Israeli violations of international law and international humanitarian law in the occupied Palestinian territories continued during the reporting period (25 February – 02 March 2016).Israeli attacks in the West Bank & Gaza:
Shootings
Israeli forces have continued to commit crimes, inflicting civilian casualties. They have also continued to use excessive force against Palestinian civilians participating in peaceful protests in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the majority of whom were youngsters. During the reporting period, Israeli forces killed 4 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children, in the West Bank. One of them was killed in Qalandya refugee camp, north of occupied Jerusalem, another was killed at “Beit Eil” military checkpoint, north of Ramallah, while the 2 others were killed in “Eli” settlement, south of Nablus. Moreover, they wounded 20 civilians, including 3 children. Thirteen of them, including a child, were in the West Bank, and the 7 others, including 2 children, were in the Gaza Strip. Concerning the nature of injuries, 11 civilians were hit with live bullets, 6 were hit with rubber-coated metal bullets and 3 others were hit with sound bombs.
In the West Bank, Israeli forces killed 4 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children, and wounded 13 others, including a child. Seven of them were hit with live bullets and 6 others were hit with a rubber-coated metal bullet.
Incursions
During the reporting period, Israeli forces conducted at least 67 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and 6 ones in occupied East Jerusalem and its suburbs. During these incursions, Israeli forces arrested at least 77 Palestinian civilians, including 13 children. Ten of them, including 9 children.
In the Gaza Strip, on 27 February 2016, Israeli forces arrested 3 Palestinian civilians, who attempted to sneak into Israel through the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel, east of Rafah City, to look for work. They were taken to an unknown destination.
Restrictions on movement
Israel continued to impose a tight closure of the oPt, imposing severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.
The illegal closure of the Gaza Strip, which has been steadily tightened since June 2007 has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli authorities impose measures to undermine the freedom of trade, including the basic needs for the Gaza Strip population and the agricultural and industrial products to be exported. For 9 consecutive years, Israel has tightened the land and naval closure to isolate the Gaza Strip from the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, and other countries around the world. This resulted in grave violations of the economic, social and cultural rights and a deterioration of living conditions for 1.8 million people. The Israeli authorities have established Karm Abu Salem (Kerem Shaloum) as the sole crossing for imports and exports in order to exercise its control over the Gaza Strip’s economy. They also aim at imposing a complete ban on the Gaza Strip’s exports. The Israeli closure raised the rate of poverty to 38.8%, 21.1% of which suffer from extreme poverty. Moreover, the rate of unemployment increased up to 44%, which reflects the unprecedented economic deterioration in the Gaza Strip.
Efforts to create a Jewish majority
On 26 February 2016, “Ateret Cohanim” organization delivered the heirs of Abdul Majeed al-Rajabi judicial notices to vacate their land in Batn al-Hawa neighbourhood, in Silwan village, south of East Jerusalem, on which 12 apartments are built. The organization claimed that the land belongs to 3 Jews from Yemen, who used to live in that land before 1948. It should be noted that the 12 apartments shelter 93 persons, including 64 children.
On 27 February 2016, officers from the Israeli municipality and police moved into Ein al-Louza neighbourhood, south of East Jerusalem. They photographed the streets and some buildings and then fixed a number of administrative demolition notices to some residential buildings.
Settlement activities
On 25 February 2016, Israeli bulldozers demolished industrial and commercial facilities and confiscated a mobile house in al-Muhalel in Na’lin village, west of Ramallah. The demolition was carried out against 10 stores.
On 29 February 2016, Israeli bulldozers demolished 4 residential tents, 2 livestock tents and 2 livestock barns in al-Farisiya area, north of Jordan Valley, east of Tubas. It should be noted that these facilities were donated by the Palestine Red Crescent society (PRCS) after a demolition that was carried out in the same area on 11 February 2016.
On 02 March 2016, Israeli forces demolished Kherbet Tana, east of Beit Foreek village, east of Nablus. They demolished the only school in the Kherbeh, 2 caves, 2 barracks, 10 residential tents and 6 livestock tents. The demolished tents and other facilities belong to 12 families consisting of 68 individuals, including 29 children.
