Gang Arrested for Plotting to Sell Palestinian Land to Israeli Settlement Firms

General view of the Israeli settlement of Efrat, in the occupied West Bank February 7, 2017. (Reuters)
General view of the Israeli settlement of Efrat, in the occupied West Bank February 7, 2017. (Reuters)
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Gang Arrested for Plotting to Sell Palestinian Land to Israeli Settlement Firms

General view of the Israeli settlement of Efrat, in the occupied West Bank February 7, 2017. (Reuters)
General view of the Israeli settlement of Efrat, in the occupied West Bank February 7, 2017. (Reuters)

Palestinian intelligence managed to arrest a gang that was suspected of selling Palestinian property to Israel, a high-ranking intelligence source said on Monday.

The suspects worked as an organized gang. Four of the detainees, including a lawyer, acted as the leaders of this group. They are suspected of planning to sell Palestinian lands to Israeli settlement firms.

The lands are spread in several regions, including Jerusalem, Qalqilya, Nablus and Tulkarm. A 48-year Arab Palestinian broker residing in Israel aided the suspects in their operations.

Palestinian intelligence reported that one of the fugitive suspects, along with the broker, is currently taking shelter in Israel. The cost of the deals, had they been struck, would have reached 8 million Jordanian dinars.

After completing intelligence follow-up procedures, the suspects were arrested and all measures they were taking to complete the deal were stopped. The suspects were referred to the Public Prosecution to carry on legal procedures.

The Palestinian intelligence requested that citizens exercise full caution when selling land, especially in the Israeli-occupied Jerusalem, border regions and areas close to settlements, stressing that citizens should notify relevant authorities regarding any suspicious activity.



WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)

The World Health Organization is sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children being infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples, its chief said on Friday.

"While no cases of polio have been recorded yet, without immediate action, it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an opinion piece in Britain's The Guardian newspaper.

He wrote that children under five were most at risk from the viral disease, and especially infants under two since normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by more than nine months of conflict.

Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Cases of polio have declined by 99% worldwide since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and efforts continue to eradicate it completely.

Israel's military said on Sunday it would start offering the polio vaccine to soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the virus were found in test samples in the enclave.

Besides polio, the UN reported last week a widespread increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza, with sewage spilling into the streets near some camps for displaced people.