PRESS RELEASE
Hamas

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri stated Wednesday that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s remarks are prejudiced in favour of the Israeli occupation and are at odds with international law.

In a facebook statement Abu Zuhri said that Ki-Moon equates murderous settlers with Palestinians who are defending themselves, and called on Palestinians to continue their intifada, saying they should not fall for attempts to thwart their uprising.

In a meeting with the occupation’s PM Netanyahu on Tuesday, Ban Ki-Moon stated that he deplores what he said were “random terror attacks against Israeli civilians.” His remarks were met by anger from Palestinians, who said they overlooked their suffering and ignored the root causes of the situation.

PRESS RELEASE
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Khan Younis, Gaza, organized a blood donation drive at its office in the governorate under the slogan: “One body, one blood, intifada until the end of occupation,” in support of the Palestinian people of the West Bank, Jerusalem, and occupied Palestine ’48 on October 20.

Members of the party, cadres of the Front participated in the even as did members of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees.

Comrade Hani Thawabteh, member of the Central Committee of the PFLP, said that the blood donation campaign was being conducted to support the growing intifada of our Palestinian people in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Occupied Palestine ’48, and to affirm the unity of the Palestinian people in confronting the occupation war machine together.

Muneer Shafiq
Felesteen

There is no doubt that the third Palestinian Intifada has broken out. The context of this Intifada is different from that of the first and second Intifadas and it is wrong to compare this Intifada to other Intifadas.

The third Palestinian Intifada has three main features. First, Israel is politically isolated and weaker than any time before. Second, the Palestinian Authority is still tied to security coordination with Israel. Third, the turmoil in the world that made the U.S unable to play its role as a major role in the region.

The three Intifadas share one thing: the popular sympathy in the Arab world as well as Europe, which helps tighten the grip around the Israeli government’s neck. The Israeli government tried to impose spatial and temporal division of Alaqsa, so the goal of this Intifada should be defeating this Israeli plan. Achieving this goal will also help achieve other goals such as freeing prisoners and lifting siege imposed on Gaza.

This Intifada should not be a merely a wave of anger and it should lead to a victory to the Palestinians. The current situation is suitable to bring about a victory. This is the only language the Israeli occupation understands.

Edited and Translated by CPDS

PRESS RELEASE
EuroMed Monitor

Releasing the Report at the Geneva Conference

A new report, “Israel’s Arbitrary Killings and its System of Structural Violence,” was released by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor in a press conference in Geneva.

The report summarizes the results of Euro-Med’s investigations into recent Israeli human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian Territories. Featured at the press conference were video footage and photos illustrating the harassment and killing of Palestinian civilians involved in political protests during the last two weeks.

While the Israeli government has to date escaped serious accountability for repeated human rights violations, “citizen journalism”—in which excessive acts of force are caught on camera—now is making it more difficult for the acts to be obscured or brushed aside, says the report.

“Thanks to the courageous acts of activists, family members and bystanders, Euro-Med has collected video footage and eyewitness testimonies documenting numerous, egregious abuses by Israeli soldiers during the last few weeks, which we believe is only the tip of the iceberg,” says Daniela Dönges. “In our report, we name eight of them, because they are not just numbers. They are human beings with stories that must be told.” Read more »

PRESS RELEASE
UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Makarim Wibisono, expressed grave concern and deep sadness at this month’s intensification of violence across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and in Gaza.

“Too many Palestinian and Israeli lives have been lost in the context of violent attacks and clashes,” Mr. Wibisono said, noting also the hundreds of injured. “In the face of growing violence, I urge Israel to exercise restraint and to recognise that all, including Palestinians, have equal right to respect for their human rights and their dignity.”

The number of reported Palestinian deaths, including children, is steadily rising. There are concerns of excessive use of force against Palestinians by Israeli security forces in the context of clashes, and cases of suspected Palestinian assailants shot and killed rather than arrested following attacks on Israelis, have been reported. Read more »

Julie Webb-Pullman

Ismail Haniyeh at Shifa Hospital with Ahmed Areer, 15, shot in the neck by Israeli military

During a new year visit to Gaza’s Shifa Hospital patients injured in recent border clashes, Ismail Haniyeh on Thursday congratulated the Palestinian people for succeeding in resisting Israeli attempts to take over Jerusalem and the Al Aqsa Mosque, and gave special praise to the fighters in the streets and on the borders.

“We have seen a martyr fighting to the last – he knew he was about to die but he kept fighting until his very last breath,” he said. “Our people will not cease to defend our land, and Al Quds.”

Haniyeh spoke with most of the 25 patients still lying in Shifa Hospital beds with smashed limbs, gross abdominal explosive injuries, and head and neck wounds from direct Israeli fire over the past few weeks.

The other hospitals in the Gaza Strip are also dealing with the casualties of Israeli exceptionalism and impunity – and new forms of brutality. The latest Israeli trend is firing at the groin, resulting in devastating injuries – Al Aqsa Hospital received a young man this week whose penis and testicles had been shot off.

Nine Gazan youth have already lost their lives this month: the eldest only 22 years old, and three young boys under 16.

