29 mar 2020
Belgian non-governmental organizations have made an appeal to end the blockade on the Gaza Strip as the coronavirus pandemic keeps spreading across the world, urging their government to take urgent action in this regard.
“Belgium is more obliged than ever to demand that the illegal blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza be lifted,” the NGOs said in a letter sent to the Belgian government.
They called for making immediate efforts to supply Gaza with “respiratory devices, intensive care beds, diagnosis test kits, and all equipment used to reduce the risk of infection.”
The Belgian organizations also called for ensuring that Gaza has its electricity needs fully and allowing entry of food supplies and foreign medical workers to Gaza to help the local authorities in its efforts to confront the crisis.
They also urged the international community to increase humanitarian assistance for the coastal enclave during the current health crisis.
“Belgium is more obliged than ever to demand that the illegal blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza be lifted,” the NGOs said in a letter sent to the Belgian government.
They called for making immediate efforts to supply Gaza with “respiratory devices, intensive care beds, diagnosis test kits, and all equipment used to reduce the risk of infection.”
The Belgian organizations also called for ensuring that Gaza has its electricity needs fully and allowing entry of food supplies and foreign medical workers to Gaza to help the local authorities in its efforts to confront the crisis.
They also urged the international community to increase humanitarian assistance for the coastal enclave during the current health crisis.
Two new cases of coronavirus were confirmed this afternoon in the West Bank bringing total in Palestine to 108, according to government spokesman Mohammad Milhem.
He said the two cases belong to the husband, 60, of a woman in the southern West Bank city of Hebron declared this morning that she has tested positive with the disease, and her 24-year-old son.
Milhem also said two more people have recovered in Bethlehem – a German woman married to a Palestinian from Bethlehem, and her daughter - bringing the total who have recovered so far to 20, all, except one, were among the first to get the disease in Bethlehem.
The besieged Gaza Strip still records only nine cases out of the 108 total, and the rest, 99, are in the West Bank, mainly in villages near Jerusalem.
He said the two cases belong to the husband, 60, of a woman in the southern West Bank city of Hebron declared this morning that she has tested positive with the disease, and her 24-year-old son.
Milhem also said two more people have recovered in Bethlehem – a German woman married to a Palestinian from Bethlehem, and her daughter - bringing the total who have recovered so far to 20, all, except one, were among the first to get the disease in Bethlehem.
The besieged Gaza Strip still records only nine cases out of the 108 total, and the rest, 99, are in the West Bank, mainly in villages near Jerusalem.
Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh announced today that two more case of novel COVID-19 pandemic (coronavirus) have been confirmed in the West Bank, bringing up the total cases to 106.
Speaking at a press conference in Ramallah discussing the latest developments of the coronavirus outbreak in Palestine, he said the two cases were for one Palestinian in the village of Qatanna, northwest of Jerusalem, and another one in the Hebron governorate.
Shtayyeh added that the government estimates around 12 cases of the novel disease among the Palestinian population of occupied Jerusalem who are currently being treated in Israeli hospitals, but said the number was not verified so far due to the Israeli restrictions on the work of the Palestinian government in the occupied capital.
Speaking at a press conference in Ramallah discussing the latest developments of the coronavirus outbreak in Palestine, he said the two cases were for one Palestinian in the village of Qatanna, northwest of Jerusalem, and another one in the Hebron governorate.
Shtayyeh added that the government estimates around 12 cases of the novel disease among the Palestinian population of occupied Jerusalem who are currently being treated in Israeli hospitals, but said the number was not verified so far due to the Israeli restrictions on the work of the Palestinian government in the occupied capital.
Hussein Sheikh, Chairman of the Palestinian Authority's Civil Affairs Commission, said today that an intensive and silent campaign is now going on worldwide for the dispatch of urgently needed COVID-19 test kits to Palestine.
Sheikh said in a tweet that at the orders of President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, the campaign was launched at a time of critical shortage of the necessary test kits following the outbreak of the novel virus in Palestine earlier this month.
Sheikh said in a tweet that at the orders of President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, the campaign was launched at a time of critical shortage of the necessary test kits following the outbreak of the novel virus in Palestine earlier this month.
