Land, property theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Apartheid / Restrictions on movement
Israel to completely demolish Negev village and displace residents
IMEMC/Agencies 6 May -- The Israeli Supreme Court, on Tuesday, issued a final decision to demolish and displace the people of Atir-Umm Al-Hieran, a Palestinian village which remains unrecognized in the Negev desert of southern Israel. The decision will be utilized to establish a Jewish-only settlement upon the ruins of the Bedouin village, which has the population of more than 1,000 Palestinians, this just days before the anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba. According to the PNN, the court's final decision, issued by a majority of two judges against one, came after 13 years of judicial proceedings and attempts to cancel the demolition and eviction orders. The court in its decision admitted the Israeli intentions to demolish the village in order to establish a settlement "with a Jewish Zionist majority," according to the decision. According to the court, the people of the village of Atir did not enter the land illegally, but were "relocated" to it in back in 1956, by an Israeli occupation authorities official order, after they were expelled from their villages of origin during the Nakba in 1948. Following the relocation, the court claimed that Israel only "allowed" the Palestinian refugees (which it forcibly displaced) to use this land and, therefore, these people can be expelled from it at any given moment.
http://www.imemc.org/article/71486
Jordan Valley villagers call for int. help
[with photos] AIC 5 May -- Besieged Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank's Jordan Valley have called on the international community to immediately intervene to halt Israeli military training in the area, which has already resulted in the temporary deportation of residents from four villages from their homes and threatens the future livelihood of these communities. Massive Israeli military training in the northern Jordan Valley began on Sunday, with forces using live ammunition around the homes and farms of Palestinian communities. The army ordered residents from four villages to leave their homes for the duration of the training (until Thursday): 18 families from Humsa, 30 families from Hammamaat al Maleh, 5 families from Frush Beit Dejan and 13 families from Ibziq. The families have not been given anywhere to stay, nor have they been given any type of support. Most of the deported families have babies and small children. Families in the village of Al Hadidiya were told that they may have to move for some of this period, although they were given no official documents. “One of the greatest fears of local Palestinians is that land in the area will be set fire to - many of them have fields of wheat that are just due to be harvested, and this could destroy their entire crops”, says Rashid Sawafta, coordinator of the local group Jordan Valley Solidarity. “If scrub land is burnt by the army it will devastate the grazing land of cow, sheep and goat farmers”, Sawafta added. “These are very real fears. On 28 April a similar military exercise in the same area of Humsa Fouqa...resulted in the destruction of 3,000 to 4,000 dunams of crops and trees after the shootings and ammunitions of the Israeli army started fire on the land and Palestinian firefighter crews were prevented from reaching the area.” Deported residents, almost all of whom make a living from farming and livestock, will further be unable to provide food and ensure adequate shelter for their sheep, goats and other animals.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/special-reports/area-c/736-jordan-valley-villagers-call-for-int-help
Israeli army sets fire to Palestinian lands in Jordan Valley
JORDAN VALLEY (PIC) 5 May -- Fire burst out in northern Jordan Valley grazing lands on Monday after Israeli army embarked on live ammunition military training in the area for the third day running. Local sources said fire has engulfed large tracts of pastures used for grazing animals due to the heavy volleys of live fire unleashed during the military training. The Israeli occupation army denied locals from accessing their land to put out the fire, the same sources added. Military ordnance left by the Israeli army forces during the drills are reportedly endangering civilians’ lives, particularly children’s, and the environment.
