RAMALLAH, May 5, 2009 (WAFA)- The National and International Department in the Palestinian Liberation Organization said that, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), has seized 17,000 Dunoms (1 Dunom = 1000 M²), mostly in East Jerusalem, for the purpose of expanding colonies and building the Israeli Apartheid Wall, during April, 2009.

In its monthly report, issued today, the Department said that, “thousands of Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip are still without shelter after the destruction effectuated by the Israeli war machine at the beginning of this year.”

The report added that, “poverty rates in the Strip have risen to more than 80% and unemployment rose to 60%, while the number of patients dead due to the restrictions of movement, which has prevented them from leaving the Strip for treatment reached 329.”

In the West Bank, the report affirmed that IOF and Jewish colonizers commit many violations of the international humanitarian law, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Meanwhile, in their continuous attempts to fake history, extremist Jewish groups forcefully took possession of an Umayyad-era artifact from the Islamic Umayyad Palaces, by the south-eastern wall of Al-Aqsa mosque and moved it to the Israeli Knesset courtyard.

IOF and colonizers killed, last month, 9 Palestinians including two children (16, 17) in Ramallah and Hebron and a Palestinian activist, Basem Abu Rahmeh (30), who was killed by a heavy tear-gas canister. 196 Palestinians including 18 children and 4 women were shot by Israeli bullets, or suffocated by tear-gas.

At the same time, Israeli Occupation Authorities arrested 334 Palestinian citizens including 38 children, while they escalated their oppressive measures against Palestinian prisoners behind Israeli bars; obliged them to wear orange uniforms and banned the entry of books to political prisons.