Israel bombs Gaza after rocket launch, man killed

GAZA, Feb 12 (Reuters) - An Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip killed a Palestinian civilian on Sunday, hospital officials said, and the military described the operation as

retaliation for a cross-border rocket launch.The dead man was a guard in his 50s or 60s at an animal farm east of Gaza City, hospital officials said. His caravan was hit by a missile and his adult son was wounded.The Israeli military released a statement saying its aircraft had struck four targets, including "a terror tunnel and a weapon manufacturing facility" in the north, the vicinity ofGaza City.The air strikes came in response to a short-range rocket that was launched from Gaza on Saturday and wounded an Israeli woman, the statement said. No Palestinian armed faction took credit for the launch.Hamas, Gaza's ruling Islamist movement, has tried to rein in attacks on Israel as it seeks political accommodation with its secular Palestinian rivals. But violence has continued sporadically, often going unclaimed.An Israeli military spokeswoman said she had no immediate information about the casualties from Sunday's air strikes. 

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HRW to Israel: charge or free Palestinian hunger striker

JERUSALEM — An international NGO on Saturday called on Israel to "immediately charge or release" a Palestinian prisoner who has been on hunger strike for the past 56 days.

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement Israel should "immediately end its unlawful administrative detention" of Khader Adnan, who has refused food since December 18, and "charge or release him."

Adnan, who was arrested near the northern West Bank city of Jenin on December 17, had served as a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, but Israel has not charged him formally or revealed any evidence against him.

His hunger strike, longer than any Palestinian prisoner before him, according to Palestinian officials, is in protest over what he calls his unjust detention and mistreatment by Israeli authorities.

On Saturday, hundreds of Palestinians held a protest outside the Ofer prison in the West Bank in solidarity with Adnan and hurled rocks at security forces, an Israeli military spokesman said.

The security forces used riot dispersal methods, and activists said 16 protesters were wounded by rubber bullets and tear gas.

In addition, two Israelis and two Palestinians were arrested in a separate rally for Adnan in the West Bank village of Beit Omar, the military and activists said.

Last month, a military court ordered that Adnan be held in administrative detention for four months, although with his condition frail and worsening, he has been held mostly in a string of Israeli hospitals since early January.

Under Israeli military law, a court can order an individual held for up to six months at a time without charge, although the order can be appealed.

On Thursday, he appealed his detention without charge before an Israeli military judge sitting in a special session in hospital, but the court is not expected to rule before Sunday, his lawyer told AFP.

"Israel should end, today, before it?s too late, its almost two-month-long refusal to inform Adnan of any criminal charge or evidence against him," Whitson said.

On Friday, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Robert Serry, called on Israel "to do everything in its power to preserve the health of the prisoner and resolve this case while abiding by all legal obligations under international law."

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Palestinian detainee in Israel on hunger strike for over 50 days

Palestinian leader Khader Adnan, who was detained on Dec. 17 last year by Israel for activities that threaten the Jewish state’s regional security, has been on a hunger strike for over 55 days to protest his arrest.

Adnan who is a West Bank leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an Iranian backed militant group charged by Israel for killing many of its citizens in suicide bombings and rocket attacks, was then arrested in his home near the West Bank city of Jenin by a group of armed Israeli security personnel.

He began his hunger strike a day after a team of Israeli interrogators subjected him to a process of humiliation, insult and verbal abuse. His wife, Randa Adnan and lawyers told CNN on Saturday, that Adnan continues to be mistreated, suffers under long periods of solitary confinement and abusive interrogation sessions as well as multiple strip searches.

Adnan’s health has deteriorated since December 30, which prompted Israeli prison officials to move him to a hospital facility. Although he has refused treatment from Israeli doctors, he has been allowed to meet with representatives of the Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights, which in a statement expressed “grave concern” about his medical condition, according to CNN. 

It was only this week that his wife was able to visit him in the hospital. She said he resembled a “caveman.” “He appeared dirty and emaciated with long hair, nails and a beard, and he was manacled to his bed with only his left arm free,” she added. Prior to his arrest, Randa said her husband weighed just over 200 pounds. But she found her 33-year-old spouse, now weighing no more than 121 pounds. She told CNN that “it is something beyond description, as there is no sign of life in him ─ this is how I found him.” The nearly two-month protest marks the longest hunger strike in Palestinian history, which is bringing increasing criticism to Israeli’s arrest and detention policies for Palestinians.The Israeli military has said little about why Adnan was arrested, saying his case was being handled “strictly according to the law” with “special attention being given to his humanitarian situation.” The police military has also released short three-sentence statement reading saying, “Khader Adnan was arrested with an administrative warrant for activities that threaten regional security. This warrant was authorized by judicial review. An appeal was filed by the defendant against this decision and is currently under review,” according to CNN.Adnan was arrested under a controversial Israeli military practice known as “administrative detention” that allows Israel to hold detainees until further notice on security grounds. They charge detainees on secret evidence with no trial rights to defend themselves. As of December 2011, Israel held 307 Palestinians as administrative detainees, according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, marking a 40 percent increase from a year earlier.While Adnan’s detention draws wider criticism, his hunger strike has prompted growing demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza and encouraged other Palestinian prisoners to take up hunger strikes in support.

