Day: August 16, 2024

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said that the armed mass attack launched by terrorist settlers on the village of Jit, east of Qalqilya, last night, which resulted in the martyrdom of a young man and the critical injury of another, in addition to the burning of homes and vehicles, is organized state terrorism. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned, in a statement issued today, Friday, the brutal attack launched by terrorist settler gangs on the village of Jit, and considered it a dangerous escalation in their ongoing crimes against Palestinian citizens in the West Bank, which they commit under the protection of the occupation army, which intervenes to suppress citizens if they rise up to defend themselves. She added that she views the nature of this attack with great concern, especially since it is an organized and armed collective attack in which approximately 100 terrorist settlers participated, with the intention of killing, which led to the martyrdom of the young man Rashid Sedda (23 years old) and the injury of others, in addition to the burning of a number of citizens' homes and vehicles. The ministry wondered: "How could these terrorist gangs mobilize 100 of their members armed with Ben Gvir's weapons and attack a Palestinian village? Had they not felt protected and supported politically, legally and security-wise, knowing that such attacks are not the first, as they remind us of the attack more than once on the town of Hawara, south of Nablus, and its burning, and other crimes." The Ministry called, once again, for a serious international position that would force the occupying state to dismantle the terrorist settlements and militias spread across the occupied West Bank, dry up their sources of funding, lift political and legal protection from them, arrest their criminal elements, and force them to end their colonial settlement system and their racist discriminatory regime in occupied Palestine. She stressed that the mass attack on the village of Jit is evidence that the sanctions imposed by a number of countries on some terrorist elements of the colonists are not sufficient and will not deter them from stopping their crimes, calling for the imposition of deterrent sanctions on the entire colonial system and those who stand behind it and incite this brutal violence and terrorism from the Israeli officials before it is too late. The Ministry also called on the International Criminal Court to quickly assume its responsibilities in this regard, stressing that stopping the war of extermination against our people and providing them with international protection is a precondition for granting them the right to self-determination with freedom and dignity. Source: Maan News Agency

National News Agency correspondent in Tyre reported that Israeli enemy's artillery shelling targeted the southern Lebanese town of Yarin Source : National news agency - Lebanon

The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission reported on Friday that the occupation army and settlers set 273 fires targeting citizens' lands and properties after October 7, 2023. The head of the authority, Minister Mu'ayyad Shaaban, said that the occupation army and settlers have hidden behind the curtain of the terrible aggression that the occupation state is waging against our people, by carrying out many crimes, the most prominent of which are fires, in a clear insistence on restoring and reproducing the behavior of official state terrorism by terrorizing the safe and destroying their property, with the aim of creating a wide-scale process of forced displacement and confining the Palestinian presence to isolated and besieged "cantons." Shaaban explained that after October 7, the army and settlers deliberately caused a total of 273 fires in citizens' properties and fields, the most recent of which was the fire and attack on the village of Jit, east of Qalqilya. He added that the most prominent of thes e fires were in the governorates of Nablus with 120 fires, then Ramallah and Al-Bireh with 42 fires, and Jenin with 26 fires, and they varied between 77 fires that affected citizens' lands, fields and crops, while 196 fires targeted citizens' properties, including residential apartments, buildings, vehicles and others. He added that, in terms of implementation, the raids and attacks of the occupation army caused 56 fires that affected government and private properties, while the joint attacks between the settlers and the army caused 9 fires, while the settlers carried out the largest part of these fires, 208 fires. Shaaban explained that setting fires is a fixed and escalating mechanism that causes great damage, and that the occupying state is determined to adopt and sponsor it, and that it can only be viewed as a means of terrorism and terrorizing the safe and a fascist attempt to inflict heavy losses on citizens that affect their social and economic pattern, warning against the persistence of the various parties in the occupying state in repeating these fires in Palestinian villages, towns and cities under the cover of war and emergency laws these days. He said that the numbers that are being dealt with these days as a result of the attacks of the settler militias after October 7, with the martyrdom of 18 citizens by settler bullets, the injury of more than 785 and the displacement of 26 Bedouin communities, show the powers granted to terrorist groups that receive official support in the form of funding, protection and immunity, and that they can only be viewed as a blatant challenge to international positions and laws that condemn the colonial settlement project and the official institution in the occupying state that sponsors it and feeds on its expansion in the Palestinian land. Shaaban recalled the tragedies of the burning of the child Mohammed Abu Khudair in 2014 and the burning of the Dawabsheh family in 2015 by settlers, and the ongoing attempts to carry out more crimes, which continue to demonstrate the fascism of the intellectual complexes on which these groups rely. He stressed that these groups have not abandoned this mentality and have not stopped trying to burn Palestinians alive in front of the entire world, calling on the international community to assume its responsibilities in ensuring that the sanctions imposed go beyond the barrier of individuals to the level of groups, and that these sanctions rise to the level of the official and governmental frameworks that sponsor and support the colonial settlement terrorism project in the occupied Palestinian territory. Source: Maan News Agency

