Palestine

GAZA (Reuters) - The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees paid the salaries of 30,000 Palestinian staff across the Middle East for last month, but a funding shortfall may still hinder payment in December, officials said on Wednesday.

UNRWA finds itself in limbo after the U.S. election - President Donald Trump ended all U.S. payments, but while Palestinians hope President-elect Joe Biden’s administration will at least partially resume payments, that could take months.

RAMALLAH, Nov 29 (NNN-WAFA) – The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), warned against the Israeli government’s plan, to legalise dozens of “illegal settlement outposts” built in the West Bank.

In an official report sent to the press, the PLO’s National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements noted that, Israel aims to seize and control more lands in the West Bank, referring to the remarks of Israeli Minister of Settlement Affairs, Tzachi Hanegbi.

The Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture in Gaza announced on Thursday that it will be importing Palestinian olive oil for the first time from the besieged enclave, to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Speaking to the press, the ministry's Spokesman Adham Al-Basyouni disclosed: "44 tones of olive oil were exported to Arab countries after achieving self-sufficiency for the first time."

RAMALLAH, Nov 26 (NNN-WAFA) – Palestinian Prime Minister, Mohammed Ishtaye, called on the international community to recognise the state of Palestine on the 1967 borders.

“The international community is required to break the status quo imposed by Israel, by recognising the state of Palestine on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital,” Ishtaye said, in a press statement.

GAZA, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- A handmade rocket was launched on Saturday from the Gaza Strip toward southern Israel, according to Palestinian and Israeli security sources.

The Palestinian sources told Xinhua that the rocket, which was fired from northern Gaza, caused an explosion in the border areas.

Meanwhile, Avichai Adraee, spokesman of the Israeli army, said in a statement that "Palestinian militants launched a handmade rocket from the Gaza Strip toward an Israeli territory."

No injuries were reported, according to Adraee.

RAMALLAH, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of Palestinians demonstrated on Wednesday against the upcoming visit of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to an Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

During the demonstration in the West Bank city of al-Bireh near Ramallah, participants waved Palestinian flags and held banners in English and Arabic that condemned the visit.

Some of the demonstrators are Palestinians who hold American citizenship.

RAMALLAH, Nov 14 (NNN-WAFA) – Palestinian officials slammed U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo’s reported decision, to visit Israeli settlement in the West Bank, calling the planned visit “a challenge to international consensus.”

“The visit will be a challenge to the positions of all previous U.S. administrations, that emphasised the illegality of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories,” said Palestinian Minister of Civil Affairs, Hussein al-Sheikh, in a press statement.

NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) - A Palestinian motorist fired a pistol at Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday and was killed by them, a military spokesman said, and Palestinians identified the dead man as an officer in their security forces.

There were no Israeli casualties in the incident at a roadside military position near the Palestinian city of Nablus.

HEBRON, West Bank (Reuters) - Jewish settler leaders prayed on Monday for U.S. President Donald Trump’s re-election, citing his support for Israel, during a ceremony at a biblical tomb in the occupied West Bank that has been a flashpoint of conflict with the Palestinians.

“We have come to bless President Trump, both for the past, to thank him, but also for the future, that he succeeds in the coming election,” Yishai Fleisher, spokesman for the Hebron settlers, said at the Cave of the Patriarchs burial site.

RAMALLAH, Oct 29 (NNN-WAFA) – Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, called on UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, to hold urgent consultations on convening an international peace conference.

Abbas sent Guterres a letter, asking him to coordinate with the Quartet on the Middle East and the UN Security Council, to hold the conference.

The letter called on the majority of the council’s superpowers, “to start preparing at the beginning of next year, for an international conference for peace in the Middle East.”