Overnight, the IDF conducts arrest raids targeting the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in Jenin, Nablus, and Ramallah, arresting about 17. In the morning, the IDF patrols in 2 villages nr. Ramallah and 1 each nr. Jenin (firing flash grenades to intimidate residents) and Jericho. Late in the evening, an IDF drone fires a missile at a training camp in s. Gaza, causing no reported injuries; the IDF makes a brief incursion into Rafah, sporadically firing on residential areas, causing no injuries; and Israeli naval vessels fire on a Palestinian fishing boat off the s. Gaza coast, forcing it to return to shore. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that since 11/16, the IDF has bulldozed 130 dunams (d.; 4 d. = 1 acre) of Palestinian agricultural land, uprooted 500 trees, and forced Palestinians to dismantle 9 greenhouses and 7,000 m of irrigation networks to allow the rerouting of the separation wall nr. Qalqilya. OCHA also reports that since 11/16, the IDF has bulldozed 18 d. in the Jericho area and 400 d. in the Salfit area that Israel has claimed as state land. (MNA, XIN 11/22; PCHR 11/24; OCHA 11/25)
Tuesday, November 22, 2011