ISRAELI police at dawn carried out a large-scale detention campaign in the Jerusalem area, detaining at least 18 Palestinians before releasing them after handing them a 15-day ban from entering al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the third holiest Islamic site in Islam.
Meanwhile Israeli forces on Sunday detained three Palestinians, including two minors, as well as summoned two others from the Jerusalem area for questioning, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) and security sources.
Forces detained three Palestinians, including two minors aged 17, after raiding and searching their homes in the Bethlehem area. Israeli police summoned two Palestinian siblings, including a female, to appear before the Israeli intelligence for interrogation.
The two were handed an order banning them from entering al-Aqsa mosque mosque compound for 15 consecutive days.
This ban came concurrently with the beginning of the Jewish holiday season. Also on Sunday, Israeli forces opened fire at Palestinian homes along the borderline area to the east of Khan Younis, in the northern Gaza Strip, locals said.
Israeli forces stationed at military watchtowers along the borders with Israel opened indiscriminate fire toward Palestinian homes to the east of Khan Younis area. No injuries were reported.
Israeli army and navy routinely open fire at Palestinian fishermen and farmlands along the Gaza border, in a blatant violation of a ceasefire deal reached between Israel and the Palestinian factions in Gaza on August 26th 2014 following 51 days of bloody aggression on the Strip in the summer of 2014.
In its weekly report on Israeli human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian Territories, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) said the illegal closure, which has been steadily tightened since June 2007 has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the Gaza Strip.
‘For nine consecutive years, Israel has tightened the land and naval closure to isolate the Gaza Strip from the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, and other countries around the world,’ said PCHR.
‘This resulted in grave violations of the economic, social and cultural rights and a deterioration of living conditions for 1.8 million people,’ it added. On Saturday Israel released a young Palestinian woman who was shot and critically injured when Israeli forces opened fire at a vehicle she was in following an alleged car-ramming attack earlier September.
Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Commission said Raghad Khaddour, 18, a resident of the Hebron area town of Bani Naim, was transferred from a hospital in Israel to Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah.
Khaddour was shot and critically injured when Israeli forces opened fire at a vehicle driven by a relative, Faris Khaddour, 18, after he allegedly attempted to run down Israeli settlers near Hebron on September 17. Faris was killed.
Israel claimed soldiers opened fire at the car after it attempted to ram into settlers near Kiryat Arba settlement. However, the circumstances surrounding the killings remain unclear and are largely based on the Israeli army version of events.
l Palestinian security forces arrested a Palestinian military liaison officer from his home in Jenin on Saturday, a day after he shared a post on his Facebook criticising Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s participation in the funeral of former Israeli president Shimon Peres.
A member of Osama Abu Arab’s family said that large numbers of Palestinian security officers surrounded Abu Asab’s home on Saturday morning and took him into custody. The family member highlighted that hours before Abu Arab was arrested, he was notified that he was suspended from his work as a major in the Palestinian Authority military liaison office. The military liaison is a unit with the Palestinian security forces responsible for coordinating security with Israel.
The member also said that the family believed Abu Arab was suspended from his work and arrested as a result of a post he published on his Facebook page asking Abbas to reconsider his decision to attend Peres’ funeral.
In his post, Abu Arab highlighted the irony of Abbas offering his condolences for Peres ‘the founder of settlement activity’ in spite of the Palestinian president’s repeated condemnation of the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements.
The post, which addressed Abbas directly, also listed a number of policies and military assaults against the Palestinian people that Abu Asab associated with Peres, who held several significant roles in Israeli politics and the military over the years.
‘Whether (Peres) was a terrorist or not, whether he invented the policy of breaking bones during the First Intifada or not, whether he was involved in the Jenin refugee camp massacre, the massacre of the al-Yasmeen neighbourhood in Nablus, or the massacre of Qana – who is he that you are going to partake in his funeral while the majority of the people you represent oppose him?
‘You can visit the mother of Yasser Hamduna, who died in Israeli custody, and ask her what she thinks. If she agrees, go. If she doesn’t, you will have the final word. But if you decide alone to partake in the funeral of a killer of our people, that would be a mistake. And if you made up your mind after consultations, you have been misled.
‘There should be no personal or friendly relations with the occupier, as long as they continue with their arrogant policies against our people. ‘Reconsider your decision, sir.’ Abbas’s decision to attend the funeral of Shimon Peres last Friday, came in spite of widespread outrage from rival Palestinian political factions.
• Palestinians in Israel on Saturday commemorated the 16th anniversary of the killing of 13 civilians by Israeli forces in October 2000 during a series of Palestinian protests in northern Israel at the onset of the second Intifada.
A statement released by the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel condemned Israel’s continued oppression and discrimination of Palestinian citizens of Israel.
‘Today, we reaffirm that Israel’s policy of depriving us of our right to live a natural life in our homeland and in the land of our ancestors will not be forgotten nor forgiven,’ said Muhammad Baraka, head of the committee and former member of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.
The Palestinian citizens who were shot dead by Israeli police during the October 2000 events were killed as a result of the Israeli ‘mentality of war, occupation, and racism,’ Baraka said, during visits organised by the committee to burial sites of the slain Palestinians.
Organisers of the commemoration arranged the parade, which first visited the grave of Rami Gharra in the village of Jet, followed by the grave of Ahmad Siyam in the village of Muawiya.
The parade continued to Um al-Fahm to visit Muhammad Jabarin’s grave, and on to Nazareth to visit the shrines of Iyad Lawabna, Omar Akkawi, and Wisam Yazbek. In Kafr Kanna, the committee visited the grave of Muhammad Khamaysi, before heading to Kafr Manda, the location of Ramiz Bushnaq’s burial.
The visits continued to Arraba, where Alaa Nassar and Asil Asila were buried, and finally to Sakhnin to visit the shrines of Imad Ghanayim and Walid Abu Salih. Following the visits, a central demonstration was held in Sakhnin at 4pm. The Sakhnin Parents Association had also announced that educational institutions in the city would be closed on Saturday to commemorate the anniversary.
‘Our message to the (Israeli government) as we mark this anniversary is that we will not remain silent towards the policies that target our people, wherever they may be. We will not remain silent towards the policy of racial discrimination that targets us, especially at this stage of escalating racial incitement against our people,’ the committee’s statement concluded.
The Orr Commission, the state commission of inquiry established following the deaths, had recommended that several officers be dismissed from service or denied promotion and found Israeli police incompetence and a history of discrimination against Palestinians in Israel.
Rights group Adalah represented the families of the victims before the commission, but in 2008 the attorney general issued a decision not to indict any of the Israeli police officers responsible for the deaths.
Around 20%, or 1.3 million people, of Israel’s population are Palestinian. They are largely the descendants of Palestinians that managed to remain during the 1948 war, when an estimated 700,000 were expelled from or fled their homes during fighting that would see the establishment of the state of Israel.
Rights groups say that Palestinians living in Israel face discrimination in employment, education and public funding within Israel. The Israeli government estimates that just over 50% of Palestinian families in Israel live under the poverty line.