The government spokesman Ibrahim Milhem confirmed last night six new cases of COVID-19 (coronavirus) in the West Bank, bringing up the total in Palestine to 104.
Milhem said in a press release last night that the six cases were confirmed in the village of Qatanna, northwest of Jerusalem, five of which were for one family.
He said the cases documented include an 12-year-old girl, two women in their thirties of age, one woman in the fifties, one man in the thirties and another in the fifties.
Earlier on Saturday night, Milhem had announced that a woman in the thirties of age was tested positive for COVID-19 in the village of Al-Qubeiba, just near Qatanna.
He said the cause of the new cases was the social visits, urging Palestinians to stay home and not to socialize with family members because most of the new cases were a result of social visits between families.
Of the total of 104, nine are in the Gaza Strip and the rest are in the West Bank
Milhem said in a press release last night that the six cases were confirmed in the village of Qatanna, northwest of Jerusalem, five of which were for one family.
He said the cases documented include an 12-year-old girl, two women in their thirties of age, one woman in the fifties, one man in the thirties and another in the fifties.
Earlier on Saturday night, Milhem had announced that a woman in the thirties of age was tested positive for COVID-19 in the village of Al-Qubeiba, just near Qatanna.
He said the cause of the new cases was the social visits, urging Palestinians to stay home and not to socialize with family members because most of the new cases were a result of social visits between families.
Of the total of 104, nine are in the Gaza Strip and the rest are in the West Bank
28 mar 2020
Six new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in the West Bank today, according to government spokesman Ibrahim Milhem, raising total in Palestine to 97.
He told the daily briefing that three cases were confirmed in the Bethlehem area village of Irtas, including the 62-year-old husband of an infected woman, her 19-year-old and 17-year-old nephews, in addition to her sister in the nearby village of Beit Iskaria, a small village of 650 people surrounded by a number of illegal Israeli settlements in the bloc known as Gush Etzion, who caught the disease when her infected sister visited her.
Two more cases were in two Jerusalem area villages – one in Hizma of a 29-year-old man who got it from workers in Israel, and the second in Qobeiba, of a woman in her 20s, who got infected after socializing with an infected sister in the nearby village of Biddo, where more than one dozen cases were confirmed over the past two days and one death.
Milhem urged Palestinians to stay home and not to socialize with family members because most of the new cases were a result of social visits between families.
He said that 18 cases have so far recovered and the one death of the Biddo woman.
He said 291 tests conducted over the last 24 hours came out negative, except for the new six confirmed cases.
Of the total of 97, nine are in the Gaza Strip and the rest in the West Bank.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry also said yesterday that there are eight confirmed cases among the Palestinian community in Belgium, three and one death in Sweden as well as one death in New Jersey in the United States.
He told the daily briefing that three cases were confirmed in the Bethlehem area village of Irtas, including the 62-year-old husband of an infected woman, her 19-year-old and 17-year-old nephews, in addition to her sister in the nearby village of Beit Iskaria, a small village of 650 people surrounded by a number of illegal Israeli settlements in the bloc known as Gush Etzion, who caught the disease when her infected sister visited her.
Two more cases were in two Jerusalem area villages – one in Hizma of a 29-year-old man who got it from workers in Israel, and the second in Qobeiba, of a woman in her 20s, who got infected after socializing with an infected sister in the nearby village of Biddo, where more than one dozen cases were confirmed over the past two days and one death.
Milhem urged Palestinians to stay home and not to socialize with family members because most of the new cases were a result of social visits between families.
He said that 18 cases have so far recovered and the one death of the Biddo woman.
He said 291 tests conducted over the last 24 hours came out negative, except for the new six confirmed cases.
Of the total of 97, nine are in the Gaza Strip and the rest in the West Bank.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry also said yesterday that there are eight confirmed cases among the Palestinian community in Belgium, three and one death in Sweden as well as one death in New Jersey in the United States.
Eight senior United States senators urged the US Administration to provide assistance to the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza to help them overcome coronavirus pandemic.
