Two Palestinian martyrs were shot dead by the Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The occupation authorities also escalated their aggression against the occupied city of Jerusalem. They took over one of the houses and handed it over to the settlers after their owners were forcibly expelled from it. The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the parliamentary vote The European Union overwhelmingly against the reduction of aid to the education sector and the organization «UNRWA».

Two martyrs, confrontations and arrests

A Palestinian man was killed and a number of others were wounded by live bullets, metal bullets and gas inhalation during clashes with Israeli occupation forces in the town of Tammun, south of Tubas in the West Bank.

A Palestinian civilian was killed by Israeli gunfire during clashes that broke out east of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. The Israeli sniper shot him in the head near the border fence. He was taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital and then to Shifa Hospital. And six other Palestinians were wounded in the clashes.

The Israeli occupation forces arrested at least 16 citizens from the West Bank, mostly from Tulkarm, and searched dozens of houses in the town of Arraba, southwest of Jenin. Local sources said that the Israeli occupation forces raided the town at dawn with large military reinforcements. District of the Northern Cape, searched and interrogated its inhabitants.

Grab, siege and scraping

Israeli occupation forces, guarded by a military force, began unloading the contents of a house in the Batin Al Hawa neighborhood of Silwan, south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, before handing over to a settlement association.

According to the Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan, the family lives in the house of the Palestinian citizen Jawad Abu Sneina, who has recently been arrested, threatened and expelled from Jerusalem for refusing to leave the house and insisting on staying there.

The occupation forces besieged the headquarters of the governorate and the Ministry of Jerusalem in Dahiyat al-Barid, north of the occupied city, and prevented employees from entering or leaving, and imposed a siege around the headquarters, and occupied the roofs of neighboring buildings amid the complete closure of the main street and sub-streets in the suburb of the post, and began taking pictures from outside Headquarters and before it withdraws from the area. Yesterday, the Israeli government approved the expansion of the bypass road (number 60) connecting Jerusalem and Hebron.

The Minister of Communications, Yisrael Katz, gave orders to expand the street according to a plan called "Wrap the Arub, Beit Jala and Ma'asara in the Bethlehem governorate, and Beit Ummar in the north of Hebron, with a width of about 100 meters.

He said that this decision comes within the framework of extending the influence of the occupation on the province of Bethlehem, being, as they claim, «an integral part of Greater Jerusalem». Under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces, Israeli settlers renewed the razing of land in the areas of Khallet al-Nablah and Qatn, south of Bethlehem, to construct a settlement road, which began 12 days prior to the land being bulldozed.

European support for UNRWA

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Riyad al-Maliki, welcomed the results of the European Parliament's vote by an overwhelming majority yesterday against the proposal to reduce European aid to the education sector in Palestine.

The minister also praised the adoption of a new resolution calling for additional European assistance to UNRWA, saying that toppling the draft resolution to cut aid to the Palestinian Authority represents an important step in reaffirming the EU's commitment to the peace process, the two-state solution and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with its capital Quds Al-Sharif, on the basis of the resolutions of international legitimacy, the Arab peace plan and the terms of reference of the peace process.

He added that voting in favor of a parallel resolution calling for an increase of € 22 million in EU assistance to UNRWA this year represents a clear message against the administration's attempts to circumvent the peace process and its bias toward Israel, the occupying power, and the European Union's commitment to defend UNRWA And strengthen its capabilities to continue to provide assistance to the Palestinian people at home and abroad, and to enable the Agency to cope with the financial crisis resulting from the withdrawal of US support.

Maliki said that «the vote by an overwhelming majority represents a referendum on the commitment of representatives of European peoples to the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and the establishment of our independent state and the justice of our cause, and a message of support for the steadfastness and our people's response to the policies of demolition and displacement practiced by Israel».

- Occupation takes over the house of a Palestinian citizen in Silwan. Settlers are sweeping lands in Bethlehem.