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The Occupation Report Receiving This Newsletter Purpose of this Newsletter [Maps not included in this web re-publication of the newsletter] September 27, 2006 Reports Sources WAFA Palestine News Agency
Palestinian Information
Center Palestine News Network Jerusalem Post Israel National News IDF web site International Press Center
Gaza Strip: Israeli soldiers backed by three bulldozers and 15 tanks stormed the al-Fakhari area in north Khan Younis, launched a wide-scale search campaign, and arrested 20 Palestinians from the al-'Amour and al-Jarghoun families. The bulldozers razed "scores of dunums" (figure a dunum to be about a quarter-acre), and uprooted hundreds of olive, citrus, and palm trees. (4) For the second time, Israeli aircraft targeted the house of Sami al-Sha'er in the city of Rafah. Dan Hammad, 14, arrived at the al-Najar Hospital "scattered into pieces" as she was hit with missile shrapnel. 14 other Palestinians were wounded in that attack, one of them Dan's mother, three reported to be seriously wounded. "Witnesses said that the house was completely destroyed and leveled into the ground." (Other sources named the child victim Azza Ahmad Hammad.) (6) Why so many wounded? Doesn't Israel telephone the homeowner and warn him that is house will be bombed? PIC explains it this way: "They noted that the IOF warplanes fired a missile at the two-story house of Salem Al-Shaer leveling it to the ground 20 minutes after warning its inhabitants to evacuate it. However, the warplanes returned an hour later and bombed the same house inflicting the fatality and the other ten casualties, some of whom were reportedly in serious conditions." That makes eight Palestinian homes in the Rafah district bombed so far in September. (11) Israeli tanks and bulldozers advanced around 200 meters into the Gaza Strip's central districts, destroying "vast Palestinian agricultural lands in the area." Palestinian homes and greenhouses were destroyed by invading troops in the Sofa area east of Khan Younis. Security sources said that troops ransacked Palestinian homes in the area and turned several into military barracks. The Israelis alleged that the houses were concealing tunnels for smuggling weapons. More than 30 Palestinians were arrested in the area. In the north, at least 60 tanks and armored personnel carriers stationed themselves mainly in the former in Israeli settlements of Dugit and Eli Sinai. (7) 1619 hours: "During an overnight IDF operation in the southern Gaza Strip an IDF force uncovered an explosive device set for detonation, two mortar shells, and an AK-47 assault rifle. Palestinians opened fire at an IDF force. No injuries or damage were reported." (28) West Bank South: Settlers from Kiryat Arba settlement in the Hebron district razed 65 dunums (26 acres) of arable land owned by the Palestinian Sultan family. The landowners said that a group of settlers supported by Israeli soldiers, two bulldozers, and jeeps, razed their lands to expand a settler road and annex more Palestinian land to the settlement. (2) Settlers bulldozed tracts of Palestinian land to the north. They were heavily guarded by Israeli soldiers. The landowners are from the eastern part of Hebron City, which is right next to Kiryat Arba. The Israelis bulldozed both sides of a settler-only road. These lands officially belong to the Ash Had and Lidawi families. "Today's bulldozing operation took place just meters from Palestinian homes." (15) The Palestinian Prisoner Society in Hebron said that the Israeli army launched a wide-scale search campaign in Hebron and Izna town to the west and arrested seven Palestinians. Soldiers in Hebron City besieged and seized the home of Munzer Jaber, detained his family on the ground floor, and turned the house into a military outpost. (3) West Bank North: Amid intense firing, Israeli forces thrust into Qabatiya south of Jenin at dawn, launched a door-to-door search campaign and arrested eight Palestinians. Soldiers besieged the Qattawi building in the Balata Refugee Camp east of Nablus, and arrested three Palestinians. (4) Soldiers imposed a curfew on the Balata camp, prompting clashes with Palestinian resistance fighters. Israeli accounts said three fighters were wounded. (7) Why the raid on the Balata camp? The Shin Bet had provided intelligence indicating that residents of a home were in the midst of planning a suicide attack within Israel. The two 17-year-old suspects they came to arrest showed the soldiers a hiding place where they kept a 10-kilogram suicide belt. The Israelis figured that it was going to be used in a pre-Yom-Kippur attack. (17) 0813 hours: Israeli soldiers killed one Palestinian and wounded two others early Wednesday during an arrest raid in Nablus. Israeli forces arrested 19 wanted Palestinians overnight. (21) Al-Jazeera satellite TV stated that at least 30 Palestinians, mainly Hamas and PRC, were arrested by