http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=71499
Israeli military exercise in the Jordan Valley
Published on May 6, 2015 by Stop the Wall Campaign --This video gives a glimpse of the reality Palestinians have been living over the last days of large scale military operation in the Jordan Valley. It explains the context of Israeli plans to ethnically cleanse the area.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=30&v=wOrnH3pycgY
Israel to remove Susiya village in Hebron
IMEMC/Agencies 5 May -- An Israeli Court ruled Monday on the removal of Susiya Bedouin village, in Masafer Yatta area, south of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, after colonists of the illegal Susya settlement demanded the removal of the Palestinian enclave. Coordinator of the Popular and National Committee in southern Hebron Rateb Jabour told the WAFA News agency that the Israeli decision could be enforced at any given moment, rendering dozens of resident homeless. He added that the head of the Susiya Village Council Jihad Nawaj‘a received an official Israeli order informing him of the intention to remove the village. Nawaj‘a stated that the Susiya has been subject to dozens of violations and assaults by Israeli soldiers and fanatic colonizers. “Our village is a historic area; Israel wants to remove us to control it,” he added, “There are many Islamic and Roman archaeological sites here.” The villagers have been constantly suffering, and literally fighting for their very existence, since Israel started the construction of Susya colony in 1983 on privately owned lands belonging to five Palestinian families from Yatta. The villagers were forcibly removed from their village in 1986, and relocated to the current location, yet again, are facing the same fate.
http://www.imemc.org/article/71467
Soldiers to demolish three homes near Jerusalem
IMEMC/Agencies 7 May -- The Israeli army invaded, Wednesday, Jabal al-Baba area, east of the al-Ezariyya town, east of occupied Jerusalem, and handed out three demolition orders. Fateh Movement Secretary in Arab al-Jahalin Bedouin village Daoud al-Jahalin said dozens of soldiers and employees of the Israeli “Civil Administration Office,” run by the army, invaded the Bedouin community, and handed the orders to Ahmad Tarabin, Mahmoud Jahalin and Salem Jahalin. He added that sixteen persons inhabit the targeted homes, and will be rendered homeless should Israel carry out the destruction of their properties. The Civil Administration informed the families they have until May 18 to file appeals against the demolition orders. Bedouin villages in the occupied West Bank are subject to constant violations, displacement and assaults, while the military also repeatedly forces them out of the homes and lands, to conduct military training in the Jordan Valley.
http://www.imemc.org/article/71493
Settler organization takes over Silwan building
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 6 May -- Israeli settler organization Ateret Cohanim took over a building comprising three apartments in the central quarter of the Silwan neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem Wednesday morning. The building was the former property of Palestinian family Abu Nab, while Ateret Cohanim claims it as Yemenite Jewish property prior to 1948. Some 20 Jewish settlers escorted by special Israeli forces stormed the neighborhood and accessed the Abu Nab building while the family members were away, according to the Silwan-based Wadi Hilweh information Center. Accessing the building through a nearby settlement outpost known as House of Honey, "they opened the main gate, then they broke open the apartment doors." All members of the Abu Nab family had left the building on Tuesday afternoon to visit relatives in northern Israel, the Wadi Hilweh Center said. Clashes broke out in the area between the settlers and neighbors and relatives of Abu Nab family in Silwan at the time. Neighbors telephoned the homeowners, Ahmad, Nasser and Muhammad Abu Nab, who headed immediately to the neighborhood. The three were allegedly stopped and interrogated by an Israeli police patrol "before contact with them was lost." The Abu Nab family has been living in the building since 1968 after they rented the property from Palestinian Abd al-Razzaq family.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=765259
Palestinian building permits 'political', admits Israel
JERUSALEM (AFP) 3 May - Approval of building plans for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank is subject to political considerations, Israeli defence officials have acknowledged. The admission came as a landmark court case seeks to challenge Israel's housing policy in Area C, which covers 60 percent of the West Bank but is under full Israeli civil and security control. All building in Area C, whether by Palestinians or Jewish settlers, comes under the jurisdiction of the Israeli Civil Administration which has full control over all zoning and planning issues. In practice, almost all Palestinian applications for a building permit are rejected, with the Civil Administration granting only a handful of permits. In a written response to AFP regarding the legal case in which a Palestinian village and a coalition of NGOs are seeking to tackle Israel's policy of house demolitions, COGAT -- the defence ministry body to which the Civil Administration belongs -- admitted that planning issues required political approval ... Experts have long suspected that the Israel's housing policy in Area C is not just a civilian matter but has a political bias. In 2014, the Civil Administration granted just one Palestinian building permit, according to Israeli planning NGO Bimkom. In the same period, Israel carried 493 demolitions, displacing 969 people, UN figures show. Unable to get "legal" permission, Palestinians are faced with either leaving or building illegally.
