- 10 mei 2012
Trailer Land for the Nomads
(4:41) Trailer Land for the Nomads.m4v
Israel says that it is planning to remove and relocate 2300 Bedouins from the Judean desert, east of Jerusalem
The plan will eventually evacuate an estimated 27,500 Bedouins living in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in 1967. They were displaced from the southern Negev desert around 1950 shortly after the creation of Israel.
In what's seen as a gradual process since the 1970s, state-sponsored Jewish settlements mushroomed up all along the desert, limiting the Bedouins' nomadic way of life.
Over the past four decades they were pushed down the valley close to a hazardous highway while Jewish settlements and outposts dotted the Judean hilltops. Bedouin shacks are routinely demolished by the Israeli Civil Administration on the grounds that they are built without (impossible to get) 'building permits'.
Shlomo Lecker is an Israeli lawyer who defies all stereotypes. He is a Jew who fights for the Arab Bedouins. He is an Israeli who challenges the Israeli judiciary.
The film explores Lecker's personal relationship with his clients -- the lone Israeli who claims that he has a Bedouin soul. The twist in the story and the interesting polarities of his character are revealed when the director confronts him in his house -- formerly abandoned by Palestinian refugees in 1948.
'Land for the Nomads' narratively observes issues that are between the personal and the national, the modern and the traditional, the exotic and the familiar, with irony and humor that make the film accessible to a wider audience.
IOF soldiers destroy Palestinian crops south of Al-Khalil
AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) destroyed vast areas of Palestinian cultivated land lots south of Al-Khalil on Thursday.
Othman Jabarin, the coordinator of the popular committee in Janba to the south east of Yatta town, told Quds Press that IOF soldiers deployed in a large area of land and pitched tents to launch military exercises.
He said that the soldiers destroyed one thousand square dunum of land cultivated with wheat and barley.
Jabarin underlined that the IOF soldiers’ act inflicted heavy losses on farmers who were about to reap their crops.
http://fwd4.me/10S4 12 may 2012, 01:03 , Respect -
Maria 11 mei 2012
Occupation displaces hundreds of families from southern al-Khalil
AL-KHALIL (PIC)-- IOF troops, on Thursday raided the eastern region of Yatta city south of Al-Khalil, in the occupied West Bank, and notified its residents to evacuate the area, as preparations for the demolition of houses within one month from the notification's date.
Hajj Essam Mohammed Abu Musab told PIC reporter that the occupation forces, accompanied by a Jeep belonging to the so-called the Israeli Civil Administration, raided areas in the eastern hamlets to the south of al-Khalil and notified its residents to completely leave the area so that the occupation could demolish the houses and artesian wells.
Haj Mahmoud al-Yatim Rabi told our reporter that the notifications were handed over to all the families that live in caves, homes and tents, and that they were warned that anyone who does not comply with the decision will face arrest and confiscation of all his properties and belongings.
It has been mentioned that since four months, the occupation forces have deliberately humiliated and maltreated the residents of the eastern regions of Yatta to push them to leave their lands through demolishing a mosque and a school, arresting teachers and confiscating private properties.
Meanwhile, Haji Mohammad Jaber Abu Aram, the mayor in "Al-Berka" East of Yatta, said that during these days the occupation is deliberately abusing citizens of several villages to push them to leave their lands.
Thus, he called on the international and official institutions to support the residents as well as the eastern regions, revealing the occupation's attempt to strangle the city of Yatta by expanding 11 settlements surrounding it at the expense of the citizens' lands.
http://fwd4.me/10SE
13 may 2012, 00:05 , Respect -
Maria 12 mei 2012
Jewish settlers seize Palestinian land in Bethlehem
BETHLEHEM, (PIC)-- Jewish settlers seized Palestinian land in Khader village, south of Bethlehem, on Saturday and started farming it.
Ahmed Salah, the coordinator of the popular committee in the village, said that settlers from Hanania settlement took control over six dunums of Mustafa Ghunaim’s land and ploughed it to impose a de facto situation.
