State of Palestine, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Media Unit
   
Foreign Ministry Asks International Community to Penalize Israel
TEL AVIV (WAFA) – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs called, in a statement Tuesday, upon the international community to impose sanctions on Israel for plotting to expand an illegal settlement in the southern West Bank.

The ministry said that such plan would further transform the West Bank into disconnected cantons, thus undermining the potential of a viable state of Palestine. The ministry, therefore, called for considering such a move a war crime that should not go unpunished by the international community.

The Israeli daily Haaretz said yesterday the Israeli Housing and Construction Ministry had earmarked some $215,000 for the expansion of the illegal settlement of Efrat near Bethlehem City in the West Bank.

Settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the Golan Heights, both occupied since 1967, are considered illegal in international law.

The Israeli human rights center B’Tselem says “Israel’s dramatic alteration of the West Bank map has precluded realization of Palestinians' right to self-determination in a viable Palestinian state.”

Suspend EU-Israel treaty, 63 MEPs say
BRUSSELS  (WAFA) – European Union Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini was urged by a group of 63 members of European Parliament to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement, the main treaty between the EU and Israel.

According to a press release received from the Mission of Palestine to the EU, a group of 63 influential MEPs have called on Mogherini to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

The group, representing the five biggest parties in the European Parliament, noted that this call constitutes a ‘unique cross-party initiative’ intended to call on the EU to impose tough measures against Israel to hold it accountable for its massacre of more than 2,300 Palestinians in Gaza last summer.

“Amnesty International and Palestinian organizations have documented that Israel deliberately targeted civilians and committed other war crimes during its recent onslaught against Palestinians in Gaza. These are serious violations of international law and international humanitarian law that cannot be tolerated,” the group stated.

The group called on the European Commission “to consider the suspension of Association Agreement with Israel unless Israel takes substantial and immediate steps to bring its conduct in line with international law.”

The letter echoes an appeal made in November by more than 300 human rights groups, trade unions and political parties from across Europe, who wrote to Mogherini to demand the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

The EU-Israel Association Agreement, which entered into force in 2000, is the main framework agreement regulating the close relationship and facilitating largely unrestricted trade between the EU and Israel, allowing Israel to participate in more EU programs than any other non-European country.

The group slammed the EU as adopting doubling standards for failing to impose measures against Israel for its violations of international law although it has imposed similar measures on Russia over the Ukraine crisis.

According to the press release, the EU has issued some of its strongest ever criticisms of Israel since its latest attack on Gaza but is yet to take any substantial measures to hold it to account, although it is understood the EU is currently not willing to upgrade relations with Israel in any way.

In June 2013, the EU announced a ban on its funds being awarded to illegal Israeli settlements, and in 2014 it coordinated member states to issue a statement warning businesses about the legal and political risks associated with doing business in illegal Israeli settlements.

Campaigners say these steps are welcome but that tougher steps such as a ban on economic relations with illegal Israeli settlements and a ban on arms exports to Israel are needed to apply real pressure on Israel to comply with international law.

Israel Dismisses 43 Soldiers for Criticism against Regime
(IMEMC) - The Israeli military has dismissed 43 soldiers for publicly criticizing the Tel Aviv regime’s crimes against Palestinians.
 
The 43 male and female reserve soldiers, who were members of the Israeli army’s spying unit, were fired on Monday after they refused to “continue serving the system which affects the rights of millions of people.”

In a letter published by Israeli media in September of 2014, the soldiers wrote to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top army chiefs that they could no longer serve in the unit because they did not want to participate in the injustices committed against Palestinians.

The signatories also criticized the “political persecution” which their spying activities involved. The letter was reportedly written a few weeks after Israel’s devastating military offensive on the Gaza Strip, this past summer.

The letter was reportedly written a few weeks after Israel’s 50-day offensive on the Gaza Strip last summer.

Israel started its latest war on Gaza in early July 2014. Over 2,100 people died and some 11,000 others were injured in the Israeli war, which ended on August 26 with a truce

More than 15,500 housing units were also damaged in the attacks while over 2,200 houses were totally destroyed, according to official figures released by Palestinian sources.

Settlers storm Aqsa Mosque under police protection
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM-- Extremist Jewish group of settlers stormed Tuesday morning the Aqsa Mosque under heavy police protection. 

Eyewitnesses said the settlers toured the plazas of the holy Mosque while listening to Talmudic explanations.

