HEALTH workers in the West Bank will escalate their strike action next week, their union said on Sunday.
Osama al-Najjar, the head of the healthcare union, said from February 17, the health sector will go on full strike, with the exception of one day per week in order to fulfil their responsibilities to the population.
They will also continue the partial strike launched last week and strike this Thursday.
Al-Najjar said the government had failed to respond to their demands, which concern budget cuts affecting the health sector.
Israeli forces detained six Palestinians overnight Saturday, a military representative said.
Troops also clashed with Palestinians in towns in the northern West Bank on Saturday evening.
At dawn, forces searched several homes in Burqa village, near Nablus, and detained Shadi Abu Omar, Fadi Abu Omar, and Munjed Daughlas.
Another man, Mousa Issa Abu Sabha, 24, was detained in a night raid on Yatta, south of Hebron.
An Israeli military spokesman said two people were detained in Burqa, two others in Arura, near Ramallah, and another in Beit Kahil and Yatta, in the Hebron district.
Also late Saturday night, Israeli forces surrounded the village of Azzun, near Qalqiliya, and fired tear gas, causing breathing difficulties amongst the residents, locals said, noting that settlers tried to enter the village.
An Israeli military source said around 50 Israelis gathered in the area, some tried to enter Azzun village and others threw rocks at Palestinians, lightly injuring one.
Israeli troops tried to disperse the settlers and prevent them entering the village, the source said.
Israeli troops also raided Burin village, south of Nablus, on Saturday evening, and fired tear gas, but no injuries were reported. An Israeli military spokesman said routine activity was conducted in the area, but he was not aware of any clashes.
Israeli forces arrested a woman in Nablus on Saturday accused of carrying a knife, locals said.
Alaa Muhammad Abu Zeitoun, 21, was arrested at Huwwara checkpoint in the northern West Bank city and taken to a nearby Israeli military base, local witnesses said.
Palestinian sources said that liaison department officials were communicating with Israeli officials to release Abu Zeitoun, who is a student at Al-Quds university.
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Saturday removed for the second time the Canaan village camp that had been re-established by Palestinian and foreign anti-settlement activists in Ma’in area east of Yatta.
The IOF encircled more than 150 activists in the camp before attacking them with ‘skunk water’, and stun and tear gas grenades and detaining some of them along with journalists, local witnesses said.
Jumu’ah Raba’ei, a member of a Palestinian committee opposing Israel’s segregation wall and settlement expansion, said that the IOF razed this symbolic village for the second time on the same day.
Raba’ei added that the activists had already erected tents for the Canaan camp in Hawara village east of Yatta before they hastened to re-establish it once again in Ma’in area after its removal in the morning by the IOF.
He affirmed that Canaan village camp was established as an expression of protest against Israel’s settlement expansion plans in Yatta villages and areas, adding that the activists are determined to continue their efforts to face and expose these plans.
For his part, head of the popular committee against the siege Jamal Al-Khudari condemned Israel’s use of violence to evacuate the Canaan village camp, hailing the popular resistance activists for their role in confirming the Palestinians’ right to their land.
‘The occupation is dealing aggressively and heinously with the activists, and its crimes and violations against the human being and the land are escalating, which demonstrates the effectiveness and importance of the peaceful popular resistance,’ Khudari emphasised in a press release on Saturday.
Hundreds of farmers marched towards Gaza’s border with Israel on Saturday to demand a boycott of Israeli agricultural firms, a local union said.
The Union for Agricultural Work Committees in Gaza said in a statement that protestors also gathered in dozens of European cities to protest against the Israeli company Mehadrin, which operates in illegal settlements and exports citrus fruits, dates and other produce.
‘The boycotts of Israeli agriculture companies are so important as the Israeli occupation has destroyed our farming production and denied us the possibility of exporting our own products,’ farmer Mustapha Arafat said.
‘International pressure on Israel is the only way our own economy will be allowed to develop and for us to live normal lives,’ he added.
Protests took place in cities across France, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, the Gaza union said.
‘Agriculture is a vital part of our economy and national heritage but it is being systematically destroyed and these companies are the primary beneficiaries’, Dr Taha Rifae, director of the grassroots department at the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, said.
‘By trading with companies such as Mehadrin, European supermarkets are financing the dispossession of Palestinian farmers.’
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) prevented Palestinian farmers from accessing their land in north and east of Al-Khalil on Saturday, local sources said.
The popular committee in Beit Ummar village, north of Al-Khalil, said that IOF soldiers denied Ali Awad his right to farm his land at the outskirts of Karmi Tzur settlement at the pretext of protecting security of settlers.
IOF soldiers had destroyed olive, almond, and grape trees in the area to force the Palestinian inhabitants to desert their land.
Citizens in Yatta town, east of Al-Khalil, said an IOF force refused to allow Palestinian farmers to tend to their land near to Susiya settlement.
They said that the soldiers expelled the farmers from their land and declared the area a closed military zone.
• The Palestinian Authority minister of prisoners warned Saturday that if any of the Palestinians on hunger strike in Israeli jails dies the credibility of the UN and all international human rights organisations will be at risk.
Issa Qaraqe urged international groups to intervene immediately in order to save the lives of the hunger strikers, in comments during a welcome ceremony for freed prisoners in Tubas.
Palestinians have launched hunger strikes in Israeli jail to protest against their detention and conditions. Several prisoners have been on strike for months.
Samer Issawi, from East Jerusalem, last week stopped drinking water after refusing food for 190 days. Jafar Azzidine and Tarek Qaadan have been on hunger strike for 72 days.
