Israel keeps Gaza crossings shut for a 4th day, citing rocket fire on 6/26. Today, unidentified Palestinians fire 2 mortars fr. Gaza into Israel, causing no damage or injuries. Hamas-affiliated Gaza imams use their Friday sermons to stress that supporting the truce serves the greater interests of the Palestinian people. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts late-night arrest raids, house searches in and around Jenin town and r.c., Nablus; fires rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas at Palestinian, Israeli, international activists taking part in the weekly nonviolent demonstration against the separation wall in Bil‘in (10s suffer tear gas inhalation); fires tear gas, percussion grenades at demonstrators at a similar protest al-Ma‘sara (10s suffer tear gas inhalation). (NYT 6/28; NYT 6/30; OCHA 7/2; PCHR 7/3)
Friday, June 27, 2008