“Gaza is with those resisting for Al Aqsa,” Haniyeh said at the press conference following his visit to the surgical wing. “The message from our wounded is that Gaza, despite the distance and its deep suffering due to the siege and war, still stands behind the battle of Jerusalem, and that Gaza is in the heart of Jerusalem’s Intifada.”

Haniyeh also praised the medical staff, police and media for their exceptional work in treating, helping and covering these events.

PRESS RELEASE
Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS)

PRCS has documented 53 attacks against its teams and ambulances in which 37 emergency medical technicians (EMTs) were wounded and around 20 ambulances were damaged since October 3rd when the latest round of attacks by Israeli occupation forces against Palestinians in the oPt, including Jerusalem, began. Furthermore. There are 24 cases in which PRCS’ ambulances were hindered and prevented from reaching wounded Palestinians near seam zones.

The majority of attacks (23) took place in occupied Jerusalem. PRCS affirms that these violations aim at hindering the work of its teams and at preventing them from carrying out their humanitarian duty, including reaching injured persons, providing them with First Aid and ensuring their transfer to hospitals. This has increased the suffering of injured persons and their families. Read more »

PRESS STATEMENT
UNRWA Spokesperson Chris Gunness

UNRWA calls for political action and accountability to stem the current spiral of violence and fear;
highlights lack of hope amongst Palestinian youth

UNRWA is deeply alarmed by the escalating violence and widespread loss of civilian life in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel. Only robust political action can prevent the further escalation of a situation that is affecting Palestinian and Israeli civilians.

In Gaza a total of 11 Palestinians, among them refugees, have reportedly been killed and at least 186 injured. Nine people, including three children were reportedly killed during demonstrations in Gaza and two people – a pregnant woman and a child – were killed when a house collapsed due to the impact of a nearby Israeli strike. Four people were reportedly injured in the latter incident. In the West Bank, between 1 October and 9 October, UNRWA has recorded 45 incursions by Israeli forces into refugee camps resulting in several refugees being shot dead, including one child. According to preliminary figures, 180 people have reportedly been injured in West Bank refugee camps, including some 20 children. About 50 of them were reportedly injured by live-fire.

We condemn killings and injuries of Palestine refugees such as the tragic case on 5 October, of Abd El Rahman, a 13-year-old ninth grade student at an UNRWA school who was shot dead by Israeli Forces in Bethlehem’s Aida refugee camp. The initial UNRWA investigation indicates that the child was with a group of friends, next to the UNRWA office after the school day was over and was not posing any threat. Read more »

Khalid Amayreh
DesertPeace

In the final analysis, the PA is subservient to Israel and, to a very large extent, answerable to Israel.

Image by Carlos Latuff

Both the criminal, racist state of Israel, and the Palestinian Authority (PA), a police state without a state which we all know is at Israel’s beck and call, are reacting characteristically, each in its own way, to the ongoing popular Palestinian protests in the West Bank, especially in Occupied East Jerusalem. Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, have been threatening Palestinians with death and destruction if they continue with their protests, which he conveniently calls “terror.”

Netanyahu, of course, ignores the incomparably greater Jewish terror against Palestinians, which is continuing unabated, with full government backing and encouragement. Read more »

Hamas

An Israeli aerial attack on the Gaza Strip at dawn Sunday destroyed a Palestinian home, killing a pregnant woman and her little girl, and injuring three other family members.

A spokesman for the health ministry said that Nour Hassan, who was five months pregnant, and her two-year-old daughter Rahaf Yehya were both killed when their home collapsed as a result of an Israeli air raid on a nearby location in Azzeitoun neighborhood east of Gaza City.

Three other people from the same family also suffered injuries in the attack.

Eyewitnesses said the house was reduced to rubble as a result of the strong blast that was caused by an Israeli airstrike on a nearby resistance training site.

With Sunday’s raid casualties the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza since Friday rises to 11, including 9 civilians killed earlier in cross-border shootings at protesters.

Hamas

Vice chairman of Hamas’s Political Bureau Ismail Haniya confirmed that Gaza is more than ready for Jerusalem’s battle, stressing that the battle in Jerusalem is Hamas’s battle, and the movement will never abandon its role and place.

In a Friday prayers sermon at a mosque in Gaza City, Haniya declared the current clashes in occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank as a real intifada, saying that Gaza’s experience of patience and steadfastness in the last three wars with Israeli occupation will always remain a strategic source of inspiration for Jerusalem and all of Palestine.

“The Palestinian Intifada has revived to liberate al-Aqsa, and we as Gazans intend to join,” Haniya declared. Read more »

Palestinian Information Centre

Two Palestinian children were killed at the hands of Israeli occupation forces (IOF) to the east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip on Saturday afternoon.

Medical sources told the PIC reporter that 13-year-old Marwan Barbakh was shot and killed while participating in a peaceful march against Israeli atrocities in the West Bank, while five others were wounded.

They said that one of those seriously wounded, 15-year-old Khalil Othman, died later of his wounds at hospital.

