August 27 Update from CMEP's ED Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon

hello my name is Reverend Dr May Alise Cannon today is Tuesday August 27th today is day 326 since October 7th in the last 24 hours Israeli troops have rescued a hostage that's been held in Gaza since October 7th according to the military the host's name is ha Farhan Ali 52 years old Farhan aladi was kidnapped um from his security job at kabut magins packing Factory during hamas's attack of Israel on October 7th the Israeli military said khadi is being transferred for medical checks at a hospital um his brother haam told Channel 12 News we hope other families get this moment no other hostages were found in the tunnel where aadi uh was held before escaping according to the Israeli Defense Forces adding that it also did not encounter his captors or any um other militants Transportation Minister regev violated military censorship with a social media Post in which she disclosed the area where he was rescued earlier on Tuesday according to reports so that happened today the New York Times reported that he was found by chance during an operation that was meant to expose underground tunnels in a Southern um Gaza area um according to two Israeli officials around 20 hostages relatives activists briefly blocked a highway in Tel Aviv this morning calling for a hostage release deal two alter Orthodox newspapers condemned farri right national security minister inir Ben gav's new Temple Mount Al AXA compound compound policy which does not limit Jewish prayer at the AL AA mosque Temple Mount compound so this does go against the historic status quo um you've heard me talk about before Nyah who's office does not agree many have critiqued uh Ben gav's policies in this regarded Aman affiliated with the ashkanazi heredi party deal T published a headline in both Hebrew and Arabic on the front page today in Israel criticizing the new policy and saying that it's the opinion of all Jewish decision makers for Generations that it is prohibited for Jews to ascend to the Temple Mount and that this position is not changed the political pyromaniac is burning the area for a second time um we are keeping close attention uh to that and hope that the situation does not escalate because of those comments and that potential shift uh in actions on the Haram Sharif four days of ceasefire talks in Cairo in Cairo concluded on Sunday with no breakthrough as Israel and Hamas have remained far apart on key issues including the Philadelphia quor on the Egypt Gaza border nonetheless a Us official said the talks were constructive and they would continue working through group discussions this week that was according to the New York Times more than 1.2 million doses of the polio vaccine arrived in Gaza yesterday and preparation for a possible massive vaccination campaign according to the UN Israel and Gaza Health authorities this was after the first case of the disease in 25 years was confirmed earlier this month there's been a lot of questions within the humanitarian um Community about how those vaccines would vaccines would be distributed medical professionals and volunteers trained for administering polio vaccines for gods and children warning that if a ceasefire is not secured it would be difficult to carry out the entire campaign as Israeli bombings could endanger medical staff another fear is the evacuation of residents reasonable conditions for the vaccination campaign just don't exist in Gaza because the medical infrastructure there has all bet been destroyed according to a Palestinian Health Ministry official uh reporting to Israeli News the United Nations has temporarily suspended its eight operations in Gaza following Israeli military evacuation orders in Dar abala there was a lot of questions about how long this happened it was temporary suspension it is not a permanent suspension the Israeli military yesterday said troops were continuing to eliminate quote terrorists on the outskirts of G abala this is one of the main places where the UN has humanitarian operations and their operations are centered there an Israeli air strike in nur's refugee camp in the occupied West Bank yesterday killed at least five Palestinians according to Palestinian Ministry of Health um Israel's military said on social media that it had attacked an operations room in the area um one Palestinian was killed in Israeli Earth strike on a car in North Rafa according to Al jazer and according to the health minist in Gaza death to there is at least 4,476 Palestinians killed and those injured is at least 93,6 47 wounded in the West Bank Israeli settlers shot and killed one Palestinian and wounded three others in Bethlehem according to the Palestinian Health Ministry today the IDF said it's investigating the incident and I did just mention about the Palestinians five killed by an Israeli strike in Nur Shams refugee camp this was in a city of taram according to the Palestinian Health Ministry last week in one of my updates I'd been talking about the escalations between Palestinian protesters and settlers in this area of the almur valley this is near B Jala this is in the Bethlehem District uh the kisia family have lived for Generations on a farm in the beautiful Amur Valley um near B Jala the family are Christian Palestinians uh also um my understanding is Israeli and French citizens living in the occupied West Bank they have papership uh paperwork showing ownership of their land um according to registration however there's been a major dispute with Jewish settlers regarding this land since 2019 which finally erupted a few weeks ago when a group of settlers arrived unexpectedly and forcibly removed the family throwing all of their possessions onto the road beyond the boundary of the farm since then the kisia family have been encamped on the opposite side of the valley where they've been having a nonviolent resistance campaign um to the settler confiscation we heard the news in the last couple of days that uh the mother of the family Michelle and her daughter Alice who were protesting the confiscation of the land had been arrested by the Israeli military Michelle the mother was released yesterday Alice was released today the confiscation of their land is a violation of international law and international