Chronological Review of Events/July 2012 – DPR review

Division for Palestinian Rights

Chronological Review of Events Relating to the

Question of Palestine

Monthly media monitoring review

July 2012

1

Staff from the Israeli Jerusalem municipality, accompanied by a large military force, demolished four Palestinian shops in Bab Al Amoud area without prior notice.  (WAFA)

An Israeli soldier was injured when one of the tear gas bombs he was carrying exploded. (Palestine News Network)

Palestinian Authority (PA) Labour Minister Ahmed Majdalani declared that the PA was facing its “worst financial crisis…since its founding”.  Mr. Majdalani explained that because of the shortfall in the delivery of aid from Arab donor nations, the PA would be unable to pay July salaries and its debts to private companies.  (Ynetnews)

The Israeli High Court granted State approval for a four-and-a-half month extension of the deadline to demolish the recently evacuated “Ulpana” outpost.  (The Jerusalem Post, Haaretz)

2

An Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson announced that it struck a “terror” cell in the northern Gaza strip, registering a direct hit against the target.  There were conflicting reports from Israeli and Palestinian sources about the number of civilians killed or injured.  (The Jerusalem Post, Palestine News Network, International Middle East Media Centre, Jordan News Agency)

Seven Palestinians were arrested by Israeli forces in a raid on the industrial area in Jenin.  Two young Palestinians were arrested in a raid on the village of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron.  (Palestine News Network)

After raiding two mechanical stores in Jenin, the IDF established a temporary checkpoint at the entrance to Yabad town and started searching cars.  (Ma’an News Agency)

Farmers from the West Bank Palestinian village of Aqraba were prohibited from reaching their farmland and homes in the area because of a claim that they were in a live-fire range.  The rule did not apply to a settlement outpost located in the same firing range.  (Haaretz)

A major PA crackdown on crime and corruption had resulted in the arrests of some 150 Palestinians, including senior security officers.  The operation was welcomed in Israel as a sign of the PA’s imposition of its authority over the areas under its jurisdiction.  (The Jerusalem Post)

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed the need for meaningful confidence-building measures during his meeting with Israel’s Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, at UN Headquarters in New York.  Mr. Ban also voiced concern over the situation in Gaza and stressed the importance for sustained calm to be restored.  (UN News Centre)

The Central Elections Commission stopped the updating of its voter registry in Gaza after notice from Hamas officials.  In a statement, Fatah Spokesman Fayez Abu Aita said that the party was "surprised and disappointed" by Hamas' decision.  (Ma’an News Agency, WAFA)

The Israeli Regional Planning and Construction Committee approved a plan to build a military college on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem.  (IMEMC)

Palestinian prisoner Akram Rikhawi entered his 83^rd day of hunger strike. He was reported to be at imminent risk of dying. (IMEMC)

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) declined Israel’s request for a $1 billion loan on behalf of the PA to prevent its financial collapse, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.  The IMF rejected the request to avoid setting a precedent of a State obtaining a loan on behalf of a non-State body.  (Ma’an News Agency)

The Human Rights Council held an interactive dialogue with Richard Falk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since   1967.  His report recommended that the Council request studies on Israel’s use of administrative detention and on the adequacy of international humanitarian law to cover situations of prolonged occupation; that the International Court of Justice be requested to provide an advisory opinion on the Israeli practice of transferring detained Palestinians to prisons in Israel; and that the Council give increased attention to Israel’s refusal to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur.  (www.ohchr.org)

3

Israeli forces arrested eight Palestinians from across the West Bank.  (WAFA)

A number of Israeli armoured military vehicles, accompanied by military bulldozers, invaded an area east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip and bulldozed farmlands.  (IMEMC)

Palestinian sources said that IDF forces had entered the village of Al-Aqabah the previous week without warning, launching an exercise that included gunfire, while the residents found themselves under an impromptu curfew.  An IDF spokesperson said in a statement: “This is a designated fire zone which is a restricted military area.  The Palestinian village was erected illegally and, in any case, no live rounds were used during the exercise.”  (Ynetnews)

Israel was working actively in key capitals around the world to prevent the Palestinians from participating in a UN Arms Trade Treaty conference being held in New York as a full-fledged State, and not merely as an observer, Western diplomatic officials said.  (The Jerusalem Post)

The World Bank announced that it had paid $22.3 million to the PA to help with its budget crisis.  The funds were obtained from a trust fund that the Governments of Australia, France, Kuwait, Norway, and the United Kingdom had paid into in the past.  (Ma'an News Agency)

Haaretz reported that the State of Israel planned to start compiling land registry records of assets controlled by settlers.  It added that the registry would bypass regular land listing processes and appeared designed to prevent Palestinians from appealing the validity of the ownership listings.  (Haaretz)

Israeli settlers from the “Havat Gilad” outpost entered a Palestinian field in a Nablus village and chopped down 41 olive trees.  (Ma’an News Agency)

4

The PA announced that it would exhume the remains of its late leader, Yasser Arafat, to investigate new claims that he might have been poisoned.  Israeli Government officials rejected suggestions that Israel may have poisoned Mr. Arafat with a lethal radioactive isotope, polonium.  (Haaretz, Ma'an News Agency, The Guardian)

According to the head of the Al-Maleh village council, Aref Daraghmeh, Israeli settlers from the “Rotem” settlement in the north of the Jordan Valley had seized Palestinian land around the settlement.  (WAFA, IMEMC)

According to local sources, four Palestinians from the village of Housan, west of Bethlehem, received eviction orders.  Their land was adjacent to the settlement of “Beitar Illit”.  (WAFA)

A PA liaison department announced that Israel had agreed to register 216 Palestinians originally from the Gaza Strip as residents of the West Bank.  (Ma'an News Agency)

Israel's Council of Higher Education voted against upgrading the college in the “Ariel” settlement to university status.  It said that there was no justification for another university when others in Israel were already suffering from a shortage of faculty and infrastructure.  (AP)

5

A mortar shell was fired from Gaza at Israel.  It fell near the border fence, causing no damage or injury, Israel Radio reported.  (The Jerusalem Post) 

The Palestinian Central Elections Commission decided to suspend its voter registration programme in Gaza following an order from Hamas.  (Ma’an News Agency)

UN Special Coordinator Robert Serry called upon authorities in Gaza to allow the Central Elections Commission to operate.  He commended the Commission's professionalism and independence.  (Ma’an News Agency)

Nasser al-Kidwa, head of the Yasser Arafat Foundation, met with PA President Abbas in Paris and discussed new allegations that Mr. Arafat had been poisoned.  Tunisia called for Arab ministers to meet to discuss the issue, a senior official in the Arab League said.  (Ma’an News Agency)

The European Parliament voted in favour of a resolution stressing that no changes on the ground in the Occupied Palestinian Territory that had not been agreed upon by the conflicting parties should be accepted.  (WAFA)

Israel would resume construction of its controversial barrier within the next few weeks after a five-year delay, Israel Public Radio quoted an army officer as saying.  (www.reliefweb.int)

Israeli settlers cut down around 120 olive trees near the village of Yatma, south of Nablus, according to a local activist, who monitored settlement activities in the north of the West Bank.  (WAFA)

The Israeli army decided to confiscate 2.5 dunums of Palestinian lands near Ath-Thaheriyya town, south of Hebron, in order to build a military base in the area.  (IMEMC)

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry condemned Israel's tenders for construction of additional settlement units in the illegal “Har Homa”, “Pisgat Ze’ev” and “East Talpiot” settlements.  The statement also deplored and condemned the preliminary approval of the plans for moving the National Defence College to a location on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem.  (Ma’an News Agency)

Oxfam International published a report entitled “On the Brink: Israeli settlements and their impact on Palestinians in the Jordan Valley”, documenting the inhospitable environment created as a direct result of the Israeli occupation and the continued illegal construction of settlements inside the West Bank. (IMEMC)

The Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain made a $1 million donation to the Technical Cooperation Trust Fund of the Special Human Settlements Programme for the Palestinian People.  (www.reliefweb.int)

Israel released two Hamas legislators – Mahmoud Ar-Ramahi of Ramallah and Nizar Ramadan of Hebron – after imprisoning them without charge at the Negev Detention Camp for 18 months.  (IMEMC)

6

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel landed in the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council area.  No injuries or damage were recorded.  (The Jerusalem Post)

Palestinian medical sources reported that a Palestinian youth was shot and wounded by Israeli fire in the northern part of Gaza.  (IMEMC) 

US Secretary of State Clinton said that she had held "candid and productive" talks in Paris with PA President Abbas along the sidelines of a Friends of Syria meeting.  Secretary Clinton said that they had "discussed how to build on his exchange of letters" with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  (AFP)

Israel closed the Erez crossing on the Gaza border, a Palestinian official said.  Only patients and some businessmen were given Israeli permits to cross.  (Ma'an News Agency)

The energy authority in Gaza urged citizens to limit their electricity use.  The sole power station in Gaza had reduced its production to 30 megawatts in the daytime and 50 megawatts at night.  Gaza authorities blamed Israel and Egypt for the shortage.  (IMEMC)

The Friends of Freedom and Justice Committee in Bil’in village in the West Bank reported that Israeli soldiers had attacked the weekly non-violent protest against the wall and settlements, leading to several injuries.  (IMEMC)

Approximately 80 activists gathered at Sheik Jarrah in East Jerusalem to protest the illegal eviction of Palestinian families and the occupation of their homes by far-right Israeli settlers.  (IMEMC)

Laura Dupuy Lasserre, President of the Human Rights Council, announced the members of a fact-finding mission on Israeli settlements: French judge Christine Chanet (Chair), Pakistani lawyer Asma Jahangir and Botswana judge Unity Dow.  The mission was expected to report its findings to the Council by March 2013.  Israel had said that it would not cooperate with the mission.  (AP, UNOG, Ynetnews, The Jerusalem Post, IMEMC)