Dozens of young men had gone on a peaceful demonstration for the second day running to the east of Khan Younis where IOF soldiers opened live fire at them. Read more »

Europal Forum

The Palestine Forum in Britain expressed concerns over Israeli violations in the occupied Palestinian territories in a press release published Friday. It emphasised that the Palestinian uprising comes as a result of unfair peace accords ‘intended to undermine the Palestinian struggle for freedom and dignity.’ Read more »

PRESS RELEASE
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine confirmed that the upsurge in individual resistance actions carried out by heroic Palestinian youth throughout the occupied homeland are important operations that must continue, escalate and evolve, and need popular support in the West Bank and Jerusalem in various forms in light of the occupier’s continuous crimes against our people. Read more »

PRESS RELEASE
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor

Young unarmed mother Israa’ Abed shot at the train station in Afula city

Israel is escalating practices of extrajudicial execution in the Palestinian territories, using firearms against civilians who pose no threat although it is often possible to detain them instead.

Video recordings of surveillance cameras in the central train station of Afula city showed Israel’s reckless disregard for lives as Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian lady holding an Israeli ID, claiming that she attempted to stab a guard working in the station, while the recordings clearly showed that the woman did not attempt to attack anybody.

Eyewitnesses told a Euro-Med Monitor team that Israa’ Abed, 29, was very scared and got panicked when she found herself surrounded by a group of Israeli soldiers who were directly pointing their weapons at her. The soldiers shouted asking her to take off her head scarf and drop her bag. The woman refused, raised her hands, and begged them not to shoot.

“Even if the woman tried to attack someone, the Israeli police could detain her instead of shooting her with four live bullets” said Ihsan Adel, Euro-Med Monitor legal adviser. Read more »

Julie Webb-Pullman

All factions marching together in Gaza City

In Gaza City today hundreds of youth from all factions marched from the Azhar University corner to Jundy Square in solidarity with Palestinians in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the 1948 territories who are fighting for their lives, for Al Aqsa Mosque, and for the freedom of Palestine.

Although the mood was upbeat and often lighthearted, the message was deadly serious: we will not let the Israeli violations of Palestinian rights, lives and liberty pass. The 3rd Intifada is here. Read more »

The document below was widely distributed in the 1948 territories of Palestine, but its origin is unknown. Tweets claim that the political wing of Fatah has said it is fake, and they did not sign it. Others contend that there is a split in Fatah, one wing signed it without the knowledge of the other, and it is genuine. It is also possible that it is an Israeli attempt to sow disinformation, discord and disunity. We will keep you updated. (Gaza: Saturday, 9.42am)

UPDATE: Both Fatah and the Peoples Party (the Communist Party in Palestine) have published denials in Arabic on their websites, saying they are not part of this alleged ‘Command.’ The Peoples’ Party stressed in their statement that they are not part of the alleged ‘Command’, that there is no central command to this uprising, and that it is a popular uprising involving people of all factions. They emphasise that this in no way detracts from the fact that the people are united in their national efforts to protect, promote and organise the Palestinian case, and also to end the factional divisions. (Gaza, Saturday 10:25am)

Hamas

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri saluted Friday Palestinian social media activists, deeming Netanyahu’s threats to Palestinians who engage in online activism a source of pride.

Abu Zuhri said that such threats show the importance of social media in exposing Israel’s crimes, noting that the best answer to Netanyahu’s threats is to intensify Palestinian social activism.

Israel said on Thursday it had asked Facebook and YouTube to remove videos it says have been encouraging Palestinian resistance attacks against Israeli settlers in the past week.

Palestinian Progressive Youth Union

At this time, when hordes of settlers terrorists are invading and rampaging in the streets of the occupied West Bank, while the occupation army surrounds Nablus and Jerusalem with its troops and intelligence agents, storming towns and villages, arise the heroes of Palestine, the finest blossoming of Palestinian youth, struggling on the glorious path of liberation, continuing the call which they have inherited from their parents and grandparents.

It is the message carried by Palestinian youths Diaa Talahmeh, Muhannad Al-Halabi, Fadi Alloun, whose flesh and blood was shed by the occupier and its settler killers, who struggled for Palestine and its people. Diaa revolted, Muhannad sacrificed, Fadi martyred, while Qais al-Saadi and his comrades resisted in Jenin confronting the attack of the occupation. The streets of Jerusalem throb with a new Palestinian pride and honor as the sons and daughters of Issawiya and Jabal Mukabber and all of our city free their rocks, Molotov cocktails and flames from their hands, rebelling with their lives. Nablus, the Mountain of Fire, confronts the occupier and defies its siege, united in its people and their heroism. Read more »

Palestinian Information Centre

Five Palestinians were killed and 40 others were injured including two journalists as Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) opened fire at a demonstration by the border fence east of Gaza City and near Khan Younis on Friday.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said Shadi Hussam Dawla, 20, Ahmad al-Harbawi, 20, and Abed al-Wahidi, 20, were shot and killed east of the al-Shujaiyeh neighborhood, while 15-year-old Muhammad al-Raqeb and Adnan Abu Alyan, 22, were killed after being shot by Israeli forces near Khan Younis. Read more »