A Palestinian was injured after Israeli naval forces on Tuesday opened fire on fishermen, detaining four and confiscating their boats, as Israeli forces also opened fire on farmers and leveled lands elsewhere in the Gaza Strip. The detained fishermen were identified as Hasan Miqdad, Bashir Abu Riyala, and his brothers Khalid and Rajab, according to Nizar Ayyash, speaker of the union of fisherman in the Gaza Strip. An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an that two boats diverted from the designated fishing zone off the coast of Gaza City, as the army ordered them to turn back. However, the fishermen continued to sail and Israeli soldiers fired warning shots into the air before detaining the fishermen for questioning. The spokesperson added that one Palestinian was injured during the incident and evacuated to a hospital. Since the beginning of 2016, Israeli forces have detained at least 67 fishermen off the coast of the Gaza Strip, with the majority being later released from Israeli c...

Israeli army vehicles crossed the border fence into the besieged Gaza Strip early on Monday morning to level lands, witnesses told Ma’an. The eyewitnesses said Israeli military vehicles and bulldozers coming from the Sufa military base entered private Palestinian lands east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. Bulldozers reportedly levelled lands approximately 50 meters into Gaza while Israeli jets hovered in the sky. No gunfire was reported. Meanwhile in the northern Gaza Strip, witnesses said that Israeli forces launched a surveillance balloon near the town of Beit Hanoun while fighter jets flew over the area. An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an they were looking into the reports. more

Sixteen organizations from around the world denounced travel restrictions on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) co-founder Omar Barghouti. In a public letter to their respective foreign ministers on Sunday, international academic boycott organizations publicly condemned Israel’s refusal to renew Barghouti’s travel documents. Organizations from the American, Asian, and European countries demanded freedom for Barghouti to travel and for their ministers “to impress on the Israeli government the absolute necessity of ceasing its repressive measures against Palestine’s civil leaders.” Barghouti, who lives with his family in the city of Acre in Israel, is Palestinian, but was born in the Gulf state of Qatar. After marrying his wife, a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship, he was granted permanent residency in Israel for the past 23 years. The activist regularly travels internationally to speak at events aimed at bringing attention to BDS strategies of ending Israel’s il...

Karam Aziz, a shy 16-year-old, knocks on doors in Jabaliya refugee camp, asking for old shopping bags. Locals enquire why he wants them, yet happily hand over any they can find. Within half an hour, Karam usually has about 70 bags — vital raw material for an arts and crafts project using recycled materials. Once he has collected the bags, Karam brings them to his sister-in-law Zainab. She and her team of 20 women transform plastic and nylon garbage into colorful toys, baskets, cushions and ornaments. Zainab Aziz, a 25-year-old mother of two, set up the project after graduating with an Arabic language degree from Al-Aqsa University in Gaza City last year. The project is known as The New Heritage because it gives a modern and environmentally conscious twist to traditional handcrafts. The process of making art from garbage is a long one. First the old bags have to be washed and sterilized, then cut into pieces suitable for crocheting. more

A young Palestinian man was shot and injured Friday evening by Israeli undercover soldiers at the northern entrance to Bethlehem to the south of occupied West Bank. PIC reporter quoted eyewitnesses as saying that Israeli undercover soldiers opened fire towards a Palestinian while trying to throw a Molotov cocktail at the Israeli military watchtower at the entrance to the city. The young man was immediately taken to hospital as he suffers live shot injury in his right foot, the sources added. Along the same line, two Israeli soldiers were injured during clashes broke out in Takoa town east of the city. The clashes broke out when Israeli forces stormed the town amid heavy fire of teargas bombs and rubber bullets. more

Israeli authorities on Friday evening released the body of Abd al-Fattah al-Sharif, the Palestinian whose brutal killing by an Israeli soldier in March was caught on film, sparking international outrage. The Palestinian Civil Affairs Committee said al-Sharif’s body was returned and taken to Hebron’s al-Ahli hospital. Al-Sharif's family told Ma'an his funeral will be held on Saturday afternoon, and that they have rejected all Israeli authorities’ conditions for the release of his body. Al-Sharif was shot alongside Ramzi Aziz al-Qasrawi after the two allegedly stabbed and moderately wounded an Israeli soldier at a military checkpoint in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron on March 24. Al-Qasrawi was killed immediately, while al-Sharif was left severely wounded for several minutes without treatment, before an Israeli soldier stepped forward and put a bullet through his head, killing him. A graphic video released by B’Tselem capturing the incident was met with wide condemnation fr...

Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes in the central and southern Gaza Strip early on Thursday, targeting two sites used by the Hamas movement’s military wing, after a Palestinian militant group fired rockets towards Israel. Witnesses told Ma’an that Israeli planes fired rockets at a site used by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades in southwestern Rafah, while another strike hit a site known as Shuhada al-Qassam west of the al-Nuseirat refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip. Medical sources said that no injuries had been reported. The Israeli army said in a statement that the airstrikes were launched after a rocket launched from the besieged Gaza Strip on Wednesday hit “an open area in the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council in southern Israel.” Israeli media reported that a total of four rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip, three of which fell at the Gaza borderline. No injuries were reported. The Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis group claimed responsibility for the rockets. However, the ...

