24 aug 2016
Settlers from Betar Illit settlement on Wednesday flooded Palestinians' agricultural lands in Housan village to the west of Bethlehem with sewage.
Representative of the Anti Separation Wall and Settlement Committee in Bethlehem Hassan Breaijiyeh said that settlers pumped sewage on a 50-dunums land lot planted with olives and grapes.
The land is owned by Hamamra and Ismail two Palestinian families, he pointed out. Breaijiyeh underlined that if such Israeli aggressive practices continue in the area it will cause great damage to Palestinians' agricultural lands.
He appealed to human rights institutions to intervene in order to stop such Israeli violations.
Representative of the Anti Separation Wall and Settlement Committee in Bethlehem Hassan Breaijiyeh said that settlers pumped sewage on a 50-dunums land lot planted with olives and grapes.
The land is owned by Hamamra and Ismail two Palestinian families, he pointed out. Breaijiyeh underlined that if such Israeli aggressive practices continue in the area it will cause great damage to Palestinians' agricultural lands.
He appealed to human rights institutions to intervene in order to stop such Israeli violations.
23 aug 2016
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) have been closing two of three entrances to Hizma town, northeast of Occupied Jerusalem, for about one month.
The closure of these entrances has obstructed the movement of the residents and affected them economically.
However, the Israeli army claims that its forces have closed one entrance to the town and sometimes close another one as a measure to prevent stone-throwing attacks on Jewish settlers and their vehicles.
Spokesman for Hamoked center for the defense of the individual Yadin Elam condemned the Israeli army's justification for its measure as reprehensible and unrealistic.
"There is no connection between the goal of reducing stone-throwing incidents and the closure of entrances to Hizma town," Elma stated in a letter addressed to central command chief Roni Numa.
"This closure is punishment against 8,000 citizens living in the town, although most of them have nothing to do with stone-throwing events," he added.
The closure of these entrances has obstructed the movement of the residents and affected them economically.
However, the Israeli army claims that its forces have closed one entrance to the town and sometimes close another one as a measure to prevent stone-throwing attacks on Jewish settlers and their vehicles.
Spokesman for Hamoked center for the defense of the individual Yadin Elam condemned the Israeli army's justification for its measure as reprehensible and unrealistic.
"There is no connection between the goal of reducing stone-throwing incidents and the closure of entrances to Hizma town," Elma stated in a letter addressed to central command chief Roni Numa.
"This closure is punishment against 8,000 citizens living in the town, although most of them have nothing to do with stone-throwing events," he added.
Israeli soldiers invaded, earlier Tuesday, the ath-Thaheriyya and Doura towns, and Wad al-Harya area, in the southern West Bank district of Hebron, broke into a number of homes and kidnapped two Palestinians, in addition to invading workshops and confiscating machines.
The soldiers searched several homes in the ath-Thaheriyya town, south of Hebron, and Doura town, west of the city, and violently searched them causing property damage, before kidnapped two Palestinians identified as Bassam at-Tell and Salim Yousef Rajoub.
In addition, the army invaded Wad al-Harya area in Hebron city, before breaking into many shops and workshops, and confiscated lathing machines belonging to members of Abu Shakhdam family.
The soldiers searched several homes in the ath-Thaheriyya town, south of Hebron, and Doura town, west of the city, and violently searched them causing property damage, before kidnapped two Palestinians identified as Bassam at-Tell and Salim Yousef Rajoub.
In addition, the army invaded Wad al-Harya area in Hebron city, before breaking into many shops and workshops, and confiscated lathing machines belonging to members of Abu Shakhdam family.
Israeli military vehicles invaded, on Tuesday at dawn, the West Bank city of Bethlehem, and Doha town, before breaking into a number of workshops, and confiscated lathing and blacksmith machines. Many Palestinians have been injured by army fire during clashes that took place following the invasion.
Media sources in Bethlehem said the soldiers broke into many workshops in Bethlehem, and Doha west of the city, and confiscated a large number of machines.
The sources added that the soldiers placed posters stating that they believe there is a “workshop is involved in manufacturing weapons,” without actually clearly stating which one.
