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The Palestinian Health Ministry on Monday dispatched badly-needed cancer medicine to the blockaded Gaza Strip.
The shipment should be sufficient to last for three months, the ministry said, without providing details on the amount of medicine provided or its cost.
“Medicine is periodically sent to the ministry’s warehouses in the Gaza Strip,” the ministry said in a statement.
“Last month, it sent a shipment of cancer medicine worth some 6 million Israeli shekels [roughly $1.6 million],” it added.
The ministry went on to say that it had no information regarding medicine shortages in Gaza as it has no administrative control over Gaza’s Health Ministry.
On Sunday, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry suspended all chemotherapy treatments for cancer patients after running out of the necessary medicine.
Israel’s 11-year blockade of the Gaza Strip has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its two million inhabitants of many basic commodities, including medicine and medical equipment.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday attacked protesters against a law recognizing Israel as the “nation-state of the Jewish people”.Thousands of people, mostly Israeli-Arabs, demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Saturday against the controversial law, which was passed by Knesset (Israel’s parliament) last month.Speaking at the opening of a Cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu said protesters who were waving Palestinian flags during Saturday’s rally were seeking to destroy Israel.“We have [here] conclusive evidence of the defiance against Israel and the necessity of the nation-state law,” he said.“Many of the protesters want to abolish the Law of Return, the anthem and the flag, and turn Israel into a Palestinian state,” Netanyahu said. “It’s clearer now more than ever that the nation-state law is needed to ensure the future of Israel as a Jewish state.”On Saturday, Netanyahu criticized the protesters, defiantly saying on Twitter “We will continue waving the Israeli flag and singing [the national anthem] Hatikva with great pride”.The Nation-State law defines Israel as a Jewish state with a “united Jerusalem” as its capital. It has also promoted Hebrew as the only official language, stripping Arabic as an official language while recognising its “special status”.The legislation risks further alienating the Arab minority who argue they already face discrimination from Israeli Jews and the government and already feel as though they are second-class citizens.Palestinians, who have Israeli citizenship make up 21 percent of the population, are known as Israeli Arabs and have members in the Knesset.Palestine decries Israel’s closure of West Bank mosqueIsrael rejects EU plan to link Gaza and West BankIsrael turning into ‘police state’: Lawmaker
Israeli PM slams protesters against ‘nation-state’ law
Israeli naval forces on Sunday detained five Palestinian fishermen off the coast of the Gaza Strip, according to a local official.“The five fishermen were detained while fishing off northern Gaza’s shores,” Nizar Ayyash, head of Gaza's fishermen union, told Anadolu Agency.There was no comment from the Israeli Navy on the report.According to the fishermen union, roughly 50,000 Gazans earn their living from fishing.After Israel's devastating military onslaught against Hamas-run Gaza in mid-2014, in which some 2,150 Palestinians were killed, Israel began allowing Palestinian fishermen to fish up to six nautical miles off the Gaza coast, as opposed to three nautical miles previously.In May, Israeli authorities increased the fishing area for Gazan fishermen to nine nautical miles.Last month, however, Israel reduced the fishing area to only three nautical miles as part of punitive measures against Gazans over the launch of incendiary balloons from the Palestinian territory into Israel as part of ongoing protests against the decades-long Israeli occupation and an 11-year blockade on the seaside enclave.
Israeli navy detains 5 fishermen off Gaza coast
An Israeli warplane on Saturday fired a missile into a group of Palestinians trying to launch incendiary kites and balloons near border of the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli military.In a statement, the army said the attack targeted a squad arson balloons from the northern Gaza Strip into Israel.No casualties were reported.In recent weeks, Palestinian activists have been flying burning kites and balloons over Israeli territory as part of ongoing anti-occupation protests along the Gaza-Israel buffer zone.According to Israeli officials, the improvised aerial weapons have caused a number of fires inside Israeli settlements, causing significant material damage but not resulting in any deaths or injuries.Since the Gaza rallies began on March 30, more than 160 Palestinian protesters have been martyred -- and thousands more injured -- by Israeli army troops deployed along the other side of the buffer zone.Protesters demand the “right of return” to their homes and villages in historical Palestine, from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.They also demand an end to Israel’s 11-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.
Israeli plane strikes kite flyers in Gaza