Nabil al-Raee, the Artistic Director of the Freedom Theatre in Jenin, started a hunger strike to protest his month-long administrative detention.  (IMEMC)

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel said that a Palestinian prisoner was in critical condition after a nearly three-month hunger strike.  Akram Rikhawi was seeking early release from his nine-year sentence owing to his ailments.  He was convicted of transporting suicide bombers, planting explosives and targeting Israeli troops.  (AP)

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will convene the UN Asian and Pacific Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace on 10 and 11 July at the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in Bangkok.  The theme will be “International efforts at addressing the obstacles to the two-State solution — the role of Asian and Pacific governmental and non-governmental actors.”  (UN News Centre)

The largest Presbyterian Church in the US rejected by a 333 to 331 margin the motion to divest from companies (Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions) that it said provided Israel services aiding the occupation.  (The Jerusalem Post) 

Nine Canadian senators have warned the United Church of Canada that its proposed boycott of settlement goods would harm relations with the Jewish community.  The Church’s highest body will vote on 14 August on the proposal.  (JTA)

7

Israeli forces detained nine Palestinian men between the ages of 17 and 22 throughout the West Bank overnight.  (Ma’an News Agency)

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe rejected a Palestinian application to join the organization as an observer, Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon said.  PA President Abbas' diplomatic adviser, Majdi al-Khalidi, denied the report.  (Haaretz, Ma’an News Agency, The Jerusalem Post)

A Palestinian man was shot by Israeli forces in Yanun village, south of Nablus, after which a group of Israeli settlers stabbed him repeatedly.  The settlers had entered the village and fatally stabbed five cattle.  The IDF denied the report, emphasizing that soldiers did not employ live fire in breaking up clashes.  (Ma’an News Agency, The Jerusalem Post)

Egyptian authorities allowed the entry of Italian medical aid into the Gaza Strip through its Rafah crossing.  An Egyptian security source said that the aid was from the organization Music for Peace in cooperation with the Italian Red Cross.  It consisted of seven ambulances, a special vehicle for disabled people and six containers of medicines and medical equipment.  (Ma’an News Agency)

A delegation of 40 international solidarity activists from different countries entered the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing.  The activists were part of the international aid convoy Miles of Smiles.  The group brought humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, which included 14 vehicles for disabled people, in addition to medicines and an X-ray machine.  (Ma’an News Agency)

8

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso called for a return to Israeli-Palestinian talks during his trip to the West Bank, where he met PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and President Abbas.  Mr. Barroso said that it was "important that the two parties do not act in a way that undermines the viability of a two-State solution.  In this respect, it is with concern that we see the continuous growth of settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem".  (AFP, AP, The Washington Post)

Palestinian Chief Negotiator Saeb Erakat said that the PA intended to press for a joint international-Arab League committee to investigate the death of former PA President Yasser Arafat.  (The Jerusalem Post)

Israeli forces seized three mobile homes an international aid agency had donated to three families in the village of Beit Hanina, north of Jerusalem, to shelter them after the Israeli authorities had demolished their homes.  (WAFA)

9

Israeli forces detained eight Palestinians across the West Bank in the Hebron area town of Beit Ummar.  An Israeli military spokesperson said that two Palestinians had also been arrested in Beit Ur al-Tahta, near Ramallah, and three others in Qalqilya: Kharas near Bethlehem; and Al-Tabaqa, in Hebron.  (Ma’an News Agency)

The PA invited Swiss experts to the West Bank to take samples of the late President Arafat's remains for more tests.  The invitation was sent to the Lausanne-based Institute of Radiation Physics, which examined Mr. Arafat's personal belongings and discovered amounts of radioactive polonium.  (Xinhua)

During a conversation in Jerusalem with European Commission President Barroso, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu urged Europe to adopt a more balanced approach to Israel, according to an official who was present at the meeting.  (The Jerusalem Post)

PA President Abbas accepted an invitation to attend the Non-Aligned Movement Summit in Tehran at the end of August, extended by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said that it would not be a State visit and was solely aimed at attending the Summit.  (Ynetnews)

On the occasion of the eighth anniversary of the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the separation wall, Chief Palestinian Negotiator Erakat said that the international community must work to end Israel's impunity.  The legacy of the Court's ruling is that all States "have an obligation to see that the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and independence is fulfilled", Mr. Erakat said.  (Ma'an News Agency)

Prime Minister Netanyahu asked Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein for a legal opinion on the report by the Levy Committee, which had concluded that Israel was not an occupying force in the West Bank, contradicting Israeli Supreme Court rulings.  The Attorney-General had reportedly indicated that he would not be obligated by its findings.  Mr. Netanyahu also said that he would discuss and decide upon the findings of the Levy Report with the Ministerial Committee on Settlements.  (Haaretz, The Jerusalem Post)

Peace Now Director-General Yariv Oppenheimer said: "No jurist in the world would refer to this political manifesto as a serious report", adding that "The conclusion that there is no occupation proves that the [Levy] committee members are living in continuous denial".  (The Jerusalem Post)

Five agreements were signed for the implementation of training projects funded by the European Union (EU) in the Nablus governorate in the areas of car mechanics, food production, air-conditioning and refrigeration, and office and home design.  The four-year initiative, worth €4 million would be implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit.  (www.europa.eu)

A group of teenage settlers threw stones at a Palestinian man driving near “El’azar” settlement, built on land belonging to Palestinians from al-Khader village south of Bethlehem, smashing his windshield and causing moderate injuries.  Israeli security officials stationed at “El’azar” did not intervene.  (Ma’an News Agency, WAFA)

A group of settlers seized 5 dunums of Palestinian-owned land in the Ein Qasis area near Bethlehem and installed a mobile home.  (IMEMC)

Governments within the EU have received a report by Cambridge University professor James Crawford stating that EU member States would be within their legal rights if they chose to ban products made in settlements.  Mr. Crawford stated that a ban would not violate any World Trade Organization agreements or the EU-Israel Association Agreement.  (IMEMC)

US State Department Spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters: “We do not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity and we oppose any effort to legalize outposts.” (The Jerusalem Post)

Dozens of settlers attacked and smashed Palestinian vehicles at the northern entrance of Hebron.  (PNN)

According to Israeli and Western sources, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu had agreed to PA President Abbas' request to release 123 Palestinian prisoners detained since before the Oslo agreement.  Mr. Netanyahu had expressed willingness to release 25 prisoners initially and the rest by the end of 2012.  (Haaretz, Palestine News Network)

Akram al-Rikhawi, who has now been on hunger strike for 91 days, was unable to move his left leg and at risk of dying, his lawyer and doctor both reported.  Mr. Al-Rikhawi, who is married with eight children, was sentenced to nine years in prison by an Israeli military tribunal.  Since being imprisoned, he had been denied access to his medication which had led to severe health complications.  (IMEMC)

PA Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs Issa Qaraqe said that PA President Abbas had rejected an offer by Prime Minister Netanyahu to release security prisoners held in Israeli jails in exchange for the renewal of peace talks.  Mr. Netanyahu commented on the issue saying, "I do not intend to make a unilateral gesture, certainly not for a meeting. …  I want to renew negotiations, but Abu Mazen (Abbas) missed the chance.”  (Haaretz)

10

Palestinian sources reported that Israeli military aircraft struck two targets in Rafah and in Khan Yunis, adding that at least one of them was a Hamas military wing command post.  No injuries were reported. (Ynetnews)

Two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip and landed without causing any damage. (Ynetnews)

A rocket fired from Gaza exploded near a group of Israeli farmers and their equipment, but caused no injuries or damage.  (The Jerusalem Post)

Six Palestinians described as “fugitives” were arrested in the West Bank by the IDF. (Ynetnews)

Nitzan Alon, the Israeli Central Command Chief, signed an order giving the authorities the right to treat internationals living in the occupied West Bank as “infiltrators”, arrest and deport them.  (IMEMC)

Three Israeli settler children from Hebron were lightly injured by stones thrown at them by Palestinians while in a playground.  (Ynetnews)

Palestinian official Khaled Mesmar said that the US had threatened to cut off aid if the Palestinian leadership submitted another membership bid to the UN.  Mr. Mesmar said that the US Administration had asked the Palestinian President to resume negotiations with Israel immediately and without preconditions.   (Israel National News, Palestine News Network)

A joint Palestinian-Thai agreement to launch diplomatic relations between Palestine and Thailand was reached.  The agreement was to take effect in August 2012.  (WAFA)

Israeli President Shimon Peres criticized the [Levy] report calling for the legalization of West Bank outposts saying that "Israeli settlement in territories densely populated by an Arab population could bring about a threatening demographic change; that is, it could endanger the Jewish majority in Israel".  (The Jerusalem Post)

The PA had set 20 October as the new date for the long-delayed municipal elections.  Presidential Spokesman Ghassan Khatib said, "You cannot hold the elections hostage to Hamas forever."  (AP)

US Secretary of State Clinton said that the US would wait for the results of any new investigation into Yasser Arafat's death and would not be responding to rumours.  (Ynetnews)

According to a statement released by the PA Ministry of Finance, the German Government will grant €2.5 million to finance the European Palestinian Credit Guarantee Fund in support of small enterprises through local banks and lending institutions.  (WAFA)

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby issued a statement calling on Arab States to fulfil their financial commitments to the PA.  (WAFA)

A Palestinian child from Hebron was rammed and injured by a settler’s car, Palestinian medical sources reported.  The settler fled the scene.  (IMEMC)

Israeli soldiers, accompanied by a military bulldozer, uprooted a few hundred-year-old cypress trees at the entrance of Amatin, a town east of Qalqilya.  (WAFA)

Israeli bulldozers demolished several Palestinian wells used to collect rainwater in Farsh Al-Hawa area north of Hebron, which was part of Area C. (WAFA)

