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 Settlers Tortured, Burned to Death Palestinian Teenager Mohamed Abu Khudeir,  Israeli Soldiers Continue Terror Campaign in the West Bank

July 2, 2014

The Jerusalemite teenager Mohamed Abu Khudeir, 17, was found dead at dawn Wednesday after being kidnapped, tortured, and burned to death by the illegal Israeli settlers in Shuafat town southern occupied Jerusalem.	639 Palestinians kidnapped in Israeli West Bank military operation, Shocking findings about Palestinian children in Israeli jails

Palestinian teen burned to death by illegal Israeli settlers

[ 02/07/2014 - 12:28 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)--

The Jerusalemite teenager Mohamed Abu Khudeir, 17, was found dead at dawn Wednesday after being kidnapped, tortured, and burned to death by the illegal Israeli settlers in Shuafat town southern occupied Jerusalem.

Local sources revealed that Abu Khudeir was kidnapped by three Israeli settlers while on his way to Shuafat mosque to perform dawn prayers.

Israeli police found the body of an Arab teenager in the Jerusalem area on Wednesday after being tortured and burned, Israeli media sources said.

Israeli police have been notified that an Arab teenager was forced into a vehicle in Beit Hanina neighborhood northern occupied Jerusalem, the sources said, adding that they were investigating a possible connection to the reported kidnapping of a Palestinian youth earlier in the day.

According to Yediot Ahronot Hebrew newspaper, the teen Abu Khudeir was found dead after being burned by Israeli settlers near Givat Shaul settlement.

The possibility the Palestinian teen was kidnapped and killed as part of revenge attack after the killing of three Israeli settlers in al-Khalil was being investigated, the newspaper said.

Following the settlers' crime, violent clashes erupted between Israeli forces and Jerusalemite youths in Shuafat town.

Israeli soldiers heavily fired tear gas bombs and rubber bullets during the clashes, and closed the town’s entrances. Several Palestinians including journalists were injured, the PIC correspondent reported.

Angry Palestinian youths, in turn, attacked the Israeli train station in the town, the PIC reporter added.

Illegal Israeli settlers set fire to agricultural lands in Nablus

[ 02/07/2014 - 02:33 PM ]

NABLUS, (PIC)--

Dozens of illegal Israeli settlers set fire at dawn Wednesday to agricultural land and facilities in Aqraba town in Nablus.

A member of the popular committee against the settlement in the village, Hamza Diriya, said in a press release that Israeli settlers set fire to Palestinian-owned agricultural land and agricultural facilities.

The settlers painted racist slogans during the suspected 'price tag' attack calling for revenge, he added.

IOF closes Aqsa Mosque, arrests Palestinian child

[ 01/07/2014 - 08:42 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)--

Special Israeli occupation government police forces closed on Tuesday al-Aqsa Mosque before worshipers after they confronted attempts by the illegal Jewish settlers to desecrate the holy site.

Clashes broke out after Israeli settles tried to storm al-Aqsa Mosque from the Magareba gate. A 12-year-old Palestinian child was arrested while another citizen was injured during the clashes.

Israeli occupation government police also banned Palestinian women’s access into the mosque as a punitive measure after they foiled Israeli settlers’ attempt to break into the mosque on Monday.

In the same context, a Jerusalemite young man was injured and hospitalized after being beaten by a group of settlers in occupied Jerusalem on Monday night.

In a Price Tag attack, racist slogans were painted on the walls of a Palestinian home near Beit Sheimesh settlement.

Illegal Israeli settlers had stormed on Monday morning al-Aqsa Mosque under heavy Israeli police protection.

A state of tension prevailed among Palestinian worshipers after large numbers of Israeli settlers and students broke into the mosque squares from the Magareba gate under heavy protection, the PIC reporter said.

The settlers provoked Palestinian worshipers in the mosque who in their turn expelled them, Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage said.

The foundation said that Israeli settlers are used to performing Talmudic rituals and provocative practices during their break-ins into al-Aqsa Mosque.

Spokesman for the foundation Mahmud Abu Atta warned of the Israeli settlers’ escalated violations in the mosque, calling for intensifying Palestinian presence in al-Aqsa during the holy month of Ramadan.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is daily subjected to systematic break-ins and violations carried out by Israeli forces and settlers aiming to impose full Israeli control over the holy mosque.