The Islamic Resistance issued on Friday the following statement, 'In support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, and in support of their valiant and honorable resistance, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted at 02:40 pm on Friday, August 16, 2024, a deployment of enemy soldiers in the vicinity of the Meitat barracks, with rocket weapons, and achieved direct hit." Source : National news agency - Lebanon

The International Academic Campaign Against Israeli Occupation and Apartheid held its first preparatory meeting to launch the activities of the Academic Conference for Global Solidarity with the Palestinian People for the year 2024. A number of key partners participated in the meeting to revive this event, which falls on November 29. Ramzi Odeh, Secretary General of the Academic Campaign, pointed out that this year's academic solidarity activities will include a significant number of partners at home and abroad, namely: the Yasser Arafat Foundation, the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, the National Library, the Human Rights Department of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Union of Palestinian Writers and Authors, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, the Palestine Institute for National Security Research, the Student Forum Foundation, the Palestinian Educational Coalition, and the International Academic Campaigns in Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Awda explained that this year's activities seek to enhance the national and international academic role in stopping the genocide to which our Palestinian people are being subjected. For his part, Minister Mu'ayyad Shaaban, head of the Wall Resistance Commission, called for the slogan of this event this year to be the necessity of providing international protection for the Palestinian people, in addition to organizing academic solidarity activities in the Jordan Valley areas threatened by settlement. Qassim Awad, Deputy Director of the Human Rights Department of the Palestine Liberation Organization, confirmed that the department will launch an international campaign of solidarity with the Palestinian people, within the framework of the activities of the International Solidarity Day, from activists, activists and lawyers who support the Palestinian cause in various parts of the world. For his part, Muhammad Halayqa from the Yasser Arafat Foundation stressed the importance of diversifying activities and limiting them to the cognitive and a cademic framework, in addition to the necessity of inviting universities and the global student movement supporting the Palestinian cause. Dr. Rifat Al-Sabah also called for prior coordination with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in order to develop a plan for schools and universities to commemorate Solidarity Day. For his part, Hisham Hindi considered that law students in Palestinian universities conducting mock trials to hold Israel accountable for its crimes against the Palestinian people is a necessary matter within the framework of the activities of this day. At the end of the meeting, Major General Habis Al-Sharouf stressed the targeting of the Palestinian academic and educational sector by the Israeli war machine, emphasizing the important role played by researchers in exposing the crimes of the occupation and holding it responsible for the occupation and apartheid. Source: Maan News Agency

The General Union of Palestinian NGOs welcomed President Mahmoud Abbas's speech before the Turkish Parliament, considering it a speech that expresses all components of the Palestinian people, and is characterized by comprehensiveness and high unity. The General Union affirmed in a statement its support for what was included in the speech in terms of affirming the Palestinian constants, including the absolute rejection of all attempts by the occupation to consecrate the separation of the Gaza Strip from the responsibility of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and to separate it from the State of Palestine, the West Bank and Jerusalem. The State of Palestine has jurisdiction over the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with East Jerusalem as its eternal capital. The Palestinian people, with all their components, parties and factions, have not and will not accept the presence of the Israeli occupation in a single inch of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank or Jerusalem. The priority today is to stop the Israeli aggression and withdraw completely and immediately from the entire Gaza Strip, to expedite the provision of humanitarian aid, to prevent forced displacement, to return the displaced to their homes, and to stop settlements and the crimes of the occupation forces and their settlers in the West Bank and Jerusalem. The General Union appreciated the decision of the President of the State of Palestine to head with all members of the Palestinian leadership to the Gaza Strip and his invitation to world leaders and the Secretary-General of the United Nations to participate in this decision and secure the arrival of the Palestinian leadership to the Strip. Considering it a courageous decision that strengthens the steadfastness of our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and pushes towards stopping the war of extermination practiced by the occupation army and confirms the unity of the Palestinian territories and the unity of the Palestinian people and strengthens the unity of the Palestinian national action factions. The General Union called on all Palestinian political and national components to support this decision and participate in it in a way that serves the unity of our people, stressing the support of Palestinian civil society institutions for this decision and their full readiness to participate in it. The General Union also praised the Turkish people and the Turkish National Assembly, Turkey's role in defending the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to freedom and independence, the positions of all Turkish parties supporting the Palestinian right, and Turkish civil society institutions rejecting and denouncing the war crimes committed by the occupation against our people, our land and our holy sites. Source: Maan News Agency

