THE Israeli navy on Tuesday arrested six Palestinian fishermen while sailing off the coast of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR).
PCHR said a number of Israeli naval boats opened fire at fishing boats from a distance before they sailed towards them and arrested six fishermen and seized three boats. No casualties were reported in the live fire attack.
The six fishermen were identified as Kamal Abu Warda, 45, Ref’at Abu Warda, 21, Ref’at Zayed, 26, Medhat Zayed, 23, Ramadan Abu Warda, 37, and Mahmoud Abu Warda, 26. The attacks come despite Israeli promises to ease restrictions on Palestinians’ access to both the sea and the border region near the unilaterally imposed buffer zone.
Israeli naval boats routinely open fire at Palestinian fishermen sailing within the six-nautical-mile allowed zone for fishing as well as on farmlands along the borders, flagrantly violating the ceasefire deal. In May alone, there were a total of 51 incidents of shootings, incursions into the coastal enclave, and arrests, according to the PCHR.
This included 41 shootings, which left nine injured, including one minor. Israel and the Palestinian factions signed a ceasefire deal on August 26 2014 ending the latest 2014 summer deadly Israeli onslaught on Gaza which claimed the lives of over 2,200 people, overwhelmingly civilians.
Under the ceasefire deal, Israel was to immediately ease the blockade imposed on the strip and expand the fishing zone off Gaza’s coast, allowing fishermen to sail as far as six nautical miles from shore, and would continue to expand the area gradually. Israel has so far failed to do so.
Israeli forces on Tuesday detained 10 Palestinians, including two minors, from various West Bank districts, and shot and injured a minor during clashes near Ramallah, said local sources. Israeli military vehicles raided at dawn the town of Silwad to the east of Ramallah, where soldiers accompanied with tracking dogs broke into and ransacked several homes, spreading panic among residents, especially children, and sparking clashes.
During the dawn raid, forces detained three residents identified as two brothers Abdullah and Ali Hamed and Amjad al-Najjar. Forces further broke into and thoroughly searched two houses belonging to Ahmad Subhi and Yousef al-Najjar, where they seized the homes’ private surveillance cameras.
During clashes that erupted in the wake of the raid, forces fired tear gas canisters, stun grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets towards residents. However, no injuries were reported. Meanwhile in Jerusalem, forces detained an unidentified number of Palestinians and summoned at least a youth during overnight house-to-house raids across several neighbourhoods, including Jabal Az-Zaytoun neighbourhood that overlooks the Old City.
During the raid in Jabal Az-Zaytoun neighbourhood, police detained several Palestinians after breaking into and ransacking their homes. One detainee was identified as Ahmad al-Tamimi.
This came several hours after police on Monday evening summoned a Palestinian from the same neighbourhood after breaking into his family’s home.
Police handed the homeowner a notice ordering him to turn his son, Akram, over to the Israeli intelligence for interrogation. Akram is currently banned from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Meanwhile, in Hebron district, forces detained a Palestinian from the Hebron neighbourhood of Tal Rumeida. The detainee was identified as ‘Abed al-Dwaik, 19.
Other local media reported that forces arrested three other Palestinians from Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Ramallah districts. Wattan news agency reported that Israeli police stormed Jerusalem’s Shu’fat refugee camp, where they detained a Palestinian young man identified as Nour Abu Zneid. In the meantime in Bethlehem district, forces raided Nahalin village, where they broke into and searched several homes and detained Bara’ Abu Ghayada, 19.
In Ramallah district, a Palestinian was detained following clashes that broke out between Israeli forces and Palestinian youths in al-Jalazoun refugee camp. The detainee was identified as Muhammad Safi. Forces raided and wreaked havoc in several homes in the camp, spurring clashes with residents. A Palestinian minor identified as Bara’a al-Ramahi, 16, was shot and injured with a rubber-coated steel bullet during the raid.
• A Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jails who is diagnosed with bowel cancer has been denied family visits, according to the Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs (CPA). Ibtesam Anati, an attorney with CPA, said prisoner Mutasem Raddad from Tulkarm who is being hospitalised in Ramla hospital under tight Israeli supervision along with 16 other ailing prisoners has been denied family visitation for months. Other fellow prisoners are also denied family visits despite suffering serious diseases.
There are some 1,500 ill prisoners in Israeli jails suffering from cancer, heart problems, and kidney failures. Prisoners do not receive adequate medical care, and are only treated with painkillers, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club (PPC). Several prisoners also suffer from psychological problems as a consequence of solitary confinement. Prisoners under solitary confinement in Israeli jails are held in cells that lack basic health standards.
According to the Palestine Detainees Studies Centre, around 60% of the Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli jails suffer from chronic diseases, and some of them died in detention or after being released due to the severity of their cases caused by a deliberate medical negligence policy.
• Commissioner General of the UNRWA, Pierre Krahenbuhl, said in a Wednesday statement that a year after the Israeli devastating war on Gaza, which claimed the lives of thousands of innocent people, the root causes of the conflict remain unaddressed. He said, ‘The despair, destitution and denial of dignity resulting from last year’s war and from the blockade are a fact of life for ordinary people in Gaza.
‘Coming in addition to high levels of unemployment and lack of prospects for Gaza’s youth, this situation represents a time-bomb for the region,’ he stressed. The physical and psychological scars are everywhere to be seen in the Gaza Strip. Countless children live with the traumas endured during the war and over a thousand live with what will be life-long disabilities,’ he added.
He noted that 315 days following the ceasefire signed in August 26, 2014 and, ‘not a single totally destroyed house, of which there are over twelve thousand, has been rebuilt,’ leaving some 120,000 people homeless. Krahenbuhl called for an intensified political action on a number of fronts to achieve the ‘necessary change of paradigm’ in the Strip, which he stressed could be achieved through lifting the Israeli blockade, ensuring rights and security for all, and allowing increased exports from Gaza to stimulate economic recovery and freedom of movement for civilians.’
While some steps have been taken in recent weeks, he said, they fall far short of what is needed to bring about fundamental change in the lives of the population. He said, ‘There also needs to be accountability for international law violations to the 2014 conflict,’ adding that investigations must be carried out in accordance with international standards. Victims of violations should be promptly and adequately compensated and have access to an effective remedy.’
He added that ‘in the middle of Gaza’s dire circumstances, hope is a commodity in short supply and yet so crucially important. In an increasingly unstable Middle-East, neglecting the needs and rights of the people of Gaza is a risk the world should not be taking.’
The 50-day conflict last year saw 2,262 Palestinians killed of which 1,500 were civilians, including 551 children and 305 women. 71 Israelis were killed, of which 66 were soldiers and one was a child, according to UNRWA statistics. Around 138 students attending UNRWA schools lost their lives and at least 814 were injured. Of the more than 11,000 people injured in Gaza, 1,000 are children who have permanent disabilities.
The destruction of property was on a massive scale. At the height of the conflict over half a million displaced people fled attack – nearly 300,000 of whom took shelter in 90 UNRWA schools; six times the number during the 2008/9 conflict. UNRWA estimates that nearly 140,000 houses were either damaged or totally destroyed and that the present pace of reconstruction must accelerate if Gaza is ever to be rebuilt.