The Israeli occupation forces had closed a number of routes leading to farmlands in Bethlehem making it impossible for farmers to reach them. Owners of those land fear that the step might herald confiscating the land lots.
http://fwd4.me/10X9 15 may 2012, 00:46 , Respect -
Maria 14 mei 2012
Aid groups: Israel razed dozens of European-funded projects in O. Palestine
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and other organizations said Monday that Israel destroyed various infrastructures built with European funds across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 2011.
This came in a report compiled by a group of local and international NGOs chaired by OCHA, and published just ahead of a meeting of the European union foreign ministers in Brussels.
Israel demolished dozens of Palestinian homes, water cisterns and farm buildings built with European funds in 2011, and over 100 such structures are at risk, the humanitarian groups stated in a report.
The displacement working group (DWG) said Israel razed 62 European-funded structures last year and another 110 such projects are at risk of demolition.
The DWG said the affected structures were financed by France, the Netherlands, Britain, Poland, Ireland and the European commission.
France last month protested to Israel's ambassador in Paris over the demolition of two water cisterns in Al-Khalil city in the southern West Bank, which were financed as part of a French agricultural cooperation project.
OCHA said a total of 620 structures in the West Bank were demolished in 2011, 62 of them were European-funded.
600 were razed in Area C, where Israel has full civilian and security control. 20 of the demolitions were in Area B, where Israel and the Palestinian Authority share responsibility.
Spokeswoman for the UK Oxfam Willow Heske said that "the permit regime is discriminatory and is in contradiction of international law… In our experience trying to work within the permit regime, it can sometimes take up to two years... just to get a denial."
"We see that settlers are getting zoning and building permission in these areas with no trouble, this is obviously discriminatory and is in contradiction of international law."
The humanitarian groups who compiled the report called on the European union to take action.
"Aid from the international community, including European governments, is wasted when aid-funded projects are demolished," Oxfam's director Nishant Pandey said in a statement attached to the report.
http://fwd4.me/10ep 17 may 2012, 23:49 , Respect -
Maria 16 mei 2012
IOF soldiers serve five demolition notices in Jenin
JENIN, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) served five demolition notices in Jenin province including a car wash, a petrol station, and three shops, local sources said.
They said that the soldiers ordered owners of those facilities, all at Arrabe juncture on the Nablus-Jenin road, to appear before the intelligence office in Beit El on 18/6/2012.
The sources said that the Israeli occupation authority considers any Palestinian Authority permits in this “C” area as null and void as it (IOA) is the sole authority in this area.
http://fwd4.me/10ue 20 may 2012, 01:22 , Respect -
Maria 17 mei 2012
Culture Ministry monitors occupation's violations of Palestinian antiquities
GAZA (PIC)-- The Ministry of Culture issued an awareness Bulletin about the Zionist most prominent violations against the archaeological buildings and sites in the occupied Palestinian territories, aiming at raising awareness about the importance of preserving the Palestinian cultural heritage, and at unveiling the occupation's plans to erase Palestinian and Islamic history through building Zionist museums and synagogues on the ruins of Palestinian and Islamic monuments and excavations.
The ministry, in a statement delivered on the occasion of International Museum Day, approved by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) in 1977 in order to strengthen the relationship between museum and society, said : “the museum, according to the modern science, is no longer just a place to preserve the historical and cultural treasures, it has also become an important scientific center that contributes in the dissemination of knowledge and science and in introducing human heritage in all areas. "
It added: "The Palestinian museums play a very important role at the national and cultural levels in preserving the identity through highlighting the different types of the Palestinian cultural heritage as well as raising awareness among citizens about our heritage roots, which stretch deep into history. Thus, we can prove the eligibility of the Palestinian people in their land and their country, especially in light of the Zionist attempts to erase Palestinian monuments and to establish Jewish so called heritage."
http://fwd4.me/112q 22 may 2012, 00:39 , Respect -
Maria 20 mei 2012
Group: 56 Palestinian structures razed this year
RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Together against settlement group said the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) demolished during the first third of this year more than 56 Palestinian structures in the occupied territories of Jerusalem, Al-Khalil, Nablus, the Jordan Valley and the 1948 villages.