http://news.yahoo.com/palestinian-building-permits-political-admits-israel-001629371.html
Soldiers install mobile homes east of Bethlehem
IMEMC/Agencies 4 May -- Israeli soldiers installed, Monday, a number of mobile homes on illegally confiscated and uprooted Palestinian lands belonging to Palestinian villagers, in the West Bank district of Bethlehem. Head of the Kisan Village Council Hussein Ghazal said the soldiers installed twelve mobile homes on the lands that were bulldozed a month ago, as part of an illegal Israeli plan to build settlement units, and factories, on approximately 650 dunams (160.6 acres) of Palestinian lands. The lands belong to Palestinians from Kisan village, and fromSa‘ir town in the southern West Bank district of Hebron. Ghazal said the lands are isolated behind a wall Israel recently build, to surround the illegally confiscated lands. “The illegal Israeli measures are not only land theft, but are also preventing any expansion of Kisan,” he said, “The villagers are losing their lands, are being choked by Israel’s settlements and its illegal policies.”
http://www.imemc.org/article/71453
Palestinian village fights to survive as Israel sends in bulldozers
DAHMASH (EI) 6 May by Patrick O. Strickland -- When hundreds of Israeli police and border patrol officers arrived in the village ofDahmash at 3am on 15 April, they sealed off the homes and forbade local residents from venturing outside. Within two hours, their bulldozers had torn through homes. Eighteen members of the Assaf family, including several children, were left homeless. In total, five apartments in three different buildings were flattened. A video of the demolition has since been posted on YouTube. “It was very scary for the kids,” Miada Assaf, who lived one of the buildings, told a group of activists and journalists visiting the village on 2 May. “It’s very difficult for us when they come and destroy homes.” Residents told The Electronic Intifada that police arrived in heavy riot gear and fired gas bombs in the area before bringing in the bulldozers. Home to 700 Palestinians, Dahmash is tucked between Ramle and Lydd, two cities in present-day Israel. Although its residents carry Israeli citizenship and have in many cases lived in Dahmash for decades, the government claims it was built illegally and has slated the entire village for demolition. Residents of Dahmash have filed an appeal against the planned demolition in a district court. But the Israeli police carried out the demolition without waiting for the court’s ruling.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/palestinian-village-fights-survive-israel-sends-bulldozers/14498
Israeli forces raze lands in Hebron area
HEBRON (Ma‘an) 6 May -- Israeli bulldozers razed Palestinian agricultural land planted with dozens of almond and olive trees in the Suba area in Idhna in western Hebron on Wednesday. Director of the public relations department in the Ithna municipality Abd al-Rahman al-Tmeizi said that Israeli forces demolished a greenhouse, a support wall and several dry-stone walls. They also razed gardens and lands near residents' homes in Hebron. He added that the razed lands belong to the Ihreiz, al-Zaatari, al-Qawasmi and al-Tarturi families. Israeli forces prevented people from approaching the area and fired tear-gas canisters and stun grenades. No injuries were reported.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=765267
Settlers level lands of town west of Salfit
SALFIT (PIC) 6 May -- Extremist Jewish settlers leveled Palestinian lands in Mas-ha town to the west of Salfit governorate under Israeli forces protection on Wednesday. Local sources revealed that Jewish settlers leveled dozens of dunums of Palestinian lands close to Qanasettlement for expansion purposes. Researcher Khalil Maali said Qana outpost is constructed on Palestinian lands to the west of Mas-ha town. It was previously controlled by the Jordanian army.
