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Shtayyeh: Palestine Received No Financial Aid From US, Arab Countries

A picture taken by drone on Monday of the burial of a man in Gaza who died due to coronavirus. (Reuters)
A picture taken by drone on Monday of the burial of a man in Gaza who died due to coronavirus. (Reuters)
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Shtayyeh: Palestine Received No Financial Aid From US, Arab Countries

A picture taken by drone on Monday of the burial of a man in Gaza who died due to coronavirus. (Reuters)
A picture taken by drone on Monday of the burial of a man in Gaza who died due to coronavirus. (Reuters)

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said on Wednesday that Palestine hasn't received any financial aid from any Arab country or from the US for more than one year.

"Due to lack of Arab funds, the deficiency in the Palestinian budget climbed to one billion US dollars," Shtayyeh told a conference held in the West Bank city of Ramallah on the coronavirus crisis challenges in the country.

"Arab countries haven't sent any financial aid during 2020 until now. In addition, the US has suspended its financial support, which amounted to $500 million per year," he said.

During the conference, the PM said the Palestinian government is ready for austerity and reducing its running cost.

Shtayyeh affirmed that the pandemic has worsened the economic condition, and has negatively affected the psychological, social, health, financial aspects of people's lives. This concurs with annexation schemes, Gaza blockade, Judaization of Jerusalem, settlements, and other political issues.

World Bank Country Director for West Bank and Gaza Kanthan Shankar said that the World Bank has been keen on providing financial aid to the Palestinians since the outbreak of the pandemic.

An amount of $100 million was granted to the Palestinians to reinforce the health system. Further, financial aid was given to the poor families who were influenced by the pandemic, Shankar said.

He underscored the significance of protecting the logistic services and ensuring medical requirements.

Shankar stressed the necessity of taking health precautions, and creating job opportunities in the health sector, and recruiting a sufficient number of employees in this field.

The European Union's representative, Sven Kuehn, said that the EU supported the Palestinian government since the beginning of the pandemic. It granted EUR71 million in addition to EUR5 million to support poor families in the West Bank.

Kuehn added that the EU supported the UNRWAfinacially to fulfill the needs of Palestine’s refugees through its health and relief programs.

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Arab World

Ben-Gvir Calls For Execution of Palestinian Hostages with ‘Shot to the Head’

A leaked photograph of the Sde Teiman detention facility shows a blindfolded man with his arms above his head (AP)
A leaked photograph of the Sde Teiman detention facility shows a blindfolded man with his arms above his head (AP)
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Ben-Gvir Calls For Execution of Palestinian Hostages with ‘Shot to the Head’

A leaked photograph of the Sde Teiman detention facility shows a blindfolded man with his arms above his head (AP)
A leaked photograph of the Sde Teiman detention facility shows a blindfolded man with his arms above his head (AP)

Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, called on Sunday for the execution of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails by shooting them in the head.
In a video statement, Ben-Gvir insisted that Palestinian prisoners should be killed with a ‘shot to the head’.
He urged the passing of the bill in the Israeli Knesset for executing prisoners, promising to provide minimal food to keep them alive until the law is enacted.
The Israeli Knesset's General Assembly approved the preliminary reading of the bill in early March 2023, which imposes the death penalty on Palestinian prisoners.
The proposed law, requiring two more readings in the Knesset to become effective, mandates courts to impose the death penalty on those “committing a murder offense motivated by racism and intending to harm the State of Israel.”
Fighting Any Palestinian Presence
Since October 7, 2023 when Israel waged a war on the Gaza Strip, Palestinian prisoners have been living in horrific conditions. Many died under torture or due to difficult living conditions.
According to the head of the Prisoners' Club, Abdullah Al-Zaghari, “The statements of fascist and extremist Minister Ben Gvir represent a system that practices genocide against the Palestinian people, and only speaks in the language of killing and fighting any Palestinian presence in any form.”
He noted that Ben Gvir's statements went beyond the stage of threat.
Since Israel waged its war on Gaza, “the occupation prison administration, which falls under Ben-Gvir’s authority, has actually executed Palestinian prisoners and detainees,” Al-Zaghari said.
The Israeli occupation forces have arrested more than 9,450 citizens from the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, since last October 7, along with thousands of citizens from Gaza, and hundreds of Palestinians from the territory occupied in 1948.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, there has been a simultaneous and unprecedented escalation of torture against detainees.
They also mentioned unprecedented crimes against detainees, most notably torture, starvation, medical neglect, forced disappearance, in addition to the tragic and cruel conditions of detention, mass isolation, and torture, apart from the tragic and cruel conditions of detention, mass isolation, and torture.
Unprecedented Arrests
The Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoners' Club said the detainees include those arrested from their houses, on checkpoints, those who surrendered under pressure and those arrested as hostages.
They added that the detention campaigns carried out since October 7 are accompanied by escalated crimes and violations such as humiliation, brutal beatings, threats against detainees and their families, besides vandalism and destruction in detainees’ houses, confiscating vehicles, gold and money, in addition to the destruction of infrastructure.
The Commission and the Prisoners’ Club also confirmed that 18 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli prisons and detention camps since Israel waged its war on the Gaza Strip.
Earlier, a CNN investigation revealed grave violations committed by Israel against Palestinians in the secret detention center located in the Negev Desert.
The American news channel said it spoke to three Israeli whistleblowers who worked at the Sde Teiman desert camp, which holds Palestinians detained during Israel’s invasion of Gaza. All spoke out at risk of legal repercussions and reprisals from groups supportive of Israel’s hardline policies in Gaza.
They paint a picture of a facility where doctors sometimes amputated prisoners’ limbs due to injuries sustained from constant handcuffing; of medical procedures sometimes performed by underqualified medics earning it a reputation for being “a paradise for interns”; and where the air is filled with the smell of neglected wounds left to rot.
According to the accounts, the facility some 18 miles from the Gaza frontier is split into two parts: enclosures where around 70 Palestinian detainees from Gaza are placed under extreme physical restraint, and a field hospital where wounded detainees are strapped to their beds, wearing diapers and fed through straws.
“They stripped them down of anything that resembles human beings,” said one whistleblower, who worked as a medic at the facility’s field hospital.
After an outcry, Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said the military launched a probe into the allegations of mistreatment at detention facilities that fell under the responsibility of the Israeli army.
Last week, the Haaretz newspaper said Israel's High Court of Justice ordered the state to provide details of the conditions under which Gazan prisoners are held in the Sde Teiman detention center in southern Israel, despite the state's declaration that it intends to empty the facility.