Palestine

GAZA, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli army artillery bombed on Saturday morning two lookout posts that belong to the Islamic Hamas movement's militants in the Gaza Strip, Hamas security sources said.

The sources said the two posts belong to al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic movement that rules the Gaza Strip, adding that the artillery bombs destroyed the two posts in the southern towns of Rafah and Khan Younis.

No injuries was reported, said the sources.

GAZA/TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Gaza militants fired rockets towards Israel which responded with air strikes overnight, the Israeli military said, in the most serious escalation of cross-border violence in months, prompting mediators to step up de-escalation efforts.

There were no reports of injuries on either side. An Israeli military spokeswoman said its Iron Dome system intercepted nine of 12 rockets.

Anticipating Israeli retaliation, Hamas, Gaza’s Islamist rulers, routinely evacuates personnel from its sites.

RAMALLAH, Aug 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that Palestinians were not concerned about the normalisation deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, referring to the accord as “nonsense”.

In his first public remarks since the US-sponsored deal was announced last week, Abbas accused the Gulf Arab state of turning its back on Palestinians living under occupation in the West Bank and an Israeli-led blockade in Gaza.

RAMALLAH, Aug 18 (NNN-WAFA) – The Israeli police shot dead yesterday, a Palestinian young man, in the old city in East Jerusalem, after he stabbed an Israeli police officer and wounded him, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.

The sources said that, an Israeli police force shot and killed the Palestinian young man, who stabbed an Israeli police officer, in Bab Hatta, in East Jerusalem.

RAMALLAH, Aug 17 (NNN-PNN) – Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, said that, neither the United Arab Emirates (UAE) nor any other country has the right to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people.

During a phone conversation with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, Abbas warned that, if any other Arab country takes a similar step, Palestine will take the same position that they have taken towards UAE.

RAMALLAH, Aug 16 (NNN-WAFA) – Palestine said that, it will not allow the undermining of the Arab Peace Initiative and the resolutions of the United Nations, the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed an agreement with Israel.

RAMALLAH, Aug 11 (NNN-WAFA) – Senior Palestinian officials accused Israel that it carries out “smoothly” the annexation of the West Bank lands under the pretext of military training.

Sabri Saidam, a member of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement’s Central Committee, told reporters in Ramallah that, Israel is proceeding with its annexation plan through political and military manoeuvres.

RAMALLAH, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Palestine said on Saturday that it had taken the issue of Israeli field executions against Palestinians to the International Criminal Court (ICC) after a 23-year-old Palestinian woman was shot and killed inside her home in the West Bank on Friday.

The international community should consider such field executions on a daily basis against Palestinians "war crimes that have reached unprecedented levels," Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organization Saeb Erekat told reporters.

RAMALLAH, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- A senior Palestinian official said on Thursday that Palestine will address official letters to the United Nations over the Israeli violations against the Palestinian people in their territories.

Omar Awadallah, head of public administration for UN human rights organizations with the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, accused Israel of expanding the cycle of its violations against the Palestinian people.

RAMALLAH, Aug 5 (NNN-WAFA) – A senior Palestinian official said, Israel is accelerating its move to implement the annexation of the West Bank.

Walid Assaf, head of the National Commission to Resist the Wall and Settlements in the West Bank, told reporters that, the West Bank witnesses unprecedented Israeli escalation, mainly the confiscation of lands and settlement expansion.

“The Israeli government officially postponed the implementation of its annexation plan, but what is happening on the ground is, a large preparation for implementing the plan,” he said.