Protection of civilians – Summary OPT data tables (October 2008) – OCHA report

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OCHA-oPt Protection of

Civilians

Summary data tables

Reports to the end of October 2008

Contents

October 2008

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1. Overview

The Protection of Civilians database contains information collated from the published OCHA Protection of Civilians – Weekly Briefing Notes. OCHA-oPt has compiled and published these weekly reports since May 2003. The reporting format underwent several revisions since this time and the current content and structure was introduced in March 2005. From this time there has been comprehensive and detailed reporting of individual incidents, particularly those concerning physical protection. Quantifiable data from the Weekly Briefing Notes from 1^st January 2005 onwards have been compiled into a Protection of Civilians database from which these tables have been developed. They present information, reported on a daily or weekly basis, as monthly figures with geographical breakdowns to the governorate level.

These data may be used freely for information and analysis purposes; however the source must be cited. The citation should include “United Nations OCHA-oPt” and the reporting period for the data. Usage should take into account the caveats and terminology defining the data. Summary statistics are available for the following Weekly Briefing Note themes:

Physical protection

� Casualties – deaths and injuries

Access and movement for civilians

� Curfews

� Flying (random) checkpoints

Additional protection issues

� Searches, arrests and detentions

2. OCHA-oPt Protection of Civilians database: Index of summary tables

Physical Protection

Access and Movement for Civilians

Access and Movement for Civilians

Table A1 Total hours under curfew in the oPt by governorate and month

Table A2 Total number of curfews in the oPt by governorate and month

Table A3 Total and weekly average number of flying (random) checkpoints in the West Bank by month and governorate – data from June 2005

Addtional Protection Issues

Appendices

Appendix 1 Actual reporting periods for monthly data compiled from weekly summary statistics

3. Methods and sources

The information used to compile the Weekly Briefing Notes comes from a range of sources compiled by OCHA field teams¹ in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Typically, the OCHA field teams receive an initial incident report from a source, which is verified through visits to the incident site in addition to further corroboration with a third source, such as an NGO.

Each week the following sources are used to compile the Weekly Briefing Notes:

� Physical protection: OCHA field teams, Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA), World Health Organization (WHO), Israel Defence Forces (IDF) website, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) website, offices of Palestinian Authority (PA) governors, Palestinian District Civilian Liaison (DCL).

� Shelter and property: OCHA field teams, UNRWA, Palestinian DCL.

� Access and Movement for Civilians: Palestinian DCL, Christian Peacemakers Team (CPT).

� Curfews: OCHA field teams, Village Councils, UNRWA, Palestinian DCL.

� Additional Protection issues: OCHA field teams, UNRWA, United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS), UNSCO, Palestinian DCLs, Palestinian Governors’ offices, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, IDF website.

4. Reporting completeness

Reporting to the Weekly Briefing Notes is comprehensive but it is not exhaustive and occasionally some incidents may not be included. In some cases updated information is reported later and is included in the Protection of Civilians database retrospectively. For this reason there can be slight differences between the database and the figures published in the Weekly Briefing Notes.

5. Duplicate reports – died of wounds

Individuals who have been seriously wounded and who later die from their injuries are usually counted in both the injuries and the deaths tables. Between January 2005 and July 2007 the database includes 81 Palestinians, 3 Israelis and 1 foreign citizen who died from wounds some time after the incident in which they were injured. Twenty nine of these Palestinian deaths were caused by internal violence and conflict.

6. Reporting period

Casualty incidents and curfew reports are collated and published in the Weekly Briefing Notes according to the actual date on which they occurred. Monthly summaries for these are precise representations of the data, while the Weekly Briefing Note report period may overlap the end of one month and the start of the next.

