Palestine

01 Aug 2021; MEMO: Ismail Haniyeh has been elected to a second term as head of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip, two Palestinian officials told Reuters on Sunday.

"Brother Ismail Haniyeh was re-elected as the head of the movement's political office for a second time," one official told Reuters. His term will last four years.

30 July 2021; MEMO: Israel today announced that it would expand the Gaza fishing zone after restricting it for four days.

According to the Office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the [occupied Palestinian] Territories (COGAT), it was decided to expand the Gaza Strip fishing zone from six to 12 nautical miles starting Monday morning.

29 July 2021; MEMO: Mohammed Al-Allami, a 12-year-old boy, was shot dead by the Israeli occupation forces in the town of Beit Ummar near Hebron in the occupied West Bank. He became the 77th Palestinian child killed by Israeli forces in 2021.

Al-Allami was shot in the chest when a soldier opened fire at a car driven by his father at the entrance to Beit Ummar, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement yesterday.

28 July 2021; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is expected to postpone the Sheikh Jarrah evictions, a source close to him told an Israeli newspaper on Tuesday, citing Bennett's fear of international uproar.

On Monday, the Israeli Supreme Court is scheduled to hold a hearing session to decide whether to evict four Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah.

27 July 2021; MEMO: Palestinian activists and Jerusalemites yesterday gathered at two tents set up in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in an effort to thwart Israeli attempts to dismantle the tents which are used to hold rallies against the occupation's plans to forcibly displace Palestinians from the area to make way for illegal Jewish settlers.

26 July 2021; MEMO: Hamas has condemned the African Union (AU)'s decision to grant Israel observer status, calling the move "shocking and reprehensible."

In a statement released on Saturday, Hamas criticised the decision the AU took last week following almost two decades of Israel's attempts to gain observer membership after the organisation's predecessor – the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) – was disbanded in 2002.

24 July 2021; MEMO: The Palestinian Authority (PA) has apologised for the murder of Palestinian activist Nizar Banat and has claimed that he was killed during a law enforcement operation, Media Line reported.

22 July 2021; MEMO: The Supreme Court of Israel has given Naftali Bennett's government a deadline until next September to clarify its position on the evacuation order issued to the Palestinian Bedouin community of Khan Al-Ahmar in occupied East Jerusalem.

The text of the court's decision issued yesterday stated that the court has granted the government until 5 September to render its position regarding carrying out the order to evacuate Khan Al-Ahmar community, adding that this would not be extended again.

RAMALLAH, Jul 23 (NNN-WAFA) – Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, yesterday held a phone conversation with Israeli Minister of Public Security, Omer Barlev, to discuss peace and security issues in the region, it was reported here.

The report did not provide more details about the conversation.

Barlev later tweeted that, he hopes to open lines of communication with Palestinian counterparts, in the interest of peace and security for the two peoples.

RAMALLAH, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Palestine on Thursday welcomed a decision by the United Nations Human Rights Council to form an independent international commission to investigate Israeli violations of Palestinian rights.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that the council's decision "reflects the international community's persistence to implement international law and protect Palestinian human rights."