OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC) – Jewish far-right settlers took part in a march through Occupied Jerusalem on Thursday evening that risked reigniting tensions with Palestinians.
The march celebrates the Hanukkah also known as the Festival of Lights, which usually witnesses settlers’ provocative marches.
Metal barriers were set up, meanwhile, by Israeli police on the roads leading to the Old City, which was sealed off to prevent the entry of Palestinians.
Palestinians were also forced to shut down their stores in the Old City.
The march was preceded by provocative dances and loud music in Bab al-Amud area in total provocation to Palestinian residents.
Talmudic rituals were also performed near al-Aqsa Mosque under Israeli police’s protection.
During the settlers’ march, entry restrictions were imposed on Palestinian worshippers at the entrances leading to al-Aqsa Mosque where many Palestinians’ IDs were seized.
A Palestinian young man was assaulted and two others arrested during the march.
Palestinians view the march as provocative as Jewish settlers flaunt their sovereignty over the occupied territory.
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC) – Two Palestinians were injured on Thursday when an Israeli settler ran over them with his vehicle in Occupied Jerusalem then sped away.
The two, from Al-Tur town, were run over by the settler near the Jouret Al-Anab area in the holy city.
Meanwhile, violent clashes broke out in Issawiya town in Occupied Jerusalem after Israeli police forces violently stormed the town and arrested four locals.
Israeli police forces fired teargas bombs and rubber bullets were during the clashes.
The four youths were later released.
According to Palestinian figures, more than 700,000 Jewish settlers now live in 196 settlements (built with the Israeli government’s approval) and more than 200 settler outposts (built without its approval) across the occupied West Bank.
International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as “occupied territories” and considers all Jewish settlement-building activity there as illegal.
UMM AL-FAHM, (PIC) – A Palestinian young man was shot and killed, on Friday morning, and another one was injured by Israeli police in the city of Umm al-Fahm, within the Green Line.
Israeli media sources said that Israeli police officers opened gunfire at a vehicle, killing the driver and injuring a passenger.
The sources claimed the driver had rammed the vehicle into a patrol of police officers, injuring two of them.
Eyewitnesses affirmed that the driver was directly shot in the head. Palestinian sources identified the martyr as Fatehi Jabarin.
The incident came a day after Israeli police arrested six Palestinians from Umm Al-Fahm after houses were set ablaze following a murder that took place in the city on Thursday.
AL-KHALIL, (PIC) – The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested four Palestinians and raided several towns and cities across the West Bank at dawn Friday.
Local sources affirmed that the IOF rounded up four Palestinians after violently storming and searching their family houses in al-Khalil, in the south of the West Bank.
Numerous houses were also stormed in Halhul, north of al-Khalil.
IOF soldiers also stormed the town of Taqu, east of Bethlehem, and raided and searched a house before summoning his owner for investigation.
The Israeli army often carries out detention raids against Palestinians in the West Bank and Occupied Jerusalem, claiming to arrest wanted Palestinians.
Israel currently holds 4,650 Palestinians, including 34 women, 160 children, and 500 administrative detainees in its jails.
Gaza Post – Authorities in the occupied West Bank claim they are struggling to pay salaries for public employees after years of economic stagnation, as surging inflation, declining donor aid, and Israel’s withholding of key tax revenues constrict the PA’s already weakened budget.”The circumstances we are living under are severe, and we are in financial deficit,” Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh revealed to reporters this week, saying the PA has not received funding to pay salaries, which are anticipated to cost 920 million Israeli shekels ($292 million) every month.
Workers are concerned about the financial crisis, which officials and analysts have labeled as “the worst” since the PA’s founding in 1993.
“We were told at first that we would not get paid at all. Then we were advised that we might be eligible for a permanent 25% salary decrease. “After that, they indicated the 25% reduction will only be for a few months,” a PA public employee said on condition of anonymity to Al Jazeera.
Like economies the world over, Palestine is currently wrestling with soaring inflation stemming from supply chain snarls and shortages of raw materials as nations cast off coronavirus restrictions.
The PA’s fiscal revenues declined to their lowest levels in 20 years shortly after the start of the pandemic, which only exacerbated longstanding financial challenges.
While support from foreign donors has withered over the years, the biggest blow was dealt in 2017, when former United States President Donald Trump cut off nearly all US aid to Palestinians. Though Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, has reopened some of the funding taps, US laws now prohibit direct aid to the PA.
In November, Shtayyeh’s adviser for planning and aid coordination, Estephan Salameh, told local media the crisis could last six months before expected European Union aid worth 600 million euros ($680m) arrives in March.
A November 17 World Bank report reported the PA’s deficit is expected to reach $1.69bn by the end of the year, while donor aid is “projected to amount to $184m – 38 percent of what was received in 2020”.
“Efforts by all parties are critical to avoid a crisis as without additional financing, the PA may encounter difficulties in meeting its recurrent commitments towards the end of the year,” the report warned.
