Israeli forces shot and injured a Palestinian east of Bethlehem in the southern occupied West Bank as he tried to reach Jerusalem through Israel’s separation wall on Sunday evening. Local sources said 32-year-old Ahmad Abu Omar from Bethlehem was shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet to the head. He was trying to pass the separation wall from the outskirts of the village of Dar Salah east of Bethlehem to work in Jerusalem. Abu Omar was evacuated to al-Hussein public hospital in Beit Jala. The hospital could not be reached for comment regarding his medical condition. An Israeli army spokesperson said they were looking into the reports. On May 8, another Palestinian was shot and injured in the leg by Israeli forces as he attempted to cross over the separation wall in Dar Salah to work in Jerusalem. A local council member for the village said at the time that nine Palestinian workers had been shot and injured in the village over the span of a few days while trying to pass the separa...

Israeli forces shot and injured a Palestinian worker on Saturday as he approached the separation wall near the village of Dar Salah east of Bethlehem in the southern occupied West Bank, according to local sources. Witnesses told Ma’an that Muhammad Qashqeesh from Halhul near Hebron was shot in the foot. He was evacuated to Beit Jala public hospital in Bethlehem, where medics said he suffered from a moderate wound. An Israeli army spokesperson said they were looking into reports. Several Palestinian workers -- who are denied work permits by Israel -- use holes in the separation wall east of Bethlehem to cross into Israel. The section of Israel’s separation wall near the villages of Dar Salah, al-Khass, and al-Nuaman is secured only by chain fences, which makes it easier for workers to cross stealthily. Last year, there were as many as 112,300 Palestinians employed in Israel and Israel’s illegal settlements -- about 12 percent of the Palestinian workforce -- according to the Palestin...

Israeli occupation forces, on Monday morning, have invaded Beit Jala town, northwest of Bethlehem, using bulldozers, to proceed with building a new section of the apartheid wall. The razing is taking place in Bir ‘Ona archaeological site, and the wall will split the Cremisan Monastery valley in half. According to the PNN, Israel’s Supreme Court, in July, issued a decision giving the occupation army the green light to proceed with building the separation wall in the valley. The Court overturned its previous decision to halt the construction of the wall in Cremisan and its surroundings, including Alszayan nunnery (represented by Yves Saint Foundation) and the monastery (represented by lawyer Nihad Irsheid), in addition to the monastery’s lands. The army will begin building the wall on family lands in Beit Jala, leaving just a small piece undeveloped at the current time along the edges of the monastery’s lands. This decision came after the Israeli Ministry, in May, notified all c...

Friday morning around 50 Palestinian and international activists used makeshift bridges to cross the Apartheid wall between Qalandiya and Northern Jerusalem. This non-violent direct action was in response to the restrictions Israel had placed on Palestinian worshippers wishing to access Al-Aqsa Mosque in the past months. Activists scaled the wall one by one at around 10 am yesterday morning. Only a few hundred meters from an Israeli settlement, the activists then set about cutting through a barbed-wire fence that had been placed close to the Apartheid wall. action. Once all the activists breached the wall, the group cheered and proudly waved Palestinian flags. The action finished peacefully around 11am with no arrests. This non-violent direct action was part of a campaign entitled #On2Jerusalem and it was organized by local Palestinian popular resistance committees to show solidarity with the people of Jerusalem. more

Palestinian activists affiliated with local popular resistance committees in the villages northwest of Jerusalem on Saturday broke open a hole in the separation wall to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. "No matter how high walls are built, they will fall. Just as the Berlin Wall fell, the wall in Palestine will fall, along with the occupation," the popular committees said in a statement. The activists said that their aim in destroying the wall was also to stress that Jerusalem is an Arab and Palestinian city, and that neither the construction of the separation wall nor Israeli military reinforcement could prevent Palestinians from reaching Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa mosque. The activists also called upon Palestinians to unite and take part in the battle for Jerusalem, and to defend the al-Aqsa mosque and all Islamic and Christian holy sites. They also called upon people to be ready to take part in the "intifada" of Jerusalem, whi...