Mahmud Sarsak, an imprisoned Palestinian footballer who had staged a 96-day hunger strike, had been freed and had returned to Gaza.  (AFP, Ma’an News Agency) 

Israeli authorities renewed the administrative detention of six Palestinian prisoners, including Hamas leader Rafat Nassif, Tadamun Foundation for Human Rights said in a press release.  (PNN)

The two-day United Nations Asian and Pacific Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace opened at ESCAP in Bangkok, under the theme “International efforts at addressing the obstacles to the two-State solution — the role of Asian and Pacific governmental and non-governmental actors”.  In a message to participants, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that the two-State solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was “increasingly at risk, moving us further away from our shared objective of a comprehensive peace in the region”.  PA Foreign Minister Riad Malki and former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad were among the participants.  (Division for Palestinian Rights)

In his message to the UN-League of Arab States General Meeting on Cooperation, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for more cooperation with the Arab League, warning about the “dangerous standstill” in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.  (UN News Centre, Jordan News Agency)

11

Palestinians threw stones at an Israeli truck driver who had accidentally entered the Palestinian village of Qalandiya.  He was slightly injured.  (The Jerusalem Post)

Fourteen Palestinians were arrested by IDF from different areas of the West Bank. Nine people, including three minors, were reported to have been arrested during a night raid at the Qalqilya area village of Azzoun.  The rest were arrested in several villages near Hebron.  (WAFA)

PA President Abbas urged the US Administration to exert pressure on Israel to halt construction in the settlements as a first step toward reviving the peace negotiations.  Mr. Abbas, who met in Ramallah with US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, reiterated his refusal to resume peace talks unless Israel halted settlement construction, released Palestinian prisoners and accepted the two-State solution on the basis of the pre-1967 lines.  (The Jerusalem Post)

Hamas Spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri criticized the PA “unilateral step” in declaring the [local] elections to be held on 20 October.  Mr. Abu Zuhri said that the decision undermined reconciliation. (IMEMC)

Lawyer Pierre-Olivier Sud said in a statement that Yasser Arafat’s widow, Suha Arafat, was to file a legal complaint in France by the end of the month over the unexplained causes of her husband’s death.  (Haaretz)

Tens of thousands of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, whether connected to the city water system or receiving water from PA, suffered from recurrent water disruptions.  In many cases, water was available only two days per week. (Haaretz)

The International Finance Corporation of the World Bank announced that an agreement had been reached to grant Wataniya Mobile Palestine a $125 million loan to finance its expansion plans in the Gaza Strip.  (www.Telegeography.com)

Human rights groups were sounding the alarm on the sharp increase in settlers’ attacks on Palestinians, amid absence of political will to protect Palestinian civilians by Israeli authorities.  The number of attacks had risen from 168 in 2009 to 411 in 2011.  (Times-Standard)

Two leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Abdallah Zakarneh and Fada Zgheibi, had been released from prison after eight months in an Israeli jail.  (Palestine News Network)

Hamas organized a “Prisoners summer camp” for children to experience first hand the daily lives of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.  (Ynetnews)

During the United Nations Asia and Pacific Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace in Bangkok, Malaysian Foreign Ministry Deputy Secretary-General Datuk Husni Zai embraced the efforts of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, stressing that it was important to “promote international support for and assistance to the Palestinian people and to bring to an end the Palestinians' suffering”.  Malaysia called upon Asia-Pacific States to continue supporting diplomatic efforts by the Quartet to accelerate peace talks between Palestine and Israel. (New Straits Times)

12

A Palestinian was killed and four others were wounded following separate attacks by Israeli forces near the Israel-Gaza border.  A Gaza health official said that the fatality belonged to the Izz ad-Din Al-Qassam Brigades.  (Haaretz, IMEMC, Ynetnews)

IDF forces operating in the West Bank apprehended 17 “wanted” Palestinians overnight.  A Palestinian said that soldiers had stolen NIS 9000 from his house.  (Palestine News Network, Ynetnews)

Israel’s Channel 7 reported confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers erupted at the Ibrahimi Mosque, with Palestinians throwing stones at an Israeli vehicle.  (Ma’an News Agency)

The Jerusalem District Court sentenced a Jewish teenager to eight years in jail for the killing of Palestinian East Jerusalem resident Hussam Rawidi. (Haaretz)

PA Minister of Finance Nabil Qasis stated that 60 per cent of PA employee salaries would be transferred to their bank accounts.  He stated that the PA had received only $466 million of the $1.2 billion promised for the year.  The US, which had pledged $200 million, had failed to deliver in June as promised.  Saudi Arabia had yet to deliver the $95 million it had pledged.  (IMEMC)

Hamas leader Haniyeh called upon Egypt to keep the Rafah border crossing open around the clock.  (AFP)

The Detainees’ Study Centre reported that, following the release of Mahmoud Sarsak, one Palestinian detainee remained imprisoned under the Israeli “Illegitimate Combatant Law”.  He was  Osama Hajjaj Az-Zaree’ey, who had been held without charges or trial since 2008.  (IMEMC)

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Subdelegation in Gaza, Patrick Gueissaz, said that on 16 July 47 family members would be allowed to visit 25 Gaza prisoners in Israeli jails.  (Palestine News Network)

Israeli security forces arrived at the West Bank outpost of “Migron” and razed several unauthorized structures.  Three settlers were detained for violating a restricted military zone order.  (Ynetnews)

Settlers spray-painted anti-Arab graffiti on Palestinian tents in Khirbet Susiya, south of Hebron, according to local sources.  (WAFA)

Israeli forces handed a Palestinian farmer in Artas, a village south of Bethlehem, a notice banning him from reclaiming his land located near the “Etzion” settlement block, claiming that it was State land.  (WAFA)

A group of 30 settlers had broken into parks in the al-Bathan Valley, northeast of Nablus, witnesses said.   (Ma’an News Agency)

Amnesty International called upon supporters to contact Israeli authorities and urge Israel to release detainees and all other administrative prisoners, in particular two Palestinian prisoners – Hassan Safadi and Samer al-Barq – who had been on hunger strike since 21 June and 22 May, respectively.  The group said that the detainees were being held in solitary confinement in a prison clinic in Israel that had been unable to provide the care they needed and had no access to independent doctors.  (Ma’an News Agency)

After the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) inaugurated a Chair in Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Sciences at the Islamic University of Gaza, Israel was expected to submit an official letter of protest, together with information about the University’s reported ties with Hamas and its military faction.  (Haaretz)

The Government of the Republic of Korea provided over 600 computers to Palestine refugee students in the Gaza Strip through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).  (UNRWA)

The Jewish Voice for Peace and other human rights groups urged the TIAA-CREF pension fund to stop investing in companies that profited from Israel’s occupation and colonization of Palestinian lands, according to a statement.  The groups planned to rally at the fund’s annual meeting in New York City the following week.  (WAFA)

Around 250 European academics sent a letter to the EU Commissioner for Research, Innovation, and Science calling for the exclusion of Israeli companies engaged in violations of international law from receiving EU funding.  (WAFA)

The Coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements, Salah Khawaja, said that a number of the international activists had informed him that they would charge Israel in international courts if Israeli authorities continued to target international protesters and Palestinians during peaceful marches.  (Palestine News Network)

13

Israeli troops shot dead an unarmed Palestinian and wounded another who attempted to infiltrate under the cover of darkness via the Sinai border with Egypt, the Israeli military said.  (Reuters)

A Palestinian man in his early 20s had been shot dead by Israeli troops near the Gaza border, said Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesperson for Gaza's emergency services.  An Israeli army spokeswoman said that troops had opened fire on an armed Palestinian.  (AFP)

A Palestinian was killed by Israeli military fire near the Beit Hanoun [Erez] Terminal, in the northern Gaza Strip as he approached the border fence.  (IMEMC)

Israelis living near Gaza had been instructed to remain close to shelters owing to a high alert ordered by the IDF.   (Palestine News Network, Ynetnews)

The IDF arrested the 49-year-old Hamas leader and former mayor of al-Bireh, Sheikh Jamal Al-Tawil, and ordered Mr. Al-Tawil’s wife, who had served more than one year in Israeli jails, to report for interrogation.  Mr. Al-Tawil had spent more than 10 years in Israeli jails.  (Palestine News Network)

Hamas leader Haniyeh told worshippers at a mosque: "We are confident that Egypt, the revolution led by Morsi, will never provide cover for any new aggression or war on Gaza… [and] will not take any part in blocking Gaza."  (Reuters)

In Tunisia, visiting Hamas Political Bureau Chief Khaled Mashaal spoke before thousands of activists, calling for a joint Arab-Muslim strategy for the liberation of Palestine and said that a new page must be turned in negotiations with Israel, while noting that resistance was the only way to free Palestine.   (Ynetnews)

Official numbers of demolitions in East Jerusalem dropped from 102 in 2008 to just 14 in 2011, but the figures did not include houses destroyed under the Municipality’s policy of “self-demolitions”, with Arab families facing staggering fines if they did not demolish their own houses.  A spokesperson said that the Municipality did not keep track of self-demolitions but the drop had been due to an improvement in ties between the City and Arab residents and an increase in construction permits.  (The Jerusalem Post)

14

An elderly Palestinian man had been hospitalized after he had inhaled tear gas fired by the IDF in clashes with youths in the northern West Bank village of Iraq Burin, witnesses said.  (Ma’an News Agency)

An Israeli police spokeswoman said that five European female activists who had been arrested the previous day in a demonstration in the West Bank Village of Nabi Saleh near Ramallah were still in detention because they had “caused public chaos”.  "The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court was supposed to hold a hearing session to discuss the possibility of deporting them to their original countries, Sweden, Italy and Britain," she said.  (Palestine News Network)

15

Israeli soldiers detained a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Ahmad Abdul-Aziz Mubarak, in Al-Bireh near Ramallah.  The IDF also detained 10 residents in different parts of the West Bank.  (IMEMC)