“President Trump recently offered assistance to other countries fighting the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic, including North Korea and Iran.
This principle of providing humanitarian aid to those in need should also apply to the Palestinian people,” said the senators in their letter [pdf] to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “We write to urge the Administration to take every reasonable step to provide medicine, medical equipment, and other necessary assistance to the West Bank and Gaza Strip (Palestinian Territories) to prevent a humanitarian disaster.”
The senators said that as coronavirus spreads in the Palestinian territories, particularly in the Gaza Strip, one of the most densely populated areas of the world and blockaded by Israel since 2007, a coronavirus outbreak in the region would further endanger the health of Palestinians.
They said that with the cut in US aid to the Palestinians since January 2018, particularly to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), “which supports the basic health care needs of millions of Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, and surrounding countries,” and as “COVID-19 pandemic poses an unprecedented health, diplomatic, and economic threat, and it is in the national security interest of the United States and in the interest of the Palestinian people and our ally Israel,” to combat the spread of COVID-19 in the Palestinian Territories, “we are concerned that the Administration is failing to take every reasonable step to help combat this public health emergency in the Palestinian Territories.”
The senators demanded answers to several questions by April 3 that have to do with steps the US Administration is taking or planning to take to provide assistance to the Palestinian people and “when does the Administration plan to obligate $75 million in Economic Support Funds for assistance for the Palestinians as mandated by the FY 2020 Appropriations Act?”
The letter was signed by Senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen, Patrick Leahy, Tom Udall, Thomas R. Carper, Bernard Sanders, Jeffrey A. Merkley, Thomas R. Carper and Sherrod Brown.
“President Trump recently offered assistance to other countries fighting the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic, including North Korea and Iran.
This principle of providing humanitarian aid to those in need should also apply to the Palestinian people,” said the senators in their letter [pdf] to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “We write to urge the Administration to take every reasonable step to provide medicine, medical equipment, and other necessary assistance to the West Bank and Gaza Strip (Palestinian Territories) to prevent a humanitarian disaster.”
The senators said that as coronavirus spreads in the Palestinian territories, particularly in the Gaza Strip, one of the most densely populated areas of the world and blockaded by Israel since 2007, a coronavirus outbreak in the region would further endanger the health of Palestinians.
They said that with the cut in US aid to the Palestinians since January 2018, particularly to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), “which supports the basic health care needs of millions of Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, and surrounding countries,” and as “COVID-19 pandemic poses an unprecedented health, diplomatic, and economic threat, and it is in the national security interest of the United States and in the interest of the Palestinian people and our ally Israel,” to combat the spread of COVID-19 in the Palestinian Territories, “we are concerned that the Administration is failing to take every reasonable step to help combat this public health emergency in the Palestinian Territories.”
The senators demanded answers to several questions by April 3 that have to do with steps the US Administration is taking or planning to take to provide assistance to the Palestinian people and “when does the Administration plan to obligate $75 million in Economic Support Funds for assistance for the Palestinians as mandated by the FY 2020 Appropriations Act?”
The letter was signed by Senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen, Patrick Leahy, Tom Udall, Thomas R. Carper, Bernard Sanders, Jeffrey A. Merkley, Thomas R. Carper and Sherrod Brown.
27 mar 2020
Dozens of Israeli occupation soldiers at daybreak Friday stormed several neighborhoods in the West Bank city of al-Khalil and deliberately spat at Palestinian houses' doors and cars to intimidate the residents amid Coronavirus spread.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing Israeli soldiers intentionally and repeatedly spitting at cars, walls and doorsteps. video
After the Israeli soldiers withdrew, Palestinian workers rushed to sterilize the places which the soldiers spat at, fearing Coronavirus infection, especially with recent news that many Israeli soldiers have been diagnosed with the novel virus.
Despite the lockdown in the West Bank and Jerusalem due to the Coronavirus outbreak, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights last week documented 97 Israeli violations against Palestinian citizens, including 59 home raids and 51 arrests.
