Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

 

 Israeli Occupation Forces Kidnap Scores of Palestinian Civilians, Attack Prisoners, Detain 190 Children

 

Soldiers Attack West Bank Protests Injuring Two Civilians

Friday April 06, 2012 14:38 by Ghassan Bannoura - IMEMC News

Two civilians were injured when Israeli troops attacked anti wall and settlements protests on Friday at a number of West Bank communities.

At the village of Nabi Saleh, in central west Bank, one man and a journalist were injured when they got hit in the head by tear gas bombs in the head.

Villagers of al Nabi Saleh along with international and Israeli supporters tried to march towered local farmers land taken by Israel to build a settlements on. Soldiers stooped them at the village entrance and forced them back using tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets.

Meanwhile, many were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation at the nearby villages of Bil’in and Nil’in. Both protests started after midday prayers on Friday.

In Nil’in villagers along with international and Israeli supporters managed to reach the gate of the wall separating local farmers from thier lands before soldiers fired tear gas at them. In Bil’in troops fired tear gas at the villagers and their supporters before reaching the wall.

In southern West bank, also on Friday, the villagers of Al Ma’ssara and residents of Beit Jala town near Bethlehem marched against the wall. Soldiers used tear gas in al Ma’ssara village , many were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation.

At the town of Beit Jala, the residents of the town marched the Good Friday and marched up to their lands Israel took over to build the wall on. Residents marched lead by local priests. The protests ended after a short mass near the confected lands.

Israeli occupation government continues to detain 190 Palestinian children

[ 05/04/2012 - 10:22 PM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)--

The Statistics department at the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Prisoners Affairs showed that the Israeli occupation government is still detaining nearly one hundred ninety-Palestinian children, "in conditions such as those in which adult prisoners are detained, in terms of location, cruelty, inhuman treatment, and poor nutrition and health care."

According to a report issued on Thursday by the department to coincide with the "Palestinian Child Day," and which falls on 5 April each year, the occupation authorities "did not exclude the children of the campaigns of individual or collective, random or organized arrests, as it arrested tens of thousands since 1967. As recorded during Al-Aqsa Intifada, since 28 September 2000 until today, the occupation have arrested more than nine thousand children who were under eighteen years old out of seventy-five thousand arrests during that period.” The report revealed the presence of hundreds of prisoners who had been arrested as children and grew up - and still are - in Zionist jails.

It also stressed that children "are subjected to torture and pressure during interrogations. The Zionists shackle their hands and blindfold them. Besides, they are severely beaten, subjected to electric shocks, forced to stand naked or semi-naked in the cold or under the hot sun, and deprived of their right to education and the completion of their path of study which affect badly their future."

The report pointed out that child prisoners are often taken to Zionist settlements, "which are used as interrogation centers for questioning children and extracting confessions by force and under pressure and duress without any checks," pointing out that all those who were arrested have been subjected to some form of physical or psychological torture and that harsh interrogation methods were no longer exclusive to adults, but they affected even young children.

The ministry pointed out that the tragedy is that "the Zionist judiciary depends on such confessions, regardless of the method or mechanism that were used to extract them, to condemn the child and sentence him to many years of imprisonment and in some cases, to imprisonment for life."

12 Detainees are continuing their Open Hunger Strike in the Occupation Prisons

[ 05/04/2012 - 09:54 PM ]

RAMALLAH, (pic)--

Twelve detainees in the occupation prisons are continuing their open hunger strike, ten of them are protesting administrative detention, one is demanding to be treated as a war prisoner, and another is protesting in solidarity with the hunger strikers.

The Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS) publicized, in a press statement on Thursday (5/4), the hunger strikers' names, pointing that Bilal Diab from Jenin, and Thaer Hlahalh from AL-Khalil, 38 days running on hunger strike, and Omar Abu waterfall from Nablus, 31days running on hunger strike, were transferred to Ramla prison hospital after their deteriorating health conditions.

Hunger Strikers' Families Demand International Intervention for the Strikers

[ 05/04/2012 - 09:55 PM ]

JININ, (pic)--

Hunger strikers' families, in Jenin, stated that the occupation bears full responsibility for the strikers' lives, appealing to all human rights and humanitarian organizations to stand with them, and asking for an immediate international intervention to release and protect them.

Bilal Diab has been in administrative detention without charge, and there is nothing to justify his detention especially that his health condition is very critical, the prisoner's brother said during a solidarity protest in front of the Red Cross in Jenin on Wednesday.

For her part, the mother of Mohamed Tej, who has been in hunger strike for 22 days running, called the international institutions for the enforcement of Geneva Conventions for prisoners, especially the third and the fourth and to pressure the occupation to apply them.

She also stressed the importance of international institutions' role to save the hunger strikers’ lives and to prevent occupation violations of international law.

The protesters transmitted a note to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Jenin, demanding it to immediately intervene to save the hunger strikers’ lives, to put an end to the policy of administrative detention, and to stop the Zionist violations against the captives in occupation prisons, especially solitary confinement, and collective punishment.

Occupation forces storm Nafha prison and assault captives

[ 05/04/2012 - 08:55 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

The Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs reported in an urgent statement, Thursday, that a brave prisoner at Nafha prison. Awadh al-Saidi attacked a jailer, in retaliation to the flagrant assault on the two leaders Abbas al-Sayed and Jamal Abu al-Hija, and as a rejection of the repressive policy of the prison administration. Consequently, the Police forces and Matsada forces were called and assaulted prisoner Saidi then took him to an unknown destination.

The sources added that after this dangerous escalation, the prison administration resorted to Special Forces and police, and called the spokesman of the prisoners for an urgent meeting to discuss the implications and the latest developments within the prison.

The captives said that the Prison administration, from time to time, exercise restrictions on the prisoners and withdrawal of all privileges and rights acquired by the prisoners which prompted the prisoners to protest this criminal policy, and to demand their legitimate rights. This led to the attack on the prisoners and their leadership which could be followed by more intense and severer reactions amongst captives in various prisons.

The prisoners stressed on their adherence to their legitimate rights within the prison and their rejection of the policy of solitary confinement against the leaders, warning of the deteriorating conditions inside the prison which could result in many martyrs and injuries.

IOF soldiers kidnapped 38 Palestinians in Nablus in March including 11 children

[ 05/04/2012 - 09:51 AM ]

NABLUS, (PIC)--

The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) kidnapped 38 Palestinians in Nablus province in March including 11 children, the Tadamoun foundation for human rights, said in a statement on Thursday.

It said that the detainees include a woman, who was freed ten days after her detention after going on hunger strike, and a number of liberated prisoners.

The foundation said that a Hamas leader was among those arrested in addition to a paralyzed man. Othman Khalili was paralyzed after IOF soldiers shot him in the spine during an earlier arrest six years ago.

The IOF soldiers rounded up more than 300 Palestinians in various West Bank areas in the past month of March including 56 children and 7 women.

IOF soldiers kidnap 20 Palestinians in Qalqilia village

[ 05/04/2012 - 09:51 AM ]

QALQILIA, (PIC)--

Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed the village of Kafr Kaddoum in Qalqilia and rounded up 20 Palestinian citizens, local sources said.

They said that the soldiers terrorized women and children during their search of many homes in the village in the raid that was launched shortly before dawn Thursday.

The sources noted that IOF soldiers roamed the village streets on foot and in armored vehicles and used police dogs in their raid.