The Palestinian Center For Human Rights (PCHR): (Weekly Update 22 June – 05 July 2023)
Violation of the right to life and bodily integrity:
15 Palestinians, including 6 children, were killed, while 144 others, including 19 children, 3 women and a journalist, were wounded, while dozens of others suffocated and sustained bruises in Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF)’s attacks in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). Details are as follows:
On 04 July 2023, IOF withdrew from Jenin refugee camp after conducting a widescale military operation backed by more than one thousand soldiers, dozens of military vehicles, and warplanes of different types. The operation, which lasted for 40 hours, killed 12 Palestinians, including 6 civilians, amongst them 5 children; 2 of them were members of the Palestinian armed groups, and wounded 120 others, including 14 children, at least 2 women and 20 in serious condition. In addition, 109 houses were partially destroyed and became uninhabitable, while the infrastructure was extensively destroyed, including levelling of streets, and outage of power, water and internet as well as disruption of communication services. Also, about 4000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their homes during the operation[1][2].PCHR’s staff continues to collect information and document IOF violations and crimes during the aggression on Jenin.
On 24 June 2023, Al-Arabi Specialized Arab Hospital announced the death of Tariq Mousa Idris (39), a member of the Palestinian armed groups from ‘Askar refugee camp in Nablus, after succumbing to wounds he sustained by several bullets fired by IOF in clashes that accompanied IOF’s incursion into the camp the day before. In the same incursion, 5 Palestinians were arrested.
On the same day, Isaac Hamdi Al-‘Ajlouni (17), from Kafr ‘Aqab village in Jerusalem, was killed after IOF fired several bullets at him when he carried out a shooting attack at the Israeli soldiers stationed at Qalandia checkpoint, north of East Jerusalem.
Mohammad ‘Imad Abu Hassanein (21) was also killed by IOF fire during clashes at the northern entrance to Al-Biereh. (Details available in PCHR’s press release).
Meanwhile, those injured were victims of excessive use of force that accompanied IOF incursions into cities and villages, or suppression of peaceful protests organized by Palestinian civilians.
On 22 June 2023, an elderly woman sustained a superficial bullet wound in her shoulder after IOF opened fire to protect a group of settlers who raided and attacked ‘Urif village in Nablus.
On 23 June 2023, 4 Palestinians, including a child, were wounded with rubber-coated bullets during IOF’s suppression of Kafr Qaddoum weekly peaceful protest in northern Qalqilya.
On the same day, Khaled Akram Malalha (5) was shot with a live bullet in his left eye that required its enucleation. The child was injured after IOF stationed at a temporary checkpoint at the entrance to Bazariya village in Nablus opened fire at a civilian vehicle he was travelling amid clashes that broke out in the area.
On 27 June 2023, 2 Palestinians were wounded by IOF fire during confrontations in Nablus. Before their withdrawal, IOF arrested 6 Palestinians, including journalist Mohammad Anwar Mona (44) from Zawata village.
On 30 June 2023, 7 Palestinians, including a child, were wounded with rubber-coated bullets during IOF’s suppression of Kafr Qaddum peaceful weekly in northern Qalqilya.
On 03 July 2023, 3 children were wounded with live bullets during clashes with IOF at the entrance to Beit Ummar in Hebron. Another Palestinian was also wounded with a live bullet in the foot during similar clashes near Beit Einoun intersection in Hebron.
In the Gaza Strip, on 04 July 2023, 4 Palestinians, including a child, were wounded with live bullets and teargas canisters directly fired by IOF during a demonstration in solidarity with Jenin, east of Gaza. Journalist Fadi Shana’a was wounded with a gas canister in his foot, and another fired eat his camera while covering a similar demonstration in eastern Khan Yunis.
Also, 5 IOF shootings were reported on agricultural lands in eastern Gaza Strip, while 2 shootings were reported on fishing boats off the western Gaza shores.
So far in 2023, IOF attacks have killed 189 Palestinians, including 95 civilians; amongst them 33 children, 6 women and a Palestinian with disability, and the rest were members of the Palestinian armed groups, including 6 children, 7 killed by settlers, and two died in Israeli prisons. Meanwhile, 962 Palestinians, including 146 children, 29 women and 16 journalists, were injured in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Land razing, demolitions, seizures and settlement
On 22 June 2023, settlers began to establish a settlement outpost on the lands of Derastia village, west of Salfit, opposite to the Emmanuel settlement. The settlers, protected by IOF, leveled the land, set up tents and pens for livestock and prevented Palestinians from reaching their lands.
