Tension Awaits Pence In Jerusalem Wednesday

A Palestinian demonstrator stands near burning tires during clashes with Israeli troops. - Reuters
A Palestinian demonstrator stands near burning tires during clashes with Israeli troops. - Reuters
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Tension Awaits Pence In Jerusalem Wednesday

A Palestinian demonstrator stands near burning tires during clashes with Israeli troops. - Reuters
A Palestinian demonstrator stands near burning tires during clashes with Israeli troops. - Reuters

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah Movement called on the Palestinians to attend a massive demonstration next week to protest against the visit of US Vice President Mike Pence to Jerusalem, and reject Washington’s decision to recognize the holy city as Israel’s capital.

In a statement issued on Saturday, the Movement said: "We stress on the need to stage protests at the entrances to Jerusalem and in its Old City to coincide with the visit of US Vice President Mike next Wednesday.”

Fatah also called for a complete coordination with Christians on Sunday evening to massively attend candle-lighting ceremonies in the city of Bethlehem.

On Saturday, thousands of Palestinians attended the funeral of four men who were killed on Friday during confrontations with the occupying Israeli army.

Tens of Palestinians were also injured on Saturday while attending angry demonstration against the US decision.

Meanwhile, Abbas rejected any change in the borders of the occupied “east Jerusalem.”

"We will not accept any changes to the 1967 border of east Jerusalem," Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Abbas, said Saturday.

"This American position proves once again that the current US administration is completely out of the peace process," he added.

The response came a day after senior official in Washington said the US expects the Western Wall in Jerusalem to be part of Israel.

Meanwhile, Jordan’s King Abdullah II will meet at the Vatican on Tuesday with Pope Francis for talks on developments related to Jerusalem following the US decision to recognize it as the capital of Israel and move the US embassy there.

Jordanian official news agency Petra said that from the Vatican, the King will head to France where he will hold talks with French President Emmanuel Macron on the latest developments in the Middle East, also mainly those related to Jerusalem.



With Nowhere Else to Hide, Gazans Shelter in Former Prison

24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
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With Nowhere Else to Hide, Gazans Shelter in Former Prison

24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)
24 July 2024, Palestinian Territories, Khan Younis: Displaced Palestinians stay in Asda prison in Khan Younis after the Israeli army ordered them to leave their homes in the towns of Abasan, Bani Suhaila, Ma'an, Al-Zana and a number of other villages, amid Israel-Hamas conflict. (dpa)

After weeks of Israeli bombardment left them with nowhere else to go, hundreds of Palestinians have ended up in a former Gaza prison built to hold murderers and thieves.

Yasmeen al-Dardasi said she and her family passed wounded people they were unable to help as they evacuated from a district in the southern city of Khan Younis towards its Central Correction and Rehabilitation Facility.

They spent a day under a tree before moving on to the former prison, where they now live in a prayer room. It offers protection from the blistering sun, but not much else.

Dardasi's husband has a damaged kidney and just one lung, but no mattress or blanket.

"We are not settled here either," said Dardasi, who like many Palestinians fears she will be uprooted once again.

Israel has said it goes out of its way to protect civilians in its war with the Palestinian group Hamas, which runs Gaza and led the attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that sparked the latest conflict.

Palestinians, many of whom have been displaced several times, say nowhere is free of Israeli bombardment, which has reduced much of Gaza to rubble.

An Israeli air strike killed at least 90 Palestinians in a designated humanitarian zone in the Al-Mawasi area on July 13, the territory's health ministry said, in an attack that Israel said targeted Hamas' elusive military chief Mohammed Deif.

On Thursday, Gaza's health ministry said Israeli military strikes on areas in eastern Khan Younis had killed 14 people.

Entire neighborhoods have been flattened in one of the most densely populated places in the world, where poverty and unemployment have long been widespread.

According to the United Nations, nine in ten people across Gaza are now internally displaced.

Israeli soldiers told Saria Abu Mustafa and her family that they should flee for safety as tanks were on their way, she said. The family had no time to change so they left in their prayer clothes.

After sleeping outside on sandy ground, they too found refuge in the prison, among piles of rubble and gaping holes in buildings from the battles which were fought there. Inmates had been released long before Israel attacked.

"We didn't take anything with us. We came here on foot, with children walking with us," she said, adding that many of the women had five or six children with them and that water was hard to find.

She held her niece, who was born during the conflict, which has killed her father and brothers.

When Hamas-led gunmen burst into southern Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7 they killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 people hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in the air and ground offensive Israel launched in response, Palestinian health officials say.

Hana Al-Sayed Abu Mustafa arrived at the prison after being displaced six times.

If Egyptian, US and Qatari mediators fail to secure a ceasefire they have long said is close, she and other Palestinians may be on the move once again. "Where should we go? All the places that we go to are dangerous," she said.