The workshops belong to many Palestinians; some of them have been identified as Ismael al-Hanash, Johny Anastas, and George Danho.
The army also invaded a Cafeteria in the Cinema area, in the center of Bethlehem city, and detained the workers for several hours while violently searching it.
Clashes took place in Bethlehem and Doha after the soldiers invaded them, and the soldiers fired live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets and gas bombs.
The Bethlehem office of the Red Crescent has reported that one Palestinian was shot with a live round fired by the soldiers, five others were shot with rubber-coated steel bullets, and at least six suffered the effects of teargas inhalation.
Media sources in Bethlehem said the soldiers broke into many workshops in Bethlehem, and Doha west of the city, and confiscated a large number of machines.
The sources added that the soldiers placed posters stating that they believe there is a “workshop is involved in manufacturing weapons,” without actually clearly stating which one.
The workshops belong to many Palestinians; some of them have been identified as Ismael al-Hanash, Johny Anastas, and George Danho.
The army also invaded a Cafeteria in the Cinema area, in the center of Bethlehem city, and detained the workers for several hours while violently searching it.
Clashes took place in Bethlehem and Doha after the soldiers invaded them, and the soldiers fired live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets and gas bombs.
The Bethlehem office of the Red Crescent has reported that one Palestinian was shot with a live round fired by the soldiers, five others were shot with rubber-coated steel bullets, and at least six suffered the effects of teargas inhalation.
19 aug 2016
Water crisis in the besieged Palestinian territory is putting Palestinian lives at risk, analysts say.
Water may be a highly valued commodity the world over - but in al-Shati refugee camp north of Gaza City, it is like gold.Along this small stretch of the Mediterranean coast, all it takes to work that out is turning on a tap: When it is there at all, the water is salty, or sometimes cloudy.
Nahed Radwan, who lives with her eight children and extended family in a pastel-painted house by the sea road, said her family normally gets water once a week for two days.
"The water we have, when it's on, it's not clean; it's undrinkable. It hurts the eyes because of the high salinity," Radwan, 34, told Al Jazeera.
READ MORE: Water crisis deepens in the Gaza Strip
Only an estimated 3 percent of Gaza's water is suitable for drinking. The Palestinian Water Authority and the United Nations have warned that its underground water aquifer - upon which the territory is almost entirely reliant, apart from a small amount of water imported from Israel - may be completely contaminated by the end of the year. Gaza's water contains a large concentration of chloride, while infiltration of untreated sewage has raised the levels of nitrates to two to eight times higher than the World Health Organization recommends.
Gaza is also gripped by an electricity crisis that sometimes leaves households with just a few hours of power a day.
"People are using generators for water, but we can't afford it," Radwan said. "Especially my girls - they don't like to take showers with salty water, their hair starts to fall out. I cook and do everything with drinking water."
The water we have, when it's on, it's not clean; it's undrinkable. It hurts the eyes because of the high salinity.
Nahed Radwan, Gaza resident
Many Palestinians in Gaza buy water from small-scale desalination plants, which filter the contaminated aquifer water. Private vendors distribute the water to residents using trucks. But by the time the water reaches household tanks, it is expensive - up to five times the price of water from the municipal network - and often not safe to drink. Fewer than half of Gaza's desalination facilities are licensed, according to Oxfam.
International NGOs working in the water sector in Gaza have found that 68 percent of the water that reaches households from these plants becomes biologically contaminated during storage or transportation, yet 85 percent of Palestinians in Gaza depend on this water for drinking and cooking.
EWASH, a coalition of Palestinian and international organisations working in the water and sanitation sector, says that low-income households in Gaza spend at least six times more of their income on water than their counterparts in the United Kingdom.
The recent Turkey-Israel deal is expected to provide some relief, allowing Turkey to work on a number of infrastructure projects in Gaza, including a power station and a desalination plant. Ribhi al-Sheikh, deputy head of the Palestinian Water Authority, told Al Jazeera he did not yet have details of the project.
At least 70 percent of the materials needed to build and maintain Gaza's water and sanitation network - including pumps and chemicals for water purification - are subject to severe entry restrictions amid Israel's siege on Gaza, according to EWASH. The lack of proper infrastructure has contributed to pollution: Every 38 minutes, the coalition found, the equivalent of one Olympic swimming pool of raw or partially treated sewage is discharged into the sea in Gaza.