Settlement construction has accelerated in the area to the extent that more than 90% of the town’s lands have been confiscated. Three Israeli outposts are surrounding the town, Maali said.
http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=71526
South Africans apologize over forest planted on Palestinian village
EI 5 May by Sarah Levy -- Many donors to the South Africa Forest in present-day Israel probably do not realize that they are helping to cover up the results of ethnic cleansing. Such details have been omitted from a Jewish National Fund website promoting the Lower Galilee project as environmentally sound and offering a certificate to anyone who finances the plantation of at least two trees. Campaigners with the group Stop the JNF in South Africa are trying to highlight how the land where the forest is located was once the site of the Palestinian village of Lubya. It was destroyed by Zionist forces during the Nakba (Arabic for catastrophe), the forced displacement of Palestinians in 1948. In a novel ceremony on 1 May, a number of South Africans who have previously given money to the JNF issued a public apology.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/south-africans-apologize-over-forest-planted-palestinian-village/14494
Palestinian farm struggles to survive in West Bank town caught between Israeli sewage and the separation wall
Mondoweiss 5 May by Allison Deger -- Fayez Tneeb, 50, marveled at his organically grown banana tree even though it is failing and rooted in a waste water stream. He and his wife Mona, 50, are proprietors of Hakoritana Farm in Tulkarm, located in the northern West Bank only 100 meters from Israel. For the Tneebs, harvesting pesticide-free agriculture that they take to a local market is a constant struggle. The couple’s plot of land is caught between an Israeli factory that manufactures fertilizers and agrochemicals, and Israel’s separation barrier. The factory, owned by Geshuri and Sons Industries, does not have a functional sewage system. The waste seeps out from under the brick walls that line the industrial zone where it is housed. It then spills onto the Tneeb’s farmland. The toxic stream ought to be taken through piping into Israel’s sewers. Yet, the Israeli separation wall blockades the toxic runoff from reaching sewers on the other side. And so the pesticide waste floods onto the Tneeb’s organic groves. Geshuri factory is one of just under a dozen Israeli manufacturing sites located in the occupied Palestinian territory.
http://mondoweiss.net/2015/05/palestinian-struggles-separation
B'Tselem newsletter 4 May
Dear Friends, Shortly before International Workers’ Day we spoke with four Palestinian workers. Although their homes are only a few dozen kilometers from where they work in Israel, the difficulties involved in reaching their place of work mean they remain there all week, away from their families and home environment. At times, they must confine themselves to living in rough conditions at their workplace, with no option of leaving it. As one worker told us: “I feel like I’m working in a small prison”. On the first of May, the day designated around the world to honor the human rights of working people, we would like to turn the spotlight on the people working in Israel who are the most invisible of all: the Palestinians. Give a thought to the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have a work permit for Israel, yet must stand for endless, humiliating hours on line at crowded checkpoints. Think also of the tens of thousands who work in Israel despite not having a permit, people for whom every moment of their daily routine is part of a struggle for survival. For them, getting safely home cannot be taken for granted given arrest raids in which people are detained or injured even though they pose no danger, not even in the eyes of the security establishment....http://www.btselem.org/btselem-newsletter/147118
Israeli forces turn East Jerusalem neighborhood into prison
IMEMC/Agencies 4 May -- Israeli forces have sealed the main entrance to the East Jerusalem neighborhood of al-Zaayyem, "locking up more than 6,000 Palestinians in a large prison," local residents say. An iron gate set up by Israeli forces has been completely closed for ten days, head of al-Zaayyem local council Naim Sub Labantold Ma'an News Agency, on Monday. Israeli forces first set up the gate near a military checkpoint at the main entrance to al-Zaayyem in late March, citing security concerns. The soldiers have controlled the gate since then, Sub Laban said, opening and closing it whenever they want to restrict the movement of schoolchildren, businessmen and others who need to go in and out every day. Sub Laban added that Israeli forces had opened the gate for several hours on Sunday afternoon, and again for two hours on Monday morning, but that otherwise the gate had been closed for ten days. When the gate is closed, residents of the neighborhood, who have described the closure as "collective punishment" are forced to use an alternative route of dirt roads about five kilometers long. When the gate was first set up, Israeli authorities claimed it would remain open all the time "except when there is a dangerous security situation," Sub Laban said. Abu Mahmoud Shweiki, an ice cream distributor who sells to stores in al-Zaayyem, said that he now has to drive his truck over a long dirt road every day in order to load and unload his goods. Schoolchildren also said that they have been forced to walk a long route along dirt roads in order to reach their schools every day.
