ISRAEL TO RAZE HOMES IN SOUTH NABLUS
Nablus, 7 Ramadan 1434 / 15 July 2013 (MINA) – The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) served demolition notices to four families in Aqraba village, south of Nablus, on Sunday (14/7).
Bilal Abdulhadi, deputy chairman of Aqraba municipal council, told the PIC that the IOA informed four citizens in Akar Mountain to the southwest of the village that they have to evacuate their homes.
He said that the IOA claimed the construction was in area C and was made without permission. Al Qassam reported as monitored by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).
On Wednesday (10/7) Palestinian medical sources have also reported that five Palestinians were injured by Israeli military fire in the Al-Jneid area, west of the northern West Bank city of Nablus. One resident was kidnapped.
The soldiers invaded students dorm, in Al-Jneid area, searched it and kidnapped one student identified as Mahmoud Abdul-Halim At-Talahma, 20, from Bethlehem. At-Talahma studies at the An-Najah National University in Nablus.
Local sources have reported that clashes took place between local residents and the invaded soldiers.
The army fired several gas bombs, concussion grenades and rubber-coated metal bullets leading to five injuries.
The five wounded Palestinians have been identified as Ahmad Mohammad Abu Aisha, 20, (injured by rubber-coated bullets), Hassan Sabe’ Abu Ahmad, 21, (hit by a gas bomb), Mo’men Abdullah Ateeq, 20, (suffocated after inhaling gas), Dia’ Sweity, 20, (suffocated after inhaling gas), and Rashed Salah Manasra, 19, (suffocated after inhaling gas).
Furthermore, soldiers fired gas bombs at dorms inhabited by female students of a local college near Rafidia area, causing fire while one student received treatment after inhaling smoke resulting from the fire.
Eyewitnesses said that several Israeli military vehicles repeatedly drove around the new building of the An-Najah University in Rafidia, and near Tunis Street.
Nablus is a city in the northern West Bank, approximately 49 kilometers (30 mi) north of Jerusalem (approximately 63 kilometers (39 mi) by road), with a population of 126,132. Located in a strategic position between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a Palestinian commercial and cultural center.
Caliphate of Umar ibn al-Khattab; its name Arabicized to Nablus. In 1099, the Crusaders took control of the city for less than a century, leaving its mixed Muslim, Christian and Samaritan population relatively undisturbed. After Saladin’s Ayyubid forces took control of the interior of Palestine in 1187, Islamic rule was reestablished, and continued under the Mamluk and Ottoman empires to follow.
After the loss of the city to British forces during World War I, Nablus was incorporated into the British Mandate of Palestine in 1922, and later designated to form part of the Arab state of Palestine under the 1947 UN partition plan. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War the city was captured and occupied by Transjordan, which subsequently unilaterally annexed it, until its occupation by Israel during the 1967 Six Day War.
Today, the population is predominantly Muslim, with small Christian and Samaritan minorities. Since 1995, the city has been governed by the Palestinian National Authority. In the Old City, there are a number of sites of archaeological significance, spanning the 1st to 15th centuries. The city is known for its kanafeh, a popular sweet throughout the Middle East, and soap industry. (T/P04/P03)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