Over-extraction from Gaza's aquifer at twice the sustainable rate has led to the infiltration of seawater, contributing to the degradation of water quality. Unregulated wells - which Palestinians in Gaza have been digging, both for agricultural and household use - have compounded the problem of over-extraction.
"The scarcity of water [in Gaza] is the problem or the crisis of the time," Najma Fares, a researcher at al-Azhar University's Water and Environment Institute, told Al Jazeera. "Because of the abuse or extraction of this water, in the next years Gaza will face a big problem that could endanger the lives of Gazans. It will be an environmental catastrophe."Fares, who worked on a pilot project to treat waste water from a factory in central Gaza for immediate reuse in agriculture, said the implementation of such a scheme would need considerable funding.
Some funding for this sector has come from international donors, including the European Union, which invested $11m in a new seawater desalination plant in Gaza that was inaugurated in June. Over the next three years, a second phase of the project aims to double its capacity, allowing the plant to serve an estimated 150,000 people in southern Gaza.
Critics, however, say such efforts do not go far enough.
"The problem is not in securing the funds or the grant for implementing these desalination projects. The problem comes afterwards. Who will operate it; who will pay the bill for this?" said Mahmoud Shatat, the programme manager for Oxfam's Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion programme. "How can we afford the electricity and the fuel? Solar energy only covers a small amount of what's needed to run a desalination plant."
READ MORE: Gaza electricity crisis - 'People are dying daily'
Small-scale seawater desalination plants have high operating costs, and are meant to be a mid-term solution. The Palestinian Water Authority said a large-scale plant able to serve all of Gaza should be operational by 2020 - but while Gulf countries and France have pledged funding towards its estimated cost of $330m, more is required.
Marwan Albardawil, the authority's head of water and waste water projects, said a variety of options to tackle Gaza's water crisis have been studied over the years. "Among these, there was importing water from Egypt, Turkey and Israel; delivering water from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip; and seawater desalination. The proper option was desalination," Albardawil told Al Jazeera.
A study [PDF] conducted in 2011 as part of the Gaza Emergency Technical Assistance Programme recommended the transfer of high volumes of water from Israel, in order to give Gaza an equitable share of regional water resources. However, water-sharing arrangements are supposed to be part of the long-awaited final status peace negotiations.
Clemens Messerschmid, a geologist who has worked in the Palestinian water sector for 20 years, said the source of Gaza's water problem is its large population, which has skyrocketed to more than 1.8 million. A simple solution would be for Gaza to buy water from Israel, which has a surplus in the south, he said.
"The whole Strip has actually the density of a city ... Gaza is a city, but a special city that is sealed off. No city on the planet can survive from within its own parameters," Messerschmid said, noting he does not believe seawater desalination is a good solution from an environmental perspective.
"If we talk about the environment seriously, we talk about climate change," he added. "To say our solution for humankind in the future is to burn fossil fuel in order to create the most mobile element on earth, water, it's simple madness. We wouldn't suggest that anywhere else."
Water may be a highly valued commodity the world over - but in al-Shati refugee camp north of Gaza City, it is like gold.Along this small stretch of the Mediterranean coast, all it takes to work that out is turning on a tap: When it is there at all, the water is salty, or sometimes cloudy.
Nahed Radwan, who lives with her eight children and extended family in a pastel-painted house by the sea road, said her family normally gets water once a week for two days.
"The water we have, when it's on, it's not clean; it's undrinkable. It hurts the eyes because of the high salinity," Radwan, 34, told Al Jazeera.
READ MORE: Water crisis deepens in the Gaza Strip
Only an estimated 3 percent of Gaza's water is suitable for drinking. The Palestinian Water Authority and the United Nations have warned that its underground water aquifer - upon which the territory is almost entirely reliant, apart from a small amount of water imported from Israel - may be completely contaminated by the end of the year. Gaza's water contains a large concentration of chloride, while infiltration of untreated sewage has raised the levels of nitrates to two to eight times higher than the World Health Organization recommends.