The anti-settlement group stated on Saturday that the IOA invents many pretexts to justify its different demolitions including unlicensed construction or the building in unrecognized areas.
It added that the IOA also closes its doors in the face of Palestinians and imposes restrictions on their possession of construction permits unlike the Jewish settlers who build freely and whose construction violations are overlooked.
The group noted that these violations against the Palestinian are part of Israel's policy to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians cities and villages.
http://fwd4.me/11Af 24 may 2012, 00:59 , Respect -
Maria 21 mei 2012
Well-known Beit Jala restaurant destroyed by Israel, again
Palestinians in the West Bank are subjected to rampant and arbitrary demolitions of homes and property.
In the early morning of Thursday, 3 May, representatives from several human rights organizations were scheduled to have breakfast in the popular al-Makhrour restaurant near Bethlehem.
The purpose for the scheduled workshop was to discuss house demolitions and property confiscation by Israeli forces in Area C, a zone comprising 60 percent of the West Bank that is under full Israeli control.
As people arrived for the meeting, though, the first thing they saw was a bulldozer leaving the site, alongside some Israeli officials. The restaurant — which is located beside the village of Beit Jala — had been demolished two hours earlier.
“It was bizarre,” said Mohammad Zeidan, director of the Arab Association for Human Rights. “The timing … we couldn’t really believe what we were seeing.”
Just before dawn on that day, Israeli soldiers surrounded and sealed off the area, and proceeded to destroy the restaurant and an adjacent building owned by the Qesieh family. The demolition was carried out under the pretext of a demolition order issued in 2005.
“The restaurant was already gone,” said Odna Copty of the Association for the Rights of the Internally Displaced in Israel. “It is always sad to hear about these things, and to read about them. But when you expect it to be there, and it’s gone, that’s always something different.”
For the Qesieh family, the destruction of their restaurant was a violent reminder of the complete Israeli control over their basic rights and only source of income.
“I’m still paying debt from when they destroyed it in 2000,” said Ramzi Qesieh, owner of al-Makhrour. “How am I to rebuild when I can’t make any money? When they can destroy it again at any time?”
No explanation given
Qesieh explained that a number of men in plain clothes came to him before dawn. Speaking in Arabic, they told him that his restaurant would be destroyed. No explanation was given.
“We see this really often,” said Copty, who campaigns for Palestinians whose property was confiscated during the Nakba, the systematic ethnic cleansing that led to Israel’s establishment in 1948. “The State [of Israel] wants them to feel like it’s their own people who are doing this to them. It adds to the despair.”
Beit Jala is bordered by the Jewish-only settlements of Gush Etzion and Har Gilo.
Al-Makhrour lies within Area C. Under the Oslo accords, Israel was only supposed to have control of Area C on a temporary basis. Yet 19 years after the accords were signed, Palestinian residents of Area C are still subject to the arbitrary persecution by Israeli forces in everyday life.
After two weeks, the rubble of the old restaurant remains where it fell. The family explained that there is no one to aid them in rebuilding or affording the costs of construction. “Even as Christians, there is no one to turn to,” said Ramzi Qesieh. “The people of Jesus have left the Holy Land. How can we live here, how can my children, when life is like this?”
Divide-and-conquer mentality
The Qesiehs’ experiences provide a stark contrast to recent comments by the Israeli ambassador to the US, Michael Oren. Appearing on a recent episode of the CBS program 60 Minutes, Oren blamed Christian flight from historical Palestine on inter-Arab tribalism and infighting.
(14:05) 60 Minutes (CBS) - Persecution of Christians in Israel (NEW) Bob Simon Vs. Michael Oren
According to the Arab Association for Human Rights’ Zeidan, Oren’s claims reflect a larger divide-and-conquer mentality, utilized by Israel to weaken Palestinian identity.