Saturday November 23, 2013] The Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Hebron, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank, has reported that five Palestinians have been wounded during clashes with extremist Israeli settlers, while Israeli soldiers kidnapped five more Palestinians. Coordinator of the Popular Committee, Rateb Jabour, stated that a scuffle took place between members of a Palestinian family and a group of settlers in Um Al-A’rayes area, as the family protested in its land that, illegally occupied by extremist settlers. Jabour added that the settlers are still illegally occupying the 120 Dunams (29.65 Acres) despite the fact that an Israeli court decided to give back the land to its Palestinian owners and to compensate the residents for their losses. more

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Dozens of young Palestinians smashed a hole in Israel's separation wall near Abu Dis on Wednesday, as clashes broke out in the town for the second day in a row. Popular resistance committee spokesman Hani Halbiya told Ma'an that youths made a 3-meter hole in part of the wall in protest against a house demolition in Abu Dis late Monday. Workers spent several hours repairing the wall under the guard of Israeli security forces. After military forces left the area, Palestinian youths returned to the wall and reopened the hole, Halbiya said. Israeli forces then raided Abu Dis and fired tear gas canisters and sound bombs. more

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) shot at and wounded two Palestinian workers for trying to cross the separation wall near Daheriya town in Al-Khalil province. Quds Press quoted local sources as saying that an IOF patrol chased a vehicle carrying the workers on Saturday and shot at them wounding two of the workers in their feet. The sources said that both workers are from Yatta town in Al-Khalil, describing the injuries of one of them as moderate. They said that one of the workers was taken to a hospital in Al-Khalil while the other was taken to an Israeli hospital. more

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces evicted a protest village near the Kfar Etzion settlement compound south of Bethlehem on Saturday, a local committee said. The Popular Struggle Committee Against the Settlements and the Wall said its activists pitched tents on land belonging to the Abu Ayyash family. Four hours later, the Israeli army arrived with an order to evict the protesters, the committee said. The committee said the action sent a message to the Israeli government that Israeli settlements would eventually vanish. It said Palestinian were entrenched in their land, and that they would dictate the next stage in peace talks, not the negotiators. more

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Palestinian youths smashed holes in Israel's separation wall in East Jerusalem on Tuesday. The protest marked the ninth anniversary of an International Court of Justice advisory opinion that ruled the wall illegal and called for its removal. Activists declared the anniversary a national day for the destruction of the wall. In Eizariya, dozens of youths tore two holes in the wall before Israeli forces arrived and dispersed them with stun grenades and plastic-coated steel bullets, Fatah official Mohamed Amin said. "The destruction of a portion of the wall is a protest to the daily raids at Al-Aqsa holy mosque. The Palestinians have a right to break the barriers and the wall to reach Jerusalem and protect its holy sites from the Israeli violations," Amin told Ma'an. more

NABLUS (Ma'an) -- The Israeli military plans to confiscate 379 dunums of Palestinian land near Bracha settlement in the northern West Bank, a Palestinian Authority official said Wednesday. Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement activities, said Israel's military commander in the West Bank Nitsan Alon issued the decision to confiscate the land in Kafr Qalil. The land belongs to Muhammad Abu Zarur, Samih Sadqa, Bassam al-Shaqa, Abdul Fattah Kashkash, Muhammad Qani, Kathem Abdul Ghani and Jamil Khader and his brothers, Daghlas told Ma'an. Daghlas said the Israeli military cited security reasons for the confiscation. An Israeli military spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. more

The Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Kufur Qaddoum village, near the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia, reported Frida [June 21, 2013] that dozens of Israeli soldiers attacked the weekly nonviolent protest, wounding four residents, and kidnapped reporters of the official Palestine TV. The Committee said that the soldiers violently attacked and beat Ahmad Shawar, cameraman Bashar Nazzal, working for the Palestinian TV, confiscated their cameras, and threw the rest of their equipment in the trash. A spokesperson of the Israeli army claimed that the kidnapped journalists “attacked the soldiers”, and that they have been transferred to an interrogation facility. Morad Shteiwy, coordinator of the Popular Committee in the village, has reported that the army surrounded the village since early morning hours Friday, and invaded it I an attempt to prevent the residents from holding their weekly protest against the illegal Annexation Wall and settlements. more

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israel's army has uncovered two tunnels under the separation wall, used by Palestinians to enter Israel from the West Bank, Israeli media reported Friday. The tunnels were found under the wall near al-Tayba village in the northern West Bank, the Hebrew-language daily Maariv reported. Soldiers found two Palestinians trying to enter Israel through the tunnels, according to Maariv. In the Gaza Strip, a tunnel network runs under the border with Egypt to smuggle goods into the blockaded enclave. more