From the Electronic Intifada - Twelve-year-olds across the world like their computers. But few take it to the level of Mohammad Alhaulimy. From a young age, Mohammad has shown a passion for computers, coding and technology, a passion that has been indulged by his family, and which has seen him receive support from other countries and invitations to conferences around the region. Mohammad built his first mobile application, World Savers, at the age of 9. He sought to raise awareness about global issues such as wars and pollution in a game format. It didn’t go far, and has now been forgotten, but it was a first challenge for the budding coder. “I wanted to create something of my own, a game or a video … Something that I would appreciate,” Mohammad said as he stared at his Mac. He attended an International Computer Driving License, ICDL, course when he was 7, to secure the global computer skills certification. But he soon found it was not challenging enough. “The courses I attended n...

A group of right-wing Israeli settlers broke into an uninhabited Palestinian house in the southern occupied West Bank city of Hebron on Tuesday and stole wooden furniture, presumably to be burned during bonfire celebrations for the Jewish holiday of Lag BaOmer. A spokesperson for Hebron-based activist group Youth Against Settlement, Issa Amro, told Ma’an that the houses belonged to the the Al-Sayyid Ahmad and Tahboub families, who have been banned from accessing their homes in Hebron’s Old City since Israeli forces sealed the area around al-Shuhada Street in 1994. The holiday of Lag BaOmer, which will take place on Wednesday evening, commemorates the death of second-century Jewish mystic Simeon bar Yochai, and is traditionally celebrated with bonfires It is not uncommon for young Israelis celebrating Lag BaOmer to steal wood from construction sites and other locations ahead of the holiday. Local Palestinian house and shop owners in Hebron’s Old City have been banned from acc...

In February 2015, Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's new defence minister, who was serving as a foreign minister at the time, declared that; "a fourth operation in the Gaza Strip is inevitable, just as a third Lebanon war is inevitable." As the second anniversary of Israel's war on Gaza, dubbed Operation Protective edge, approaches, Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave say that Lieberman's appointment as the Israel's defence minister brings him a step closer to achieving his unsettling prophecy. "We should not be fooled by Zionists who hate the Lieberman-Netanyahu unity," wrote Refaat Alareer, a Palestinian writer and activists, "they, too, want Palestinians killed, but with [silk] scarves, not bombs!" Lieberman, a staunch opponent of peace with Palestinians who heads of the extreme right wing party Yisrael Beiteinu, has served two terms as foreign minister and has little significant military experience. Over the past few years, Gaza i...

A military affairs commentator interrupts his broadcast to deliver a monologue: I'm alarmed by what's happening in Israel, he says, I think my children should leave. Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak warns of "the seeds of fascism". Moshe Arens, who served as defense minister three times, sees it as a turning point in Israeli politics and expects it to cause a "political earthquake". The past five days have produced tumult in Israeli politics, since conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unexpectedly turned his back on a deal to bring the center-left into his coalition and instead joined hands with far-right nationalist Avigdor Lieberman, one of his most virulent critics. Lieberman, a West Bank settler, wants to be defense minister. So on Friday, Netanyahu's former ally and confidant, Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon, resigned and quit Netanyahu's Likud party in disgust. After a weekend to digest the developments, which are expected to be fin...

Israeli right-winger Yehuda Glick was escorted under armed protection into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Monday morning, days after it was announced that he would be sworn in as the newest member to Israel’s Knesset. Firas al-Dibs, a spokesperson for the Islamic Endowment that controls the compound, told Ma’an that a group of right-wing Israelis including the “far-right extremist Yehuda Glick” entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound through the Moroccan gate escorted by Israeli forces, toured the compound, and left through the Chain gate. After Moshe Yaalon announced his resignation as defense minister on Friday following Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s decision to offer the position to the ultranationalist Avigdor Lieberman, it was revealed that Glick would fill Yaalon’s seat as MK, as he was next in line on the Likud party’s list of candidates to replace a sitting Knesset member. Under current agreements, Glick’s visit to Al-Aqsa on Monday would be his last legal opportunity to do...