Gaza is also gripped by an electricity crisis that sometimes leaves households with just a few hours of power a day.
"People are using generators for water, but we can't afford it," Radwan said. "Especially my girls - they don't like to take showers with salty water, their hair starts to fall out. I cook and do everything with drinking water."
The water we have, when it's on, it's not clean; it's undrinkable. It hurts the eyes because of the high salinity.
Nahed Radwan, Gaza resident
Many Palestinians in Gaza buy water from small-scale desalination plants, which filter the contaminated aquifer water. Private vendors distribute the water to residents using trucks. But by the time the water reaches household tanks, it is expensive - up to five times the price of water from the municipal network - and often not safe to drink. Fewer than half of Gaza's desalination facilities are licensed, according to Oxfam.
International NGOs working in the water sector in Gaza have found that 68 percent of the water that reaches households from these plants becomes biologically contaminated during storage or transportation, yet 85 percent of Palestinians in Gaza depend on this water for drinking and cooking.
EWASH, a coalition of Palestinian and international organisations working in the water and sanitation sector, says that low-income households in Gaza spend at least six times more of their income on water than their counterparts in the United Kingdom.
The recent Turkey-Israel deal is expected to provide some relief, allowing Turkey to work on a number of infrastructure projects in Gaza, including a power station and a desalination plant. Ribhi al-Sheikh, deputy head of the Palestinian Water Authority, told Al Jazeera he did not yet have details of the project.
At least 70 percent of the materials needed to build and maintain Gaza's water and sanitation network - including pumps and chemicals for water purification - are subject to severe entry restrictions amid Israel's siege on Gaza, according to EWASH. The lack of proper infrastructure has contributed to pollution: Every 38 minutes, the coalition found, the equivalent of one Olympic swimming pool of raw or partially treated sewage is discharged into the sea in Gaza.
Over-extraction from Gaza's aquifer at twice the sustainable rate has led to the infiltration of seawater, contributing to the degradation of water quality. Unregulated wells - which Palestinians in Gaza have been digging, both for agricultural and household use - have compounded the problem of over-extraction.
"The scarcity of water [in Gaza] is the problem or the crisis of the time," Najma Fares, a researcher at al-Azhar University's Water and Environment Institute, told Al Jazeera. "Because of the abuse or extraction of this water, in the next years Gaza will face a big problem that could endanger the lives of Gazans. It will be an environmental catastrophe."Fares, who worked on a pilot project to treat waste water from a factory in central Gaza for immediate reuse in agriculture, said the implementation of such a scheme would need considerable funding.
Some funding for this sector has come from international donors, including the European Union, which invested $11m in a new seawater desalination plant in Gaza that was inaugurated in June. Over the next three years, a second phase of the project aims to double its capacity, allowing the plant to serve an estimated 150,000 people in southern Gaza.
Critics, however, say such efforts do not go far enough.
"The problem is not in securing the funds or the grant for implementing these desalination projects. The problem comes afterwards. Who will operate it; who will pay the bill for this?" said Mahmoud Shatat, the programme manager for Oxfam's Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion programme. "How can we afford the electricity and the fuel? Solar energy only covers a small amount of what's needed to run a desalination plant."
READ MORE: Gaza electricity crisis - 'People are dying daily'
Small-scale seawater desalination plants have high operating costs, and are meant to be a mid-term solution. The Palestinian Water Authority said a large-scale plant able to serve all of Gaza should be operational by 2020 - but while Gulf countries and France have pledged funding towards its estimated cost of $330m, more is required.
Marwan Albardawil, the authority's head of water and waste water projects, said a variety of options to tackle Gaza's water crisis have been studied over the years. "Among these, there was importing water from Egypt, Turkey and Israel; delivering water from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip; and seawater desalination. The proper option was desalination," Albardawil told Al Jazeera.
A study [PDF] conducted in 2011 as part of the Gaza Emergency Technical Assistance Programme recommended the transfer of high volumes of water from Israel, in order to give Gaza an equitable share of regional water resources. However, water-sharing arrangements are supposed to be part of the long-awaited final status peace negotiations.
