Violation of right to life and bodily integrity
IOF launched a 3-day military widescale offensive on the Gaza Strip that started on 05 August and ended on 07 August 2022 when an Egypt-brokered ceasefire was declared between Israel and Islamic Jihad. During the offensive, the israeli occupation forces conducted widescale airstrikes and artillery-shelling against residential houses, agricultural lands, military sites, and crowds. As a result, 25 Palestinians, including 12 civilians: 3 children and 3 women, were killed and 172 others, including 59 children and 33 women, were injured. Meanwhile, PCHR is still investigating other incidents that inflicted casualties and damage to property. Moreover, the offensive completely and partially destroyed tens of residential housing units that PCHR is still documenting.
The incidents were as follows
On 05 August, IOF launched an offensive on the Gaza Strip and carried out airstrikes and artillery shelling against houses and military sites. As a result, 10 Palestinians, including 3 civilians, were killed while tens others were injured, including women and children. Among those killed was Doniana al-‘Amour (22), who was killed after an artillery shell fell on her house in al-Fokhari village, eastern Khan Younis, while her mother and sister were injured. Also, Alaa’ ‘Abdullah Riyadh Qaddoum (5), and ‘Emad ‘Abdel Rahim Ibrahim Shallah (52) were killed after IOF’s warplanes fired a missile at a group of people gathering on the street near their houses in Wadi al-Shija’aiya neighborhood, eastern Gaza City; also, a member of the Palestinian armed groups, Yousif Salman Mohammed Qaddoum (24) was killed in the same strike. Moreover, IOF’s warplanes targeted a residential apartment in Palestine Tower in central Gaza City, assassinating the commander of al-Quds Brigades, Taysir al-Ja’abari and his companion.
Today in the morning, medical sources at al-Quds Hospital declared the death of Layan Mesleh al-Sha’er (10), succumbing to shrapnel wounds in her head. Also, members of her family were injured; they were coincidentally passing by a military site when IOF struck it in al-Namsawi neighborhood in Khan Younis.
On 06 August 2022, IOF continued its offensive on the Gaza Strip for the second day in a row and heavily struck houses, agricultural lands, and military sites. As a result, 12 Palestinians, including 6 civilians: a woman and a child with his mother, were killed while tens others were injured. Among those killed was Nour al-Deen Hussein al-Zuwaidi (18), who was killed in an Israeli airstrike near his house, northeastern Beit Hanoun, along with Ibrahim Shehdah Salah Abu Salah (42), who succumbed to his serious injury on 09 August 2022. Also, 7 Palestinians, including a child and 2 women, were killed while 35 civilians were injured, including 18 children and 12 women, when IOF’s warplanes launched 6 missiles at a 3-storey house in Rafah refugee camp and destroyed it over its residents, without a prior warning, in addition to destroying 7 neighboring houses. IOF declared that they targeted Khaled Sa’id Mansour (47), the Commander of al-Quds Brigades in the southern Gaza Strip, and his body was retrieved from under the rubble along with his 2 companions. Meanwhile, the rest casualties were merely civilians living in the neighboring houses: Mohammed Eyad Hassounah (14), Ismail Abdul-Hameed Mohammad Salama/Dweik (30), and his mother, Hana’a Ismail Ali Dweik (50), and Alaa’ Saleh Abdul Mohsen Al-Mallahi (30).
Moreover, IOF’s warplanes struck 3 other multistory houses; one of them is uninhabited in Khan Younis and the 2 others in Gaza City, and destroyed them completely, rendering tens of individuals, including children and women, homeless.
On 07 August 2022, 4 Palestinian civilians were killed in central Gaza City, and others sustained various injuries in Israeli airstrikes conducted only few hours before the ceasefire was declared. Those killed were identified as: Shadi ‘Emad Nemer Kuhail (27) and Khaled Ayman Jamil Yasin (27), who were both killed after IOF launched a missile at a horse cart at al-Samer Intersection in central Gaza City. Also, ‘Abdel Rahman Jom’ah Khalaf al-Silik (22), from Shuja’iyya neighborhood, was killed when he was coincidentally passing by in a taxi returning from a shoe shop he owns in al-Shati refugee camp. Moreover, a traffic officer namely Ahmed Sabe’a Dawoud (21), from al-Nafaq Street, was critically injured when he was on duty at al-Samir intersection and then referred to al-Shifa Hospital, where he was pronounced dead in the next morning.