On the same day, Israeli forces demolished an underconstruction house in al-Shweika suburb, north of Tulkarm, belonging to Khalil Ahmed Mohammed Ali (44). It is worth noting that the house was 2 kilometres away from the electronic fence, which is part of the annexation wall.
Recommendations to the International Community:
PCHR emphasizes the international community’s position that the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are still under Israeli occupation, in spite of Israeli military redeployment outside the Gaza Strip in 2005. PCHR further confirms that Israeli forces continued to impose collective punishment measures on the Gaza Strip, which have escalated since the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, in which Hamas won the majority of seats of the Palestinian Legislative Council. PCHR stresses that there is international recognition of Israel’s obligation to respect international human rights instruments and the international humanitarian law, especially the Hague Regulations concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land and the Geneva Conventions. Israel is bound to apply the international human rights law and the law of war sometime reciprocally and other times in parallel in a way that achieves the best protection for civilians and remedy for victims.
In light of continued arbitrary measures, land confiscation and settlement activities in the West Bank, and the latest 51-day offensive against civilians in the Gaza Strip, PCHR calls upon the international community, especially the United Nations, the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Convention and the European Union – in the context of their natural obligation to respect and enforce the international law – to cooperate and act according to the following recommendations:
1. PCHR calls upon the international community and the United Nations to use all available means to allow the Palestinian people to enjoy their right to self-determination, through the establishment of the Palestinian State, which was recognized by the UN General Assembly with a vast majority, using all international legal mechanisms, including sanctions to end the occupation of the State of Palestine;
2. PCHR calls upon the United Nations to provide international protection to Palestinians in the oPt, and to ensure the non-recurrence of aggression against the oPt, especially the Gaza Strip;
3. PCHR calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions to compel Israel, as a High Contracting Party to the Conventions, to apply the Conventions in the oPt;
4. PCHR calls upon the Parties to international human rights instruments, especially the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to pressurize Israel to comply with their provisions in the oPt, and to compel it to incorporate the human rights situation in the oPt in its reports submitted to the concerned committees;
5. PCHR calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions to fulfil their obligation to ensure the application of the Conventions, including extending the scope of their jurisdiction in order to prosecute suspected war criminals, regardless of the nationality of the perpetrator and the place of a crime, to pave the way for prosecuting suspected Israeli war criminals and end the longstanding impunity they have enjoyed;
6. PCHR calls on States that apply the principle of universal jurisdiction not to surrender to Israeli pressure to limit universal jurisdiction to perpetuate the impunity enjoyed by suspected Israeli war criminals;
7. PCHR calls upon the international community to act in order to stop all Israeli settlement expansion activities in the oPt through imposing sanctions on Israeli settlements and criminalizing trading with them;
8. PCHR calls upon the UN General Assembly to transfer the Goldstone Report to the UN Security Council in order to refer it to the International Criminal Court in accordance with Article 13(b) of the Rome Statute;
9. PCHR calls upon the United Nations to confirm that holding war criminals in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a precondition to achieve stability and peace in the regions, and that peace cannot be built on the expense of human rights;
10. PCHR calls upon the UN General Assembly and Human Rights Council to explicitly declare that the Israeli closure policy in Gaza and the annexation wall in the West Bank are illegal, and accordingly refer the two issues to the UN Security Council to impose sanctions on Israel to compel it to remove them;
11. PCHR calls upon the international community, in light of its failure to the stop the aggression on the Palestinian people, to at least fulfil its obligation to reconstruct the Gaza Strip after the series of hostilities launched by Israel which directly targeted the civilian infrastructure;
12. PCHR calls upon the United Nations and the European Union to express a clear position towards the annexation wall following the international recognition of the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders, as the annexation wall seizes large parts of the State of Palestine;
13. PCHR calls upon the European Union to activate Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which provides that both sides must respect human rights as a precondition for economic cooperation between the EU states and Israel, and the EU must not ignore Israeli violations and crimes against Palestinian civilians.
Fully detailed document available at the official PCHR website.