IDF soldiers assaulted Mahmoud Al-Badan, 17, after entering his home in Tiqua’ town near Bethlehem and took him away to an undisclosed location.  (IMEMC)

A lawyer for the PA Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs said that two teenagers from the West Bank had been seriously injured when Israeli soldiers had beaten them during arrest raids.  (Ma'an News Agency, Palestine News Network)

Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights said that a 43-year-old Palestinian from Jabalya, northern Gaza, had been arrested at the Erez crossing where he had hoped to travel to Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem for treatment.  (WAFA)

In Amman, PA President Abbas received Japan's Special Peace Envoy to the Middle East, Yutaka Iimura, and discussed the latest peace process developments, including obstacles by the Israeli Government.  The meeting addressed the continuous effort to revive the peace process along with the Palestinian internal reconciliation efforts.  (WAFA)

During a meeting with the Belgian Minister of Defence, Pieter De Crem, and other Belgian personalities, PLO Executive Committee Member Hanan Ashrawi said that “it is of the utmost urgency for Europe to take bold initiatives and concrete steps to counter Israel’s impunity and its prejudicial measures on the ground before it is too late”.  (WAFA)

PA President Abbas welcomed Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud’s decision to immediately transfer $100 million to the PA.  The transfer, although imminent, would only partially defray the PA's $300 million in expenditures for the month.  Officials in Ramallah were still seeking the support of more countries to offset a budget deficit projected to be over $1 billion for 2012, owing to a global financial downturn, a freeze in Israeli-managed customs duty, and an aid freeze by the US following the Palestinian bid at the UN in 2011.  (WAFA)

Muhammad Sbeih, Secretary-General for Palestinian Affairs of the Arab League, said that the Arab League’s Arab Peace Initiative Follow-up Committee meeting in Doha on 22 July would activate regular payments from the region to the PA, offsetting the financial crisis.  (Ma’an News Agency)

The Spokesman for the Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Guy Inbar, said that COGAT and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were seeking to "reassess" the role of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the West Bank.  According to Mr. Inbar, the Office had given tents to Palestinian communities without Israel’s permission after their illegally built homes had been demolished.  Humanitarian officials said that it qualified as emergency humanitarian assistance rather than a building project that required a permit.  (Ma’an News Agency)

The Israeli Government agreed to grant subsidies to build more than 500 new homes in West Bank settlements, backtracking from a promise made earlier in the year to deny these incentives to settlements.  The spokesperson for the Housing Ministry, Ariel Rosenberg, said that it was not clear how many of these homes would be built because the construction bids had not closed.  He also noted that subsidies were also available in hundreds of other communities inside Israel proper.  (AP)

Israeli authorities released Naji al-Tamimi, the coordinator of the Popular Resistance Movement (Intifada) in the village of Nabi Saleh, after three months in the Ofra military prison.  (Palestine News Network)

Israel released 50-year-old Adnan Asfour, the longest serving Palestinian prisoner under administrative detention, according to a Hamas statement.  Mr. Asfour, a senior Hamas member, had been detained by Israeli forces in March 2009 and had lately participated in a mass hunger strike.  (Ma’an News Agency)

The Nelson Mandela Foundation for Political Prisoners urged the UN to investigate human rights violations in Israeli jails.  (IMEMC)

16

A rocket was fired at southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, landing in an open area, with no injuries reported, an Israeli army spokesperson said.  (Ma’an News Agency)

According to medical officials, a 9-year-old Palestinian boy was injured when he was struck by an Israeli military vehicle in Hebron's Old City.  (Ma'an News Agency)

Eight Palestinians were arrested in the West Bank, including five people for security questioning in Hebron, an Israeli army spokeswoman said.  (Ma'an News Agency)

Israeli police said that they had arrested a 21-year-old man who had allegedly sprayed graffiti threatening the prominent anti-settlement activist of Peace Now, Hagit Ofran.  (The New York Times)

The Beersheba District Court ruled that 30-year-old Mohammed Mehera, a member of the military wing of the Palestinian Popular Resistance Committees, who had carried out a string of offences against Israel, would go to prison for 35 years.  Among other things, Mr. Mehera contributed to the 2004 attack that killed IDF Sgt. Gilad Fisher and wounded three others.  (The Jerusalem Post)

Two Palestinians belonging to a cell of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in Hizma, a Palestinian village north of Jerusalem, were indicted for attempting to kidnap IDF soldiers to use in prisoner exchange deals, with the hope to free Fatah and PLFP leaders, including  Marwan Barghouti and  Ahmed Saadat.  (Ynetnews)

US Secretary of State Clinton met with Israeli President Peres, Prime Minister Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman and Defense Minister Barak and urged Israel to take steps in order to strengthen the PA, reportedly saying that PA President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad were the best partners the Israelis had ever had, adding that “it is unclear who will come after them”.  In her meeting with PA Prime Minister Fayyad, she promised to continue to work on persuading the Israeli Government to bolster the PA in the coming years.  (Haaretz, IMEMC)

Jordan’s Civil Defence Department signed an agreement with the US Embassy in Amman to train Palestinian civil defence personnel.  (Petra)

More than 40 American-Jewish leaders and philanthropists signed a letter coordinated by the Israel Policy Forum urging Prime Minister Netanyahu to reject the Levy Report.  The signatories wrote, “We fear that if approved, this report will place the two-State solution and the prestige of Israel as a democratic member of the international community, in peril.”  (Haaretz)

Israeli extremists entered the Jerusalem apartment of Peace Now activist Hagit Ofran and spray painted a death threat.  Ms. Ofran headed the Settlement Watch project of Peace Now.  (The Jerusalem Post)

As part of the deal that ended the prisoners' hunger strike, the Israeli Prison Service allowed 40 relatives from Gaza to visit 25 Palestinian security prisoners at the Ramon prison in southern Israel.  "This is a pilot attempt to renew the visitations," Prison Service Spokeswoman Sivan Weitzman said, adding that "if things continue to go well, we'll continue the visits”.  (The Jerusalem Post)

Israeli authorities informed Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker Aziz Dweik’s lawyer that they were set to release him from jail on 19 July after six months of administrative detention.  (Ma’an News Agency)

Abigail Disney, a descendant of one of the Disney Company founders, said that she was renouncing her share of the family's profits in the Israeli cosmetics company Ahava as it was engaged in the "exploitation of occupied natural resources”.  (Haaretz)

17

Israeli soldiers raided several homes and detained three young Palestinians in the village of Ya’bud, southwest of Jenin.  (IMEMC)

Two rockets fired from Gaza landed in an open area in Sderot.  No injuries were reported.  (Ynetnews)

PA President Abbas and Italian President Giorgio Napolitano met in Rome to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  Both leaders expressed hope that a just and comprehensive settlement could be reached in the near future.  (WAFA)

The Arab League decided to form a committee to probe the death of Yasser Arafat, appointing the Assistant Secretary-General for Palestinian Affairs, Mohammad Sbeih, and the head of the legal department as members.  (WAFA)

Egyptian authorities restricted the amount of Qatari fuel entering Gaza through the Al-Ouja crossing to six truckloads per day which reportedly would not be sufficient to meet Gaza's energy needs.  (Ma’an News Agency)

Israeli forces uprooted around 30 olive trees and razed the land in the village of Qasra, south of Nablus, according to a local activist.  (WAFA)

Following the Israeli Attorney-General's remarks that the Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem was integral to Israeli territory and was thus under Israeli law, Chief Palestinian Negotiator Erakat protested the comment, saying that it went against Security Council resolutions and Palestinian-Israeli agreements. (PNN, Xinhua)

Israeli troops handed demolition orders to two Palestinian families for their recently built cisterns in Hebron.  (Palestine News Network)

The Israeli Ministry of Defense legalized the “Givat Salit” outpost by making it part of the nearby “Mehola” settlement, according to David Lahiani, head of Jordan Valley Regional Council.  (The Jerusalem Post) 

Israeli Attorney-General Weinstein had issued a legal opinion according to which one third of the residents of “Migron”, whose homes were built on land that had been recently purchased, would be able to remain in their homes.  (Haaretz) 

Wastewater from the Israeli “Yakir” settlement flowed into agricultural lands in Deir Istiya village in the northern West Bank.  (Ma’an News Agency)

The Israeli Ministerial Committee on settlement affairs decided to support a High Court petition by “Migron” residents to postpone the outpost's evacuation, despite the objection of the State Prosecutor's Office.  The High Court of Justice had ordered that “Migron” be evacuated by 1 August.  (IMEMC) 

Israeli officials decided to give a college in the “Ariel” settlement the status of a university.  The new status would entitle the “Ariel University of Samaria” to more State funding.  (AP)

Settlers attacked a group of international and Palestinian activists who were due to visit a water spring in Nabi Saleh.  (Palestine News Network) 

The head of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, Abdul Nasser al-Najjar, called on Arab and Palestinian journalists to boycott a meeting to which they had been invited by Israeli President Peres.  The meeting had been called by the Israeli President after Palestinian journalists had protested Israel's internal security service demands that they be strip-searched in order to enter a press conference.  (Ma’an News Agency)

Khan Al Wakalah, the historical building at the heart of Nablus’ Old City, was inaugurated by PA Prime Minister Fayyad after a  restoration job funded  by the EU and UNESCO.  EU Head of Operations Sergio Piccolo and the Representative of the UNESCO Office in Ramallah, Derek Elias, participated in the inauguration ceremony.  (Palestine News Network) 

Protesters rallied in front of TIAA-CREF offices across the US to urge trustees to divest from companies that profited from and enabled the Israeli occupation: Caterpillar, Northrop Grumman, Veolia, Elbit, Motorola and Hewlett-Packard.  (WAFA)

18

Israeli military vehicles crossed into the northern Gaza Strip.  (Ma'an News Agency, Palestine News Network)

Israeli forces arrested a Palestinian after raiding Suref, west of Hebron, in the West Bank. (Palestine News Network)