Israeli troops in several West Bank cities including Ramallah and Hebron. (7) Tuesday night, amid intense firing, Israeli soldiers stormed the al-Fara'a Refugee Camp south of Tubas and wounded Muneer Abd el-Fattah,16, and his brother Sameer, 11, who were taken to the hospital. (5) West Bank Central: 2051 hours: Israeli forces arrested a wanted Palestinian in the El-Amri Refugee Camp next to Ramallah and detained for interrogation. The source states he was from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. (24) Green Line Israel: Asher Weisgan, 38, a Jewish settler from the West Bank settlement of Shvut Rachel, was sentenced by the Jerusalem District Court to four consecutive life terms plus an additional 12 years in jail. In addition, he had to pay NIS 228,000 to the families of his four Palestinian victims and NIS 100,000 to a Palestinian man he had wounded. He was a driver transporting Palestinian laborers, and had grabbed a security guards gun last August and opened fire at the workers in his car at close range, killing three, mortally wounding a fourth who later died, and wounding a fifth. So Israel has gone soft on Palestinians? Not quite. This man was rebelling against the Israeli government, that had kicked him out of the Gaza Strip in August 2005. He had openly talked about shooting Ariel Sharon. So this harsh sentence was not punishment for hurting Palestinians. It was punishment for not obeying the Israeli government and peacefully resettling elsewhere. (19) Palestinian government The Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization demanded that the Palestinian Authority government unequivocally recognize Israel's right to exist "on 78% of the Palestinian lands." The Committee called on Hamas to abide by the "national program", which includes recognizing the Hebrew state as a precondition to lifting the economic embargo on the Palestinian people. "Local observers" thought the statement was an attempt on the part of the committee to soothe public resentment over Abbas's backing out on promises he made to pay Palestinian Authority employee salaries. (8) Palestinian Authority Planning Minister and Acting Finance Minister Dr. Samir Abu Aisha affirmed that a full month's salary would be distributed to around 61,000 Palestinian Authority employees with salaries under $420, and for the 165,000 employees with higher salaries, they would get a cash advance of 80% of their salaries. He excluded 12,000 health workers who would receive salaries directly from the European union by Thursday through local banks. He also said that $50 million promised by Qatar was already in PA hands, in addition to $15 million from Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have promised to donate $250 million and $50 million respectively. (9) (This article makes the Hamas government out to be forthright and honest, while Abbas backpedaled on paying salaries he promised.) "PA foreign affairs minister and Hamas' senior political figure Dr. Mahmoud Al-Zahhar has reaffirmed his government's stand of not recognizing the Hebrew state or approving any adverse deals signed with it by PLO and former PA (Fatah-controlled) governments....'We can't allow the brutal hand of the Israeli occupation government to keep on killing Palestinian people and destroying their homes, while we resort to negotiations only. We must strive hard to resist the occupation and defend our people with all means available', Zahhar asserted." There is more in this article on the evident friction between Fatah and Hamas. One point is worth discussing. "Reacting to the 'arbitrary decision' taken by the Israeli Ofer military court of canceling the release order it previously took in favor of 21 kidnapped PA ministers and lawmakers (all Hamas), Zahhar asserted: 'It is very clear that the decision was a political one with the aim of leaving the Hamas-affiliated change and reform bloc with lesser seats in the PLC.'" (10) The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointed out that by its economic blockade of the Palestinians and the kidnapping of Hamas ministers, the Palestinian Cabinet could soon be handpicked by the United States, in keeping with threats by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. (13) Palestinian prisoners Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Nasser Addin Al Sha'er has been released from his Israeli jail cell. There were no charges against him. His lawyer stated that the Israeli military prosecution had to release him after being unable to provide any evidence against him. He had been accused of membership in government stemming from a terrorist organization, referring to Hamas. He is not allowed to enter ROM allow for two weeks, where the Palestinian Legislative Council holds meetings by videoconference with Gaza City. He is not allowed to travel outside of Palestine for several weeks. There is no bail imposed on him. (14) Palestinian resistance At dawn