Israeli occupation forces arrested a young man and his sister from the town of Beitin, east of Ramallah, at dawn on Friday. Local sources reported that the occupation forces arrested Abdul Rahman Jaraba'a and his sister Shaza after raiding and searching their home. Source: Maan News Agency

The Meteorological Department's forecasts for the coming days indicate relatively hot to hot weather, as temperatures are expected to witness a slight decrease on Friday, August 16, 2024, while remaining slightly above the general average. Winds will be westerly to northwesterly, light to moderate in speed, sometimes active, while the sea will be light to medium in wave height. By evening and night hours, mild weather is expected to prevail in mountainous areas, and relatively warm in the rest of the regions. On Saturday, August 17, 2024, temperatures are expected to rise slightly again to become about two degrees Celsius higher than the general average, with the winds continuing to be southwesterly to northwesterly, light to moderate in speed, and the sea being light to medium in wave height. On Sunday, August 18, 2024, the country will witness another rise in temperatures, becoming about 4 degrees Celsius higher than the general average, amid hot to very hot weather. Winds will continue from the southwes t to the northwest, light to moderate in speed. With the beginning of the new week, specifically on Monday, August 19, 2024, temperatures will rise to become about 5 degrees Celsius higher than the general average, which will increase the severity of the heat. The winds will continue to be southwesterly to northwesterly, light to moderate in speed, with occasional activity. The Meteorological Department warns citizens of the dangers of direct exposure to sunlight, especially during peak hours, and also warns of the danger of starting fires in areas where there are many dry grasses and trees, due to the high relative humidity that increases the feeling of heat. Source: Maan News Agency

A settler, tonight, grazes his sheep and destroys olive trees on the lands of the town of Battir, west of Bethlehem. Citizen Omar Al-Qaisi reported that a settler grazing his sheep destroyed 10 olive trees on his land and his brother Ibrahim's land in the 'Al-Khamar' area in Battir, after cutting the barbed wire surrounding their land. He added that the sheep grazing also led to the destruction of cucumber, zucchini and green bean crops. It is noteworthy that the settler, whose name is "Lior", had established a settlement outpost in the area, and from there he attacks farmers and their lands. A few days ago, he destroyed 26 olive trees on the lands owned by the brothers Omar and Ibrahim Al-Qaisi in the area. Source: Maan News Agency

Chairman of the Palestinian National Council Rawhi Fattouh warned that the Israeli occupation forces are reducing what they call "humanitarian areas" and confining more than one and a half million Palestinian citizens to an area of ??no more than 30 square kilometers without anything to protect them from artillery shells and drone bullets that are firing bullets non-stop at tents and displaced people in the open. He said in a statement issued on Friday evening that forcing the people of Gaza to continue to migrate is a psychological, physical and economic torment that weighs heavily on the shoulders of the citizens who do not have their daily sustenance and the provision of the most basic requirements for living. Fattouh added that the occupation's killing of a mother and her four daughters in a bombing of displaced people's tents in Khan Yunis is a war crime, and that the occupation is planning to cause the largest number of victims to carry out the extermination of all the residents of the Gaza Strip, an d then displace them. Fattouh appealed to the world to save more than two million people from the danger of genocide, cleansing, starvation siege and killing by epidemics, especially polio and hepatitis, calling for pressure to stop the export of weapons and killing tools that have killed tens of thousands of our Palestinian people, and to impose sanctions on the occupation entity and the terrorist colonizer militias to stop the bloodshed and daily massacres in the occupied Palestinian territories, lift the unjust siege and allow in food and medical aid convoys. Source: Maan News Agency