A member of the armed wing of the Popular Resistance committees, Abdul Rahman al-Sabana, 24, died in an explosion in Rafah.  (Ma’an News Agency)

During a meeting with Egyptian President Morsy, PA President Abbas said that, "the doors of the political process with Israel are shut". (Haaretz, Ma’an News Agency, IMEMC, The Jerusalem Post)

In letters sent to international representatives to the PA, Chief Negotiator Erakat invited the international community to examine their bilateral engagements with Israel to ensure that they were not unwittingly supporting Israel's occupation, calling upon them to preserve the two-State solution that was fast becoming impracticable. (Ma’an News Agency)

Senior Hamas official Ismail Radwan called upon Egyptian President Morsi to allow more fuel into Gaza after news that Mr. Morsi had promised the US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton not to ease the siege on the Gaza Strip. (Ma’an News Agency, IMEMC)

The Israeli Ministry of Defense announced that the Allenby crossing between the West Bank and Jordan would be open all night for two days before the Ramadan holiday.  Some 30,000 people were expected to pass through it.  (The Jerusalem Post)

PA Minister of Prisoners' Affairs Qaraqe said that on average, Israel arrested 700 Palestinian minors annually, all under the age of 18 and including children as young as 12 or 13.  Ninety per cent of the children had also been subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment.  (Palestine News Network)

Israeli bulldozers demolished a Palestinian structure in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan.  The Israeli Municipality of Jerusalem claimed that it had been built without the appropriate permits. (WAFA)

Approximately 300 Palestinians living in Dhaher al-Malih village on the Israeli side of the separation wall suffered a total blackout for 10 days after their sole remaining power source had broke down.  (Ma’an News Agency)

PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad signed a memorandum of understanding with donors to promote work in the water and wastewater sector.  The donors included the EU, Austria, Finland, Germany, Japan, Norway, Spain, the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development and the French Agency for Development.  (WAFA)

The High Court of Justice will hear a petition demanding an IDF criminal investigation into the 1 January 2011 death of a Palestinian woman during a demonstration in Bil'in.  (Haaretz) 

According to local sources, approximately 1,000 settlers visited Joseph’s Tomb, east of Nablus.  The settlers, who arrived in buses, were escorted by Israeli forces.  (Palestine News Network)

Two settlers suspected suspected of having being involved in vandalizing a mosque the previous month in the West Bank village of Jabath had been arrested. (The Jerusalem Post)

19

Four Palestinians were arrested when the Israeli army entered the cities of Hebron and Beit Kahil. (Jordan News Agency)

Islam Issa was convicted by the Tel Aviv District Court of having committed a murder motivated by nationalism.  Mr. Issa ran over and killed a man on Nakba Day in 2011. (Ynetnews, DPA)

During a meeting between Egyptian President Morsy and Hamas Political Bureau Chief Mashaal, the two leaders discussed Palestinian reconciliation and the future of the Palestinian Authority’s statehood bid. (The Jerusalem Post)

Maen Rashid, PLO Representative to Washington, D.C., denied that the White House had threatened to cut all aid to the PA if it should renew its UN statehood bid.  (UN News Monitoring Unit)

The BBC removed from its Olympic Games website its previous mention of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and East Jerusalem as that of Palestine. (The Times of Israel)

Alan Baker, a member of the Levy Committee on the legality of settlements, criticized the protest letter that had been sent to Prime Minister Netanyahu against the Levy report as “incorrect and ill-advised”. (Haaretz)

A new report issued by the PA Ministry of Detainees expressed alarm over the increase in the number of sick Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, condemning the systematic policy of neglecting the treatment of sick prisoners and calling for the improvement of health conditions in Israeli detention centres. (Ma’an News Agency)

Israeli Prison Service Spokeswoman Sivan Weizman confirmed that Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker Dweik had been released from the Ofer prison.  Mr. Dweik’s lawyer, Fadi Qawasmeh, said that Israel had accepted his request not to renew his administrative detention.  According to the head of his office, Bahaa Yusef, Mr. Dweik had been released at the Beit Sira roadblock in the West Bank.  (Alahramonline)

Palestinian Deputy Minister of Education Jihad Zakrane announced that a total of 62.2 per cent of high school students who had sat for the general matriculation exam had received a passing grade.  Some 1,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails had not been allowed to take the exam. (WAFA)

Mohammad Ayyad, Spokesman of the Popular Committee against Settlement in Beit Ummar, condemned the uprooting of 15 trees by settlers.  (Palestine News network)       

A local activist from the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, reported the destruction of a water well and a large amount of crops by an Israeli army bulldozer. (WAFA)

Human rights organizations Addameer, Al-Haq and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel expressed “utmost concern” for the lives of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails who were still on hunger strike and, in a joint statement, called for the European Parliament to immediately despatch a parliamentary fact-finding mission to investigate the conditions of detention of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. (WAFA)

20

An IDF spokesperson said that a rocket had been fired from the Gaza Strip into the Eshkol Regional Council causing no injuries or damages. (The Jerusalem Post)

The IDF entered the village of al-Zawyeh in the Salfit Governorate and arrested 16-year-old Raed Mansour Mawkada. (Palestine News Network)

Israeli forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets towards Palestinian and international peace activists at a weekly protest demonstration in Nabi Saleh. (Ma’an News Agency)

Israel dispatched thousands of police officers to maintain public order as thousands of Muslim worshippers were expected to visit Jerusalem for Friday prayers on the first day of the holy month of Ramadan.  (The Israel Times, Palestine News network)

Israeli Defense Minister Barak said that exceptionally during the month of Ramadan, Palestinians over the age of 40 would be allowed to enter Jerusalem without a permit. Men and women under 40 would still need a special permit. (Haaretz)

The European Union Missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah issued a statement welcoming the PA’s decision to hold local elections in the West Bank and Gaza on 20 October 2012. (EU press office)

A group of settlers from “Havat Maon” outpost attacked a Palestinian man and four Operation Dove volunteers with slingshots as they crossed a valley in the south Hebron hills. (Ma’an News Agency)

21

Israeli authorities removed a 12-year roadblock in the West Bank city of Jericho, the Governor of Jericho, Majid al-Fityani, confirmed, opening the northern entrance to the province, which would allow the farmers in the Jordan Valley to move their products without unnecessary delays. (Xinhua)

Israeli navy boats opened heavy machine gun fire at Palestinian fishermen off the coast of Rafah and Khan Younis in the south of Gaza, according to local sources. (WAFA)

22

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahhar denied media reports that Hamas was considering declaring the Gaza Strip a separate entity from the PA-controlled West Bank. (Ma’an News Agency)

The Arab League backed a Palestinian plan to ask the General Assembly to recognize a State of Palestine but stopped short of setting a date for the bid, senior Palestinian official Erekat said. Instead, Arab League representatives meeting in Doha had asked a committee to prepare a UN appeal and report back on 5 September. (AP)

Hamas official Zahhar said that Gaza would soon be connected to Egypt's power grid and a pipeline was set to be installed to provide natural gas to Gaza from Egypt.  (Ma’an News Agency)

Israeli Defense Minister Barak ordered the demolition of eight Palestinian villages in the South Hebron Hills to use the territory for IDF training exercises. Residents of targeted villages would be moved to the West Bank town of Yatta and its environs. (Haaretz) 

Under the protection of Israeli soldiers, settlers from “Susiya” settlement seized 5 dunums of Palestinian private land around the vicinity of the settlement south of Hebron, according to Rateb al-Jabour, Popular Committee coordinator in Yatta. (WAFA)

In a statement, UNRWA said that it viewed with increasingly grave concern the situation in the Syrian Arab Republic, particularly as regards the implications for the stability and protection of 500,000 Palestine refugees across the country. (www.unrwa.org) 

23

Israeli forces arrested two young Palestinian brothers, 14 and 16 years old, from Silwan village in Jerusalem. (PNN)

Two IDF soldiers were slightly injured after rocks had been thrown at their vehicle in the village of Beit Anoun. (Ynetnews)

IDF raided the northern West Bank village Burin overnight as a response to young Palestinians throwing of two firebombs at Israeli vehicles on a nearby bypass road, officials said. An elderly woman was hospitalized after inhaling a large amount of tear gas. (Ma’an News Agency)

The EU was expected to offer Israel upgraded trade and diplomatic relations during the annual meeting of the EU-Israel Association Council in Brussels to be held the following day. (The Guardian)

Israeli security forces demolished a structure in the West Bank Mount Hebron region, while Israeli police arrested a young Palestinian on suspicion of assaulting a police officer during the demolition.  (The Jerusalem Post)

In a gesture of goodwill towards the PA, Israeli authorities transferred over the past few days a NIS 180 million (approximately $45 million) advance on tax money in order to help the PA pay the monthly salaries of public sector employees.  (The Jerusalem Post) 

Thirty-three people from Gaza City were able to visit family members in Israeli jails, according to the Gaza-based prisoners group Waed, in the second visit of its kind since 2007.  The first such visit, by 48 people from Gaza, had taken place the previous week. (Ma’an News Agency)

Palestinian Prisoners Society said that six prisoners were still on hunger strike in Israeli jails. In a press release, Prisoners' Society warned of the dangerous health condition of these striking prisoners, especially Akram al-Rikhawi, who was now on his 102nd day of hunger strike, calling for an immediate intervention to save their lives. (AP, PNN)

Following a statement by “Migron” settlers’ representatives that settlers had recently purchased over 80 per cent of the outpost’s land from Palestinians, and after a complaint filed with the police by Palestinians who asserted ownership of the land, the Israeli National Fraud Squad had decided to officially investigate whether the documents presented by the settlers had been forged or obtained fraudulently.  (Israel Hayom)

Settlers in the Jordan Valley area east of Tubas took over several dunums of land that belonged to Palestinians, according to Aref Daraghmeh, head of Al-Maleh village council, and started farming 50 dunums of land which had previously been used by Israeli army as tank yards. (WAFA)