“Israel views any solidarity between Palestinian communities as a threat,” he said. Zeidan emphasized that Israel behaves aggressively towards Palestinian organizations based within present-day Israel who coordinate with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. “By fracturing the Palestinians into Muslim, and Christian and Bedouin, and Israeli, the state tries to control these smaller groups and turn them against one another.
“It is a reality that Palestinian organizations are automatically viewed with suspicion, whether in Israel or the [occupied] territories. For us to cooperate with [Israeli and Jewish] organizations that support this cause, not only will we gain a different perspective, but stories like this will be received with more credibility, from a wider audience. That’s the way it is,” Zeidan added.
The Qesieh family also emphasized that they cannot rebuild without protection, in terms of both legal aid and also an immediate human presence.
“There was definitely a feeling of helplessness,” Copty told The Electronic Intifada. “And we were only the observers. It’s difficult to feel like you’re doing enough.”
According to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, 2011 was a record year of displacement as a total of 622 Palestinian structures were demolished by Israeli authorities. Of these, 222 — or 36 percent — were family homes, while the remainder were livelihood-related (including water storage and agricultural facilities), resulting in the displacement of 1,094 people, almost double the number for 2010. Since 1967, Israel has demolished more than 26,000 Palestinian homes in the West Bank and Gaza (“The Judaization of Palestine: 2011 displacement trends,” 12 January 2012).
An everyday occurrence
“It [the demolition] was a shock, and it was very sad. And the timing was just weird. But when it’s over, then you remember that this is happening every day,” said Copty.
For Ramzi Qesieh, with debts piling up and his livelihood in a dusty heap beside him, the options are few and the future more unclear than ever. “I love this place, and I love my land. Before, you could not take me from this place,” he said. “But my children have already seen too much suffering. What father wants to give this debt to their child?”
The UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination released its latest report on Israel in March, and in refreshing contrast to its characteristically tepid language, stated that it “urges the State party to take immediate measures to prohibit and eradicate any such policies or practices … of racial segregation and apartheid.”
Specifically, UN-CERD was “appalled at the hermetic character of the separation of two groups,” [Palestinians and Jewish settlers], and “increasingly concerned at the State party’s discriminatory planning policy, whereby construction permits are rarely if ever granted to Palestinian and Bedouin communities and demolitions principally target property owned by Palestinians and Bedouins.”
Trauma
This policy of forced displacement has “emotional and socio-economic effects on the displaced families especially considering a large proportion of the community have the added vulnerability of a history of displacement, being made refugees in 1948,” stressed ICAHD’s 2012 report to UN-CERD. “Symptoms range from dependency on humanitarian aid to a deep psychological trauma especially in children, including anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder” (“Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territory parallel report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination,” February 2012 [PDF]).
The Qesieh family explained that no building permits have been granted to Palestinians living in the area since 1967. The owners of these lands, which are both residential and agricultural, have no choice but to develop and build on it “illegally” under the constant risk of demolition.
About 70 percent of Area C is off-limits to Palestinian construction, as it is allocated either to Israeli settlements or has been closed on military orders (“Humanitarian factsheet on Area C of the West Bank,” United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, July 2011 [PDF]).
“I have one daughter in university, and another in school,” said Qesieh. “No one wants to build an illegal building. But it’s impossible to get a building permit. So you have to risk it. I don’t know what to tell my daughters.”
“For people everywhere, but especially for Palestinians under occupation, a home is the connection for a family to the land,” Zeidan explained. “The Israeli policy of house demolition, and particularly of businesses like this, is [Israel’s] strategy to cut this link to the land, destroy self-sufficiency and remove hope from the Palestinian people.”
For Ramzi Qeiseh’s son, Jihad, watching his father try to repair what may be destroyed at any time, it is difficult to imagine building a life, or anything else, in the place where he grew up.
“They destroyed the restaurant in one hour,” Jihad said. “We can never know if they will also destroy our home. Maybe tomorrow, it’ll be gone. The stress, it’s too much to live with. If I find a way to leave, I will leave.”
Several Palestinian and Israeli organizations are working to mobilize legal aid, financial support and physical security for the family. For now, the Qeiseh family search for the support to rebuild and start again.