human rights this is also a part of that establishment of that new settlement that we've been talking about inal halet in the gion settlement uh block which is intended to disrupt the Palestinian territorial continuity west of Bethlehem churches for Middle East peace opposes all unilateral confiscation of land from Palestinians specifically the violence of right-wing settlers taking the Kamia family Land We oppose the arrest and Detention of Alice and her mother who of course have since been released um we oppose settlements of as a violation of international law and the illegal Outpost that's at Alma cor and uh the context of settlement expansion and settler Vigilantes under smotrich we call for the US government to acknowledge Israeli settlements as illegal according to international law and to take a stand against them holding Israeli settlers accountable for violation of Human Rights fighting also resumed yesterday after a brief calm following a heavy exchange of strikes on Sunday between Israel and Lebanon uh Hezbollah State media reported that Israeli strikes targeted the Lebanese border of Tarara and the port of the coastal city of sadon there were no immediate reports of casualties later in the day holla said it targeted military surveillance equipment in Northern Israel and the US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that he has extended the tour of the Teddy Roosevelt aircraft carrier in the Middle East according to the Pentagon the decision came after those escal between Israel and Hezbollah and those crossb attacks the near-term risk of a broader Middle East War seems to have eased somewhat after the exchange of fire between Hezbollah and Israel but Iran continues to pose a significant danger as it weighs a potential strike on Israel according to Air Force General Brown who's the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff uh Brown said that how Iran responds will dictate how Israel responds which will dictate whether or not there will be further escalations at this point of course also the response of the Iran V houes in Yemen remains a wild card one of the rockets launched from Lebanon in a heavy exchange between hezb and the IDF on Sunday was fired from near a position operated by uh unifil the un's peacekeeping forces uh according to Reuters um there was an oil tanker that continues to burn in the Red Sea that has been determined to be a possible environmental disaster according to the State's Department spokesperson Miller today uh or maybe that was yesterday he said that the tanker has spilled a million barrels of oil or four times as much oil as the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska in 1989 that was just reported in the New York Times on August 6 for for the first time ever the US government submitted a formal Amicus cure a brief to the international criminal court addressing the Court's exercise of jurisdiction connected to the icc's um Prosecutor's request for the insurance of arrest warrants on the investigation of the situation regarding Palestine as many know the prosecutor of the ICC had formally commenced the investigation in March of 2021 but after the violence of October 7th the prosecutor on May 20th 2024 announced that he was seeking the authorization of arrest warrants against prime minister Netanyahu defense minister Gant as well as against Hamas leaders senoir and the two Hamas leaders who reportedly have been killed Muhammad dif and Ismail hanania the US has strongly criticized that step including in statements from President Biden and secretary blinkin and there have been calls for legislation including a bill that has been passed in the House of Representatives that would compel the administration to impose sanctions on the ICC and its Personnel the Administration has indicated that it opposes such legislation saying that there are more effective ways to defend defend Israel and that it stands ready to work with Congress on options to do so but there's significant tension between Democrats and Republicans on whether or not to take up a senate version of the legislation which has been proposed by Senators re uh of Idaho and Tom Cotton of uh Arkansas and others um a few dates to be praying about on the horizon pray for September 9th which is the upcoming hearing of Shahi the young Palestinian boy 16 years old who was accused of having lynched a car in Jerusalem he spent months under house arrest he since graduated from high school but the case is unresolved next hearing is on September 9th and we heard from the tent of nations in their latest report they said after peaceful persistence um that has prevented the confiscation of the farm that's been in their families since 1916 over these 108 years the family has faced many attempts to break our spirit but we have held forth and given thanks for the simple fact that we're still here their re-registration case is scheduled for September 11th 2024 um so we'd encourage you to keep that in prayer they said the situation in the West Bank has worsened a good deal of architectural land owned by Palestinian is being taken by settlers settlers and military have built roads through a property and in the process has destroyed trees and fences a structure is being built by settlers on portions of our land roadblocks have been placed that restrict access to our property the fam is intimidated and threatened as we continue to work on the farm we've responded to these intrusions by appealing to the Israeli Supreme Court um about the re-registration and so that court hearing um is part of what they're hoping uh will happen coming up on September 11th they invite people to consider volunteering at the farm as a way of showing International presence offering protection and support uh so reach out to us if you want more information about that that's September 11th shot's hearing is September 9th consider taking a solidarity trip to Palestine join us on our trip to Jericho coming up in November for the enoy rise Summit coming alongside Palestinian women who are doing such incredible work advocating for peace we'll continue in our efforts calling for an end to all violence a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire uh we'll continue in that work um alongside of one another as we pray for peace