Gaza municipal officials are forced to shut down 1 of 2 turbines at Gaza’s power plant; rolling blackouts spike from 4–6 hrs./day to 16 hrs./day. IDF troops on the Israeli side of the Erez crossing fire warning shots at Palestinians scavenging for construction materials inside the demolished industrial zone, wounding 1. In the West Bank, Palestinians (accompanied by Israeli and international activists in some locations) hold weekly nonviolent demonstrations against the separation wall, land confiscations, and settlement expansion in Bil‘in, Ni‘lin, al-Ma‘sara nr. Bethlehem, and Nabi Salih/Dayr Nizam. IDF soldiers fire rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas, and stun grenades at the protesters and occupy 1 Palestinian home in Nabi Salih as an observation post; 10s of demonstrators suffer tear gas inhalation, 2 Palestinians and 3 international activists are arrested (the internationals are quickly released), and a Palestinian home in Nabi Salih is set on fire by a tear gas canister. Jewish settlers fr. Keddumim settlement nr. Qalqilya vandalize nearby Palestinian homes and a cemetery, spraying graffitti on buildings threatening Palestinians to leave the area or face attack and on gravestones saying: “Here lies the Palestinian state.” (PCHR 10/28; OCHA 10/29)
Friday, October 22, 2010