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Witnesses: Israeli forces uproot olive trees in Qalqiliya village

QALQILIYA (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces uprooted olive trees in the village of Kafr Qaddum, east of Qalqiliya, on Sunday.

Witnesses told Ma'an that tanks and soldiers arrived in the village and began digging up land in order to expand the nearby Israeli settlement of Qedumim. 

Dozens of villagers tried to stop military forces from destroying their land, but were held back by soldiers. 

Israeli forces clamped down on a weekly non-violent demonstration on Friday in the Qalqiliya village.

On Jan. 30, Israeli forces detained five men from the village, locals told Ma'an.

Kafr Qaddum holds a weekly protest against the decade-long closure of the area's main entrance.

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Soldiers arrest 4 activists at Bethlehem village protest

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces arrested four activists at a protest in al-Walaja village near Bethlehem on Sunday.

A statement from the Popular Committee Against the Wall said that Israeli forces arrested campaign coordinator Mazin al-Aza and three others.

The protests against the Israeli separation wall began at the al-Nour mosque in the village, before heading to al-Jweza spring.

Residents of the southern West Bank village are overwhelmingly refugees, driven from the historic al-Walaja, located just across the valley from the current population center.

The village was, in 1948, the second largest land area after Jerusalem but was cut down to one third the size when Israel declared statehood that year.

Now a border village, al-Walaja is edged on its eastern flank by an expanding bloc of settlements and is being reduced in size by the path of Israel's separation wall which annexes between two and three kilometers of village lands from the pre-1967 border.

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Soldiers assault Palestinian construction worker

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A Palestinian construction worker was injured by Israeli forces on Thursday while working near Israel's separation wall in Jerusalem, relatives told Ma'an on Sunday. 

Najeeb Mahmoud al-Zeer, from al-Fureidis village near Bethlehem, said that his brother was attacked by soldiers while working inside Israel. 

He suffered two broken legs and was taken to Beit Jala hospital for treatment.

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Comment

These fascist are gonna all drag us into another unjustifiable war. Hypocritically Israel can have hundreds of Nuclear weapons. Why? Another power in the region is unacceptable to everyone else. Now forgive me of I'm wrong but was we not convinced of the MAD doctrine in the 70's & 80's. The saying sauce for the goose springs to mind. 

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Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza, no injuries

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Israeli warplanes launched three airstrikes in north and south Gaza Strip early Tuesday, with no reports of injuries, witnesses and security officials said. 

Israeli F16 fighter jets fired three missiles at fields near al-Shaymaa school in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, two missiles at an open area west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, and one missile at Bani Suheila east of Khan Younis in the early hours. 

Before the air strikes, locals said flare bombs were fired towards the eastern borders of Khan Younis. 

An Israeli army statement said the aircraft were targeting a weapons manufacturing site in the north and three smuggling tunnels in the south. The strikes were "in response to the rockets fired at Israel during the past few days," the statement said.

The airstrikes were the third series of raids in a week. On Saturday, Israeli aircraft fired at a group of Palestinian militants in southern Gaza the army said were launching rockets, without causing injuries, three days after Israeli forces opened fire on the northern Gaza Strip, killing two people and seriously injuring at least two others.

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Israeli Police: Extremist Jews Attack Woman

Israeli police say a group of ultra-Orthodox extremists have attacked a woman who was putting up posters in a troubled town near Jerusalem.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says about a dozen ultra-Orthodox men in the town of Beit Shemesh surrounded the woman on Tuesday, pelted her with stones and slashed her car's tires. He says the woman suffered minor injuries.

Rosenfeld says it's not clear why she was targeted. The woman was putting up posters for Israel's national lottery at the time.

Beit Shemesh has experienced sharp tensions between ultra-Orthodox extremists and its remaining secular and modern Orthodox Jewish residents. The recent case of an 8-year-old girl who was afraid to walk to school because extremists spat on her and cursed her attracted international attention.

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Israeli soldiers 'tour Al-Aqsa compound'

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Uniformed Israeli soldiers entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Sunday, the Al-Aqsa Foundation for Waqf and Heritage said.

Describing the forces as "behaving aggressively," the foundation said ten soldiers walked around the compound with a tour guide.

Such incidents are a violation of the sanctity of the compound and set a dangerous precedent, the organization said. 

An Israeli army spokeswoman said she was not familiar with any official visit by troops. 

The Al-Aqsa compound, containing the mosque and the Dome of the Rock, is the third holiest site in Islam and abuts the site where Jews believe the ancient Second Temple stood, attracting the far-right to pose the rebuilding of the Jewish site on the sanctuary. 

The flashpoint site is under the custody of the Waqf (Islamic Endowment) authorities, and visits by Israeli extremists have been roundly condemned by Palestinian officials.

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Settlers 'attack 2 children' in Hebron

HEBRON (Ma'an) --Israeli settlers in Hebron attacked two Palestinian children in the West Bank city on Sunday, their family said. 

