THE PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) has called on the European Union (EU) to pressure Israel to stop escalatory unilateral measures in the occupied territories.
In a meeting at his Ramallah office with EU Representative to Palestine, Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, on Monday, the PLO’s Executive Committee Secretary General, Hussein al-Sheikh, said in a tweet that he’d briefed the EU official during their meeting on the latest political developments in the Palestinian arena.
‘I called on the EU to pressure Israel to stop escalatory unilateral measures and also called on EU countries to recognise the State of Palestine,’ he said.
Also on Monday, the General Intelligence Service (GIS) in Bethlehem Governorate managed to thwart a deal to leak Palestinian lands to Israeli settlers.
A security source in the GIS said that, based on intelligence information about an attempt to leak lands in the Bethlehem governorate to settlers, four people suspected of planning to carry out this deal were arrested, thus bringing a halt to this deal and thwarting a plan to leak hundreds of dunums of land for the benefit of settlers.
The detainees and their case file were referred to the Public Prosecution Office to complete legal procedures against them in accordance with the law, said the source, who explained that the deal involved 600 dunums of land in the village of Nahalin that are located near the illegal settlements of Bitar Elite and Daniel.
The General Intelligence Service urged people to exercise caution in any land sale and to make sure that all procedures are taken in accordance with the law, especially in occupied Jerusalem, border areas, and areas near settlements.
Meanwhile, Israeli occupation forces detained some 170 Palestinians in Jericho, east of the West Bank, since the start of this year, more than 100 of them were from Aqbat Jabr refugee camp, said the Palestinian Prison’s Society (PPS) on Monday.
It said during the raids at the refugee camp in particular, the army committed extrajudicial executions, and systematic abuse of the detainees and their families, and caused heavy destruction to homes broken into by soldiers.
The PPS said 22 minors under 18 years of age were among those detained in Aqbat Jabr refugee camp, three of them were among 15 detainees later placed under administrative detention (i.e. without charge or trial) for various periods of time.
Elsewhere, Israeli soldiers broke into the al-Kurom elementary school in the town of Beitunia, west of Ramallah on Monday, and prevented students and teachers from leaving.
Palestine news agency WAFA said that the soldiers threatened to shoot students and teachers who tried to leave the school.
Also, Israeli settlers attacked the town of Burqa, northwest of Nablus, and set palm trees on fire.
Ghassan Daghlas, a local official, told WAFA that settlers crept into the town from the illegal Homesh settlement outpost and set palm trees planted in the town cemetery on fire.
Residents confronted the settlers and forced them to leave, and put out the fire.
Daghlas said that ever since the settlers have been allowed to return to Homesh, which was evacuated in 2005, attacks on the town have intensified and become almost daily.
A delegation of European diplomats recently visited Burqa to learn firsthand about the impact of the settlers’ return to Homesh on life in the Palestinian town.
The United States and European countries have strongly objected to the return of settlers to Homesh, considering all settlements illegal under international law.
However, Israel is preparing to legalise the Homesh settlement and allow the return of the previously evacuated settlers to the outpost.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has strongly condemned this, particularly the re-establishment of the religious school in Homesh, as a step to legalise it.
The ministry said in a statement that the re-establishment of the religious school, as well as attacks by settler associations on Palestinian lands, opening of roads, and seizure of lands are a silent and creeping annexation of the occupied West Bank, under the supervision and support of the Israeli government.
‘Settlements are a crime in every sense of the word, according to international law,’ said the ministry, adding that it is following all developments in this regard with the International Criminal Court, leading to holding the occupying state accountable for them.
It called on the international community to assume its responsibilities in implementing the relevant United Nations resolutions, foremost of which is Resolution 2334, before it is too late.
Meanwhile on Monday morning, Israeli occupation forces detained at least 13 Palestinians during raids at their family homes in the occupied territories.
In the northern Jordan Valley town of Tammoun, the Israeli forces detained two men, one of them 41 years of age, after breaking into their homes and searching them. One of the detainees was taken away so his son would be forced to turn himself over to the army, according to the director of the Prisoner’s Society office in Tubas Kamal Bani Odeh.
Soldiers also detained two Palestinians in Nablus during a raid of the northern West Bank city Monday morning, and a third was taken from a nearby village.
One 18-year-old Palestinian was detained in the town of Dura, in the south of the West Bank, and another from the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Beit Hanina.
Six other Palestinians were seized in a large-scale military assault on the northern West Bank city of Jenin where eight people were injured, one of them so seriously that he died of his wounds, according to the Ministry of Health.
It said Ashraf Mohammad Ibrahim, 37, a former prisoner and an officer in the General Intelligence Service, has died after sustaining wounds from two explosive bullets that hit his abdomen and chest.
The eight other Palestinians were injured by Israeli army gunfire while six others were detained during the early morning Israeli army raid into several areas in city.
Palestinian security sources told WAFA that a large unit of Israeli forces raided Jenin from different directions as snipers were deployed on rooftops, mainly in the vicinity of Jenin Government Hospital.
They said intense confrontations broke out between Palestinian youths and Israeli forces, who fired live bullets at them, injuring eight of them, one of whom was reported to be in a critical condition.
Israeli forces obstructed the work of ambulances while trying to transfer the injured to hospitals in Jenin when an Israeli military vehicle ran into two ambulances, causing damage.
The soldiers also raided and heavily ransacked several houses in Jenin.
Also on Monday, Israeli military authorities ordered a Palestinian owner of a quarry in the town of Beitunia, west of Ramallah, to remove his quarry, and seized his machines, according to Palestinian security sources.
They told WAFA that the soldiers ordered Mahmoud Hasan Shilo to demolish and remove his quarry for allegedly being built in Area C, which is under full Israeli military control.
The soldiers also seized Shilo’s tractor and digging tools.
- On Sunday, Israeli settlers stoned Palestinian vehicles near the village of Luban e-Sharkiya on the road connecting the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Nablus.
Sources told WAFA that about 15 Israeli settlers gathered in front of the illegal Israeli settlement of Eli and stoned Palestinian vehicles and even proceeded to assault the passengers.
Extremist Israeli settlers’ violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the West Bank but is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.
Settlers’ violence includes property and mosque arsons, stone-throwing, uprooting of crops and olive trees, and attacks on vulnerable homes, among others.
Between 500,000 and 600,000 Israelis live in Jewish-only settlements across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in violation of international law.