On the same day, IOF demolished two under-construction houses in the northern Jordan Valley, east of Tubas, under the pretext of unlicensed construction in Area (C).
IOF also delivered a notice to the residents of Qarawet Bani Hassan village in Salfit, to evacuate Beer Abu ‘Ammar, which is an agricultural recreational area for the municipality, west of the village.
On 23 June 2023, IOF confiscated an excavator while working on a dirt road, east of Al-Dhahiriya village in Hebron.
On 26 June 2023, IOF handed 6 notices to vacate lands of more than 7 dunums, west of Beit Ula in Hebron, under the pretext of being state lands.
On 29 June 2023, settlers, protected by IOF, set up tents on the Palestinian lands in Umm Lakhous area in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, in order to establish a settlement outpost, as IOF arrested 4 Palestinians who tried to confront the settlers.
On 03 July 2023, IOF forced ‘AbdulKareem Abu Tair to self-demolish part of his house in Jabal Al-Mukaber in East Jerusalem upon an Israeli municipal decision under the pretext of unlicensed construction.
Since the beginning of 2023, IOF have made 105 families homeless, a total of 656 persons, including 139 women and 299 children. This was the outcome of IOF demolition of 113 houses; 27 were forcibly self-demolished by their owners and 13 were demolished on grounds of collective punishment. IOF also demolished 89 other civilian objects, razed other property, and delivered dozens of notices of demolition and cease-construction in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Demolitions on grounds of collective punishment
On 22 June 2023, IOF destroyed the family house of detainee Kamal Hani Jouri in Nablus as part of IOF’s collective punishment policy against Palestinian families of those accused of carrying out attacks against IOF and/or settlers. PCHR’s fieldworker reported that the destroyed house was an apartment on the second floor of a 7-storey building.
IOF forced the residents of the building and 10 other families in nearby houses to evacuate, implanted explosives on the second floor, and remotely detonated it. As a result, the 180-sqm apartment, which housed a family of 5, including a child, was destroyed. It is noteworthy that IOF arrested Kamal Jouri on 13 February 2023 after he was accused of participating in an attack that killed an Israeli soldier on 11 October 2022.
Since the beginning of the year, IOF have destroyed 13 houses on grounds of collective punishment.
Money and Property Confiscation on grounds of Collective Punishment
On 26 June 2023, IOF raided and searched 16 houses belonging to former detainees in the Israeli prisons in several neighborhoods and villages in occupied East Jerusalem and seized money, vehicles, belongings, and jewelry belonging to those detainees and their families. IOF also handed some of them seizure orders and imposed on them high fines under the pretext that they receive money from the Palestinian Authority (PA).
The Israeli police said in a statement that during their campaign, they seized 270,000 shekels, gold jewelry, 7 vehicles and a motorcycle, in addition to freezing 16 bank accounts.
Family members of the former detainees said to PCHR’s fieldworker that IOF seized their vehicles and gold jewelry, which are personal assets and have nothing to do with the PA.
Settler-attacks and retaliatory acts
On 22 June 2023, Israeli settlers, under IOF’s protection, moved into ‘Urif village in Nablus, where they threw stones at Palestinians’ houses and ‘Obadat al-Rahman Mosque, breaking its windows and ripping and setting copies of the holy Quran ablaze. Also, they burned a classroom on the first floor of ‘Urif Secondary School for Boys.
On 24 June 2023, under IOF’s protection, at least 250 settlers, from “Ateret” settlement established on Ramallah’s lands, moved into Umm Safa village, northwest of Ramallah, and conducted widescale attacks. As a result, 3 residential houses, 3 cars and about 4 cypress trees were burned, and windows and doors of 5 other houses as well as windows of 5 vehicles were broken. Also, many persons suffocated after IOF fired teargas canisters to disperse the Palestinians who tried to confront the settlers.
On 30 June 2023, Israeli settlers, protected by IOF, expelled Palestinians from their lands in Nuweitif area in Qarawat Bani Hassan village, west of Salfit, under the pretext that the area is classified as Area (C).
On the same day, Israeli settlers, from “Kiryat Arba” settlement, east of Hebron, threw stones at Palestinians’ houses near the settlement and when the residents tried to confront them, an Israeli settler opened fire from his pistol at Matariyia family members. Afterwards, large forces of Israeli soldiers arrived and arrested 4 Palestinians.
On 01 July 2023, Israeli settlers, under IOF’s protection, attacked Palestinian farmers in Kafr ad-Dik village, west of Salfit. Also, IOF arrested a Palestinian and beat another.
