Reporting period: 14 -27 July 2015 (Two-week period)
Weekly Highlights
● Three Palestinian civilians were shot with live ammunition and killed in the context of search and arrest operations in the West Bank: On 22 July, a 21-year-old man was shot in the chest in Birqin village (Jenin); on 23 July, a 53-year-old man was shot while reportedly trying to protect his son, who had been shot and injured moments earlier in their home in Belt Ummar village (Hebron); and on 27 July, a 20-year-old man fell from a roof after being shot multiple times while attempting to escape from Israeli soldiers in Qalandiya Refugee Camp (Jerusalem). The immediate cause of the latter death remains unconfirmed. This brings the number of Palestinian fatalities in the West Bank since the start of the year to 17, compared to 19 in the equivalent period of 2014.
● Israeli forces injured a total of 66 Palestinians, including five children and five women in multiple incidents across the West Bank. Nearly a third of the injuries (21) took place in the context of search and arrest operations, including those operations noted above resulting in fatalities. Another 12 Palestinians were injured in clashes triggered by the announced entry of an Israeli Minister into Al Aqsa Mosque Compound on the annual Jewish fast day of Tisha B'Av; this is the first such entry since November 2014.
● In the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces shot and injured two fishermen, reportedly sailing at 6NM from shore, and a 14-year-old child, who had been playing with other children within 50 meters from the fence. Overall, Israeli forces opened fire towards civilians in the Access Restricted Areas (ARA) on land and at sea on at least 23 occasions during the two-week period. On two occasions, Israeli forces entered and leveled land near the fence inside the Gaza Strip.
● Also in Gaza, a 67-year-old woman was injured in her house east of Al Bureij Camp, during an Israeli airstrike targeting a nearby military training site. The airstrike was reportedly launched in response to a Palestinian rocket fire. The Palestinian rockets landed in open area in southern Israel resulting in no injuries or damage.
● Seven Israeli settler attacks resulting in injury or damage to Palestinian property were recorded, including the physical assault of a shepherd from Qwawis (Hebron) and a 4-year-old girl near Al Ibrahimi Mosque in the Israeli-controlled area of Hebron city; a Palestinian bus driver sprayed with pepper spray in East Jerusalem; a water well vandalized in Deir Istya village (Salfit); five dunums of cropped land damaged in Al Khadr (Bethlehem); and 200 olive saplings uprooted in Turmus'ayya (Ramallah).
● Five Palestinian attacks against settlers and other Israelis and their property were recorded. According to Israeli media, the attacks involved stone throwing, and in one case, the hurling of a Molotov cocktail and fireworks at Israeli settlers, their houses and vehicles, injuring four Israeli settlers. All attacks were recorded in the Jerusalem governorate, except one recorded in the Ramallah governorate.
● In Area C, Israeli authorities demolished three commercial structures in Idhna village and a water cistern under construction in Belt Ula, both in Hebron governorate, due to lack of building permits; in the latter village the authorities also uprooted and confiscated around 350 olive trees and leveled around 30 dunums of cultivated land on grounds of their location in land designated by Israel as "state land". In East Jerusalem one Palestinian family sealed their home, and another family demolished their home pursuant to order issued by the Israeli authorities on grounds of lack of Israeli-issued building permits.
● On 22 July, the Israeli Supreme Court rejected the petition filed by the widow of one of the perpetrators of the 18 November 2014 synagogue attack against the Ministry of Interior's revocation of her permit to stay in East Jerusalem. This ruling paves the way for the forcible displacement of the woman and her three children from the city.
● The Rafah crossing was closed in both directions by the Egyptian authorities during the two week period. So far in 2015, 7,504 Palestinians have exited Gaza via Rafah compared with 19,806 Palestinians in the equivalent period in 2014. This measure directly affects at least 12,000 people registered to cross in both sides.
Download Document Files: https://unispal.un.org/pdfs/WBN614.pdf https://unispal.un.org/pdfs/WBN614a.pdf
Document Type: Arabic text, Situation Report
Document Sources: Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Subject: Access and movement, Casualties, Children, Closures/Curfews/Blockades, Fence, Gaza Strip, Health, House demolitions, Human rights and international humanitarian law, Incidents, Incursions, Jerusalem, Living conditions, Occupation, Protection, Refugee camps, Security issues, Separation barrier, Settlements, Shelter, Situation in the OPT including Jerusalem, Wall, Water
Publication Date: 30/07/2015