Palestine

RAMALLAH, Sept 24 (NNN-WAFA) – Palestinian Prime Minister, Mohammed Ishtaye, announced last night that, the dialogue between leaders of Hamas and Fatah in Turkey is “encouraging.”

Ishtaye said that the meetings between the two movements focused on “agreeing on holding Palestinian general elections,” adding that “the atmosphere gives rise to hope.”

He went on to say that, “there is hope for reaching the desired results by completing reconciliation and turning the page on division.”

RAMALLAH, Sept 22 (NNN-WAFA) – Palestinian Prime Minister, Mohammed Ishtaye, yesterday, accused the U.S. administration of preventing Arab states from supporting the Palestinian Authority (PA), to force it to barter its national rights for money.

During the weekly meeting of the PA cabinet, Ishtaye said, “U.S. President, Donald Trump, cut off aid to us and prevented some Arab states from fulfilling their obligations towards us, to besiege the leadership and the Palestinian people politically, economically and financially.”

RAMALLAH, West Bank/GAZA (Reuters) - Palestine has quit its current chairmanship of Arab League meetings, the Palestinian foreign minister said on Tuesday, condemning as dishonourable any Arab agreement to establish formal ties with Israel.

Palestinians see the accords which the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed with Israel in Washington a week ago as betrayal of their cause and a blow to their quest for an independent state in Israeli-occupied territory.

GAZA, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The health ministry in the Gaza Strip announced on Monday that Gaza would soon witness a "humanitarian disaster" amid an acute shortage of medical supplies and equipment in handling the COVID-19 outbreak.

Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman of the health ministry in Gaza, told Xinhua that the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for the novel coronavirus can only enough for two days, which "would cause a catastrophe."

The densely populated coastal enclave needs to double the PCR tests to combat the virus and avoid its spread, al-Qedra said.

RAMALLAH, Sept 19 (NNN-WAFA) – A Palestinian official, yesterday, accused Israel of waging a “systematic war” to “loot Palestinian antiquities in the Palestinian territories.”

Saleh Tawafsha, the director-general of the antiquities preservation department, at the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, said that, looting Palestinian antiquities violates international conventions and laws.

RAMALLAH, Sept 19 (NNN-WAFA) – A Palestinian dentist died yesterday, during clashes between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli soldiers, in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, medics and official Palestinian media said.

The official Palestinian Television reported that, doctor Nidal Jabarin, a Palestinian dentist in his early fifties, died of shock, after Israeli soldiers threw stun grenades at Palestinian demonstrators in the city yesterday.

GAZA, Sept 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — There has been a fresh round of violence between Palestinian militants in Gaza and Israel, after a ceremony in Washington at which Israel and two Gulf Arab states normalised their relations.

Militants fired two rockets into Israel on Tuesday night. One hit the coastal city of Ashdod, wounding two men.

Another barrage of 13 rockets was launched before dawn on Wednesday.

In retaliation, the Israeli military bombed sites in Gaza it said belonged to the Palestinian group Hamas.

RAMALLAH, Sept 13 (NNN-WAFA) – A Palestine official, accused the U.S. of pressurising Arab countries into normalising relations with Israel.

“Washington exploits its political and economic power, to force Arab countries to normalise ties with Israel,” said Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Executive Committee.

“The U.S. government is using all means of incitement, intimidation and pressure” to achieve the goal, she added.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Dr. Ahmed el-Rabii spent years treating Palestinians wounded by Israeli fire during wars and clashes in the Gaza Strip. Now that the coronavirus has reached the blockaded territory, the 37-year-old physician finds himself in the unfamiliar role of patient.

El-Rabii is the first Gaza doctor diagnosed with COVID-19 and is among dozens of health-care workers infected during the local outbreak, which was detected late last month. The spread among front-line workers has further strained an already overburdened health-care system.

RAMALLAH, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of Palestinian patients were injured as a result of the Israeli army firing tear gas inside a governmental hospital in Hebron city, Palestinian sources said Sunday.

Tariq Barbarawy, director of Hebron governmental hospital, told Xinhua that the Israeli army fired tear gas towards one of the internal medicine department's rooms, which has many patients infected with the novel coronavirus.

Barbarawy added that the tear gas was widespread inside the hospital departments, which suffocated the medical staff and dozens of patients.