On the same day, IOF’s warplanes launched 2 missiles at a house in al-Tannour neighborhood, Rafah City, and completely destroyed it, rendering a family of 5, homeless. No casualties were reported.
In the West Bank, Four Palestinians, including 2 children, were killed and 59 others were injured, including 13 children and a woman. Also, tens others suffocated due to teargas inhalation. The incidents were as follows:
On 09 August 2022, IOF killed 3 Palestinians, including a child, and wounded 40 others during their incursion into Nablus’s Old City deep inside the Palestinian Authority (PA)-controlled areas in the West Bank. They cordoned off and targeted a residential house with a barrage of bullets and missiles. Among those killed were 2 members of Palestinian armed group members while the child was killed near the area. ( Details available in this press release)
In the evening, IOF killed Mo’men Yasin Jaber (16) and critically wounded 7 others, including 3 children, in clashes between Palestinians and the IOF stationed at a military checkpoint at the entrance to Al-Shuhada street in Hebron, southern West Bank. (Details available in this press release)
Meanwhile, those injured were victims of excessive use of force that accompanied IOF incursions into Palestinian cities and villages and suppression of peaceful protests organized by Palestinian civilians, and they were as follows:
On 06 August 2022, IOF suppressed a peaceful sit-in on Bab al-‘Amoud stairs in central occupied East Jerusalem against the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip. IOF attacked and beat up the participants and forcibly emptied the place. They arrested a Palestinian after beating him.
On 07 August 2022, IOF pushed and beat up worshipers and journalists during the former’s protection of hundreds of settlers, who raided al-Aqsa Mosque yards. IOF arrested 13 Palestinians, including 4 jouranlists, and assaulted 6 other journalists after breaking their equipment.
On 09 August 2022, 8 Palestinians were wounded with rubber and live bullets in clashes with IOF at the northern entrance to al-Bireh. On the same day, a 2 Palestinians sustained rubber bullet wounds; one in clashes with IOF near Qalendia and the other in clashes near ‘Anata village. Also, a Palestinian sustained a rubber bullet and 3 others were arrested, including a child, in clashes with IOF in al-Tour neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem. A child sustained a live bullet wound in clashes with IOF at Beit Ummar village entrance, northern Hebron.
So far in 2022, according to PCHR’s documentation, IOF attacks killed 102 Palestinians, including 71 civilians: 21 children, 8 women (one was journalist Shireen Abu ‘Aqlah), a person with disability, 2 Palestinians killed by Israeli settlers and the rest were activists; 11 of them were assassinated. Meanwhile, PCHR is still investigating incidents that inflicted casualties in the latest offensive on Gaza. Also, 1229 others were wounded in these attacks, including 187 children, 39 women, and 20 journalists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Moreover, 3 Palestinian prisoners, including a woman, died in the Israeli jails.
Land razing, demolitions, and notices
IOF demolished 7 dwellings and a residential tent, rendering 8 families of 44 persons, including 16 children and 8 women, homeless. Also, IOF demolished 8 facilities: mostly livestock barns, and levelled lands in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Details are as follows:
On 04 August 2022, IOF levelled an agricultural land, uprooted 20 olive trees, and closed a well in Teqoa village, eastern Bethlehem.
On 07 August 2022, IOF notified to demolish 2 rooms and a water tank in Marj Na’ajah village, western Jericho.
On 08 August 2022, IOF demolished 9 barracks; 5 are residential housing 25 individuals and 4 are used as livestock barns, in ‘Arab al-Ka’abnah Bedouin Community, northeast of occupied East Jerusalem, under the pretext of unlicensed construction.
On 08 August 2022, IOF demolished an 80-sqm dwelling in Bayrouq village, southern Hebron, rendering a family of 7 individuals, including children, homeless.
On 09 August 2022, IOF demolished a commercial warehouse over its content of spare parts in al- ‘Isawiya village in occupied eAst Jerusalem, under the pretext of unlicensed construction.