Israeli naval forces on Sunday morning opened fire on Palestinian fishermen, before detaining 10 fishermen and seizing five boats in a separate incident in the northern Gaza Strip. Locals told Ma’an that Israeli forces opened fire on fishermen sailing off the coast of al-Wahah near the northern Gaza coast, with no injuries reported. Meanwhile, 10 fishermen were detained by Israeli naval forces nearby and taken to an unknown location, as five of their boats were confiscated. Spokesperson for the Union of Agricultural Work Committees Zakariyya Bakir identified the detained as Rasim Ishaq Zayid, Muhammad Ishaq Zayid, Saqir Yunis Zayid, Ayman Yunis Zayid, Asad Muhammad al-Sultan, Khalid Mahmoud Zayid, Muhammad Mahmud Sultan, Ayman Mahmoud Sultan, Ahmad Muhammad Zayid, and Ibrahim Zayid. An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an they were looking into reports. more

Friday marked the 26th anniversary of the Oyoun Qara massacre, which left 19 Palestinians dead after an Israeli soldier gunned down a group of Palestinians working in Israel. At 6:15 am on May 20, 1990, 20 Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip waited for their employers to pick them up from the Oyoun Qara (Rishon Lezion) bus stop, when a discharged Israeli soldier arrived and demanded that the workers show him their IDs. The soldier, Ami Popper, checked the workers' IDs, and after ensuring they were all Palestinian, ordered them to line up in three lines and kneel down, then opened fire on the workers with an M16, killing seven and badly injuring 10 others. Popper then drove his vehicle away from the scene. When Israeli police arrived they proceeded to severely beat the Palestinians who had survived the ordeal. Protests erupted across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip following the killings, as the Israeli army imposed a siege on several districts in the Gaza Strip. Clas...

Israeli authorities delivered four demolition notices on Wednesday ordering several Palestinians to remove water tanks being used for irrigation in the northern and eastern areas of the town of Beit Ummar in the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron, locals said. The water tanks are used to irrigate lands in the areas of Beir Zaata, al-Furdeis and Thaghret al-Shabak, with an overall area of more than 30 dunams (7.4 acres) dependent on the tanks for irrigation, according to Muhammad Awad, a spokesperson for a local popular committee. The tanks were set up earlier in 2016 under a UN-funded water development program, Awad said. After Israeli authorities deliver a demolition order, the owners of the properties have seven days to remove the structures. If not, Israeli forces demolish the structures at the financial expense of the owners of the property. Awad told Ma’an that the tanks belonged to Wahdi Hamdi Zamel Abu Maria, Jamil Muhammad Amer Abu Maria, Ghassan Muhammad Abed a...

Israeli naval forces detained two Palestinian fishermen off the coast of the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning, a spokesperson for the union of Gaza fishermen told Ma’an. Nizar Ayyash said that Israeli gunboats obstructed a fishing boat off the coast from the town of Beit Lahiya, and detained Samih Zayid and his brother Ibrahim. Israeli forces also confiscated the Zayid brothers’ boat, which was taken to the port of Ashdod in southern Israel. An Israeli army spokesperson said she was looking into the report. Israeli naval forces detained 10 Palestinian fishermen off the coast of the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday evening. Two were still in custody as of Tuesday. Israeli forces regularly detain Palestinian fisherman off the coast of Gaza working within the fishing zone, generally for alleged security reasons. more

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...

Human Rights Watch wasted no time in condemning Israel’s imposition of an effective travel ban on Omar Barghouti, the co-founder of the Palestinian boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division, told The Electronic Intifada on Tuesday that “Israel’s refusal to renew Barghouti’s travel document appears to be an effort to punish him for exercising his right to engage in peaceful, political activism, using its arsenal of bureaucratic control over Palestinian lives.” Previously, in light of direct threats against Barghouti by Israeli ministers, Amnesty International had expressed its concern for the “safety and liberty” of Barghouti, amid what it called “an escalation of acts of intimidation” by the Israeli government against human rights defenders. Activists are urging thousands of people to contact the US State Department to protest the Israeli move. EU passivity But given opportu...

Israeli forces raided multiple neighborhoods across the occupied West Bank overnight Saturday, detaining at least three Palestinians, launching tear gas canisters and stun grenades, and setting fire to olive trees, as Palestinians around the world commemorated the 68th anniversary of the Nakba. In the northern district of Qalqiliya, dozens of Palestinians suffered from tear gas inhalation, and several trees caught fire when clashes erupted between local youths and Israeli forces in the village of Kafr Qaddum. Coordinator for a popular resistance committee in the village Murad Shtewi said the Israeli army "turned Kafr Qaddum's sky into a cloud of poisonous gas" after firing tear gas heavily and randomly. Dozens of olive trees in the area caught fire from Israeli forces-fired tear gas and stun grenades. Shtewi added that civil defense vehicles were prevented from reaching the fire because Israeli forces had closed the roads with dirt berms, forcing firefighters to walk u...

Thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel participated in the annual "March of Return" on Thursday afternoon near Bedouin towns in the Negev (Naqab) in southern Israel, commemorating the 1948 Nakba, amid the conclusion of Israeli independence day celebrations. Demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and held banners emblazoned with support for the right to return for Palestinian refugees abroad and Palestinians internally displaced from their villages in Israel, as they made their way across the Negev in the dry afternoon heat. The March of Return is usually held on Israel’s independence day to commemorate the Nakba -- or the ‘catastrophe’ -- referring to the mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and villages during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that wrought the state of Israel. The official commemoration of the Nakba is held on May 15 and is observed by millions of Palestinians and rights activists around the world. The aim of the march was to highlight the internat...