Palestine

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

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

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

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

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

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — In three decades of failed peace efforts, the Palestinians have never faced a more hostile U.S. administration, a more self-assured Israel or a more ambivalent international community.

But even as their hopes for statehood have never seemed so dim, there’s no indication their aging leadership will change course.

RAMALLAH, Aug 25 (NNN-WAFA) – A senior Palestinian official, said that, the visits of U.S. officials to the Middle East, aim at using the Arab division to boost the role of Israel in the region.

The United States and Israel are trying to “implement their plans and deals at this particular time, to re-position Israel in the region as a major player and consolidate the dangerous polarisation in the region,” said Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Executive Committee, in an emailed press statement.

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

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

No injuries was reported, said the sources.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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