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC) 18 May -- A group of Palestinian young men was able on Friday evening to knock down part of Israel's segregation wall near Abu Dis town to the east of occupied Jerusalem, particularly in the area known as Kabsa. The young men used pickaxes to make a hole in the wall and then entered Jerusalem carrying Palestinian flags in a step intended to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe). The Palestinian information center (PIC) reporter in Jerusalem said that the Israeli army immediately dispatched a unit of Israeli soldiers to the area to confront the young men. more

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Palestinian demonstrators on Saturday threw two home-made bombs toward a concrete military watchtower, causing soldiers to temporarily evacuate it. Israeli troops left the watchtower immediately and dozens of demonstrators piled burning tires against the Israeli separation wall around Aida refugee camp, witnesses said. Israeli forces fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets toward the Palestinians. Five Palestinians suffered from tear-gas inhalation. In the al-Khader village near Bethlehem, clashes erupted between Israeli troops and Palestinian youths. Three Palestinians were wounded with plastic-coated steel bullets. more

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities issued notices on Friday to annex 456 dunams of land from a Jerusalem village in order to build part of its separation wall, local officials said. Head of Beit Iksa village council Kamal Hababa said villagers were shocked when they saw the notices detailing plans to seize agricultural land, officials news agency Wafa reported. The notices invited residents to participate in a tour with Israeli military officers along the proposed route of the barrier, Hababa said, adding that villagers refused to take part and vowed to confront soldiers if they come to the village. The wall, when finished, will surround the village on all sides and annex around 12,000 dunams of agricultural land used for growing olive trees and grape vineyards. Beit Iksa's 2,000 residents will be left with only 300 dunams of land for natural growth and will be separated from Jerusalem and isolated from the rest of the West Bank, Jerusalem governorate official ...

Under the pretext of “military considerations”, the Israeli army informed Palestinian residents of Al-Fordaes village, near the West Bank city of Bethlehem, that it intends to seize large areas of their lands in Al-Oqban area, the Palestine News Network (PNN) reported. Hasan Breijieh, coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Bethlehem, stated that the army placed the orders on the targeted lands, and added that the farmers found these orders when they headed there. Israel intends to seize dozens of Dunams in Basin 4, and the order is effective immediately. Breijieh added that he contacted two lawyers identified as Ghayyath Nasser and Mohammad Shqeir, to follow-up on the issue and appeal the Israeli military decision, the PNN reported. more

Dozens of residents, and a number of International peace activists, marched towards the Annexation Wall, isolating the villagers from their lands, and were attacked by dozens of Israeli soldiers who fired gas bombs at them, and waste-water mixed with chemicals. Similar to other protests in the West Bank, Friday, the protesters marched carrying “the coffin of the Oslo peace agreements”, as Israel’s illegal actions and ongoing violations have sabotaged and buried these deals. As the protesters reach the Abu Lemon natural reserve, the army started spraying them with waste-water mixed with chemicals, and fired gas bombs at them. One Israeli peace activist was injured by a gas bomb in the head, while several Israeli, international and local peace activist were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation. The protesters carried Palestinian flags and pictures of the longest serving Palestinian political prisoner held by Israel, Abdul-Karim Younis, demanding his release, the rele...

The Israeli occupation authorities have completed the apartheid wall around Jerusalem, cutting it off from its West Bank hinterland. The final 130km section brings the total length of the illegal wall to 784 km. The city is now ringed by electrified wire and cement blocks to a height of 5-6m on three sides, while the fourth is plagued with illegal settlements, which are in the process of being connected to others outside the city by a light railway system. According to the head of the General Committee for the Defence of Palestinian Land, the Israelis have confiscated the remaining areas of West Jerusalem and erased all barriers between the western and eastern sectors of the city. "They have also confiscated land in the Jordan Valley, including Maale Adumim settlement, and reached the Dead Sea,” said Abdul-Hadi Hantash. “To the south, Jerusalem is blocked by a settlement belt." more

Despite the hot weather and fasting for the holy month of Ramadan, hundreds of people came out for the weekly non-violent demonstrations against the Wall in five different villages on Friday. Anti-wall protests were organized in the village of Kufer Kadum, in the northern West Bank in addition to Bil’in, Nil’in and Nabi Saleh in the central West Bank. The southern West Bank village of Al Ma’ssara also organized a protest against the wall this week as well. Two civilians were injured on Friday in Kufer Kadum when Israeli troops fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at the villagers and their international supporters. Soldiers stopped the Kufer Kadum protesters at the entrance of the village then fired tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets at them. One young man was critically injured in the head by a tear gas bomb and another man was injured in his leg by rubber-coated steel bullet. Many others were treated for tear gas inhalation. In the central West Bank, troops also used...