At least 6 Palestinian children were detained last week with no safety measures taken to protect them against Coronavirus infection, according to the human rights center.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing Israeli soldiers intentionally and repeatedly spitting at cars, walls and doorsteps. video
After the Israeli soldiers withdrew, Palestinian workers rushed to sterilize the places which the soldiers spat at, fearing Coronavirus infection, especially with recent news that many Israeli soldiers have been diagnosed with the novel virus.
Despite the lockdown in the West Bank and Jerusalem due to the Coronavirus outbreak, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights last week documented 97 Israeli violations against Palestinian citizens, including 59 home raids and 51 arrests.
At least 6 Palestinian children were detained last week with no safety measures taken to protect them against Coronavirus infection, according to the human rights center.
Palestine Friday morning confirmed seven new novel coronavirus cases, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the occupied territories to 91.
Speaking during a daily briefing in Ramallah, Government spokesman Ibrahim Milhem said that the samples for 100 suspected cases from Biddu town, northwest of Jerusalem, were tested, and the test results showed that five cases tested positive for the deadly virus.
He identified the five cases as a two-year-old female toddler, a ten-year-old child, two young men in their 20s, and a man in his 50s. The first four cases were transferred to al-Carmel Hotel in Ramallah, which functions as a quarantine center, and the fifth case to Hugo Chavez Hospital in TurmusAyya town, north of Ramallah.
He pointed out that the samples of 227 Palestinian workers who returned from Israeli settlements and Israel were tested, and the test results showed that two cases tested positive for the virus.
The two cases were identified as a man who worked as a gas station worker at the Israeli colonial settlement of Gush Etzion, north of Bethlehem, and his mother, who worked as a cleaner in a nearby settlement.
He noted that the total infected cases stood at 91, including 17 cases who fully recovered, in addition to a case that succumbed to her injury. The fatal case is that of a woman in her 60s from Biddu who died a day after she tested positive for the virus.
He slammed as baseless and unfounded allegations that there were new confirmed cases in the besieged Gaza Strip.
“We will act on the World Health Organization’s proposal to set up outdoor tents in front of the emergency sections at hospitals for the preliminary medical examination of suspected coronavirus patients,” he announced.
“We will do so especially after 32 medical staff at the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah were forced into quarantine as a result of being in touch with a patient at the internal medicine section who later tested positive for the virus,” he added.
He also pointed out that there was a shortage of coronavirus test kits in Palestine as it is the case worldwide, and affirmed the government’s strenuous efforts to secure life-saving respiratory devices and protective gear.
Speaking during a daily briefing in Ramallah, Government spokesman Ibrahim Milhem said that the samples for 100 suspected cases from Biddu town, northwest of Jerusalem, were tested, and the test results showed that five cases tested positive for the deadly virus.
He identified the five cases as a two-year-old female toddler, a ten-year-old child, two young men in their 20s, and a man in his 50s. The first four cases were transferred to al-Carmel Hotel in Ramallah, which functions as a quarantine center, and the fifth case to Hugo Chavez Hospital in TurmusAyya town, north of Ramallah.
He pointed out that the samples of 227 Palestinian workers who returned from Israeli settlements and Israel were tested, and the test results showed that two cases tested positive for the virus.
The two cases were identified as a man who worked as a gas station worker at the Israeli colonial settlement of Gush Etzion, north of Bethlehem, and his mother, who worked as a cleaner in a nearby settlement.
He noted that the total infected cases stood at 91, including 17 cases who fully recovered, in addition to a case that succumbed to her injury. The fatal case is that of a woman in her 60s from Biddu who died a day after she tested positive for the virus.
He slammed as baseless and unfounded allegations that there were new confirmed cases in the besieged Gaza Strip.
“We will act on the World Health Organization’s proposal to set up outdoor tents in front of the emergency sections at hospitals for the preliminary medical examination of suspected coronavirus patients,” he announced.
“We will do so especially after 32 medical staff at the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah were forced into quarantine as a result of being in touch with a patient at the internal medicine section who later tested positive for the virus,” he added.
He also pointed out that there was a shortage of coronavirus test kits in Palestine as it is the case worldwide, and affirmed the government’s strenuous efforts to secure life-saving respiratory devices and protective gear.