44 Palestinian citizens, Hamas affiliates kidnapped in IOF abduction campaign

[ 02/07/2014 - 12:41 PM ]

WEST BANK, (PIC)--

A wave of raid-campaigns and arbitrary mass abductions has been carried out by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) Tuesday evening and early Wednesday morning across different areas of the West Bank.

The campaign targeted dozens of Hamas activists and leaders, including ex-prisoners, and ended with the arrest of 44 citizens.

Eight Palestinian citizens, including Hamas leader Ahmad Doula, were rounded up by the IOF Tuesday evening and at dawn Wednesday in Nablus city.

The occupation troops re-threatened to assassinate the wanted MP Ahmed al-Haj Ali, 77, after having stormed his son’s home and ransacked it for the 4th time since the launch of the West Bank military operation.

According to a PIC correspondent at the scene, “a large Israeli military force raided Nablus at around 2 a.m. and ravaged several Palestinian homes before breaking into the house of al-Haj Ali’s son.”

Violent clashes broke out between the heavily armed Israeli patrols and a group of unarmed Palestinian youngsters after the IOF broke into Lebanon Cake Shop in Rafidia neighborhood, in Nablus.

Dozens of Palestinian civilians were treated for breathing problems as they inhaled tear gas fired by the Israeli occupation troops throughout the raid.

A similar campaign was launched by the IOF in al-Khalil. Ex-detainees Monther Al-Jooba, Fathi al-Jawalani, Jawad al-Karki, Bilal al-Muhtaseb, Jamal al-Awawda, Kayed al-Atawna, and Mussa Zmaara were all kidnapped in the process.

A series of Israeli terror acts and home attacks stroke the area, followed by the abduction of Hamas ex-prisoner Ahmed al-Qiq, diagnosed with cardiovascular diseases. At least 5 Israeli armored jeeps stormed Naket Nouh quarter and cordoned off the house before dragging the hostage into a military jeep, al-Qiq’s family told the PIC.

The IOF rounded up Rezq al-Rajoub, who had been held for more than 20 years in Israeli jails and underwent a surgery just two days ago.

Several laptops and other belongings were confiscated all along IOF assaults on different areas of al-Khalil, including Ras al-Joura and Ein Sara.

In Salfit, the Israeli troops captured Sheikh Aziz Fatash, ex-detainee Zuheir al-Inbousi and Salah Bahjat.

Another ex-prisoner, identified as Khaled Ghidhan, released in the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner swap deal, was rounded up by the IOF in Ramallah.

The campaign targeted also Palestinian female activist Bushra al-Tawil, among many other Ramallah natives.

The Israeli spate of mass abductions culminated in the apprehension of scores of Palestinian civilians and Hamas leaders from Bethlehem, Qalqilya, Jenin, and the Jordan Valley.

Demolition threats targeting the homes of a number of Hamas leaders, including Bajes Nakhleh, ex-prisoner Abbas Qar’an, and Muhammad Idghish, were issued by the IOF throughout.

639 Palestinians kidnapped in Israeli West Bank military operation

[ 02/07/2014 - 01:25 PM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)--

Palestinian human rights sources documented unprecedented upsurge in Israeli mass abduction campaigns launched during the recent military operation across different areas of the West Bank, bringing the total number of kidnapped Palestinians to 639 citizens.

44 Palestinian civilians, mostly ex-prisoners, have been rounded up in the West Bank at dawn Wednesday, leading to a rise in the number of those detained over the past few weeks to 639, the Palestinian Prisoner Society reported in a statement on Wednesday.

Al-Khalil hit a record high of 230 detainees, followed by Nablus and Bethlehem with, consecutively, 102 and 85 captives each.

In a related event, dozens of Palestinian citizens, mostly women and children, were treated for breathing problems as they inhaled tear gas fired by the Israeli occupation troops on the peaceful Muslim congregation overnight Tuesday during Tarawih prayers in Qarawat Bani Hassan mosque, west of Salfit, eye-witnesses told a PIC news reporter.

4 Palestinian civilians severely injured following IOF home blast

[ 02/07/2014 - 01:18 PM ]

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)--

The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) blew up at dawn Wednesday the house of Palestinian prisoner Ziyad Awad in Idna town, west of al-Khalil, and threatened to raze several others.