On 02 July 2023, two Palestinians were injured after Israeli settlers threw stones at a Palestinian vehicle near the entrance to Yasuf village, east of Salfit.
On the same day, Israeli settlers uprooted 35 forest and citrus trees and damaged Palestinians’ property in Bir Abu ‘Ammar area in Qarawat Bani Hassan village, west of Salfit, noting that on 22 June 2023, IOF gave notice to evacuate the area.
Since the beginning of the year, settlers have conducted at least 260 attacks against Palestinian civilians and their property. As a result, 7 Palestinians were killed, and dozens of others were injured; most of them after being beaten and thrown with stones. Also, dozens of houses, vehicles and civilian facilities were set ablaze.
Violations of freedom of worship:
On 28 June 2023, Israeli police moved into the vicinity of Bab al-Rahma prayer hall before the start of Eid al-Adha prayer, closed its doors, attacked, and pushed tens of Palestinian worshipers, arrested 15 of them from al-Aqsa Mosque and at its gates. This happened after the Israeli police filed a request to the Israeli Magistrate Court in Jerusalem last Tuesday demanding the re-closure of Bab al-Rahma prayer hall under the pretext of being a strategic area for the Palestinian factions.
On 01 July 2023, IOF closed some of al-Aqsa Mosque’s gates in occupied East Jerusalem in front of Palestinian worshipers for the second time in one week under the pretext of presence of few Palestinian worshipers and few Israeli police officers to guard the mosque, in an unprecedented step as part of the Israeli occupation’s policy to change the status quo of al-Aqsa Mosque and attempts to impose a temporal and spatial division.
According to the Deputy Director General of the Islamic Endowments (Awqaf) Department in Jerusalem, Najeh Bakirat, on the second day of Eid al-Adha, 29 June 2023, the Israeli police intentionally closed Bab al-Asbat (Lions Gate), one of the most important gates in the northeastern side of al-Aqsa Mosque, under the pretext of the insufficient number of police officers to guard it as well as the few numbers of Palestinian worshipers entering through it. They also closed Bab al-Hadeed, Bab al-Qawanmah, and Bab al-Malik Faisal, and other gates of al-Aqsa Mosque, while Bab_Hutta, Bab al-Majles and Bab al-Selselah remained open. Bakirat added that on Saturday, the fourth day of Eid al-Adha, the Israeli police unjustifiably re-closed Bab al-Asbat.
On 02 July 2023, IOF handed Eng. Bassam ak-Hallaq, Director of al-Aqsa Mosque’s Reconstruction Committee of the Jordanian Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs in Jerusalem, an order completely banning the employees of the Reconstruction Committee from working at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and threatening to arrest any employee who returns to work inside the mosque.
IOF incursions and arrests of Palestinian civilians:
IOF carried out 293 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Those incursions included raids and searches of civilian houses and facilities and establishment of checkpoints. During those incursions, 196 Palestinians were arrested, including 8 children and a journalist. Jenin refugee camp has witnessed a mass arrest campaign targeting at least 120 Palestinians. In the Gaza Strip, IOF conducted 2 limited incursions into eastern Bureij refugee camp on 26 and 27 June 2023.
So far in 2023, IOF have conducted 5,096 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, during which 2,892 Palestinians were arrested, including 26 women and 326 children. Also, IOF arrested 39 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip including 17 fishermen, 20 infiltrators into Israel, and 3 travelers at Erez Crossing. IOF also conducted 19 incursions.
Israeli closure, restrictions on freedom of movement, and collective punishment:
Israeli occupation maintains its illegal and inhuman 16-year closure on the Gaza Strip. Details available in PCHR’s monthly-update in the Gaza crossings.
In the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, IOF continue to impose restrictions on the freedom of movement. On top of its 110 permanent checkpoints, IOF established 203 temporary checkpoints in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, and arrested 2 Palestinians at those checkpoints.
On 22 June 2023, IOF closed the metal detector gate established on the road connecting Nahalin village with Jab’a village in Bethlehem to vehicles’ movement.
So far in 2023, IOF have established 3,065 temporary military checkpoints and arrested 135 Palestinians at those checkpoints.
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[1] PCHR’s press release: https://pchrgaza.org/en/as-israeli-aggression-enters-second-day-on-jenin-refugee-camp-death-toll-rises-to-10-including-3-civilians-amongst-them-child-100-injured-mostly-civilians-dozens-arrested-and-infrastructure-com/
[2] PCHR’s press release: https://pchrgaza.org/en/7-palestinians-killed-and-dozens-of-others-injured-by-israeli-occupation-forces-in-jenin-and-one-killed-in-al-bireh/