Israeli authorities demolished a house illegally constructed in a settlement outpost south of Hebron. A 12-year-old settler boy who tried to attack the police was arrested. (Palestine News network)

Fifty-eight Jewish worshippers toured the Al-Aqsa Mosque under the protection of 28 Israeli soldiers. The Al-Aqsa Foundation for Waqf and Heritage condemned the act as highly provocative. (Ma’an News Agency)

Akram Rikhawi ended his 103-day hunger strike in exchange for his release in January 2012.  Mr. Rikhawi was so far the longest-ever Palestinian hunger striker. (My Way News)

The United Nations Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories expressed serious concern about the treatment of Palestinian children in detention by Israeli security forces and warned that a pattern of detaining and mistreating children “links to broader, longstanding concerns regarding Israel detention of Palestinians generally”.  (www.unog.org)

Israeli non-governmental organization (NGO) Gisha was to launch a campaign to overturn a ban on the sale of strawberries from Gaza in the West Bank during the coming winter season. The ban had been in place for the past five years. (www.reliefweb.org)

A court in Melbourne, Australia, dismissed charges of trespassing and besetting an Israeli-franchised chocolate shop against 11 pro-Palestinian protesters.  Five others still waited to be cleared. (Haaretz)

24

An Iron Dome anti-missile battery intercepted a rocket fired from Gaza at the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon.  No injuries or damages were reported.  (Haaretz)

Wissam Saed al-Qarqi, 18, and Mohamed Haribat, 22, were arrested after IDF had raided their parents’ house in Hebron, south of the West Bank. Two other Palestinian teenagers, aged 13 and 15, were also arrested in south Hebron on suspicion of having thrown rocks at the Israeli settlement of Kiyat Arba.  (Palestine News Network, WAFA)

Two Jewish girls entered the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron in March and tore pages from the Holy Quran under the supervision of Israeli border guards and a policeman. Although the scene had been captured by security cameras, the girls had not been arrested and the Israeli police leadership declared the investigation to be ongoing. (Palestine News Network, Ynetnews)

A Qassam rocket was fired towards Israel with no reports on damage or injuries, Israel Radio said. (The Jerusalem Post)

The Israeli military launched a new mandatory course on international law for senior command officers. The initiative hoped to improve the long record of war crimes that Israel had been accused of in such military operations as the war on Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank. (Xinhua)

Under the threat of US sanctions, PA President Abbas decided to delay a Palestinian bid for UN recognition until after US elections, despite endorsement from the Arab League. (The Times of Israel)

At a press conference following the EU-Israel Association Council meeting, Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Liberman called upon the Palestinians to “return to the negotiating table and resume direct discussions” without any preconditions. He also said that the Palestinians needed to “stop all attempts at unilateral action” and stop getting the Palestinian State recognized in different organizations. (Agence Europe)

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with Hamas Political Bureau Chief Mashaal in Ankara.  (Palestine News Network)

During a meeting with the President of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament and the EU’s Representative to the Palestinian Territory, PA Prime Minister Fayyad called for immediate international and European intervention to compel Israel to revoke its decision to demolish eight villages in Hebron.  He also made the same plea when he met with Hannes Swoboda, an Austrian Social Democrat politician.  Mr. Fayyad stressed the seriousness of the decision which, if implemented, would displace some 1,500 Palestinians.   (Ma’an News Agency, WAFA)

Yasser Othman, Egypt’s Ambassador to the PA, denied news of changes in the procedures for Palestinians entering Egypt, asserting that former regulations were still applicable. (Ma’an News Agency)

Jeremy Hobbs, Oxfam International’s Executive Director, released a statement during the annual EU-Israel Association Council meeting in Brussels, calling upon the EU Governments to take concrete actions to put an end to the increase in Israeli settlement activities, many of which “were funded by EU taxpayers”.  By the same token, PLO Executive Committee Member Hanan Ashrawi called upon the EU to “reconsider its relations with Israel as an occupying Power, and to revoke any preferential treatment Israel receives in view of that country's wilful and persistent violations of its agreements and obligations".  (Palestine News Network, WAFA)

During a tour of Hebron by Israeli Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar, a teacher read biblical sources that mentioned Hebron and noted that the Bible "gives validity to our possession of the country".  (Haaretz)

The Jerusalem Municipality Director-General drew attention to areas east of the separation fence and asked the IDF to take its responsibility for handling the civilian matters of its 90,000 residents. (Haaretz)

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel said that the decision by the Ministry of Defense to demolish eight villages in the South Hebron Hills came under a policy of land grab and would trigger a “humanitarian crisis”.  (The Times of Israel, The Daily Star, LDNews)

Settlers from “Maon” and “Susiya” settlements cut down some 100 Palestinian olive trees.  (WAFA)

According to local sources, a group of settlers erected a military tower on an agricultural land in the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, to watch and control the movement of farmers.  (WAFA) 

Israel's prison service had agreed to allow a Palestinian doctor to visit two detainees in Israel’s Ramle prison, a lawyer for the PA Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs said.  (Ma’an News Agency)

A new campaign in the same spirit as “Boycott Israel” and known as “From House to House” had been launched in Ramallah and Nablus, calling upon Palestinian houses, shops and restaurants to “make your house clean from the occupation products”. (Palestine News Network)

25

An explosive device was detonated as IDF soldiers patrolled the Gaza border fence near Kerem Shalom close to the Egyptian border.  No one was wounded in the incident.  (Haaretz)

An IDF soldier was lightly wounded by stones hurled at him during Palestinian riots in the village of Hursa near Hebron.  (Ynetnews)

Israeli soldiers arrested three Palestinians in the Governorate of Hebron.  (WAFA)

Israeli forces raided two houses in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood of Hebron.  The group Youth against Settlements said that some 70 Israeli soldiers carrying weapons had raided and broke into the home of a Palestinian, which was empty.  (Ma’an News Agency)

Since the start of 2012, at least 58 Palestinians, including 11 children, had been killed by Israeli forces, according to a report by the Department of International Relations of the PLO.  Forty-eight of the deaths had occurred in the Gaza Strip, owing to Israeli air strikes on residential buildings.  Furthermore, Israeli authorities had taken over 3,772 dunums of Palestinian land in connection with the construction of the wall and had approved 11,396 new settlement units.  (www.petra.gov.jo)

In a statement, Chief Palestinian Negotiator Erakat said that upgrading the status of Palestine in the United Nations from an observer to a non-member State did not contradict the peace process or the principle of the two-State solution.  (WAFA)

The PA Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on the EU “to reconsider its relations with Israel as an occupying Power.  Israel must not be given any preferential treatment and must not be allowed further integration into the EU economic, social, political and scientific structures, especially as it persisted with its violations of international law, refused to end its occupation of the Palestinian territory and continued to deny the Palestinians their right to self-determination”.  (Palestine News Network)  

Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker Aziz Dweik said that he would meet with PA President Abbas to discuss ways to push forward the reconciliation process.  (Ma’an News Agency)

A World Bank report entitled “Towards economic sustainability of a future Palestinian State: promoting private sector-led growth” stated that the PA had made steady progress towards statehood, but that its economy was too dependent on foreign aid.  "Economic sustainability cannot be based on foreign aid so it is critical for the PA to increase trade and spur private sector growth", said John Nasir, the author of the report.  (DPA)

The Head of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction, Mohammad Shtayyeh, said that a World Bank report describing weaknesses in the Palestinian economy was accurate and that the Palestinian economy was underperforming, with unemployment and poverty levels increasing.  (Ma’an News Agency)

The 2011 Socio-Economic and Food Security Survey, the third in an annual series of surveys jointly conducted by the PA via the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, UNRWA and the World Food Programme, showed that in 2011, 1.3 million Palestinians (27 per cent of Palestinian households) lived in food insecurity and were unable to meet their basic food and household expenses. It represented an improvement in food insecurity by 9 per cent compared with 2009 (36 per cent of the population) and by 6 per cent compared with 2010.  A further 14 per cent of Palestinians had been able to cover their basic food and household expenses but remained vulnerable and at risk of falling into food insecurity. Twenty-two percent of Palestinians had been marginally food-secure, and 37 per cent of Palestinians had been food-secure. (www.reliefweb.int)

Israeli authorities began constructing the new part of the wall in Bairat al-Shela, west of Masha village in Salfit.  The wall will cut farmers off from their lands.  (Palestine News Network)

US State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland expressed concern regarding steps taken by Israel to allow the demolition of eight Palestinian villages in Hebron. “If these houses were demolished before a court decision, then this will not be a useful step to make, especially as we seek peace between Israelis and Palestinians and between Israel and its Arab neighbouring countries”, she said.  (Palestine News Network)

Israeli Supreme Court President Asher Grunis ruled that the State should pay the legal costs of a Palestinian man who had appealed to the High Court against the construction of a number of structures west of “Beit El”. The man claimed that the structures had been erected on private land requisitioned by the State for security needs.  Justice Grunis ruled that the State should pay the NIS 5,000 since the respondents in the case – the Ministry of Defense, the IDF, the Civil Administration and police – had continuously sought extensions, which had led to the prolonged appeal. (Ynetnews)

Settlers in “Susiya” settlement in the south Hebron hills attacked residents in a nearby village.  Settlers in Hebron City assaulted several Palestinians in Tel al Rumeida neighbourhood.  (WAFA)

Residents of the village of Shab el-Butum in south Mount Hebron discovered 24 mutilated olive trees. The words "price tag" had been spray painted nearby, according to the Israeli organization B'Tselem.  (Ynetnews)

Three Palestinian farmers from Sinjel village in Ramallah were injured in an attack carried out by a group of settlers while they were on their way to their lands in the village.  They had been transferred to a hospital in Ramallah.  (Palestine News Network)