“After some time, we had leave to find another location for the NGOs [non-governmental organizations] to meet. There was work we had to get done,” said Odna Copty. “But the family just wanted to cook for us. Their restaurant was destroyed, and they wanted us to stay and eat. They told us, ‘come, let them see the smoke of our barbecue in the sky. Let them see that we are still here.’”
IOF soldiers damage irrigation equipment, crops in Al-Khalil
AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) damaged irrigation equipment and crops in Buka area to the east of Al-Khalil at dawn Monday, farmers said.
They told the PIC that IOF soldiers and Israeli policemen and civil administration and Mekorot water company employees damaged the fields in an area of 13 dunums cultivated with various types of vegetables owned by seven farmers.
They said that the joint forces damaged the irrigation equipment and confiscated them.
The Israeli occupation authority has persistently harassed Palestinian farmers in the area, which is considered the most fertile in Al-Khalil province in the hope of terrorizing its owners and farmers away from it and annex it to the nearby settlements of Kiryat Arba and Kharsina.
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24 may 2012, 00:59 , Respect -
Maria 23 mei 2012
IOF incursion in central Gaza
GAZA, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) raided eastern Deir Al-Balah town in central Gaza Strip on Wednesday morning, local sources told the PIC reporter.
They said that the IOF soldiers in five tanks escorted seven bulldozers that entered from eastern Khan Younis and headed north to the eastern area of Deir Al-Balah.
IOF soldiers fired at Palestinian farmers to the east of Al-Qarara in Khan Younis and moderately wounded one of them a couple of days ago.
Farmers in the raided area fear that the IOF soldiers would level their cultivated land and the loss of their crops as a result.
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IOF troops tear down six tents for Palestinian Bedouins
AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) tore down six tents for Palestinian Bedouins near Yatta town to the south of Al-Khalil city.
Ratib Al-Jabour, the coordinator of the popular committee in Yatta, told Quds Press on Wednesday that the IOF soldiers razed the tents in Um Juhaish area to the south east of Yatta.
He said that two families lived in those tents and were now rendered homeless. He appealed to all concerned parties to extend urgent assistance to the two afflicted families.
http://fwd4.me/11M1 26 may 2012, 09:53 , Respect -
Maria 25 mei 2012
Occupation forces Palestinian to demolish his house adjacent to Al-Aqsa
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Jerusalemite citizen, Azzam Afifi, demolished his house, on Wednesday, to avoid his arrest or pay fine, in context of the occupation's continuing restriction policy against Jerusalemites.
The Israeli Municipal Court in Occupied Jerusalem has ordered the demolition of Afifi's house under the pretext of being constructed without permit.
Afifi said that he is forced to demolish his house built on 50 square meters due to the Municipal Court's order.
He pointed out that the demolition order was issued in October 2010 where he was forced to tear down part of his own home. However, the court has ordered again in May 2012 to demolish the whole house, giving him a respite of 60 days or he will be jailed or fined.
He added that during the demolition process he rented a house for the seven members of his family in Issawiya town because his house is no longer habitable, noting that it was built over a very old house which he owns.
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Occupation to confiscate 30 dunums of Palestinian land in Deir Estia
SALFIT, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation issued a military order to confiscate 30 dunums (1 dunum= 1000 square meters) of Palestinian land in the village of Deir Estia in the northern West Bank district of Salfit.
Nazmi Salman, head the municipal council, told Quds Press that the commander of the occupation forces in the West Bank issued an order for the confiscation of 30 dunums of agricultural land belonging to the villagers. The orders states that the land will be used from the date of signing the order till 31 December 2014 for military purposes as a measure to stop "terrorist attacks."
Salman said that this military order is confiscation of land in disguise, explaining that lands that have been subject to similar previous orders have never been recovered as such orders are automatically renewed several times, adding that this was the third such order this year against lands around the Immanuel settlement which is built on confiscated land belonging to the village.