http://www.imemc.org/article/71459
Violence / Raids / Arrests
Two-year-old Palestinian killed in hit-and-run by Israeli settler
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 4 May -- A two-year-old Palestinian child afternoon Monday breathed his last in Jerusalem’s neighborhood of al-Tur after he was hit by a car driven by an Israeli settler. Spokeswoman for the Israeli occupation police said a car ran over the Jerusalemite child Amar Ahmed in al-Tur quarter, in Occupied Jerusalem city. The child was rushed to al-Makassed hospital, where he reportedly succumbed to his wounds.
http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=71492
17-year-old Palestinian injured in hit-and-run by Israeli settler
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 5 May -- A 17-year-old Palestinian youth sustained wounds afternoon Tuesday after he was hit by a car driven by an Israeli settler in Jerusalem’s northern neighborhood of Atarot. Eye-witnesses said an Israeli settler ran over a number of Palestinian students lining up in front of their schools in Atarot area moments before he knocked the 17-year-old Shadi Ghurab and fled. The casualty was rushed to a local hospital to be urgently treated for the wounds he sustained in the hit-and-run. The youngster’s family updated the Israeli occupation police on the incident but said no efforts were made by the latter to chase down the perpetrator.
http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=71513
Israeli police withdraw claim Palestinian planned stabbing attack
JERUSALEM (Ma‘an) 5 May -- Israeli police have withdrawn allegations that Hatem Salah, who was shot in the foot by an Israeli security guard on Monday, was attempting a stabbing attack as he had no sharp objects in his possession at the time, a prisoners' rights group told Ma‘an. Israeli police reportedly made the admission during a session in Jerusalem's Magistrate Court on Tuesday, turning on their head earlier allegations that the Palestinian had attempted to stab passers-by at a light rail station near the French Hill settlement. A security guard told police on Monday that the Palestinian had "attacked him from behind" before running toward people waiting at the station. He claimed that guards responded by firing warning shots into the air, before shooting the man in his lower legs.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=765247
Israeli troops assault PA security officer in Nablus-area village
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 6 May – Israeli soldiers "violently" assaulted a Palestinian security officer during an overnight raid Tuesday on the northern West Bank village of Rojeib near Nablus. According to Palestinian security sources, an Israeli officer identifying himself as Captain Naim assaulted Ahmad Hafith Suleiman Dweikat while Israeli military vehicles stormed the village. The Israeli officer, added the sources, continued to beat Dweikat after he identified himself as a colonel in the Palestinian Authority's preventive security service. Dweikat was evacuated to Rafedia Hospital in Nablus for treatment where medics said he suffered from mild to moderate wounds.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=765263
Two Palestinian youths violently arrested in Al-Khalil (Hebron)
HEBRON, Occupied Palestine 4 May by ISM, Khalil Team -- In the early evening of Friday the 1st of May, Israeli forces arrested two Palestinian youths in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of occupied Al-Khalil (Hebron). Nizar Salhab, accused of attacking a settler was released the same evening, Awne Imad Abu Shamsiyeh was only released the next evening and now faces charges in an Israeli military court. Around 5 o’clock on Friday, Israeli soldiers physically assaulted Awne Abu Shamsiyeh at the entrance to his family’s house. When his father heard the commotion he came out and started filming the incident. The soldier attacking Awne escaped to the nearby illegal settlement in order not to be filmed. Awne was left with marks on his neck from the attack. Shortly afterwards, another Palestinian boy, 14-year old Nizar Salhab, was detained by Israeli forces. He was physically assaulted by an Israeli settler, who was allowed to leave the scene of the incident as soon as soldiers turned up. Nizar was taken to the military base in Tel Rumeida illegal settlement. After video evidence (filmed by Human Rights Defenders) of the settler attacking Nizar was brought to the police station, he was eventually released the same night. Even with the video showing clearly the settler attacking Nizar, the assailant does not face any consequences for his actions.