A group of Israeli settlers, accompanied by Israeli soldiers, entered the village of Al-Khader near Bethlehem and set up 10 mobile houses and electricity poles near the “Itamar” settlement. (IMEMC, Petra.gov.jo)

Israeli police raided the Haram al-Sharif compound forcing worshippers performing late night prayers to leave. Witnesses said that the Imam leading the prayers had been arrested, while the compound had been closed until dawn.  A guard at the mosque said that more than 20 settlers had entered the compound overnight accompanied by Israeli forces. (WAFA, Ma’an News Agency)

The PA announced that it was suspending payments to former prisoners, owing to the financial crisis.  (Ma’an News Agency) 

In his briefing to the Security Council, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert Serry, expressed concern at the fact that there had been no breakthrough in efforts to restart direct talks, while the events on the ground continued to move in the wrong direction.  (www.un.org)

Special Coordinator Serry announced the postponement of a Divan Orchestra concert planned to be held on 31 July at the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem after the Palestinian National and Civil Work Committee in East Jerusalem had protested the event.  In a letter, Committee Coordinator Rassem Ebidat stated, "Instead of sponsoring a concert on the Mount of Olives, Mr. Serry should demand that Israel stop confiscating Palestinian lands and building settlements and bases on it."  The letter also accused the Orchestra of aiming at "building normalization bridges without acknowledging the Palestinian people's right to self-determination and right of return, and without the refusal of its [Israeli] members to serve in the Israeli army". (AFP)

26

An IDF officer head butted a Palestinian teenager for refusing to show identification at the Beit Hadassah checkpoint in Hebron, an incident that was caught on tape by a B'Tselem photographer. (B’Tselem, Ynetnews.com)

Israel’s Border Police officers arrested a 20-year-old Palestinian woman near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron after she had allegedly tried to pepper- spray them.  Upon a full search, it was found that she had a knife and the officers suspected that she could have been planning to use it to stab IDF personnel. (The Jerusalem Post)

In an interview with British daily The Independent, PA Prime Minister Fayyad said that the marginalization of the Palestinian cause by events such as the Arab Spring and the world economic crisis was now the “biggest obstacle” to progress towards a Palestinian State.  He warned that the PA was being undermined because of factors ranging from its acute financial crisis to a potential loss of faith by Palestinians in its ability to end Israeli occupation.  Mr. Fayyad strongly criticized the West’s failure to tackle Israel more “seriously” over its violations of international law and its obligations under the nine-year-old road map.  He expressed outrage about the demolitions in Hebron, citing the example of Israel’s current plan to raze eight hamlets in the South Hebron hills to use the land for military training. The Quartet, he said, had focused on what now was the “seemingly impossible task of relaunching the peace process in an effective manner”, instead of paying attention to a series of violations, including expansion of West Bank settlements and the nightly incursions by the military into Palestinian cities in Area A. He pointed out that there was not a single road map requirement that the Israelis were complying with.  He said that in 2009, the international community had issued declarations which had led to a 10-month settlement freeze, but now both the EU and the US had told the Palestinians that “the rules of the game have changed”.  He characterized the current emphasis on “process” as not “well placed”.  (The Independent)

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) called upon Hamas to hold local elections in the Gaza Strip, PFLP leader Jamil Mizhir said. "There must be another chance given to the people to choose who will represent them in offering services." (Ma’an News Agency)

The Palestinian Council of Human Rights Organizations, a coalition of 11 Palestinian rights groups, strongly denounced an EU decision to upgrade its cooperation with Israel, accusing the EU of betraying its own principles. “As organizations dedicated to the promotion and protection of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, we are strongly concerned about the EU’s lack of commitment to human rights in light of what is essentially an intensification of bilateral relations with Israel,” the coalition said in a statement.  (WAFA)

Media sources unveiled data from the Israeli Ministry of the Interior revealing that the number of Jewish settlers living in the West Bank had increased by 5.4 per cent to exceed 350,000, compared with the previous year’s figures. The Population Registry showed that 15,579 new settlers had been added to the previous figure which did not include settlements in North and East Jerusalem. (www.petra.gov.jo)

In a New York Times Op-Ed, Dani Dayan, Chair of the Yesha Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria, said, “Even now, and despite the severe constraints imposed by international pressure, more than 350,000 Israelis live in Judea and Samaria”.  He opined that with an annual growth rate of 5 per cent, settlers were expected to reach 400,000 by 2014 and that excluded the almost 200,000 Israelis living in Jerusalem's newer neighbourhoods. He considered the presence of settlers in the West Bank an irreversible fact.  He defined trying to stop settlement expansion as futile, adding that neglecting the fact in diplomatic talks would not change the reality on the ground, but would only make the negotiations more likely to fail.  Finally, he recommended that the international community relinquish its vain attempts to attain the unattainable two-State solution and instead start viewing the settlements in the West Bank not as the problem, but as part of the solution. (New York Times Op-Ed)

As demolition orders continued to threaten the work of humanitarian organizations in Israeli-controlled Area C in the West Bank, the EU and humanitarian agencies were pressing to change the rules of the aid game.  Ulrich Nitschke, project director at the German Agency for International Cooperation in Ramallah, told IRIN that "there was now a major policy shift among the member States of the EU". Instead of making the implementation of EU-funded projects in Area C dependent on the Israeli Civil Administration and its requirement to obtain a permit, a new process now guide the EU's approach. The first step was the development of legal and technical guidelines or master plans for each local community in need under the leadership of the local Palestinian Governments. The master plans were then presented to the Israeli Civil Administration, which was asked to check whether all legal and technical requirements had been met.  A total of 24 master plans had been submitted, four having been technically approved by the Israeli Government in January 2011, but no permits had yet been issued.  A number of EU member States had formed an interest group to advocate change, including Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the EU Commission. (ww.reliefweb.int)

Al-Mezan and Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement had decided to ask the Israeli High Court to hold an urgent session to discuss the situation of five female college students from Gaza who had been banned from returning to their West Bank universities to continue their higher education. (WAFA)

27

A device exploded on a road near Mount Eval in the West Bank where the IDF found three other devices. No one was injured.  (Ynetnews.com)

According to West Bank locals, the IDF had detained Mohammad Mahmoud Abu Soai and his four sons in Beit Sakarya village, south of Bethlehem, taking them to the Etzion detention centre.  (Ma’an News Agency)

Palestinians organized anti-wall and settlements protests in the villages of Bil’in, Ni’lin and Nabi Saleh, in the central West Bank.  To stop the protests, Israeli troops had used chemical water, tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets which had injured several protesters.  Protests in the villages of Kufr Qaddum and Al Ma’sara had also been met by tear gas.  (IMEMC)

Egypt’s President Morsy met with Hamas Leader Haniyeh, Egypt’s State television reported.  Presidential Spokesman Yasser Ali said that the meeting had been the latest in a series aimed at discussing measures to ease Israel's blockade on Gaza and the movement of Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt.  (Haaretz)

During a meeting with PA Prime Minister Fayyad in London, British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg had welcomed the Palestinian Olympic and Paralympics teams.  He said that his discussions with Mr. Fayyad had included the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the urgent need for progress in the Middle East peace process as well as the need for donors to provide predictable and consistent funding to allow State-building to continue.   Mr. Clegg had reiterated to Mr. Fayyad his Government’s serious concern at Israeli human rights violations in the territory, including demolitions of homes, restrictions on freedom of movement and the continued stifling of the Gaza economy.  He had said that the threatened demolition of entire villages in the southern Hebron hills was utterly unacceptable and had stressed the United Kingdom’s particular concern over continued Israeli settlement construction.  Mr. Fayyad had also met with the Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell, and Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister for the Middle East Alistair Burt.  (http://www.dpm.cabinetoffice.gov.uk)

US presidential candidate Mitt Romney would be meeting in Israel with Daniel Shapiro, the US Ambassador to Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Peres.  He would also meet with PA Prime Minister Fayyad.  (Mr. Romney’s website)

At the invitation of a private Polish foundation promoting tolerance, Ziad al-Bandak, an advisor to PA President Abbas on religious affairs, visited prisoner blocks, gas chambers and a crematorium in the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex in southern Poland.   (Haaretz)

Large Israeli forces had been deployed in the Old City and East Jerusalem ahead of Friday's Ramadan prayers. A special command post had been set up near the Western Wall.   (Ynetnews.com)

The Israeli military called for the demolition of the Palestinian village of Zanuta, located in the south Hebron Hills region of the West Bank, saying that it had been built on an archaeological site.  The village, situated close to the construction route of the wall, also fell under the designation of Area C where the Israeli military had full control of both administrative and security affairs under the guise of the Civil Administration.  The area had been designated an archaeological area under the British Mandate.  (IMEMC)

The Israeli Supreme Court granted a Government request to delay by one month the eviction of “Migron”, the largest illegal West Bank outpost. The Court had previously ruled that the outpost had been built on private Palestinian land, ordering its removal by 1 August.  The Government had requested the delay because the temporary site set up for the 50 to-be-evicted families would not be ready in time.  (The Jerusalem Post, Ynetnews)

Prisoners in administrative detention in an Israeli jail in the Negev said that the prison administration had recently resorted to new policies of cuffing prisoners' hands and legs during meetings with lawyers, and when using bathrooms. They said that this was beside the brutal procedures and the hard living conditions during summer with continuous cuts in electricity.  (Palestine News Network)

Hundreds of Palestinians gathered in the centre of Ramallah to watch a live coverage of the opening of the London Olympic Games and cheered as the Palestinian team carried the Palestinian flag.  Prime Minister Fayyad and head of the Palestinian Olympic Committee Jibril Rajoub were in London for the opening ceremony.  (WAFA)

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Israeli military forces detained 17 Palestinians across the West Bank including 3 teenagers and 6 children, including a 12-year-old.  (Ma’an News Agency) 