Gaza Post – A Palestinian man on Friday was shot dead and another one was injured by the Israeli occupation forces in the city of Umm al-Fahm, in 1948-occupied Palestine, local sources said.
Sources reported that the Israeli Police opened gunfire at a vehicle killing the driver and injuring a passenger.
It added that the Israeli police claimed that the driver had rammed the vehicle into a patrol of police officers killing one of them.
A teacher in Gaza has created a robot to help modernise education in Palestinian schools.
Engineering teacher at Al-Basma Modern School, Hassan Al-Razi, and two colleagues created ‘Mr Robot’, the first such invention in the besieged Strip.
The 26-year-old said the robot was “a modern innovation and an unusual method in Palestinian schools.”
As with many projects in Gaza, putting together the robot was riddled with obstacles as a result of the siege and the subsequent scarcity of many materials and electronic parts. “This matter prompted us to find alternatives, in addition to the lack of scientific sources and references that would enhance the building of the robot in the correct manner,” Al-Razi said.
The remote-control operated Mr Robot is able to process data and reply to students in Classical Arabic and it is hoped he will help students who suffered psychological trauma following coronavirus closures and Israel’s latest bombardment of the Strip in May. It will also help modernise the education system in Palestine and help it keep pace with global developments.
Egyptian and Palestinian flags are seen on an aid truck at the Rafah crossing with Gaza on 23 May 2021
Hamas has sent a message to the Egyptian intelligence outlining its vision for achieving Palestinian reconciliation and ending the internal division.
An official source told the media that the letter had comprised a “number of topics that crystallise Hamas’ vision to end the division and achieve reconciliation, including reforming the supreme national leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.”
“In the event that elections are not possible, a national consensus must be established to form a temporary national leadership for a transitional stage to create the atmosphere for general political elections,” the letter read.
Reconciliation between Palestinian faction is seen as crucial to minimise the risk of intra-factional violence and to increase the chances of achieving Palestinian demands for statehood and rights.
President of the United Nations General Assembly, Abdulla Shahid
NEW YORK, Friday, December 03, 2021 (WAFA) – Peace and security in the Middle East are at stake if Palestinian suffering is not brought to an end with a solution to the Palestinian issue, the President of the United Nations General Assembly, Abdulla Shahid, has said.
“Words cannot save Palestinian people suffering from decades of occupation, arbitrary arrests, and the use of excessive force against them,” Shahid told the UNGA plenary meeting on the question of Palestine and the situation in the Middle East.
“Words cannot restore their demolished homes or halt the proliferation of illegal settlements on their land.”
He added, “These issues can only be resolved when we take action to resolve them: by providing humanitarian assistance; ending this conflict; upholding the human dignity of the region’s inhabitants.”
“Remedying this requires a multilateral political process aimed at achieving a just and peaceful solution. One based on international law and relevant UN resolutions.”
He stressed that “the lack of progress on this issue, despite it having been on the United Nations’ Agenda since 1948, is disheartening. “At stake is not only the region’s peace and security, but our ability to come together as a global community and resolve international disputes, in line with the founding vision of the United Nations.”
Israeli authorities ordered, on Tuesday, the immediate re-detention of two Palestinian prisoners who were released after spending six years in occupation prisons, according to local sources.
Sources told the Palestinian News & Information Agency (WAFA) that Mahmoud Abu Hadwan, 26, and Omar Khaled al-Rajbi, 28, were detained moments after their release from jail and taken to the al-Moskobiya detention and interrogation center in West Jerusalem.
Both prisoners are residents of occupied East Jerusalem, they were detained in December of the year 2015 and incarcerated for six years for allegedly ‘resisting the occupation’.
![A teacher in Gaza create a robot to help modernise education in Palestinian schools, on 3 December 2021 [Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/PHOTO-2021-12-02-18-12-55-1.jpg?w=619&h=413&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
![Gaza's students get a lesson from Mr Robot, on 3 December 2021 [Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor]](https://i2.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/PHOTO-2021-12-02-18-12-53-1.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1 "PHOTO-2021-12-02-18-12-53 (1)")
![A teacher in Gaza create a robot to help modernise education in Palestinian schools, on 3 December 2021 [Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/PHOTO-2021-12-02-18-12-55-2.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1 "PHOTO-2021-12-02-18-12-55 (2)")
![Gaza's students get a lesson from Mr Robot, on 3 December 2021 [Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/PHOTO-2021-12-02-18-12-53.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1 "PHOTO-2021-12-02-18-12-53")
![Gaza's students get a lesson from Mr Robot, on 3 December 2021 [Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/PHOTO-2021-12-02-18-12-55.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1 "PHOTO-2021-12-02-18-12-55")
![Gaza's students get a lesson from Mr Robot, on 3 December 2021 [Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor]](https://i2.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/PHOTO-2021-12-02-18-12-51.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1 "PHOTO-2021-12-02-18-12-51")
![Egyptin and Palestinian flag seen on an aid truck at the Rafah crossing with Gaza on 23 May 2-2021 [SAID KHATIB/AFP/Getty Images]](https://i1.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Egyptian-aid-truck.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