Israeli policemen continue to hold the identity cards of some Jerusalemite women amid tight security measures.

Israel 'systematically mistreats' Palestinian children in custody
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Some 700 Palestinian children per year are arrested and face "ill-treatment" by Israeli forces, according to a new report by a children's rights group.

In the report, Child Rights International Network said that "during 2014, an average of 197 children were held in military detention every month, 13 per cent of whom are under the age of 16."

"Arrested children are commonly taken into custody by heavily armed soldiers, blindfolded with their wrists tied behind their backs before being transported to an interrogation centre," the CRIN report said.

"Children questioned about their experience frequently report verbal and physical abuse during the arrest."

According to research conducted by Defense for Children International -- Palestine cited by the report, some 56 percent of children report having experienced "coercive" interrogation techniques during their time in Israeli custody.

Some 42 percent say they signed documents in Hebrew, despite the fact that most Palestinian children do not speak or understand the language.

Additionally, 22 percent of detained children say they underwent up to 24 hours of solitary confinement, in violation of international standards.

"This detention is a clear violation of children's rights under several international human rights treaties to which Israel is a party," the CRIN report said.

"The UN's Special Rapporteur on Torture has called for a complete ban on solitary confinement for juveniles, warning that it 'can amount to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment when used as a punishment, during pre-trial detention, indefinitely or for prolonged periods, for persons with mental disabilities or juveniles.'"

The report said that while it is technically possible to file a complaint about the way a child is treated in Israeli detention, "complaints are almost universally dismissed," and there are "very few examples of soldiers being punished for ill-treatment."

Israeli Forces Detain Four Palestinians from West Bank Districts
BETHLEHEM (WAFA) – Israeli forces Tuesday raided towns and cities in the West Bank and detained four Palestinians from the West Bank districts, said security sources.

Israeli forces raided the Bethlehem neighborhoods of al-Fawaghra and As-Saf, and arrested Sufyan Sabarna, 20, and Mu‘in Masalma, 18, after breaking into and ransacking their families’ homes.

A group of settlers broke into Palestinians farmlands in Freidis to the east of the Bethlehem, aiming to prevent Palestinian farmers from tending to their crops.

Meanwhile in Ramallah, forces raided Beit Rima to the northwest of the city, where they violently broke into and ransacked a local house, spreading panic among the homeowner’s family.

A Palestinian young man was detained during the raid. He was identified as Nidal al-Rimawi, 25.
Nidal’s father, Hazem, said an Israeli army unit broke into his family’s three-storey house around 2am and climbed to the third floor, housing Nidal’s family.

Soldiers locked the entire family in a room before ransacking and tampering with the house contents, destroying wardrobes and tearing mattresses and seats.

Meanwhile in Hebron district, forces stationed near the Ibrahimi Mosque, also known as Caves of the Patriarch, stopped and detained a Palestinian minor in the Old City. The minor was identified as Sameh al-Natsha, 17.

Israeli forces shoot, injure Palestinian teen near Joseph's Tomb
NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Israeli troops shot and injured a Palestinian teenager during clashes Tuesday morning near Joseph's Tomb near Balata refugee camp in Nablus in the northern West Bank.

Palestinian security sources told Ma'an that several buses loaded with ultra-orthodox Jews and settlers arrived to Joseph's Tomb escorted by more than 15 military vehicles at around 2:30 a.m.

They then performed religious rites at the holy site.

The sources added that clashes then broke out in the nearby Balata and Askar refugee camps between young Palestinian men and Israeli soldiers.

They said dozens of young men hurled stones at the Israeli soldiers who fired tear-gas canisters, stun grenades, rubber-coated bullets as well as live ammunition at the protesters.

As a result, a teenage boy was shot in the foot. The sources identified him as 16-year-old Basim Zakariyya Suleiman and said that he was evacuated to Rafedia public hospital for treatment.

The sources said Israeli troops and worshipers withdrew from the area in the early morning hours.

Suffocation Cases in Confrontations with Israeli Army near Hebron
HEBRON (WAFA) – Dozens of Palestinians suffocated on Tuesday during confrontations with the Israeli army in the town of Yatta, south of Hebron, according to local sources.

Rateb Jabour, coordinator of the Anti-Settlement Committee in Hebron, said dozens of people suffocated by teargas inhalation, as Israeli soldiers fired teargas and toxic gas canisters towards them.

The soldiers also broke into and searched multiple homes in the area.