Wednesday, Israeli troops thrust into Nablus and its nearby Balata and Ein Beit Al Maa refugee camps, with intensive machine gun fire. The Quds Brigades (Islamic Jihad) and another group calling itself the Aqsa Defenders' Brigades bombed two Israeli military vehicles, putting them out of commission. Palestinian eyewitnesses saw the soldiers pulling the destroyed vehicles from the Balata camp. (7) The Aqsa Martyr's Brigades (Fatah) last night fired an Aqsa-103 missile at Majdal City. The Nasser Salahuddin Brigades announced that one of its units attacked an Israeli military outpost in Qabatiya, "inflicting casualties in their lines." (11) 1605 hours: No one was wounded and there was no damage caused by a Qassam rocket fired into the western Negev Wednesday afternoon. (22) 1701 hours: Palestinians threw stones at an Israeli vehicle near Al-Arrub Wednesday (about 12 kilometers south by southeast of Bethlehem), leaving no casualties but damaging the vehicle. (23) The mayor of Sderot, Eli Moyal, doesn't want Ehud Olmert's money. Reparations for damage done by Qassam rockets is not what he wants. He wants the rockets to stop. He demanded that the government act to prevent the launching of rockets from their source in the Gaza Strip. Lest we think that these inaccurate missiles are to be discounted compared to the Israeli arsenal of accurate bombs and missiles, the mayor of Sderot tells us otherwise. Palestinian resistance is certainly not a lethal blow to Israel, but over a period of months it has made a great deal of difference in Sderot. (26) 2007 hours: An Israeli force was operating in the al-Amari area near Ramallah, and a soldier was lightly injured by a rock that hit his head. He was transported to a Jerusalem hospital. (27) Prisoners in Israeli detention Mr. Hassan Mustafa Zaga, a field researcher for an organization called the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, is currently detained at the Israeli Ketziot Detention Center, since his arrest January 11, 2006 for "endangering the security of the region". He has never been informed of the grounds for his detention. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders is a joint program of the World Organization against Torture and the International Federation for Human Rights. September 20, 2006, the judge of the Ofer Military Court decided on a "substantive" reduction of his administrative detention to a period of two months, since the General Security Service had no evidence on which to base an extension. He is due to be released November 15, 2006. The Observatory considers his detention a flagrant violation of article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Israel is party. (1) The Lebanon cease-fire Israeli Army Chief, Dan Halutz, has given permission for Israeli troops currently stationed in Lebanon to shoot Lebanese sympathetic to Hezbollah who throw stones at Israeli soldiers. Troops are permitted to fire into the air, and then at the legs of those throwing rocks in their direction. If the troops were to sense that they were in real danger they were granted permission to kill. (17) Miscellany The European Union has begun disbursing €270 per family for around 40,000 of the poorest Palestinian families. (9) The Qalqilya Zoo was opened in the mid-1980s, stocked with animals brought from animal parks in Israel, which helped to maintain the zoo (often called the Garden) at the outset. But it's 2006 now. The separation Wall completely surrounds Qalqilya. Palestinians are often under siege in the city. During Israeli sieges bullets hit the animals who are stuck inside their cages. They must inhale tear gas. They are not properly fed due to the curfews imposed on the town. The dead animals include the elephant and giraffes. Competent veterinarians could not attend to them due to the tightened siege on the city. (16) In a strongly-worded letter from Egypt's intelligence chief to the Syrian-based Hamas leader, Egypt demanded that Hamas immediately release the captured Israeli corporal currently in custody in the Gaza Strip. If the Jerusalem Post is right, Egypt is getting increasingly impatient with Hamas after mediating for months trying to reach a deal on a prisoner swap for Shalit. (20) "Microsoft will make its sixth investment in Israel's technology market with an agreement announced Tuesday to buy Ra'anana-based start-up Gteko Ltd....The acquisition price was not disclosed, but sources close to the transaction estimated the price tag at around $100 million." (25) ----------------------------- Samples of this newsletter may be found at http://aberdeenpublishing.com/ocreport.eml . That "eml" extension means that people with Internet Explorer and Outlook Express can see it. Others may not unless their programs recognize the "eml" extension. Links for buying my book, Awakened, may be found at http://aberdeenpublishing.com. -- Jerrold Cohen, Ph.D
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