Clemens Messerschmid, a geologist who has worked in the Palestinian water sector for 20 years, said the source of Gaza's water problem is its large population, which has skyrocketed to more than 1.8 million. A simple solution would be for Gaza to buy water from Israel, which has a surplus in the south, he said.
"The whole Strip has actually the density of a city ... Gaza is a city, but a special city that is sealed off. No city on the planet can survive from within its own parameters," Messerschmid said, noting he does not believe seawater desalination is a good solution from an environmental perspective.
"If we talk about the environment seriously, we talk about climate change," he added. "To say our solution for humankind in the future is to burn fossil fuel in order to create the most mobile element on earth, water, it's simple madness. We wouldn't suggest that anywhere else."
Israeli bulldozers, escorted by Israeli police, demolished Palestinian-owned properties in several Bedouin villages of the Negev Desert, in southern Israel on Thursday, according to local sources.
Local sources told Ma’an News Agency that Israeli bulldozers demolished residential buildings and arbors located near al-Salam street near the Arara district in the Negev.
A car wash station owned by Arab al-Frejat was also demolished in the Beer al-Mashash village, while Israeli forces raided the village of Um-Batin and demolished a livestock barn.
Bedouin member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, Talab Abu Arar denounced the demolitions, saying that “Israel’s demolition campaigns are conducted for political and demographic reasons rather than legal as Israeli authorities claim,” adding that the demolitions occurred without the owners receiving prior warnings.
Abu Arar highlighted that the finances spent on demolition campaigns in the Bedouin community should instead be spent on education, healthcare, and social welfare in the villages.
He also said that the demolitions were part of Israel’s attempts to push Palestinians out of the Negev and force them to leave their lands.
Approximately 160,000 Bedouins reside in villages not recognized by the state of Israel in the Negev alone, according to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), where they are denied basic services and infrastructure.
The Israeli government uses a variety of strategies to pressure Bedouins into relocating to government-planned urban centers, in contradiction with their semi-nomadic lifestyle, which necessitates access to open grazing land for herding camels and goats.
Meanwhile, demolitions are an almost daily occurrence for Bedouins in the occupied West Bank who largely reside in “Area C” — areas under full Israeli civil and military control according to the Oslo Accords.
Over 70 percent of Bedouins in the West Bank are refugees, displaced from their original places of residence in what is now southern Israel during the Arab-Israeli war of 1967, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), while the majority of Palestinians displaced due to the demolition of their homes in Area C reside in Bedouin communities.
According to UN statistics, Palestinians now make up the largest percentage of refugees worldwide.
Local sources told Ma’an News Agency that Israeli bulldozers demolished residential buildings and arbors located near al-Salam street near the Arara district in the Negev.
A car wash station owned by Arab al-Frejat was also demolished in the Beer al-Mashash village, while Israeli forces raided the village of Um-Batin and demolished a livestock barn.
Bedouin member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, Talab Abu Arar denounced the demolitions, saying that “Israel’s demolition campaigns are conducted for political and demographic reasons rather than legal as Israeli authorities claim,” adding that the demolitions occurred without the owners receiving prior warnings.
Abu Arar highlighted that the finances spent on demolition campaigns in the Bedouin community should instead be spent on education, healthcare, and social welfare in the villages.
He also said that the demolitions were part of Israel’s attempts to push Palestinians out of the Negev and force them to leave their lands.
Approximately 160,000 Bedouins reside in villages not recognized by the state of Israel in the Negev alone, according to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), where they are denied basic services and infrastructure.
The Israeli government uses a variety of strategies to pressure Bedouins into relocating to government-planned urban centers, in contradiction with their semi-nomadic lifestyle, which necessitates access to open grazing land for herding camels and goats.
Meanwhile, demolitions are an almost daily occurrence for Bedouins in the occupied West Bank who largely reside in “Area C” — areas under full Israeli civil and military control according to the Oslo Accords.
Over 70 percent of Bedouins in the West Bank are refugees, displaced from their original places of residence in what is now southern Israel during the Arab-Israeli war of 1967, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), while the majority of Palestinians displaced due to the demolition of their homes in Area C reside in Bedouin communities.
According to UN statistics, Palestinians now make up the largest percentage of refugees worldwide.
