Palestine

GAZA, Dec 13 (NNN-WAFA) – A senior Palestinian official, yesterday accused Israel, of impeding the process of reconstruction in the besieged Gaza Strip, which is ruled by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

Naji Sarhan, undersecretary of the Hamas-run ministry of housing and public works, told a news conference in Gaza city that, the reconstruction plan “is going very slowly,” and Israel is “fully responsible.”

The Palestinian side has earlier accused Israel of not showing any commitment to reconstructing what had been destroyed in an offensive by Israel in May.

14 Dec 2021; MEMO: Leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Sheikh Raed Salah, said he spent the entirety of his detention in solitary confinement and was repeatedly moved from cell to cell.

Speaking following his release yesterday, Salah said the Israeli occupation imposed "harsh" prison conditions on him in order to prevent him from being in touch with any other detainee. "They held me in the solitary cell of the solitary department," he said.

14 Dec 2021; MEMO: The Israeli occupation is helping Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces crackdown on Palestinian factions in the occupied West Bank, an Israeli journalist revealed yesterday.

Speaking to public broadcaster Kan, Israeli journalist and specialist in Palestinian affairs Gal Berger said: "Israel hurried to help the PA because it is unable to deal with Hamas."

Berger pointed out that Hamas "has recently raised its head in the West Bank."

DAMASCUS, Dec 13 (NNN-SANA) – Visiting UN special envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, said yesterday that, he sees new possibilities for a political solution in Syria, after his meetings with officials from the West and Arab countries.

“I think there is a possibility now to start to explore what I call, a step-for-step approach, where you put on the table, steps that are defined with precisions, that are verifiable, that hopefully can start to build some trust,” Pedersen told reporters in Damascus.

13 Dec 2021; MEMO: A Palestinian man was killed and two others were injured by Israeli soldiers when they stormed the West Bank city of Nablus in the early hours of Monday, a health official said.

Sources reported to Wafa News Agency that the Palestinian man, Jameel al Kayyal, 31, was shot in the head by the Israeli occupation forces.

Two others were also wounded, the sources said, noting that all of them were rushed to a Palestinian hospital.

13 Dec 2021; MEMO: Israeli occupation forces raided on Sunday night the home of senior Hamas leader in occupied West Bank, Hassan Yousef, 65, and arrested him.

According to Safa, a large number of Israeli occupation forces raided the city of Betonya in the outskirts of Ramallah and broke into Yousef's house, before arresting him.

Yousef, who is an MP, was released in July 2020 after spending 10 months under administrative detention inside Israeli prisons.

13 Dec 2021; MEMO: "Salah has been released from prison and is on his way home," Omar Khamaysi told Anadolu Agency.

Waving green banners, scores of Palestinians stood outside Megiddo prison in northern Israel to welcome Salah.

The Higher Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, the highest representative body of Arab residents of Israel, is also planning to organize a reception ceremony for Salah in his hometown Umm al-Fahm.

13 Dec 2021; MEMO: Egypt does not want to rebuild facilities and homes destroyed by the Israeli occupation in Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said. They noted that Egypt is, however, carrying out several other vital projects in the besieged enclave.

In a press conference held on Sunday, Deputy Housing Minister in Gaza, Naji Sarhan, said that Egypt has started constructing three residential complexes that had been approved before the Israeli offensive on Gaza in May 2021.

12 Dec 2021; MEMO: Operating the three wastewater treatment plants located in the east of the Refugee camp of Al Burij, middle of the Gaza Strip, is part of a project aimed to solve the issue of critical water situation in the besieged enclave.

The wastewater treatment plants went into test operation at the end of 2020, and regular operation at the start in April 2021.

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Palestinians held municipal elections in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Saturday in a rare democratic exercise and amid rising anger with President Mahmoud Abbas after he cancelled planned legislative and presidential votes earlier this year.

More than 400,000 Palestinians were eligible to cast ballots for representatives in 154 village councils in the West Bank, where Abbas' Palestinian Authority has limited self-rule. Municipal votes are typically held every four or five years.