Two Palestinians Killed By IDF in West Bank Clashes

[Comrade Grumpy]

Source: Jerusalem Post

Two Palestinians killed by IDF in West Bank clashes By JPOST.COM STAFF
LAST UPDATED: 08/01/2014 20:43


One killed as some 1,200 Palestinians protest against Israel's operation in Gaza; in Ramallah, protestors clash with IDF forces.
Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in clashes in the West Bank on Friday, Palestinian medical officials said.

Some 1,200 demonstrators took to the streets of the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem, to protest against the IDF's operation in Gaza.

Violence erupted when the protestors began marching towards an IDF checkpoint and throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli troops, which endangered workers in the city's industrial zone, according to an IDF spokeswoman.

The IDF responded with gunfire, killing a Palestinian protestor who was leading the rally, and wounding several others. The army said it had launched an investigation into the incident.

Meanwhile, in Ramallah, Palestinians clashed with Israeli forces during a protest against Operation Protective Edge, outside Israel's Ofer military prison. Rioters in the West Bank city hurled rocks and torched tires, as Israeli troops fired tear gas and used crowd dispersal means

An Israeli military spokeswoman said troops resorted to using live fire after protesters were not deterred by riot-dispersal means that troops had deployed initially. The IDF was looking into the incident.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Violence-mars-protests-in-West-Bank-city-of-Tulkarem-369742

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Also clashes in Hebron.

[Comrade Grumpy]

1. And there's this: "West Bank Glows With Anger Over Gaza Destruction"

http://www.thestar.com.my/News/World/2014/07/28/West-Bank-glows-with-anger-over-Gaza-destruction/

RAMALLAH West Bank (Reuters) - While the Gaza Strip burns, the occupied West Bank is smouldering, with violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces raising the spectre of a new popular uprising after years of relative calm.

In just a three-day period late last week, 10 Palestinians died and some 600 wounded during a spate of angry protests against the prolonged military offensive in nearby Gaza.

On Sunday, Israeli police said they foiled a potentially deadly attack when they stopped a car laden with explosives as its driver tried to reach Israel via a West Bank checkpoint, while riots broke out once more overnight in East Jerusalem.

In normal times, such friction would be dominating local headlines, but with all eyes fixed instead on Gaza, where more than 1,050 Palestinians have died so far in 20 days of fighting, the growing tension has been largely overlooked.

If the Gaza bloodshed continues for much longer, Palestinians say, it might prove impossible for Israel or Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to keep the lid on growing rage in the West Bank.

<snip>

And this:

[Comrade Grumpy]

2. And this: "West Bank Grows Restive as Gaza War Continues"

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/07/31/west-bank-ramallah-gaza-war/13419975/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=usatoday-newstopstories

RAMALLAH, West Bank — During the day, shoppers jostle for space in candy and clothing stores and sip coffee in the sunshine here in the West Bank's bustling economic capital. The war raging a short drive away in the Gaza Strip seems far away.

But at night, this city frequently explodes in anger at the conflict in Gaza that has killed more than 1,400 Palestinians and wounded thousands more. The protests are not confined to Ramallah but erupt across the West Bank. More than 10,000 people demonstrated last week at the Qalandiya and Hawara checkpoints — the largest seen in a decade. And five Palestinians were killed last Friday in the protests.

"We, in the West Bank, are one people with the Palestinians in Gaza," said Hisham Sharabati of Hebron, a busy trading city in the southern West Bank. "When the war first started, only activists organized protests. But now as people are watching the news and seeing Israel shelling civilian targets, such as hospitals and schools, the public is getting involved."

Muhammad Othman, a human rights activist and photographer based in Ramallah, said much of the anger at the protests is directed at the Palestinian Authority (PA), in which Fatah is the dominant power — especially since Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was silent in the opening days of the conflict.

<snip>

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. And what do you know, now this: "Hamas Looking for an Opening in the West Bank"

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.608111

Hamas looking for an opening to the West Bank
By demanding that Israel lift the siege on Gaza, Hamas signals willingness to renew ties with the West Bank. Israel is not pleased.
By Amira Hass | Jul. 31, 2014 | 3:22 AM |

What did Hamas mean by its demand to lift the blockade and open all the crossings? Clearly it meant opening the Rafah crossing with Egypt and the cargo crossings with Israel. But what about the movement of people through the Erez crossing with Israel?

When Hamas became sole ruler of the Gaza Strip in 2007, it sought to open Gaza to the Arab and Muslim world via Rafah. It wanted freedom of movement through Rafah for its own members, who had effectively been 
imprisoned in the Strip for years by Israeli travel bans; it also wanted to alter the Oslo Accords’ economic provisions by enabling cargo to enter Gaza via Rafah.

These aspirations fit with its de facto goal of establishing an Islamic mini-state in Gaza (even if only as a necessary step toward “liberating all of Palestine”). After Israel, the West and the Fatah party refused to recognize the results of the 2006 Palestinian election and strove to oust Hamas from power, Hamas became driven by the desire to prove it could nevertheless rule Gaza. It continued talking and conducting armed operations like a resistance movement, but successfully governing Gaza became an end in itself. And with the connection to the West Bank severed, it was only natural to think of Rafah as its gateway to the world.

Hamas, with considerable justice, says the economic blockade was imposed on Gaza only to punish it for gaining power. Since 2007, Israel has banned shipments of agricultural and industrial goods from Gaza to the West Bank, Israel and other countries (with a few exceptions) and limited the amount and type of goods allowed into Gaza. These bans wiped out entire industries and impoverished farmers, business people, workers and merchants who depended on ties with Israel.

<snip>

The article goes on to say that Fatah is now supporting Hamas's demand for freedom of movement and that Israel fears a unified Palestiniana state and "Israel’s political and security establishment views the demand to end the separation between Gaza and the West Bank as unacceptable: It has long since stopped hiding its intention (which it has been gradually implementing for 10 years now) to create two separate Palestinian political entities."

[countryjake]

4. Hopefully, they'll be able to get Israel to tear down that Wall.

Looks like Binyamin Netanyahu is getting the "unity" government he prefers.

June 2 seems like such a long time ago, now.


Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions
Free Palestine!

[hack89]

6. So the suicide bombings can start again?

Let's not forget why the wall was built in the first place.

[Comrade Grumpy]

7. Yes, to protect the colonial settler state from the people it fucked over.

Israel is going to have to make a just peace with the Palestinians at some point. Or kill them all.

[hack89]

8. Once the Palestinians can demonstrate the ability

To control their crazies the wall will come down. The fact that there have been no bombings since it went up would be telling to most. I am sure you see it as an affront to Palestinian right to "self defense".

[Comrade Grumpy]

5. "B'Tselem Accuses IDF of Excessive Force in West Bank"

http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/BTselem-accuses-IDF-of-excessive-force-in-West-Bank-369649

B’Tselem on Wednesday night accused the IDF of excessive force in a series of recent West Bank incidents that led to the deaths of 13 Palestinians.

The Jerusalem Post has learned that the IDF did not formally loosen its rules of engagement for the West Bank during the period in question.

The 13 were killed between July 14 and July 29, with 12 of the 13 killed between July 21 and July 29.

Admitting that in some cases Palestinians used live fire or Molotov cocktails against the IDF, the human rights group said that the IDF was still overusing live fire – as opposed to standard crowd-control measures.

In addition, B’Tselem’s initial information indicated that since Protective Edge Operation began, at least 577 Palestinians were wounded by the IDF – 388 of which were hit by live fire – which it said were enormous numbers.

Next, the NGO said the IDF used excessive force to disperse demonstrations and clashes, “in circumstances that posed no mortal danger.”