http://palsolidarity.org/2015/05/42309/
Palestinian truck driver escapes ambush by settlers
NABLUS (Ma‘an) 6 May – A Palestinian truck driver escaped an abduction attempt by a group of Israeli settlers on Tuesday night while traversing a main road between Nablus and Qalqiliya in the northern West Bank, says Palestinian official. The settlers had set up a checkpoint on the main road near the illegal settlement Havat Gilad before attacking the driver, according to Ghassan Daghlas, a monitor of settler activity in the northern West Bank. The truck driver, identified as Rajih Nasr from Halhul in the southern West Bank, stopped his truck as he approached the checkpoint believing it was a police checkpoint. A mob of settlers immediately charged the driver in attempt to seize him. Realizing he had been ambushed, Nasr managed to run away, driving his truck in the direction of the Huwwara village south of Nablus. Nasr received punches to the head, some of the settlers allegedly trying to stab the driver and attack him with pepper spray as he attempted to flee the scene, Daghlas said ... The trucker driver's assumption he had driven into a checkpoint comes as so-called "flying" checkpoints are regularly erected by Israeli forces on roads across the West Bank, numbering in the hundreds.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=765257
Israeli forces storm homes in northern West Bank village
QALQILIYA (Ma‘an) 6 May -- Israeli troops stormed and searched several houses while raiding the northern West Bank village of Kafr Qaddum in Qalqiliya at dawn Wednesday. Mansour Ubeid and Ayman Eshtawi, whose houses were ransacked, told Ma‘an that Israeli forces turned over the interior of their houses and "intentionally sabotaged personal property," adding that the forces used police dogs during the inspection. Houses of Ali Barham, Abd al-Mannan Juma, Suleiman Ubeid and Mahir Shtewi were also searched, according to coordinator of a local popular committee in the village Murad Eshtawi. During the attack on the Juma household, Israeli forces "violently" assaulted the family's son Mahdi, 30, bruising his body, according to Shtewi.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=765258
13 Palestinians arrested overnight
AIC 4 May -- Two Palestinians were arrested in the ‘Aida refugee camp. Ten Palestinians were arrested in the southern West Bank city ofHebron. One Palestinian was arrested in the town of Beit Awwa. All 13 Palestinians were transferred to Israeli interrogation facilities for questioning.
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/news/727-13-palestinians-arrested-overnight
West Bank: 21 Palestinians arrested
AIC 5 May -- Israeli forces arrested 21 Palestinians overnight and early Tuesday morning from throughout the West Bank. At least nine of those arrested are students at Birzeit University, where a Hamas-affiliated group won student council elections last month.http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/news/735-west-bank-21-palestinians-arrested
Journalist among 4 Palestinians nabbed by PA forces in West Bank
WEST BANK (PIC) 6 May -- The Palestinian authority (PA) apparatuses rounded up four Palestinian citizens and attempted to apprehend four others on accounts of their political affiliations ... In Tulkarem, the PA preventive forces apprehended the Hamas leader and ex-prisoner Iyad Naser after having summoned him for interrogation. The Jenin-based Preventive forces re-captured the university student As‘ad Hamran, enrolled at al-Quds Open University, a few hours after he was released from the PA penitentiaries. The campaign culminated in the abduction of the photojournalist Mohamed Awad, working for the Watan Tv Channel. In Nablus, the PA apparatuses captured the ex-prisoner Hosni al-Amoudi and have kept Hazem Asei‘ra in custody for the 10th day running. Along the same line, the Monetary Authority detained the journalist Zied Abu Ara, working for the Quds Press news agency.
