Category Archives: Palestine

Hamas: All Israelis are targets | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR

Horrible deaths but an Hamas all out attack is just what political leaders of Israel want just now – Hamas said Tuesday that “all

Israelis” would be targeted after a deadly strike on a house in the southern city of Khan Younis killed seven people, among them two teenagers.

“The Khan Yunis massacre… of children is a horrendous war crime, and all Israelis have now become legitimate targets for the resistance,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement, without elaborating.

Medics said another 25 people were wounded in the strike.

via Hamas: All Israelis are targets | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR.

Mourning, And Rioting, Over Death In Jerusalem – NYTimes.com

As police tear gas wafted through his East Jerusalem neighborhood, the father of a slain 16-year-old Arab, the possible victim of a Jewish revenge attack, mourned with friends who had come to console him Wednesday on the enclosed porch of his two-story stone house. He had just spent seven hours with police investigators.

“I don’t expect any results,” the father, Hussein Abu Khdeir, 48, said of the investigation into the abduction and killing of his son Muhammad that morning.

via Mourning, And Rioting, Over Death In Jerusalem – NYTimes.com.

Israeli settlers torch Palestinian farm in ‘price tag’ attack | Maan News Agency

NABLUS (Ma’an) — Israeli settlers early Wednesday set fire to an animal farm in the northern West Bank on Wednesday, a Palestinian official said.

Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official who monitors settler activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma’an that a group of settlers set fire to a sheep farm in Aqraba village south of Nablus at 3 a.m.

Palestinians managed to round up the sheep, but the steel structure surrounding the farm was destroyed by the fire, Daghlas said.

Settlers spray-painted the words “blood vengeance” and “price tag” in Hebrew on the outer walls of the farm, he added.

The farm belongs to Fadi Basim Bani Jabir.

Daghlas said the settlers came from the illegal settlement of Itamar south of Nablus.

Later, in the Bethlehem district, Israeli settlers hurled stones at Palestinian vehicles as they drove on a road near the village of Husan, locals said.

A number of vehicles were hit and sustained damages, they said.

The attacks come in the wake of the burial of three Israeli teens who were found dead in the Hebron district on Monday.

Hours after they were buried on Tuesday, around hundreds of Israelis marched through Jerusalem, stopping cars and shouting “Death to Arabs,” police and witnesses said.

via Israeli settlers torch Palestinian farm in ‘price tag’ attack | Maan News Agency.

Deeply Divided Israel Unites in Grief and Sees a Larger Purpose – NYTimes.com

{No outpouring of care for seven Palestinian youths killed during the search for the three young Israeli youths who were murdered.}

Praising the families’ faith, determination and humanity, Mr. Netanyahu said, “An entire nation stood together and was reminded of who we are and why we are here.”

via Deeply Divided Israel Unites in Grief and Sees a Larger Purpose – NYTimes.com.

On Netanyahu’s head for yesterday’s revenge talk! Possible Revenge Killing Adds to Tension in Israel – NYTimes.com

“The coming days, you can’t expect what will happen — the situation will get worse and worse,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, who works with the Palestine section of Defense for Children International. “The occupation and the cycle of violence should be ended to guarantee there is no further loss of life.”

Continue reading the main story

Mr. Netanyahu spoke before noon with Mr. Aharonovich, the internal security minister, and requested that “investigators act as quickly as possible to find out who stands behind the despicable murder,” according to a statement from the prime minister’s office. Mr. Netanyahu called on all sides not to take the law into their own hands, saying, “Israel is a state of law and everybody is obligated to act according to the law.”

As news of the killing spread, the police increased their presence in Jerusalem. Clashes broke out between Palestinian youths and Israeli security forces along the main road that links the neighborhoods of Beit Hanina and Shuafat. Dozens of teenagers, some using slingshots, hurled stones at the security officers, who responded with tear gas and stun grenades.

Shelters at stops along Jerusalem’s light rail line, which runs through Arab and Jewish neighborhoods, were smashed, and smoke from tires set ablaze hovered over the area. The police barred Jews from entering the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City to avoid rioting.

via Possible Revenge Killing Adds to Tension in Israel – NYTimes.com.

Israel opens gates to collective reprisals for youth murders – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

Speaking to reporters, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu justified acts of revenge. “Vengeance for the blood of a small child, Satan has not yet created; neither has vengeance for the blood of three pure youths, who were on their way home to meet their parents, who will not see them anymore. Hamas is responsible — and Hamas will pay,” Netanyahu said.

Not long after the news of the discovery of the bodies of the three Israeli teenagers, army units demolished a Palestinian suspect’s home, and ran bombing raids on Gaza.

Settlers have also taken up their own acts of revenge. On the roads, Palestinian media reported two cases of Palestinian children being run over by settler cars. The situation in Hebron was nothing short of a volcano waiting to erupt.

But some of the worst reaction to the despicable act of killing the Israeli teens has come from politicians and pundits. When the incitement comes from the very top of the government, it is no wonder how the rest of the population acts.

International humanitarian law and the basic principles of justice are based on the concept of individual responsibility. Justice is served when violators are tried in a fair court and personally punished. Holding an entire family, clan, city or a nation responsible is nothing short of barbarism. Some Israelis justify their reaction by saying that the act of the killing of the three Israeli hitchhikers was barbaric and a result of the collective responsibility of a community that created the killers.

via Israel opens gates to collective reprisals for youth murders – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.

Israeli groups call for more settlements in response to the killing of the three settlers

A group of Israeli settlers led by the mayor of the Ma’ale Adumim settlement, Benny Kashriel, set up a tent today in the area between the settlement and Jerusalem, known as Area E1.

Kashriel called on the Israeli authorities to construct new settlement units in the area in response to the killing of the three Israeli settlers.

Construction in E1 is very controversial, as building settlements there would create a physical link between Ma’ale Adumim and Jerusalem, dividing East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank and its Palestinian population centers. It would also divide the West Bank into two almost separate parts, jeopardizing the prospects of a contiguous Palestinian state.

Moreover, the Israeli right-wing political women’s group Women in Green also set up a tent, in order to pressure the authorities to build new settlements in the area between Jeba’at Auz and Gush Etzion, in the north of Hebron.

via Israeli groups call for more settlements in response to the killing of the three settlers.

Israeli forces ‘blow up homes’ of Palestinian suspects | Maan News Agency

{“Guilt?” being Palestinian and relatives of two – suspects, not convicted people – this is democracy?}

The two houses, which are both located in the same neighborhood in northwest Hebron, belong to the families of Marwan al-Qawasmeh, 29, and Amer Abu Eisha, 33.

After Israeli forces in Halhul north of Hebron found three bodies presumed to be those of three Israeli teens who went missing on June 12, soldiers surrounded the houses, forcibly removed the families, and declared the area a closed military zone, locals said.

Witnesses said the homes were then blown up by explosives.

Locals had told Ma’an earlier that soldiers were preparing to demolish the homes.

via Israeli forces ‘blow up homes’ of Palestinian suspects | Maan News Agency.