18 aug 2016
The besieged Gaza Strip’s only power plant announced, Thursday, that it was unable to operate on more than one generator, after exhausting its fuel reserves.
In a statement, the electricity supplier noted that efforts were being made to obtain fuel in the coming week.
Even at full capacity, Egyptian and Israeli electricity grids, together with Gaza’s sole power plant, fail to cover the Gaza Strip’s energy needs. The power plant has not run at full capacity in years, with Israel’s crippling blockade severely limiting fuel imports into the coastal enclave.
Ma’an News Agency further reports that the coastal enclave has experienced severe electricity shortages over the years, exacerbating already dire living conditions in the small Palestinian territory.
Gaza’s usual electricity schedule alternates eight hours of power followed by eight hours without.
Gaza’s electricity crisis made headlines in May of 2014 ,when two small children died in a house fire caused by candles that the family used during a power cut.
War has also taken its toll, and during Israel’s 50-day offensive on Gaza in 2014, the power plant was targeted, completely knocking it out of commission.
The UN has warned that the Gaza Strip would become uninhabitable for residents by 2020, pointing to the devastation of war and nearly a decade of Israel’s blockade.
In a statement, the electricity supplier noted that efforts were being made to obtain fuel in the coming week.
Even at full capacity, Egyptian and Israeli electricity grids, together with Gaza’s sole power plant, fail to cover the Gaza Strip’s energy needs. The power plant has not run at full capacity in years, with Israel’s crippling blockade severely limiting fuel imports into the coastal enclave.
Ma’an News Agency further reports that the coastal enclave has experienced severe electricity shortages over the years, exacerbating already dire living conditions in the small Palestinian territory.
Gaza’s usual electricity schedule alternates eight hours of power followed by eight hours without.
Gaza’s electricity crisis made headlines in May of 2014 ,when two small children died in a house fire caused by candles that the family used during a power cut.
War has also taken its toll, and during Israel’s 50-day offensive on Gaza in 2014, the power plant was targeted, completely knocking it out of commission.
The UN has warned that the Gaza Strip would become uninhabitable for residents by 2020, pointing to the devastation of war and nearly a decade of Israel’s blockade.
The Israeli occupation army on Wednesday evening notified a Palestinian citizen of its intention to demolish a water well in Yatta town, south of al-Khalil city.
Local activist Rateb al-Jabour said the well is located in Umm Neir south of the town and belongs to Mohamed al-Jabour.
This is the second and final demolition notice against the well, according to Jabour.
In another context, Israeli minister of construction Yoav Galant has declared Israel's intention to increase the number of settlers in Gush Etzion settlement bloc, north of al-Khalil, to half a million.
Galant made remarks in this regard during a visit on Tuesday to Gush Etzion, according to Jerusalem Post newspaper. "We have an obligation to build in Gush Etzion. This place is important historically and strategically," he told reporters.
Local activist Rateb al-Jabour said the well is located in Umm Neir south of the town and belongs to Mohamed al-Jabour.
This is the second and final demolition notice against the well, according to Jabour.
In another context, Israeli minister of construction Yoav Galant has declared Israel's intention to increase the number of settlers in Gush Etzion settlement bloc, north of al-Khalil, to half a million.
Galant made remarks in this regard during a visit on Tuesday to Gush Etzion, according to Jerusalem Post newspaper. "We have an obligation to build in Gush Etzion. This place is important historically and strategically," he told reporters.
Palestinian activists reopened on Wednesday a road that was sealed off by the Israeli occupation army in Nablus’ southern town of Qasra on Tuesday.
Director of the Agricultural Relief in Nablus, Dhirar Abu Omar, said local activists and foreign volunteers partially reopened the road so as to allow farmers and vehicles access out of and into the area.
Dozens of Palestinian farmers could not reach their lands after the Israeli occupation soldiers sealed off a road in Qasra town.
Director of the Agricultural Relief in Nablus, Dhirar Abu Omar, said local activists and foreign volunteers partially reopened the road so as to allow farmers and vehicles access out of and into the area.
Dozens of Palestinian farmers could not reach their lands after the Israeli occupation soldiers sealed off a road in Qasra town.