The Israeli occupation troops raided Awad’s house before detonating a barrage of explosives planted by bomb experts.

Four Palestinian youngsters sustained bullet injuries in confrontations with the IOF soldiers following the home demolition. The IOF soldiers blew up the house under pretext that Awad and his son might have been involved in the death of an Israeli soldier near Tarkoumia crossroad two months ago.

According to local sources, one young man was left severely wounded after he was shot by live ammunition by the Israeli patrols.

Two more youngsters were shot with rubber bullets as they tried to rescue Awad’s house.

By-standers at the scene said the IOF denied Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances access into the area for urgent treatment of the civilian casualties.

The Israeli troops forced all of the inhabitants out of their own and only home, already cordoned off by 300 Israeli soldiers, before blowing it off.  Heavy firing of tear gas canisters was documented in the process against citizen trying to help the family members.

In an earlier incident on Tuesday the IOF threatened to reduce the home of Palestinian citizen Abbas Fawaz Qar’an, in Ramallah, into rubble after having stormed the house and handed the owner a written demolition notice under pretext of illegal permit.

Upsurge in Israeli raids on the West Bank and Gaza has been documented ever since the disappearance of the three Israeli soldiers, who were found dead on Monday.

Other demolition threats were issued against Bethlehem natives following a spate of Israeli raids into the city.

Euro-Mid Observer:

Shocking findings about Palestinian children in Israeli jails

[ 02/07/2014 - 12:56 PM ]

GENEVA, (PIC)--

The Geneva-Based Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights documented the annual Israeli arrest of about 3,000 Palestinian children, mostly aged between 12 and 15 years old, calling on the international community to act against such “a flagrant breach to human rights treaties.”

At a time when West Bankers have been permanent targets of Israeli terror acts, home raids and abduction campaigns, scores of Palestinian children have been kidnapped in the early months of 2014, corroborated by dozens of videotaped sworn affidavits, the EMHRN said in a report on the Israeli violations of Palestinian children’s rights.

75% of the incarcerated minors have been subjected to physical torture while 25% are brought before Israeli military courts, the report pointed out.

Israeli occupation troops stormed more than 1500 Palestinian homes and shops over the past three weeks and kidnapped more than 600 Palestinians, including children below the age of 18.

According to the Euro-Mid Legal Counsel Ihsan Adel, the Israeli police and army have been launching overnight raids on Palestinian homes and capturing Palestinian minors without updating their families about the charges.

Countless cases of random kidnaps, torture testimonies, and violations of the convention of Children’s Rights, signed by Israel in 1991, featured in the report.

The Euro-Mid kept record of numerous occasions during which Palestinian minors have been kidnapped in Israeli overnight home-raids, generating a state of unparalleled anxiety and panic among the children and their families with no legitimate reasons.

Blowing up Palestinians’ home gates, snatching a child from his/her own bed, resorting to psycho-physical torture, and locking minors up in solitary cells, have all been Israeli terror tactics to agonize Palestinian children, both in the interrogation and pre-interrogation phases.

The Israeli occupation authorities have not only been incarcerating Palestinian children in solitary cells that often cover a very narrow area but also denying them their right and need to be visited by their lawyers and parents, even during the court hearings.

It is almost impossible for the child to stand against the dark-gray-colored cell walls, covered with protrusions from all sides.

Adviser Ihsan Adel detected a genuine compatibility between the Euro-Mid report and the findings of a UNICEF survey conducted in 2013 warning that: “The abuse of Palestinian children under the Israeli military detention system is a large-scale, systematic, and pre-planned tactic.”

“Neither the spontaneity of childhood nor children’s right to live in safety seem to really matter for the Israeli occupation,” the report concluded, calling on the international and human rights institutions to immediately step in so as to halt such unspeakable Israeli violations of Palestinian children’s rights.

“No human being shall ever turn blind eyes and deaf ears to any such kidnaps or tortures against children,” researcher in the Department of Political Science, Sandra Owen, said, as she raised alarm bells over the 1406 Palestinian children killed since 2000, including 263 below the age of 8 and 450 below 15.

“Is not the tragedy of Palestinian children worth the fuss launched following the disappearance of the three Israeli soldiers?” Sandra Owen wondered.