LONDON (AFP) -- British lawmakers on Monday hold a non-binding vote on recognizing Palestine although government ministers will not take part, in a sign of the political sensitivity of the issue. The debate is being closely watched internationally after Sweden incurred Israeli wrath this month for saying it will recognize Palestine. The symbolic vote is on a motion put forward by Grahame Morris, an MP from the opposition Labor Party, and is likely to get the backing of most Labor members. Within the two ruling coalition parties, some Conservatives and most Liberal Democrats are likely to vote in favor, despite the government's position. "If the vote is a success it would put a tremendous amount of pressure on the current government and the next government, which is likely to be a Labor government, to recognize Palestine as a state," Morris told AFP in an email. "The UK recognizing Palestine could give decisive momentum to more EU states following suit," he...

Egyptian authorities deported 68 Palestinians back to Gaza on Monday after they attempted to reach Europe from the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. The Palestinian migrants were found in Alexandria by security forces and had hoped to reach Italy, Egyptian officials said. An Egyptian court declared that all 68 be deported to Gaza after it emerged they had used smuggling tunnels in Gaza to enter Egyptian territory. In early September, 43 Palestinians were detained near Alexandria while attempting to reach Europe. more

Hundreds of Israeli police raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Monday, leading to clashes with Palestinian worshipers, witnesses said. Israeli forces fired stun grenades, tear gas canisters and rubber-coated steel bullets at Palestinians in the holy site during the clashes. Israeli media reported that Palestinian youths threw rocks and fireworks at police officers. Police had deployed in heavy numbers to secure the visits of Jewish worshipers to the site for the holiday of Sukkot. A group of Israelis also toured the site led by right-wing MK Moshe Feiglin. Witnesses said Israeli forces raided the site at 6 a.m. following morning prayers. During the clashes, a fire broke out on carpets near the eastern gate of the compound, Al-Aqsa guards said, as youths and police faced off outside the mosque. Israeli forces assaulted Aqsa mosque guards during the raids and detained Hajj Nihad Zghayr and an unidentified Palestinian teen. more

CAIRO (AFP) -- International envoys pledged about $5.4 billion in reconstruction aid for the Gaza Strip at a meeting in Egypt on Sunday, Norway's foreign minister said. "The participants pledged approximately $5.4 billion," said Boerge Brende, reading out a closing statement at the Cairo conference which Norway co-hosted. The donors "committed themselves to start disbursing their assistance as soon as possible," Brende said. Half of the pledges will go for reconstruction and the rest as unspecified aid to the Palestinian Authority, he said. Qatar pledged an entire $1 billion, while Kuwait and the UAE pledged $200 million each. The conference aimed at financing the reconstruction of swathes of Gaza destroyed in the July-August Israeli assault on the Strip. Palestinian officials had asked for up to $4 billion. more

Palestinian medical sources in occupied East Jerusalem have reported that a young man died, on Friday, of wounds suffered during the latest Israeli onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip. The man, identified as Arafat Soheil Tafesh, succumbed to his wounds at the al-Maqassed Charitable Islamic Hospital in East Jerusalem. His father told a Press TV correspondent in Gaza that around 200 Palestinians were also injured in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza when his son was wounded, after the army bombarded it. The father said his son was first moved to the Shifa Hospital in Gaza, where the doctors operated on him for several hours, and that the hospital had already been flooded with dozens of wounded Palestinians. Following a successful resuscitation, the young man’s condition deteriorated again, and he fell into a coma before he was eventually moved to al-Maqassed Hospital, where he died of his wounds. more

A large group of Israeli settlers on Saturday morning violently beat a young Palestinian woman while she was picking olives from trees in an orchard in the village of Yasuf in the Salfit district in the central West Bank, a Palestinian official said. The assault is the third such attack on Palestinian olive pickers in three days, creating concern about unchecked settler violence as the olive harvest kicks off across the West Bank. Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official who monitors settlement-related activities in the northern West Bank, told Ma'an that 25-year-old Alaa Fathi Atiyani and her children were picking olives in a field in the al-Masamic area outside of Yasuf village at the time of the alleged assault. He said that ten settlers arrived from the nearby Kfar Tappuah settlement and assaulted Atiyani, beating her "brutally." Daghlas said Atiyani sustained serious bruises all over her body as a result of the attack. Daghlas added that Israeli troops...

A delegation of Palestinian officials early Saturday left the West Bank for Jordan en route to Cairo to participate in an international donor conference for the Gaza Strip, a government spokesman said. "The issue in question is very delicate, and requires all Palestinian efforts in order to support the government so it can rebuild what the (Israeli) occupation has ruined in the Gaza Strip," said Ehab Bessaiso, the spokesman for the unity government. The delegation includes Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, Deputy Prime Minister Muhammad Mustafa, Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, Finance Minister Shukri Bishara, and Minister of Agriculture and Social Affairs Shawqi al-Ayasa. Gaza-based members of the delegation -- Minister of Public Works Mufid Hasayna and Minister of Labor Mamoun Abu Shahla -- are meeting the delegation in Egypt via the Rafah crossing, Bseiso said. Bessaiso himself also joined the delegation. Palestinian officials will hold meetings with Egyptian officials...

The Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI), a group of Palestinian students in Gaza dedicated to the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Campaign of Israel and the global justice movement for Palestinian justice and liberty, respectfully call on students around the world to stop banking with Barclays until Barclays divests from and ceases trading in shares in Elbit Systems, the major Israeli military company and drone manufacturer. As Palestinians we suffer immeasurably from drone attacks. In 2012 and 2013, drones have killed more of us in Gaza than any other aircraft. As Palestinian Human Rights organisation Al-Mezan point out, drones are so deadly because “they are in the sky all the time, and they (the Israeli air force) don’t have to plan the attack properly beforehand.” Al Mezan found that, “When Israeli forces started to use drones, the number of people killed increased.” Ayah Bashir, a Gaza-based BDS activist, said: “during...

From the International Solidarity Movement - Tuesday afternoon, the 7th of October, olive farmer Mahmoud Rga Mahoud Aid, his wife and their three children were attacked by a group of settlers from the illegal settlement of Giv’at Ya’akov. The attack took place on the family´s land near the village of Burin, south west of Nablus. The the family had only three days permission from the District Coordination Office (DCO) to access their land and pick their olives, starting from the 6th of October. To harvest all the olives on the land would normally take about a month. On the first day of picking, Zionist settlers came down from the illegal settlement and tried to prevent Mahmoud from entering his land. The Israeli military interfered and told the settlers to leave, and Mahmoud was able to finish his working day without further interference from the settlers. On the second day of picking the family was able to access the land, but, in the midst of picking, the nearby soldiers started y...

The Palestinian Authority is set to assume responsibility for the Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings in Gaza on Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Muhammad Mustafa said. Mustafa, who is also head of a reconstruction committee for Gaza, told Ma'an Friday that the PA will take charge of building materials entering Gaza and the movement of Palestinians between Gaza and the West Bank. Representatives in the health, agriculture, housing and civil affairs ministries will be in charge of monitoring materials for their respective sector. The first step must be for Israel to provide the promised facilitation of construction materials, adding that the process of rebuilding the heavily damaged Gaza Strip depends on the amount of international donor funds. According to the terms of an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, materials entering the Gaza Strip will be checked to ensure no weapons enter the tiny coastal enclave. more

The UN's Palestinian refugee agency is to make its largest ever financial plea to donors, it said on Thursday, asking for $1.6 billion to rehabilitate war-battered Gaza. The conflict between Israel and Hamas-led Gaza militants, which ended on Aug. 26, killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and 73 people on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers. "This is the largest single ask in UNRWA's 64-year history," spokesman Christopher Gunness said ahead of an Oct. 12 donors' conference in Cairo. "The figure we are requesting at Cairo is $1.6 billion, which makes this ... unprecedented," he said, adding nearly half of that would go towards rebuilding homes damaged during 50 days of war in July and August. It destroyed tens of thousands of houses, as well as key infrastructure, and left some 100,000 Gazans homeless. UNRWA outlined its post-war emergency plan in 15-page document, a copy of which was seen by AFP. more

Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and a number of ministers from the Palestinian government of national unity will leave Gaza for Cairo on Friday to take part in a conference focused on the reconstruction of the devastated Gaza Strip. The trip follows a successful day-long visit by the reconciliation government to Gaza for the first since it was formed earlier this year, amid rising optimism about Hamas-Fatah cooperation after months of dispute. The Palestinian delegation to Cairo is expected to return to Gaza after the end of the conference there, minister of agriculture and social affairs Shawqi al-Ayasa told Ma'an on Thursday. Al-Ayasa said that a number of ministers will remain in Gaza during the Cairo conference, which is expected to bring together the foreign ministers of more than 30 countries to fundraise for Gaza reconstruction, while the rest of the Palestinian ministers will return after the conference to supervise rebuilding. He said that ministers will meet with gover...

The deputy Health Minister in the Gaza Strip, Yousef Abul-Rish, warned on Wednesday of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza's hospitals because of the severe shortage of fuel. "Fuel allotted for electricity generators will run out in 48 hours," Abul-Rish said. "This means that kidney washing machines, other medical devices and all kinds of operations will stop working." According to the Palestinian Al-Resalah newspaper, this situation would affect all the hospitals and clinics in Gaza, likely resulting in unnecessary deaths. The situation is especially grave following the military campaign waged last summer by Israeli forces against the Gaza Strip, which wounded many thousands of Palestinians, mostly civilians. It is worth mentioning that the hospitals in the Gaza Strip, similar to other facilities in the besieged enclave, have electricity for only six hours each day. For the remainder of the time, they run on electricity generators that consume large amounts of f...

