August 25, 2010

Israel increases industrial fuel imports to Gaza, allowing Gaza’s electricity plant to run on 2 turbines instead of 1 for the first time since 2/2010, cutting rolling power outages across the Strip from 8–12 hrs./day to 4–6 hrs./day. Unidentified Palestinians fire a mortar fr. n. Gaza into Israel, causing no damage or injuries. Twice during the morning, IDF troops on the n. Gaza border fire warning shots at Palestinians scavenging for construction materials in the fmr. Jewish settlement sites nr. the border, wounding 1. In the West Bank, the IDF patrols in 3 villages nr. Jenin, 1 village nr. Ramallah, 1 village nr. Salfit late at night without conducting searches or making arrests; conducts synchronized late-night arrest raids, house searches in 3 other villages nr. Ramallah. During the day in Ramallah, plainclothes PA security forces (PASF) and/ or general intelligence officers break up a meeting of 200 Palestinian opposition figures convened to draft a statement protesting Abbas’s 8/23 decision to resume direct negotiations with Israel; uniformed PASF officers waiting outside the venue question the participants as they leave. (AP, YA 8/25; PCHR 8/26; OCHA 8/27; HA 8/30; WT 9/1; PCHR 9/2; OCHA 9/3)