Broke out this evening clashes in the town of Tur East Jerusalem and the occupation forces arrested two young men from the region.
Our correspondent said that the clashes broke out near Al-Maqased hospital and Tur club down to the Sawwanah neighborhood crossroads.
He said that the occupation authorities used large amounts of tear gas, rubber and sound bullets, and youths response with throwing stones and iron bars at soldiers.
Witnesses said that soldiers arrested two young men at least in the confrontations that take place in the town for the fourth day in the neighborhood protesting to storm Al Aqsa Mosque on Friday.
On February 25th Palestinian men and women, elders and children, together with Israeli and international activists gathered for two demonstrations organized by the South Hebron Hills Popular Committee.
The first demonstration, attended by approximately ninety people, was planned in response to twenty-nine trees being cut down during the last four months on private Palestinian property near the illegal outpost of Havat Ma’on. During the action the participants planted about thirty small olive trees on a hill near the village of At-Tuwani. The demonstration was guarded by the Army, the border police, the police and the DCO (District Coordination Office), nearly forty officers overall.
Later the demonstrators headed towards Saadet Tha’lah, where on the 15th of February 2012 the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) bulldozers demolished five structures (http://www.operationdove.org/?p=698 ), to express their solidarity and closeness to the inhabitants.
At the meantime, two fifteen year old boys from the village of Tuba were grazing their flocks in the Palestinian Um Zeitouna valley near the Ma’on settlement despite the several prohibitions imposed by the Army and the settlement security chief. As reported by two internationals witnesses of the event, the latter was present during the incident. The two teenagers were arrested and detained in Kiryat Arba police station and released in the evening with a denial of access for the following two weeks to the area where they were taken by the soldiers.
The policy of restrictions, closures and demolitions carried out by the Israeli army, combined with the continuous harassment made by the settlers of the area, denies Palestinians’ human rights, hindering them to live in their villages, to cultivate their lands and to graze their flocks and preventing the development of local communities.
Nevertheless, the Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills are strongly involved in affirming their rights and resist to the Israeli occupation choosing the nonviolent way.
Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and South Hebron Hills since 2004.
Israeli soldiers invaded, on Friday evening, an area east of the Al-Boreij Refugee Camp, in central Gaza, firing dozens of rounds of live ammunition, while military choppers flew overhead firing flares.
The motives of the invasion remain unknown as the soldiers just searched the area and withdrew later on; no arrests or injuries were reported.
On Friday at dawn, two Palestinians were wounded after the Israeli Air Force fired missiles in the Car Market area in Gaza; one of them was treated by field medics while the other was moved to a local hospital.
Also on Friday, Israeli troops shot and killed one Palestinian near the central West Bank city of Ramallah during clashes that took place after the Palestinians held a protest against the ongoing settler attacks, and the Friday attack carried out by the soldiers against worshipers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem.
In its weekly reported for the week of 16 – 22 Feb. 2012, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights found that 25 civilians were wounded, and 21 were abducted in 74 invasions carried out by the Israeli military into the Palestinian territories.
Detained young woman Hana’a Shalabi has entered her tenth day of hunger strike protesting her administrative detention despite being released late last year in the prisoners’ exchange deal between Hamas and Israel.
Attallah Abulsabh, the minister of prisoners in the Haneyya government, said that Hana’a, 28, is the first freed captive to be re-arrested and sentenced.
The minister said that Hana’a is following the path of Khader Adnan who went on hunger strike for 66 days before the Israeli occupation authority finally submitted and agreed to end his administrative detention.
He said that the health condition of Hana’a was deteriorating and that the Israeli Hasharon prison administration had moved her to solitary confinement and threatened to transfer her to the ward of Jewish homicide convicts in Ramle jail if she continued in her hunger strike.
Abulsabh asked the Egyptian intelligence chief Murad Muwafi to personally intervene to put an end to Israel’s re-arrest of freed prisoners in the exchange deal and to improve the incarceration conditions of all Palestinian prisoners since the deal was brokered by the Egyptian intelligence apparatus.
The 67-year-old parents of Hana’a have announced they would go on hunger strike until they receive information on the status of their child.
Hana’a spent two and a half years in administrative custody before her release in the exchange deal.
During a violent protest in which the IOF used live bullets, tear gas and rubber bullets, twenty five year old Talat Ramia, was shot in the shoulder and died later from his injuries. According to medics, five other protesters were injured.
An Israeli army spokesman said the incident was under investigation. The official said initial indications showed that one of the protesters had “fired fireworks at IDF soldiers from several meters away, putting the soldiers’ lives in danger”. The soldiers “responded by firing, injuring the Palestinian in his shoulder.”
Funeral procession for Talat Ramia, 25, who died on Friday after he was shot by Israeli forces at a protest near Qalandiya checkpoint. (Maan Images)
The demonstration was held in response to rumours of a possible raid by Israeli settlers of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem today. Consequently there were violent clashes at Al-Aqsa mosque, in which four Palestinian people were arrested and more than fifteen sustained injuries from riot police.
This followed a week of unrest in Jerusalem, as the extreme Israeli group Likud threatened to break into the mosque last Sunday.
Al Aqsa Mosque is considered to be one of the most sensitive places in the Middle East and is considered the third holiest place in Islam, while it is considered by the Jewish as Temple Mount and is revered as one of the most sacred sights.
Witnesses stated that the police fired tear gas, forcing people to run inside for cover.
“We were praying when they started shooting tear gas towards us,” 58-year-old Umm Mohammad told AFP by telephone from inside the Dome of the Rock.
“At first, they were shooting at the Al-Aqsa mosque but we hid in the Dome of the Rock, and now they have started firing tear gas and sound bombs towards the gates,” she said.
Clashes continue this evening in Al-Rum, a town near Jerusalem city. Medical sources state that there are many injuries as the IOF are currently shooting live rounds.
