Palestinians despair as Israeli forces destroy their homes in Nur Shams
Israel has also been demolishing homes in the Nur Shams refugee camp, in the north of the occupied West Bank, as part of a large-scale Israeli military assault that began last month.
What started as a military incursion has now escalated to widespread demolitions affecting hundreds of Palestinian families and displacing tens of thousands of people.
Amjad Jabali watched his house being turned into a pile of rubble.
“It’s the family’s home. The house of joy, gatherings and memories. Nothing is left of it now. Everything is gone and we became displaced, kicked out from our homes,” he said.
Jabali’s family has been displaced before. His grandparents, originally from a village near Haifa in what is now Israel, were forced from their homes in 1948 – the year Israel was created. For decades since, the family has lived in Nur Shams refugee camp. Now Amjad and his children are reliving that trauma of displacement.
“Imagine … I grew up here … Now I can’t even get in and see my house. I’m overlooking the camp from this hill, but I’m not allowed to go to my home, I can’t even go to the cemetery to visit my brother. The Israeli army shoots at us and threatens us. They want us to leave the camp and end the camp and what it stands for.”
Two Palestinian children injured by Israeli fire in West Bank: Report
Israeli forces have shot two Palestinian children with live ammunition during a raid in the town of Odala, south of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.
The agency cited a medical official as saying that one of the children was shot in the hand and the other in the chest. The victims are aged 13 and 15, according to the report.
Israel must end West Bank military assault, UN right chief says
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk says Israel must cease its military campaign in the occupied West Bank.
“In the West Bank I’m alarmed by the use of military weapons and tactics, including tanks and air strikes against Palestinians, the destruction and emptying of refugee camps, the expansion of illegal settlements, the severe restrictions on movement, and the displacement of tens of thousands of people,” Turk said at a news conference in Geneva.
“Israel’s unilateral actions and threats of annexation of the West Bank, in violation of international law, must stop.”
PA calls for Israeli withdrawal from Gaza
The Foreign Ministry of the Palestinian Authority (PA) says the State of Palestine should have “full sovereignty” over Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls for the withdrawal of the occupation from the Gaza Strip, the assumption of responsibilities by the State of Palestine and its internationally recognised government, and an end to the Nakba [catastrophe] of our people,” it said in a statement.
Netanyahu has publicly rejected proposals to have the PA return as the governing force in Gaza. Hamas, which won the Palestinian legislative elections in 2006, took over Gaza in 2007 after months of political turmoil and a face-off with Fatah, the dominant group in the PA.
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