Nineteen Palestinians were hospitalized in Nablus after they inhaled large amounts of tear gas during clashes between young Palestinians and Israeli troops who had stormed the city overnight. Five young men had been detained, including a member of the Islamic Jihad, his relatives said.  (Ma’an News Agency)

Two Qassam rockets fired into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip landed without causing injuries or damage.  (The Jerusalem Post)

Jerusalem police broke up a meeting in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Ras Al Amud after claiming that it was sponsored by Hamas.  Police detained two of the organizers for questioning.  (The Jerusalem Post)

PA President Abbas addressed pupils who had excelled in the Tawjihi [General certificate] Exam and stressed that if Palestine “did not succeed in getting UN membership … the first time, we will certainly succeed the second time.”  (WAFA)

29

PA Prime Minister Fayyad met with US Republican presidential candidate Romney, PA Spokesman Khatib said.  (Ma’an News Agency)

PA Prime Minister Fayyad and Japan’s Representative to the PA, Naofumi Hashimoto, signed an agreement by which Japan would grant the PA $10 million in budget support.  (WAFA) 

In a statement issued by the EU-Israel Association Council, the EU sharply criticized Israel for a wide range of human rights violations in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. In addition, the statement reiterated EU support for human rights defenders as a "long-established element of the European Union’s human rights external relations policy" and condemned the "excessive recourse by Israel to administrative detention".  The EU urged Israel "to refrain from actions which may … curtail the freedom of association and freedom of speech (of civil society)."  However, the Council's statement also indicated that the EU would significantly enhance joint economic activities with Israel in over 15 fields.  (Ynetnews)

Israel’s water allocation to each settler was 70 times more than to an average Palestinian in the West Bank, the Head of the Palestinian Water Authority said.  Water was a final status issue in negotiations with Israel and postponing the issue to final talks had created a water crisis in Gaza and the West Bank, the official said.  (Ma’an News Agency)

Israeli settlers from “Havat Ma’on” in the south Hebron Hills terrorized a Palestinian child and attacked international activists in the Humra valley. (IMEMC)

Israel was responsible for the life of a critically ill detainee, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) said.  Hafeth Daraghmeh, who had been sentenced to 22 years, suffered from acute eye and dental pain which had intensified due to medical negligence.  PPS head Mahmud Sawafta urged humanitarian organizations to intervene to stop Israel's medical negligence.  (Ma’an News Agency)

30

One Palestinian was killed and two others were wounded when Israeli soldiers, stationed at the al-Zaim checkpoint in East Jerusalem, opened fire at their car.  An Israeli police spokeswoman stated that the soldiers had ordered the vehicle to stop, but it had burst through the checkpoint at high speed and tried to run over officers.  A police officer was slightly wounded.  Israeli police said that they had opened an investigation.  (BBC, IMEMC)

IDF soldiers patrolling the Gaza border in the Kissufim area came under mortar fire from Gaza and returned fire.  No reports on damage or injuries were received.  (The Jerusalem Post, Ynetnews)

Israeli soldiers raided a refugee camp south of Hebron overnight and detained two Palestinians.  One more Palestinian had been arrested in Beit Ummar, another in Qalqilya and three in a village near Jenin.  (Ma’an News Agency)

Israeli soldiers stationed along the borders with the Gaza Strip opened fire at Palestinian houses and farms in Khouza, a town east of Khan Yunis, according to local sources.  No injuries were reported. (WAFA) 

In a fund-raising meeting, US presidential candidate Mitt Romney said that the economic affluence of the Israeli society, when compared to that of the Palestinians, was due to their cultural superiority.  Palestinian Chief Negotiator Erakat denounced the comments as “racist”.  The White House called upon Mr. Romney to clarify his earlier statement that Jerusalem was Israel’s capital which Mr. Erakat said was “absolutely unacceptable”.  Mr. Romney’s campaign spokesperson said that “his comments were grossly mischaracterized.”  (AFP, The Times of Israel, Palestine News Network, The Jerusalem Post)

PA President Abbas said that reconciliation with Hamas had reached “a deadlock” after Hamas had prevented the Central Elections Commission from updating the voter registry in the Gaza Strip.  (Ma’an News Agency)

Israeli authorities reopened the Kerem Shalom commercial crossing into the Gaza Strip after a four-day closure.  Chairman of the Coordination Committee for the Entry of Goods into Gaza, Raed Fattouh, said that the Israeli authorities would allow limited amounts of Qatari industrial fuel for the power plant, as well as limited amounts of gas for domestic use and transportation.  He added that Israel will also allow the entry of dozens of trucks carrying aid as well as goods for the commercial, agricultural and transportation sectors.  (Petra)

Egypt was set to increase fuel deliveries to the Gaza Strip, Gaza official Muhammad Awad said.  He said that 10 trucks carrying 450,000 litres of fuel would be delivered to the coastal enclave daily, an increase from the previous six truckloads.  (Ma’an News Agency)

Fatah leader Azzam al-Ahmad said that recent Egyptian moves, including the increase in fuel deliveries to Gaza and the extension of the operating hours of the Rafah crossing, had already been agreed when President Morsi came to power.  (Ma’an News Agency)

Israeli forces closed two agricultural roads in the area of Deir Istiya, north of Salfit, cutting the way to nearby farms and agricultural land, according to Mayor Nazmi Salman.  (WAFA)

Israeli authorities had started to install a two-metre-high spiral fence around the southern side of Qalqilya, according to Abdul-Karim Ayyoub, Secretary of the local Council, isolating a well and an agricultural area of about 800 to 1,000 dunums.  (Ma’an News Agency)

Israeli soldiers handed Palestinians in the northern areas of the Jordan Valley demolition notices for seven structures, including tents, shelters and animal barns.  (WAFA)

Australia expressed concern about the Israeli violations of the rights of Palestinian minors.  Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr said in a press release that he would send officials from his Ministry to observe the trials of minors.  (Palestine News Network)

Knesset member Zevulun Orlev called for a law to rebuild the Third Temple in Jerusalem atop the Temple Mount [Al-Haram al-Sharif].  (The Times of Israel)

The International Committee of the Red Cross reported that Israeli authorities had allowed a third group of families from the Gaza Strip to visit prisoners in Israeli jails.  (Palestine News Network)

Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, together with Al-Haq and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, issued a joint statement expressing grave concern for the lives of three Palestinian prisoners – Samer al-Barq, Hassan Safadi and Ayman Sharawana – all administrative detainees who have been on hunger strike respectively for 70, 40 and 30 days, respectively.  (WAFA)

Palestinian sources said that dozens of extremist settlers forced their way into the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque under the protection of Israeli soldiers and policemen, provoking Muslim worshippers who were stationed in the area on a daily basis, especially in the holy month of Ramadan, to protect the mosque.  (Petra)

Israel's High Court ruled that the State had 30 days to provide a solution for the 27 families living in the West Bank village of Zanuta, in the southern Hebron Hills, which was scheduled for demolition because it had been built on an archaeological site.  (Haaretz)

31

Israeli special units raided areas west of Hebron, shot 19-year-old Ziyad Mohammad Kamel Eklil in the leg, severely beat and arrested Mahmoud Ayyad Awad, 56, and his 28-year-old son, and arrested several other Palestinians while using live ammunition, rubber bullets and gas bombs. (Palestine News Network)

The IDF opened fire on Palestinians overnight in Bait-Hanoun township, in the north of the Gaza Strip, and in northeast Khan Yunis. No damage or casualties were reported. (Bahrain News Agency, Sudan News Agency)

PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki announced that 12 Foreign Ministers who formed the Ministerial Committee on Palestine of the Non-Aligned Movement would hold a two-day meeting in Ramallah starting on 5 August to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.  Mr. Maliki stated that the meeting, the first of its kind to be held in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, was expected to adopt a “Declaration of Ramallah” that would be presented at the Non-Aligned Movement conference in Tehran in August.  PA President Abbas will attend the meeting. (Ma’an News Agency)

Egyptian State media denied claims by the Israeli President’s office of receipt of a letter from Egyptian President Morsi pledging “to get the Middle East peace process back to its right track”. (The Daily Star)

Suha Arafat and her daughter, Zahwa Arafat, had filed a lawsuit in a French court to launch a murder investigation into the death of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The lawsuit accused a person or persons unknown of premeditated murder. (Al-Jazeera)

Although Hamas leadership elections have not yet ended, sources said that Political Bureau Chief Mashaal would be reappointed for another term.  (Xinhua)

Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz and PA Prime Minister Fayyad signed a bilateral trade agreement facilitating the movement of goods between Israel and the PA, with arrangements aimed at reducing illegal trade and tax evasion. (The Jerusalem Post, Haaretz) 

A report released by the US State Department stated that the laws and policies of the PA and Israel protected religious freedom and, in practice, they generally respected these rights.  The “de facto” Hamas authorities in Gaza restricted religious freedom.  (www.state.gov)

Israeli sources reported the demolition by IDF of four temporary buildings constructed in “Ramat Mordechai” and “Givat Hauguage”.  (Palestine News Network)

Aref Daraghmeh, the head of the al-Maleh village council, said that the IDF had seized tractors used by Bedouin residents of the northern Jordan Valley, a few days after soldiers had handed shepherds and farmers in the area demolition notices for several animal barns.  (WAFA)

Israeli bulldozers razed land in Tuqu town east of Bethlehem in preparation for opening a road connecting two nearby settlements.  Mayor Tayseer Abu Mfrah denounced the open theft of land, stressing that Palestinian landowners had documents and deeds proving their ownership.  (WAFA)

Two reports issued by The Calcalist Economic Daily and Peace Now revealed that Israel had spent $275 million on  settlements in 2011, or 38 per cent more than in 2010.  (Xinhua, The Guardian, IMEMC)

The Palestinians for Dignity youth movement issued a statement criticizing the EU’s upgrading of its trade and economic cooperation with Israel despite the EU’s continuous denunciations of Israel’s occupation and settlement policies.  (WAFA)

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