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Human rights activist: fake Jewish graves in Jerusalem
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM,(PIC)-- A Palestinian human rights activist warned against the Israeli planting process of thousands of fake Jewish graves in the land surrounding al-Aqsa Mosque and the old town in occupied Jerusalem, pointing out this process is part of a campaign of falsification of the facts and deceit practiced by the occupation against the history of the city of Jerusalem.
The Chairman of the Committee for Defense of Silwan Fakhri Abu Diab told Quds press that the occupation besieged Al Aqsa Mosque by thousands of fake Jewish graves and a chain of Talmudic gardens within the Zionist plan, "holy house envelope", aims to isolate it from the old city and the Arab population.
The occupation authorities began planting the graves in the late seventies during closing the main street of the town of Silwan, near to the Al Aqsa Mosque where the occupation implanted thousands of fake Jewish graves, he explained.
He added that the "Tsunami of fake Jewish graves" stretching from the east to the south of the city of Jerusalem had increased since 2003 where the occupation, through its executive power in the city of Jerusalem, implanted thousands of fake Jewish graves around Al-Aqsa Mosque and in the Old City, under governmental decisions.
He pointed out that the number of the Jewish graves built since the beginning of the year is ten times than the real number of the Jewish deaths in the same period which confirms that hese graves are fake.
It is noted that the Israeli authorities prohibit the restoration of the Islamic historical graves in the city of Jerusalem and are demolishing and washing away hundreds of them.
http://fwd4.me/11WO 30 may 2012, 01:48 , Respect -
Maria 26 mei 2012
Israeli military order expels Palestinian family from its land
AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) expelled on Friday a Palestinian family from an area south of Al-Khalil, claiming that it is a closed military zone in which Palestinians are not allowed to live.
Jibril Al-Adrah told a PIC reporter that he and his relatives went to complete the harvest of their land to the southeast of Yatta but were surprised to find Jewish settlers there who prevented them from approaching the land.
Adrah said, "There was a well-known settler named Avidan Ofir who claimed that the land belongs to him and to his grandfather, and warned us against approaching it".
He added that Israeli forces and liaison officers came to support the settlers and "handed us a notice stating that we will be fined if we approach the land again".
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Report: Israel issued 13,000 demolition orders against Palestinian real estate
WEST BANK, (PIC)-- Haaretz newspaper said the Israeli civil administration issued 13,000 demolition warnings against Palestinians accused of unlicensed construction in Area C of the West Bank.
The newspaper stated in a report that Israel intensified its construction restrictions on the Palestinian citizens in the villages and towns of the West Bank and seeks to prevent them from building through creating criminal files against them.
It said the civil administration increased the issuance of severe penalties against the Palestinians in all villages and towns located within Area C under Israel's control.
Its report underlined that the civil administration was active recently in the demolition of many Palestinian homes and structures including schools in Al-Khalil city at the pretext of unlicensed construction.
The report pointed to the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs' recent report which condemned Israel's restrictions on construction permits for Palestinians and its demolition of their homes while encouraging settlement construction.
http://fwd4.me/11Zo 30 may 2012, 01:48 , Respect -
Maria 29 mei 2012
IOF bulldozes 30 dunums of Palestinian cultivated land
AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) bulldozed 30 dunums of Palestinian land in Baka area to the east of Al-Khalil on Tuesday.
The PIC reporter said that the land was cultivated with vegetables, adding that the IOF soldiers damaged the irrigation network in the area and confiscated part of it.
He said that the measure was meant to expand the nearby Kharsina settlement at the expense of this land, noting that the IOF had served notices to farmers not to approach the area. He added that the Israeli occupation authority was planning to build 500 new housing units in that settlement.
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IOF tanks advance in southern Gaza
KHAN YOUNIS, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation forces (IOF) mounting armored vehicles and tanks advanced near Qarara village to the east of Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, on Tuesday morning.
Local sources told the PIC reporter that IOF soldiers in 13 armored vehicles and tanks opened intensive shooting and fired four smoke bombs during their advance.
They said that the soldiers bulldozed areas east of Qarara.
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