On 10 August 2022, IOF demolished a commercial facility for wood trade in Husan village, western Bethlehem, under the pretext of unlicensed construction. On the same day, IOF demolished a residential tent and a livestock barn in al-‘Oja village in Jericho, rendering a family of 6, including 4 children, homeless. Also, IOF confiscated an excavator and a truck while working in eastern Yatta, south of Hebron. IOF forced a Palestinian to self-demolish his 50-sqm house in Beit Hanina village, in occupied East Jerusalem, rendering a family of 4, including 4 children, homeless.
Since the beginning of 2022, Israeli occupation forces made 91 families homeless, a total of 541 persons, including 104 women and 255 children. This was the outcome of IOF demolition of 95 houses and 41 residential tents. IOF also demolished 72 other civilian objects, leveled vacant areas of land and delivered dozens of notices of demolition, cease-construction, and evacuation.
Israeli Setters’ Attacks
on 04 August 2022, settlers from ‘Ali Zehav” vacated truckloads of construction waste and stones in a plot of land, western Kafr al-Deek village in Salfit.
On 05 August 2022, settlers damaged a fence surrounding an agricultural land and cut branches of 16 olive trees in al- ‘Oja area in Jericho.
On 06 August 2022, settlers from “Ramat Yishai” settlement outpost established in place of Usamah Bin al-Monqez School in central Hebron’s Old City threw stones at parked Palestinian vehicles under full view and protection of IOF. As a result, windows of many vehicles were broken.
On 07 August 2022, under IOF’s protection, settlers raided the Archaeological area in Tuwani village in Hebron and performed religious rituals.
On 09 August 2022, settlers from “Yitsahar” settlement established on the southeastern Nablus lands attacked the outskirts of ‘Orif village and threw stones at a house and a vehicle, causing damage to both.
Since the beginning of the year, settlers conducted at least 166 attacks. In two of the attacks, 2 Palestinians were killed.
Collective Punishment
Under its collective punishment policy against families of Palestinians accused of conducting attacks against IOF or settlers, on 08 August 2022, IOF demolished 2 family houses of 2 Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli jails in Jenin in the West Bank. The first 3-sotrey house built on 600 sqms belongs to the family of Prisoner Subhi ‘Emad Sbeihat and housed a family of 6, including his wife, while the second is a 240-sqm house belongs to the family of prisoner As’ad al-Refa’ie and shelters a family of 7, including 3 children.
So far in 2022, IOF demolished 10 houses and sealed another after destroying its internal contents under IOF’s collective punishment policy. Meanwhile, there are many houses threatened of demolition on the same grounds.
IOF incursions and arrests of Palestinian civilians
IOF carried out 182 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, 122 Palestinians were arrested, including 6 children and a woman.
So far in 2022, IOF conducted 5211 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, during which 3172 Palestinians were arrested, including 303 children and 27 women. IOF also conducted 24 limited incursions into eastern Gaza Strip and arrested 74 Palestinians, including 41 fishermen, 28 infiltrators, and 5 travelers via Beit Hanoun “Erez” Crossing.
Israeli collective punishment and closure policy and restrictions on freedom of movement:
On 08 August 2022, IOF announced the reopening of the crossings between Israel and the Gaza Strip to the humanitarian cases; the move is subject to a situational assessment, after they were closed on 02 August 2022. IOF said that the full opening of the crossings “will be possible later in the day depending on the security situation.”
During IOF’s closure of crossings and offensive on the Gaza Strip, the humanitarian situation seriously deteriorated, threatening the operation of many vital sectors, particularly heath, electricity, water, sanitation, and public services. (More details available here)
Meanwhile, Israeli occupation maintains its illegal and inhuman 15-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 continues to impose restrictions on the freedom of movement. On top of its 108 permanent checkpoints, IOF established 60 temporary military checkpoints in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem arrested 5 Palestinians at those checkpoints.
On 04 August 2022, IOF closed the entrance to al-Mughaiyer village, eastern Ramallah, with cement cubes and prevented civilians from entering or leaving the village.
So far in 2022, IOF established 2626 temporary military checkpoints and arrested 119 Palestinians at those checkpoints