Searches, arrests/detentions and flying (random) checkpoints are published as summary figures for a weekly reporting period (running from Wednesday to the following Tuesday). Weekly reports do not correspond precisely with calendar months. The monthly figures shown in these tables are calculated by adding the total figures from each Weekly Briefing Note period. Weeks that overlap the end of one month and the start of the next are counted towards the month that most of the reporting week falls in. Consequently some months show figures for five reporting weeks and some for four. Details of the actual reporting period and the number of reporting weeks for each month are given in Appendix 1.

7. Terminology

Physical protection – concerns incidents where there were casualties. These include deaths and injuries in Palestinian, Israeli and foreign nationals who were killed or injured in the occupied Palestinian territories² or in Israel in incidents related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The figures include civilians, members of the security forces and members of Palestinian militant groups. Reports of casualties resulting from accidents, or from violence in the context of criminal activities are not included.

Injuries – include injuries of different severity and the degree of injury is not recorded in the database. Injuries figures do not include cases of shock or tear gas inhalation.

Israeli security forces – are defined as any member of the Armed Forces, the Police and the Border Police. Private security personnel are not included and are considered to be civilians.

Children – are defined as individuals aged 0-17 inclusive. Reporting of child deaths has been verified against external data collected by Defence for Children – Palestine since July 2006, earlier reports may be an underestimate where age information has not been reported. Injuries figures for children are likely to be an underestimate as age information for injured individuals is often not available or reported.

Casualty incident type

Incidents where casualties (deaths and injuries) were reported have been divided into categories for analysis purposes. The casualties summary table published in each Weekly Briefing Note and the information cited in most published reports use figures for deaths and injuries resulting from “direct conflict”. Other conflict-related incidents are reported from the field and described in the Weekly Briefing Notes but not included in the weekly summary statistics. Deaths and injuries from these incidents have been recorded in the database and are summarised in these tables. The incident type classifications are:

� Direct conflict. These are casualties resulting directly from the conflict and occupation of the oPt. These include casualties caused in military operations, artillery shelling, search and arrest campaigns, demonstrations³, targeted killing, settler violence, Palestinian attacks on Israelis etc.

� Disputed circumstances. These are casualties resulting from incidents that are still under investigation and where the cause of the casualties remains disputed.

� Indirect conflict. These are casualties resulting indirectly from the conflict and occupation of the oPt. They include casualties caused by Unexploded Ordnance (UXO), traffic incidents⁴, “home made rockets” missing their target, deaths in prison, deaths from probable underlying medical conditions that occurred during military operations, or where access to medical care was denied.

� Internal violence and conflict. These include casualties caused by factional violence or family feuding, internal demonstrations (that are linked to the conflict/occupation) and shooting of alleged collaborators with Israel. These incidents began to be comprehensively reported from May 2006 and earlier figures will be underreported.

� “Reckless handling of explosives or weapons”. These include those injured or killed while preparing or handling explosives and all those injured or killed in the vicinity.

Searches and arrests/detentions

Searches refer to operations by the Israeli security forces to search houses or other properties. During these operations individuals are often detained or arrested. Detentions (without arrest) typically last for a few days but can extend for a period of three months or longer.

Curfews

The duration of a curfew is counted once for each curfew incident. A single curfew affecting multiple neighbouring locations is counted as one incident. A curfew that is lifted and re-imposed in the same place on a single day is counted as two incidents. A single curfew incident may last for several days.

For the context and details of specific incidents please refer to the source information, located in the Weekly Briefing Notes. The reports are available in the report centre of the OCHA-oPt website at http://www.ochaopt.org

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¹ There are four OCHA field teams located in Gaza, and in the northern, central and southern West Bank.

² The occupied Palestinian territories – oPt are the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip. These figures do not reflect casualties from the Lebanon-Israeli conflict or incidents in the occupied lands on the northern border of Israel.

³ These are demonstrations related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or occupation such as protests against the construction of the West Bank Barrier.

⁴ Traffic incidents are included only if they are in some way related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or occupation for example involving Israeli settlers, IDF vehicles, occur at checkpoints or flying (random) checkpoints, or were as a result of pursuit.

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