http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=71521
Gaza
Soldiers conduct a limited invasion into northern Gaza
IMEMC/Agencies 4 May -- A number of armored Israeli military vehicles and bulldozers, conducted on Monday morning a limited invasion into Jabalia town, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, and uprooted farmlands. Media sources in Gaza said at least six armored D9 military bulldozers, and several armored vehicles, advanced into northern Gaza for a distance of approximately 100 meters. The bulldozers then started uprooting and bulldozing agricultural lands, close to the border fence, and used smoke bombs to mask their vehicles while operating in northern Gaza. The soldiers also advanced into the eastern side of Beit Hanoun nearby town, and fired several rounds of live ammunition to force the residents out of their lands. In related news, soldiers fired live rounds on a number of farmers while in their lands, east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. On Sunday night after midnight, soldiers patrolled various areas across the border fence, and fired several flares while drones flew overhead.
http://www.imemc.org/article/71452
Six Palestinians arrested for trying to cross the security fence in Gaza
GAZA (PIC) 6 May -- Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) arrested six Palestinians for trying to cross the security fence in eastern Gaza Strip this week. Security sources told the PIC correspondent that the IOF arrested a 22-year-old university student who attempted to cross the fence into the east of Abasan neighborhood. The sources also revealed that the IOF rounded up two minors, aged 13 and 16, for sneaking into the other side of the fence. They were released the next day. Three others were arrested for trying to cross the fence to the east of Rafah. Their identities were not released. The IOF soldiers forced them all to undress then took them to investigation locations.Palestinians’ attempts to sneak into the 1848 Occupied Palestine have increased recently due to the continuation of the siege on the blockaded enclave leading to hard economic conditions.
http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=71523
Nine Palestinian fishermen kidnapped by the Egyptian army
GAZA, Occupied Palestine 6 May by Miguel Hernández -- On the 3rd of May, the trial of nine Palestinian fishermen kidnapped by the Egyptian army while fishing in waters of the border city of Rafah, took place in the Egyptian city of Al Arish. Three of the fishermen are brothers, Ali Abu Hamada, 36 years old, with eight children, Mahmoud Abu Hamada, 22 years old, and Mohamed Abu Hamada, 32 years old with three children. Among the hostages there’s also a 13 years old boy. Since the end of the last massacre in Gaza the situation of the fishermen has been worse than ever. They don’t even dare to reach the four mile limit. Despite the fact that, officially, the sea blockade imposed by the Israeli state starts at six miles, the attacks on the fishermen are continuous even as close as two miles out. Palestinians locked in Gaza tell us how much the position of the Eyptian government and its total coordination with the Israeli state regarding the policies towards the Palestinian people surprises and saddens them. To the destruction of the tunnels that supplied the fishermen with fiberglass, necessary to fix the bullet holes in their boats, and the spare parts for engines, has, in recent months, been added the abduction of Palestinian fishermen and vessels that fish near Egyptian waters. The mother of the three brothers, Nasmiya, native of Yibna, a Palestinian village wiped out by Israeli colonialism during the Nakba, described the umpteenth misfortune that the creation of the State of Israel in Palestine has brought to her life.
http://palsolidarity.org/2015/05/nine-palestinian-fishermen-kidnapped-by-the-egyptian-army/
Israeli army opens fire at Gaza fishing boats
GAZA CITY (Ma‘an) 6 May -- Israeli military boats on Wednesday afternoon opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats near the shore of the central Gaza Strip, security sources said. Local security sources said Israeli boats opened fire at boats near Deir al-Balah. No injuries were reported.
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=765270
Restricted by Israeli boats, Gaza resorts to fish farms
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip 5 May by Rasha Abou Jalal -- A project by private funders and supervised by the local authorities is setting up fish farms in the Gaza Strip in an attempt to meet Gazans' demand for fish. Gaza’s entire western border is on the Medi