Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Israel allows 2,631 Palestinians to transit through the Rafah crossing (880 going into Egypt, 1,751 returning to Gaza). The UN reports that in the preceding wk., 2 Gazan boys (ages 8, 10) in al-Bureij r.c. were injured by UXO fr. OCL; 4 Palestinians were killed, 5 injured in tunnel collapses along the Rafah border. In the West Bank, the IDF conducts late-night house searches in villages s. of Jenin, making no arrests; stages late-night arrest raids, house searches in Fasayil village n. of Jericho. A Hamas-affiliated PA prisoner dies in a Jordanian hospital, where he was transferred by the PASF on 6/30 with severe injuries apparently resulting fr. torture. (OCHA, PCHR 8/6, 8/13)

In Bethlehem, 2,325 delegates fr. the West Bank and 80 countries around the world open Fatah’s 6th General Conference in Bethlehem to vote on a new party platform and hold elections for party institutions for the 1st time in 20 yrs. (MM, alSharq al-Awsat 8/4; al-Ayyam, MM, MNA, NYT, WP 8/5; MNA 8/8; JPI 8/14)