The group threatened Muhammad Abu Eisha, 12, and his brother Ibrahim, 11, with a knife before striking the children in the Tel Rumeida area, their father, also named Muhammad, told Ma'an. 

Israeli soldiers did not apprehend the group, he said. 

Hebron is split into Palestinian Authority and Israeli military controlled zones. Around 800 Jewish settlers live among 30,000 Palestinians in the parts of the ancient city that are under Israeli control, including Tel Rumeida. 

The settlers are trying to intimidate the remaining Palestinians in order to push them from their homes and take over the entire area, Muhammad Abu Eisha said.

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PA: Settlers, soldiers attack villagers near Nablus

NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Armed Jewish settlers and Israeli soldiers on Saturday attacked villagers in Nablus in the northern West Bank, Palestinian Authority officials said.

PA settlement affairs official Ghassan Doughlas told Ma'an that residents of the illegal Bracha settlement raided Burin village, threw rocks and glass bottles at locals and attacked homes.

Israeli military jeeps arrived in the village and soldiers beat up several Palestinians, including Bilal al-Dmeiry and Khalid Bashir, Doughlas said.

Israeli forces fired tear gas and sound bombs at Palestinians who were protesting the settler raid, witnesses told Ma'an.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said the army used riot dispersal means to break up clashes between Israelis and Palestinians who were throwing rocks at each other.

She added that three Palestinians and an Israeli were injured in the clashes.

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Teen 'seriously injured' after hit by Israeli army jeep

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- A Palestinian teenager sustained serious injuries on Saturday after he was hit by an Israeli military jeep in Silwan in East Jerusalem, local sources said.

Mahmoud al-Aawar, 18, was walking in the Ras al-Amoud neighborhood when an army jeep hit him and fled the scene, locals said. 

He was taken to the al-Maqasid Hospital to be treated for serious injuries.

Witnesses told Ma'an that an Israeli patrol in the area prevented locals evacuating al-Aawar immediately.

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Gaza teen blinded by Israeli airstrike: I spend my days inside

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Three years on from an Israeli attack that left him blind, 17-year-old Mahmoud Mattar says he spends most of his days inside and has little hope for the future.

Mahmoud was injured in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City on Jan. 7, 2009 during Israel's brutal three-week war on the Gaza Strip.

Israeli warplanes targeted a mosque in Sheikh Radwan, and Mahmoud, who was 14 at the time, ran to site of the attack. Two further strikes hit the area, killing two teenagers and injuring Mahmoud, who was thrown unconscious.

He was left totally blind by the attack, and told the Palestinian Center for Human Rights that he now spends his days inside. 

"I used to go by myself to the sea. I was independent. Now I need someone to go with me everywhere I go. I go out maybe once every two or three months."

He is also self-conscious of his injuries. "I don’t want to go out due to the comments I get from children. Anytime I do I cover my face with my clothes and dark glasses."

He added: "The glasses broke yesterday."

His injuries have taken a psychological toll on the teenager, who was suspended from school after having difficulties with students and teachers. 

"I have become very nervous since the attack. If someone is kidding with me I will try to hit them with anything at hand," he says.

His hopes of being a PE teacher or opening a sports club were destroyed in the strike, he says, and he has lost interest in education.

"Now my only wish is to leave my formal education and focus on my religion and learn the Koran."

Several charities have promised to provide reconstructive surgery to clear his breathing, which he struggles with due to transplanted bone matter in his nose, but the organizations have not delivered. 

"It would be great if someone could take me to the desert and leave me there, that way I wouldn’t have to see people," Mahmoud says.

PCHR submitted a criminal complaint to Israeli authorities on Mahmoud's behalf on Dec. 30, 2009, but has yet to receive a reply.

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Israeli police detain 7 East Jerusalem relatives

JERUSALEM (Ma’an) -- Israeli police in Jerusalem have detained seven Palestinians from the same family in recent weeks, officials said on Monday.

Israeli police spokeswoman Luba al-Sumri said the relatives, from northern East Jerusalem neighborhood Beit Hanina, are suspected of blackmail and robbery amounting to hundreds of thousands of shekels.

Three suspects were remanded in detention for a further three days on Monday, while the others are still awaiting a court decision, al-Sumri told Ma'an. Some of the group had confessed to the allegations, while others deny all charges, she said. 

Shufat police opened an investigation into the family, who was not named, after a Palestinian living in East Jerusalem complained that the group had seized his land despite a court order to leave, and were blackmailing him, the police official said. 

Police found a number of similar incidents in northern East Jerusalem for which they suspect the Beit Hanina family, al-Sumri added.

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Israeli force trains teens to catch Palestinian workers

TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- Israeli border police are training teenagers to use weapons and catch Palestinians working illegally in Israel and Jewish settlements, Israeli media said on Monday.

The weapons and police-duties training funded by the Public Security Minister of Israel has prepped some 30 16-18-year-olds in Israeli border region Modiin and will be rolled out to new groups, Israeli daily Haaretz reported. 

Youth volunteers catch Palestinian workers, stand at checkpoints and help guard the neighboring settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to the report. 

Haaretz reported that Israel's education ministry was not aware of the project and would investigate it.

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