The Palestinian News and Information Agency (WAFA) said on Saturday that operations carried out by the Israeli military since Oct 23 had forced about 1,500 Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank City of Hebron, with plans to displace another 2,500 people in the coming hours.
WAFA said the Israeli military also used earth mounds and concrete blocks to seal off major roads connecting Hebron to surrounding towns, villages, and refugee camps.
The Israeli military said this was a countermeasure against an attack on Israeli soldiers in Hebron on Friday morning.
A statement released on Saturday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the State of Palestine said that the recent forced displacement of large numbers of civilians by Israeli forces in Hebron constitutes a systematic and deliberate act of aggression.
It noted that Israel is attempting to force even more civilians to flee their homes by clearing out and destroying entire neighborhoods.
The ministry emphasized that, in response to Israel's military escalation and the growing threat of forced displacement, the international community must take concrete, deterrent measures to effectively protect the Palestinian people, their land, and their institutions, and to bring an end to long-standing Israeli occupation.
Israeli operations force about 1,500 Palestinians from homes in Hebron: media
China's civil aviation industry started winter-spring season on Sunday, with 216 domestic and foreign airlines planning to offer 116,000 passenger and cargo flights per week, said the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
Running from Oct 25 to March 27 next year, the winter-spring season will see around 94,000 flights operated by 61 domestic airlines, with 34 domestic airlines planning to open 288 new domestic routes.
"In the new season, we plan to open 21 new routes, with a focus on increasing frequencies and launching new routes to popular ice-and-snow tourism areas such as the three northeastern provinces (of Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang) and Xinjiang, as well as traditional popular tourism and warm-weather destinations in south China and southwest China," said Gao Lingyun, deputy general manager of the Network Revenue Department of China Eastern Airlines' Marketing Division.
In terms of international flights, 191 airlines plan to arrange 21,812 flights per week, reaching 85 foreign countries. Passenger services will cover 84 countries with 16,654 weekly flights.
Passenger flights to Central Asia, South Asia, North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America will all increase year on year, with flight volumes to 17 countries, including Kazakhstan, India, Canada, and Belgium, growing by more than 40 percent.
"We will continue to restore and expand our international route network. In the new season, we will soon launch the first route from China to Iceland. In addition, we will focus on optimizing our southbound route network and increase capacity in the Australia-New Zealand market, as well as key Southeast Asian markets including Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam," said Zhou Yeting, senior deputy manager of Network Planning and Flight Planning at Air China.
The aviation market for inbound tourism is also growing notably, with planned frequencies on 16 premium inbound tourism routes, including Moscow-Haikou, Ulan Bator-Beijing and Busan-Zhangjiajie, rising 45.9 percent year on year.
China's civil aviation starts winter-spring season with 116,000 domestic, int'l flights planned per week
