The first since the outbreak of the deadly virus, the Palestinian Minister of Health Mai Kaileh confirmed today that there are seven cases of coronavirus in Palestine.
She said that after examining 20 Palestinians suspected of having the deadly disease who works at a hotel in Bethlehem where a group of Greek tourists had stayed between February 23 and 27, seven people have tested positive with the coronavirus disease.
The health minister said all measures will be taken to prevent the spread of the disease.
Later in the day, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has declared a state of emergency due to coronavirus; all schools and universities will be closed.
A very unfortunate event in Gaza City, sources said that at least ten Palestinians were killed and 60 injured after a fire broke out in a bakery in the Gaza Strip on Thursday.
Six children were among the dead and 14 of the injured were in critical condition, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Witnesses said they heard an explosion come from a bakery in the Nusseirat camp, in central Gaza, before a blaze engulfed the establishment and quickly spread to nearby stores, factories, and cars parked along the street.
Israel occupation on Thursday re-arrested a Palestinian man as he was getting ready to leave prison after serving 18 years behind bars for resisting the Israeli occupation, according to local sources.
Randy Odeh, 39, from Shufat refugee camp in occupied East Jerusalem, was arrested on 7 March 2002 and sentenced to 18 years in prison. He was supposed to be released today but as he was getting ready to leave the Naqab prison in the south of Israel, he was re-detained.
Israeli occupation forces arrested on Thursday morning 11 Palestinians, including former prisoners, from several areas in the occupied West Bank, said the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS).
Israeli occupation soldiers detained seven former prisoners from areas in Hebron, one recently released after serving 18 years in prison for resisting the occupation and another released last year after serving 17 years in prison.
Two more were detained from Jenin district, one from Burin in the Nablus district and one from Faraa refugee camp in Tubas.
Israeli occupation forces early on Thursday demolished the family homes of two Palestinians in Ramallah and nearby Birzeit town, amidst intense clashes with the youths, local sources reported
It said that large Israeli occupation forces raided the town of Birzeit in the after-midnight hours and surrounded the family home of Yazan Maghames before the military bulldozers proceeded to demolish it and level it to the ground.
The Israeli occupation military authorities on Wednesday ordered three Palestinian families to stop construction on their homes in Nabi Elias village, east of the northern West Bank city of Qalqilya, according to local sources.
They said that the military claimed the three homes were being built without a construction permit
Israeli occupation authorities on Thursday ordered a halt on construction of agricultural structures in the village of Azzun Atma, to the south of the northern occupied West Bank city of Qalqilya, and a retaining wall in a village near Ramallah, local sources said.
The sources said that Israeli forces notified Farouq Quzmar of the order to stop building the structures, claiming they were being built without a permit.
Sources also said that the Israeli army destroyed a retaining wall for a farm in the village of Nilin, west of Ramallah.
During the demolition of the wall, residents confronted the soldiers who assaulted and one youth and injured him, said the sources.
Israeli occupation forces on Wednesday razed Palestinian-owned lands in the area of Wadi al-Makh'rour, to the west of Bethlehem city in the occupied West Bank, according to local sources.
Witnesses told the official WAFA news agency that Israeli occupation bulldozers and forces imposed a curfew in the area and prevented citizens from entering or leaving it, before embarking on razing about five dunums of private-owned land.
Israeli occupation forces on Wednesday night seized a large amount of money during raids into houses of Palestinian citizens and former prisoners in the northern occupied West Bank village of al-Zawiya, to the west Salfit town in the West Bank, according to local sources.
The sources told the official WAFA news agency that Israeli forces ransacked several homes before seizing around 50,000 shekels ($14,500).
Israeli occupation navy on Wednesday opened gunfire towards Palestinian fishermen who were sailing off the Gaza shore to the west of the town of Beit Lahia, north of the enclave, local sources reported.
No injuries were reported, however.
