Freed Palestinian prisoner Rami Barbakh, who was held by Israel for 20 years, is fed by his mother after he was released, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday. Israel freed 26 Palestinian prisoners, days before US Secretary of State John Kerry was due back in the Middle East to press the two sides to agree a framework peace deal. — Reuters Mohammed Mar'i Saudi Gazette
RAMALLAH – Extremist Jewish settlers on early Tuesday torched three Palestinian cars near the West Bank city of Ramallah in what Israeli police are calling a “Price tag” attack related to the release of 26 Palestinian prisoners and ongoing peace talks. Palestinian sources said the settlers sprayed on the wall of a house in the neighborhood a message to the US Secretary of State John Kerry, saying “Regards Kerry, keep coming back.” The message, in reference to Kerry's recent frequent visits to the Middle East, takes a jab at US role in ongoing peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians. Kerry, the main broker behind the renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, is expected to land in Israel Wednesday to present a framework deal for the two sides. Other graffiti found at the scene read “There will be a war over Judea and Samaria (West Bank),” and “On (West Bank) much blood will be spilled.” A Jewish star was also scrawled on a wall. Micky Rosenfeld, Israeli police spokesman, said that the vandals fled the area after their actions. Rosenfeld said police opened an investigation into the incident. Zahava Gal-On, Knesset Member and chairwoman of the leftist Israeli Meretz party, urged Israeli leaders to deem “Price tag” attacks as acts of terrorism. The attacks “constitute further evidence for the recent escalation price tag actions, and the urgent need to define them as terrorism immediately.” “Price tag” attacks, acts of vandalism usually performed against Arab property and typically carried out by Jewish nationalists in retribution for settlement freezes and demolitions, or for Palestinian attacks on Jews, have become increasingly common. Mosques, churches, dovish Israeli groups and even Israeli military bases have been targeted by the vandals in recent years. In East Jerusalem and the West Bank, there are more than 800,000 Jewish settlers who live with some 3.5 million Palestinians. The Palestinians want the two areas as part of their independent state. Tension has been always on between the two sides that usually turn into violence. Meanwhile, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, B'Tselem, said that the Israeli army's violence against Palestinians in Gaza Strip decreased in comparison against the West Bank. B'Tselem said in a report that the number of Palestinians killed in 2013 by the army-related violence in the Gaza Strip dropped by 96 percent compared to 2012, but rose in the West Bank by almost 238 percent. The rights group said that the relatively high number of Palestinian fatalities in Gaza in 2012 was largely due to an eight-day military action named Operation Pillar of Defense in November of that year. It broke out after hostilities flared with Hamas. It added that 246 Palestinians were killed by the army in the Gaza Strip that year; 167 of those deaths came during Pillar of Defense. B'Tselem noted that 104 of the 167 were not taking part in the hostilities. B'Tselem said that the highest number of Palestinian fatalities in 2013 was in the West Bank, where Israeli security forces killed 27 Palestinians in 21 incidents. The army killed eight Palestinians there last year. The report did not analyze the reasons for the rise in West Bank fatalities or the drop in the Gaza deaths, but provided details about the 21 incidents involving Palestinian fatalities in the West Bank this year. According to B'Tselem, nine of the incidents involved security forces entering Palestinian communities to arrest wanted suspects. In four of these cases, soldiers shot at stone throwers. In another four there were exchanges of live fire. The group said it was unable to verify the ninth incident, in which both sides were said to have shot at each other. The Israeli rights group said that seven of the incidents involved stone throwing. In four of those cases, soldiers fired at Palestinians who were throwing stones at them. In the other three, soldiers fired “while lying in wait to capture stone throwers,” B'Tselem said. B'Tselem said that this year in the Gaza Strip, Israeli security forces killed four Palestinians engaged in violence against Israel. Another, it said, was killed in a targeted assassination. In the sixth case, the circumstances of the death were unclear. The NGO added that in three instances, the Palestinians were not taking part in hostilities when they were killed. The report also chastised the Israeli army Adjutancy-General Corps for failing to hold soldiers accountable for their actions in spite of a new, more stringent policy adopted almost three years ago.