The BBC has published a map on its website, which indicates that Jerusalem is not occupied by Israel. This graphic (see above) was used to illustrate at least two stories on the BBC website in recent months. It can be viewed online two thirds of the way down a story titled “Israel: Hamas ‘will pay price’ after teenagers found dead.” The map shows the city of Jerusalem as being wholly inside Israel. In reality, Jerusalem is under Israeli military occupation. The false map was also used at the bottom of a story from 23 September titled “Israel kills Palestinians suspected of teenagers’ murders.” However, following a complaint from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), made on 8 October, the map was altered, and Jerusalem is now depicted as nudging the Green Line — which separates present-day Israel from the territories it captured in 1967. Although those territories include East Jerusalem, the entire city is depicted as being within Israel even in the revised map. The BBC’s ...

Israeli soldiers invaded, on Thursday, Palestinian agricultural lands belonging to residents of al-Khader and Nahhalin town, southwest of Bethlehem, and declared them a closed military zone. Ghassan Najajra, a nonviolent activist with the Popular Resistance Committees against the Wall and Settlements, stated that the army confiscated by force three Dunams of Palestinian lands in Sirb at-Teen area, close to the Daniel illegal settlement, built on lands belonging to al-Khader. Najajra added that the soldiers bulldozed the lands, and placed signs declaring them a “closed military zone” and another sign stating Israel will be building “public gardens” for Jewish settlers living in nearby illegal settlements. more

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Palestinian officials say they are optimistic about the outcome of the unity government's first cabinet meeting in Gaza. The meeting is due to convene at midday as West Bank-based ministers enter via the Erez crossing. The delegation will then take lunch with Ismail Haniyeh. Speaking to Ma'an, Hamdallah described the meeting as an "historic opportunity." "Our message to our people in Gaza is about bringing back hope, uniting institutions and reconstruction. The Palestinian national project is incomplete without Gaza, and the president gave clear instructions last night to the government confirming that we should rebuild Gaza," he said. "It's our responsibility to provide work opportunities for Gaza workers, and we will overstep external challenges with good will." more

Palestinians will be able to begin importing reconstruction material into the Gaza Strip through Israeli-controlled crossings starting next week, Palestinian Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein al-Sheikh said on Wednesday. Al-Sheikh told Ma'an that Palestinian Authority crews will begin taking positions at Kerem Shalom and Beit Hanoun crossings as of next week in order to facilitate the transfer of goods. The announcement comes amid rising uncertainty regarding the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, which was devastated by an Israeli offensive over summer that left more than 2,000 dead and more than 110,000 homeless. Israel has for the last eight years severely restricted all imports and exports, including basic supplies such as concrete, and many have voiced fears that despite Israel's promises to "ease" the siege in the summer ceasefire, little had changed. Al-Sheikh's statement, however, suggests progress in ongoing negotiations between Israel and the Palest...

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Egyptian authorities opened the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza early Wednesday after closing it for five days over Eid al-Adha. Mahir Abu Sabha, the head of Gaza's border crossing department, said students who study abroad will be able to leave Gaza on Thursday and Friday. The Rafah crossing is the principal connection between Gaza's 1.7 million people and the outside world, but Egypt largely keeps it shut as part of the jointly-enforced Israeli blockade. more

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Clashes broke out early Wednesday at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound between Palestinian worshipers and Israeli police officers, leaving dozens hurt, sources said. Security guards at the mosque told Ma'an that Israeli forces stormed the compound at 7:30 a.m. ahead of expected visits by right-wing Israelis on the occasion of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, or the Feast of the Tabernacles. Israeli forces forcibly removed worshipers, attacking some of them with clubs, the guards said. Some Muslim worshipers clashed with Israeli officers in the compound before managing to take refuge inside the mosque. As worshipers threw stones, soldiers fired tear gas, stun grenades, and rubber bullets, injuring dozens of Palestinians, Al-Aqsa Mosque director Sheikh Omar al-Kiswani said. Some of the stun grenades were fired into the Al-Aqsa Mosque itself, causing a fire to break out, and fire fighters were not immediately allowed access to the area, al-Kiswani added. "T...

BEIRUT (AFP) -- Lebanon's Hezbollah movement on Tuesday claimed a bomb attack against Israeli troops on the ceasefire line between the two countries that wounded two soldiers. Hezbollah fighters "detonated an explosive device on the Shebaa hills against a motorized Israeli patrol causing a number of injuries among the occupation's soldiers," the group said in a statement. The group said the attack was carried out by the "martyr Hassan Ali Haidar unit," which is named for a Hezbollah member killed on Sept. 5 when an Israeli listening device in Lebanon was detonated remotely as he tried to dismantle it. Israel confirmed two soldiers were wounded in the blast, and an army spokeswoman said the attack took place "on the Israeli side of the border." more