastures in al-Mzuqah and al-Suwaidya areas since last week and up until yesterday.
Thousands of dunams of these pastures have been fenced off since the beginning of this year, with most of the area inaccessible to Palestinians as a result of being declared as “state land” and “natural reserves”.
In Jerusalem [al-Quds], Israeli police today razed a plot of land and ordered a Palestinian to demolish his own house in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukaber, said local sources.
They said that Israeli police and crews of the Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem escorted a bulldozer into an area in the neighborhood, where they razed a plot of land.
Meanwhile, Aziz Ellian embarked on tearing down a 100-meter-square extension to his house in the same neighborhood to avoid paying exorbitant costs if the Jerusalem municipality carries out the demolition itself.
He pointed out that despite attempting to obtain a building license, the Israeli municipality did not grant him the license and instead fined him with NIS 22,000 (some USD 6,500) for lacking the construction license.
In Ramallah, Israeli forces detained 11 Palestinians from various parts of the West Bank, said the Palestine Prisoner’s Society (PPS).
PPS confirmed in a press statement that Israeli forces rounded up two Palestinians after ransacking their families’ houses in al-Mazra‘a al-Gharbiya village, northwest of Ramallah city.
Soldiers detained two others after storming and searching their houses in Silwad town, east of the city.
In the northern West Bank, PPS confirmed an Israeli military raid in Qiffin town, north of Tulkarem, resulting in the detention of two Palestinians, including a former prisoner who spent over 12 years in Israeli imprisonment.
Moreover, the Israeli occupation forces raided al-Noaman village in the West Bank and demolished an agricultural building
Compiled by: Basma Qaddour