Palestine

GAZA (Reuters) - Vineyard owner Haidar al-Zahar recalls with joy the day in 2005 when Israel removed its settlers and troops from the Gaza Strip, part of a withdrawal that few Palestinians thought they would ever see.

“I felt like a prisoner who suddenly found himself a free man,” he said.

A decade and a half later he is on the warpath as Israel considers whether to annex its settlements in the occupied West Bank, 40 km (25 miles) away, divided from Gaza by Israel and which Palestinians seek as the heartland of a future state.

RAMALLAH, June 22 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki announced that the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted on Monday three resolutions in favor of Palestine.

A resolution against the Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories won the support of 26 member states of the UN council, while two voted against and nine abstained, al-Maliki said in a press statement.

FASAYIL, West Bank (AP) — For generations, the people of Fasayil herded animals on the desert bluffs and palm-shaded lowlands of the Jordan Valley. Today, nearly every man in the Palestinian village works for Jewish settlers in the sprawling modern farms to the north and south.

RAMALLAH, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Palestine on Sunday slammed Israel for issuing deportation orders for Palestinians away from East Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque.

"Once again, Israel is bent on demonstrating its contempt for freedom of worship and religions, as demonstrably clear in its increased violations of the Palestinian people's freedom of worship, especially in occupied Jerusalem," said member of Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee Hanan Ashrawi.

GAZA, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Former Palestinian Islamic Jihad Secretary General Ramadan Shalah was declared dead by his group on Saturday.

Shalah, a key figure in the political scene, died at 62 after suffering from an incurable disease, said his group in a statement.

Shalah, born in 1958 in Gaza, was one of the founders of the Islamic Jihad group. He lived in Lebanon and had strong ties with Syria.

He was the leader of the group between 1995 and 2018.

RAMALLAH, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on Saturday warned Israel against taking steps towards the practical annexation of West Bank lands.

The PLO's department of defending lands and resisting Israeli settlement unveiled in a report that extremist groups of Israeli settlers joined a chamber of operations that prepares for the annexation plan of West Bank lands on the ground.

RAMALLAH, May 29 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli soldiers on Friday shot at a Palestinian man after an alleged car-ramming attack northwest of the West Bank city of Ramallah, Israeli and Palestinian sources said.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed in a press statement the man's death.

An Israeli army spokesman wrote on Twitter that a report was received regarding an attempted car-ramming attack adjacent to the community of Halamish. The spokesman did not say if the Palestinian was killed.

RAMALLAH, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Palestine on Saturday urged Israel to release a Palestinian prisoner diagnosed with COVID-19, three days after he was arrested by Israeli forces in the West Bank.

Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, accused Israel of violating the international law by continuing the detention of the 21-year-old, demanding his immediate release.

GAZA, April 11 (Xinhua) -- Gaza authorities on Saturday declared that 1,000 new quarantine units for patients and suspected cases of the novel coronavirus in the coastal enclave are ready to be put into use.

According to a press statement by the Islamic Hamas movement, the local authorities completed the construction of quarantine units able to accommodate 1,000 people, half of which were built in the southern town of Rafah and the other half in the northern part of Gaza.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — At the construction site in Tel Aviv, Jamal Salman and the other Palestinian workers wore gloves and masks, and their employer provided apartments for them to stay overnight.

But his wife, alarmed by the news about the coronavirus outbreak in Israel, called him every night from the West Bank, begging him to come home. He came back early this week.