US President Barack Obama said at the start of his visit to Israel that the US’ commitment to Israel’s security was not negotiable and that peace must come to the Holy Land, according to Al Jazeera.

“I am confident in declaring that our alliance is eternal, is forever,” he added.

The presidential airplane which landed at Ben-Gurion Airport was awaited by over 1,000 people, according to the Jerusalem Post.

He was greeted at the airport by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres.

The trip is part of his sweep across the Middle East, which will include visits to the West Bank and Jordan.

The conflict in syria and concerns over Iran’s nuclear ambitions are expected to top the agenda in talks with  Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Obama’s relationship with Netanyahu has never been that good, while the Israeli prime minister Netanyahu supported Republican challenger Mitt Romney in last year’s presidential election.

Obama will also hold separate talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank during his visit to the Middle East.

White House officials say he will attempt to get Palestinians and Israelis back on the table for peace talks.

He will also seek to reassure Netanyahu he is committed to preventing Iran from getting a nuclear bomb and discuss ways of containing Syria’s civil war.

However, the White House has not provided any hopes of any major breakthrough, a reversal from Obama’s first four years in office when aides said he would only visit the Jewish state if he had something concrete to accomplish, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, Palestinians want to see from Obama a stronger stance for the freeze of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

According to media reports protests have been staged in Gaza and Hebron upon the arrival of Obama while posters on Ramallah streets sarcastically advise Obama not to bring his smartphone because Israel does not allow 3G or better service in the Palestinian territories.

In a related development, the U.S. refused to take part on Monday in a UN Human Rights Council debate on Israeli settlements and its effects on Palestinians.

The experts concluded that Israel’s “creeping annexation’’ of the West Bank had led to many rights violations.

“The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the deportation of Palestinian detainee, Ayman Sharawna, by the Israeli forces to the Gaza Strip on Sunday, 17 March 2013, under a deal whose details have not been unveiled.”

“PCHR believes that the decision to deport Sharawna to Gaza amounts to a forcible deportation, and reminds that deportation of protected persons is prohibited under Article 49 of the Geneva Convention Relative of the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (Fourth Geneva Convention).”

According to the deal, Sharawna would stay in Gaza for 10 years before being able to return to his home in Hebron.

Sharawna, 36, is from the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and is married with nine children.

Once he arrived to Gaza, Sharawna was transported to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, and was admitted into the intensive care unit, as his health condition deteriorated.

Sharawna served ten years in Israeli prisons, before he was released in a prisoner exchange deal on 18 October 2011, in which 477 prisoners were released in exchange for the release of IOF soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured by Hamas. Most of released prisoners had been convicted with long sentences.

On 31 January 2012, Ayman was again arrested without charge or trial, based on a “secret administrative file” which states that he breached the terms of the exchange deal.

In response to the arrest, Ayman announced an open hunger strike on 1 July 2012, demanding his immediate release.

A 2011 prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas saw 40 Palestinians deported to other countries and 163 to the Gaza Strip, PHCR said, calling for all deportees to be allowed to return home.

Arafat Jaradat’s autopsy showed torture, while his heart was in good condition, PA Minister of Detainee Affairs said Sunday, according to Maan news agency.

A spokeswoman for Israel’s Prison Authority said Saturday that Jaradat had apparently died of cardiac arrest in Megiddo prison. The spokesman added that the injuries found in the autopsy could have been caused by the medical emergency team’s efforts to resuscitate Jaradat.

The 30-year-old man from Sair near Hebron in the occupied West Bank was arrested last Monday for alleged involvement in a November 2012 stone-throwing incident that injured an Israeli, according to Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence service, Al Jazeera reported.

Several thousand Palestinian prisoners held by Israel observed a one-day fast to protest Jaradat’s death.

It’s worth noting that over 207 Palestinian prisoners died in Israeli jails. Many of them were killed under torture and medical negligence. At the moment a number of prisoners are on a hunger strike.

“It’s widely known that Israel one of the top countries that constantly violates International laws. Yet, this fact did not drive an International action or pressure. Torture continued to be an integral part of the policy of this state. Meanwhile, no inspection against these prisons was carried out. There were also no reports that denounced what Israelis have been doing over the past decades.” UFree to defend the rights if Palestinians said.

UFree also expressed its fear over the health conditions of many Palestinian prisoners as Israel is medically neglecting their basic needs. It also calls on International organisations like the Red Cross, Amnesty and others to reveal all illegal practices committed by Israel and escalate them to the United Nations and the international community and European Union bodies.

Registration to run in municipal elections ended at midnight Tuesday and six blocs submitted lists to run in Hebron with the women-only bloc running against lists from Fatah, leftist factions, the Palestinian National Initiative and independents, according to Maan news.

Maysoon Qawasmi, a journalist for the Palestinian news agency Wafa, which also holds training sessions to empower Palestinian women in the West Bank heads the group. Maysoon tells AP that in traditional Palestine women stay at home or do tradiitonal jobs like teaching if they work
. “But we want them to go further, to work like men in all possible jobs they can, ” the 43-year old woman added.

In fact, in the West Bank just 16 per cent of women are employed, and in Hebron this falls to a meager 10 per cent.If the group are elected she has vowed  to open women-only sports clubs and other facilities that are sure to be poorly received by many of Hebron’s conservative Muslims, she tells the Associated Press. The Oct. 20 vote will be the first municipal elections in 35 years, and nearly 60,000 residents are eligible to vote for 15 seats in the council.