The Palestinian Center For Human Rights – PCHR: Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Weekly Update 07-13 September 2023)

Violation of Right to Life and Bodily Integrity

A Palestinian child was killed, and 19 other Palestinians, including 10 children, were injured, while dozens of others suffocated and sustained bruises in Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) and settlers’ attacks in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).

Details are as follows:

• On 09 September 2023, Milad Monther al-Ra’ie (15) was killed after being shot by IOF with a live bullet in his back from a distance of 20 meters, allegedly for throwing a Molotov Cocktail at a military watchtower established at the northwestern entrance to Al-‘Arroub refugee camp, north of Hebron.

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 08 September 2023, 3 children were shot with rubber-coated bullets following IOF’s suppression of the weekly peaceful protest at the northern entrance to Kufur Qaddoum village in Qalqilia.

• • On 11 September 2023, 2 children sustained stun grenade shrapnel injuries in clashes with IOF during the latter’s incursion into ‘Aqabat Jaber refugee camp, southwest of Jericho.

• • On the same day, 3 Palestinians, including a child, were injured during clashes with IOF at the southern entrance to Al-‘Arroub refugee camp, north of Hebron.

• • On the same day, IOF opened fire at and seized a Palestinian fishing boat and arrested 2 fishermen who were on board off Rafah Shore in southern Gaza Strip. In the evening, IOF released one of the fishermen and it turned out that he was shot with 2 rubber-coated bullets in the back and left leg.  Meanwhile, the other fisherman sustained a head injury and is now receiving treatment at Soroka Medical Center in Israel.

• • On 13 September 2023, 9 Palestinians, including 3 children, were injured after IOF opened fire and fired teargas canisters at dozens of Palestinian protesters near the security border fence in Malaka area, east of Gaza City.

• During the reporting period, in the Gaza Strip, 2 IOF shootings were reported on agricultural lands in eastern Gaza Strip, while 12 shootings were reported on fishing boats off the Gaza western Gaza shores.

So far in 2023, IOF attacks killed 223 Palestinians, including 111 civilians; amongst them 42 children, 6 women and a person with disability, 9 killed by settlers and the rest were members of the Palestinian armed groups, including 9 children, and two died in Israeli prisons. Meanwhile, 1142 Palestinians, including 175 children, 33 women and 16 journalists, were injured in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Land Razing, Demolitions, Notices and Settlement

IOF demolished a restaurant and took over a house in favor of settlers in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.

Details are as follows:

• • On 09 September 2023, IOF forced Nafiz Zytoun to self-demolish his small falafel restaurant of only 5 sqms in Silwan village in occupied East Jerusalem upon an Israeli municipal decision under the pretext of unlicensed construction. As a result, Nafiz, supporting a family of 7, lost his only source of income.

• • On 11 September 2023, under IOF’s protection, Israeli settlers forcibly seized Saleh Idris’s house in occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City, taking advantage of the house owner’s absence as he was sick and receiving treatment at the hospital. After seizing the house, the settlers changed the doors, fixed mental muntin on the windows and roof, and established a steel staircase and a mobile room to be later attached to the house.

• • On the same day, settlement organizations in cooperation with the Israeli Nature Authority set up tents and houses of hair where they placed wooden chairs, furniture, artifacts, and some livestock as part of the Israeli Valley Settlement project in Al-Rababa Valley neighborhood in Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem.  These organizations aim at promoting the Israeli false narratives, obliterating the Palestinian Arab features of the land and falsifying history.

• Also, IOF handed a cease-construction notice to two 300-sqm plots of land in Kherbet Faqiqas, southwest of Hebron, under the pretext of encroachment on the archaeological sites in Area “C”.

Since the beginning of 2023, IOF have made 138 families homeless, a total of 802 persons, including 174 women and 354 children. This was the outcome of IOF demolition of 146 houses; 38 were forcibly self-demolished by their owners and 14 were demolished on grounds of collective punishment. IOF also demolished 115 other civilian objects, razed other property, and delivered dozens of notices of demolition and cease-construction in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Settler-attacks and Retaliatory Acts

• • On 17 September 2023, Israeli settlers, from “Yitzhar” settlement, which is established on Palestinian lands confiscated from southeastern Nablus, attacked the outskirts of Madama village, and set al-Qa’dat Mount ablaze.

• On 09 September 2023, Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian and broke his left arm while they were trying to steal his sheep in Khirbet Humsa in northern Jordan Valley, east of Tubas.

Since the beginning of the year, settlers have conducted at least 309 attacks against Palestinian civilians and their property. As a result, 9 Palestinians were killed, and dozens of others were injured; most of them due to being beaten and thrown with stones. Also, dozens of houses, vehicles and civilian facilities were set ablaze.

Israel’s Incitement Against the Palestinian Curriculum and Restrictions Imposed on Schools in Jerusalem

• • On 07 September 2023, the Israeli Ministry of Education sent official letters to the schools of East Jerusalem threatening to revoke their licenses if they teach the Palestinian curriculum printed by the Palestinian Ministry of Education, in an attempt to impose the Israeli curriculum on the Palestinian schools.

• On 11 September 2023, IOF raided al-Aqsa Kindergarten School in al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem and arrested 4 students. The students were later released on the condition that they will be denied access to the mosque for 10 days.

Attacks on Places of Worship

• On 07 September 2023, IOF raided and searched the prayer hall of al-Rahma Gate in al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem and confiscated some of its contents. The Islamic Endowment (Awqaf) Department stated that the Israeli police wearing their shoes raided and searched al-Rahma praying hall,

destroyed part of its contents and seized the rest.

Israeli Closure, Restrictions on Freedom of Movement, and Collective Punishment

Israeli occupation maintains its illegal and inhuman 17-year closure on the Gaza Strip.

In the West Bank, IOF continues to impose restrictions on the freedom of movement.

On top of its 110 permanent checkpoints, IOF established 133 temporary military checkpoints in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, and arrested several Palestinians at those checkpoints.

• • On 12 September 2023, as part of their collective punishment policy following the shooting attack that injured settlers in Huwara village, IOF tightened their military measures around Huwara and other nearby villages of ‘Aqraba, Osarin, Beita, and Yatma villages, and closed with sand berms some sub-roads and checkpoints.

• • Since 01 September 2023, IOF have closed the metal detector gate at the entrance to Rawabi area in eastern al-‘Isawiya village in occupied East Jerusalem, obstructing the residents and students’ movement and forcing them to take other distant roads.

• This week, IOF closed several checkpoints and roads in occupied East Jerusalem and Bethlehem, blocking traffic, but reopened them later.

So far in 2023, IOF have established 4,445 temporary military checkpoints and arrested dozens of Palestinians at those checkpoints.