Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Continue
Systematic Attacks against Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory (OPT) and a Serious Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip
Due to the Closure of Its Border Crossings
· 7 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children, were wounded
by the IOF gunfire in the West Bank.
· IOF conducted 32 incursions into Palestinian communities in
the West Bank.
· IOF arrested 9 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.
· IOF transformed 4 houses in Hebron into military sites.
· IOF have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT and
have isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world.
· The Gaza Strip is suffering from a serious humanitarian
crisis due to the closure of border crossings.
· IOF troops positioned at military checkpoints in the West
Bank arrested a Palestinian civilian.
· IOF have continued to take measures aiming at the
Judaization of Jerusalem.
· A Palestinian civilian who was expelled from his house died
from a heart attack.
· IOF demolished a house in ‘Eizariya village near Jerusalem.
· IOF banned a Palestinian student assembly in Jerusalem.
· Another house was seized in the Old Town.
· IOF have continued settlement activities in the West Bank
and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and
property.
· A Palestinian woman was injured and Israeli settlers wrote
racist words on the body of a Palestinian ambulance.
Summary
Israeli violations of
international law and humanitarian law escalated in the OPT during the reporting
period (20 – 26 November 2008):
Shooting: During the reporting period, IOF wounded
7 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children, in the West Bank and the Gaza
Strip.
On 21 November 2008, 5
Palestinian civilians, including 2 children, were wounded when IOF troops
opened fire at dozens of civilians who organized a peaceful demonstration in
protest to attempts of settlers to re-establish their presence in the evacuated
“Homesh” settlement, northwest of Nablus.
On 26 November 2008, a
Palestinian child was seriously wounded during clashes between dozens of
Palestinian civilians and IOF at the entrance of Qalandya refugee camp, south
of Ramallah.
During the reporting
period, a Palestinian civilian was wounded when IOF used force against peaceful
demonstrations organized in protest to the construction of the Annexation Wall
west of Ramallah.
Incursions: During the reporting period, IOF
conducted at least 17 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the
West Bank. During these incursions, IOF arrested 32 Palestinian civilians,
including 2 children. Thus, the number of Palestinian civilians arrested by IOF
in the West Bank since the beginning of 2008 has mounted to 2,216. IOF also handed
military orders to the owners of four houses in Hebron seizing the houses for 4
days for “military purposes.” IOF held the families on the first
floor of each house and turned the roofs into military sites. According to
eyewitnesses, the military orders restrict the movement of Palestinian
civilians living in 50 houses located neat “Kiryat Arba” settlement,
east of Hebron. IOF took this measure allegedly to allow Israeli settlers to
celebrate the Jewish Ms. Sarah Day.
Restrictions on Movement: IOF have continued to impose a tightened siege on the OPT
and imposed severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians in the
Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. During the
reporting period, IOF imposed a comprehensive closure on the OPT for the the
Jewish Sukkot.
Gaza Strip
IOF have continued to close all
border crossings to the Gaza Strip for more than two years. The IOF siege of
Gaza, which has steadily tightened since June 2007, has had a disastrous impact
on the humanitarian and economic situation in the Gaza Strip.
· 1.5 million people are being denied their basic rights,
including freedom of movement, and their rights to appropriate living
conditions, work, health and education.
· The Egypt-brokered ‘Tahdiya’
or truce between Palestinian resistance groups and Israel began on 19 June;
however, there have been no major changes regarding the movements of civilians
and goods through the six Gaza Strip border crossings.
· Rafah International Crossing Point, the only border crossing
from the Gaza Strip to the outside world via a country other than Israel,
remains closed.
Impacts of Tightening the Siege
Imposed on the Gaza Strip over the Past Three Weeks
· The Gaza Power plant completely stopped operation due to the
lack of energy fuel. Over the past three weeks, IOF have allowed only 1,721,610
liters of energy fuel into the Gaza Strip, an amount which can operate the
power plant for only 5 days.
· The main concern of 1.5 million people living in the Gaza
Strip is to obtain their basic needs of food, medicines, water and electricity
supplies.
· The majority of the civilian population lack access to
drinking water.
· Electricity is cut off for 100,000s of civilians from 8-12
hours daily, which has impacted at least 500,000 students or various stages of
education who are currently having exams./
· UNRWA had been forced to suspend it humanitarian aids
program for at least 750,000 Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip for 5 days.
· Thousands of Palestinian civilians have been forced to wait
in long queues to buy bread.
· At least 45 bakeries in the Gaza Strip (75%) have been
closed due to the black of electricity supplies and cooking gas, whereas the
remaining 18 bakeries have been forced to work in a lower capacity.
· The Rafah International Crossing Point has been opened for 3
days only to allow 2,100 Palestinian civilians, mostly patients and students,
to travel abroad, and 780 others to travel back to the Gaza Strip.
· IOF have continued to close Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing in
the face of Palestinian civilians wishing to travel to the West Bank and
Israeli for medical treatment, trade or social visits.
· IOF have imposed additional restrictions on access of
international diplomats, journalists and humanitarian workers to the Gaza
Strip. They have prevented representatives of several international
humanitarian organizations from entering the Gaza Strip.
· IOF have decreased the number of patients allowed to travel
through Erez crossing to receive medical treatment in hospitals in the West
Bank and Israel to an average of 17 patients daily, which marks a decrease by
15% in comparison with the first quarter of 2008.
· Health conditions in the Gaza Strip have deteriorated and
all medical facilities have been impacted as scores of medical sets are
operated by electricity. At least 94 medicines have been lacking.
· The lives of at least 30 newly born babies, whose
development has not been completed, is endangered as they need medical
equipments that are operated by electricity.
· A Palestinian patient died when Israeli security forces
attempted to practice extortion on him to cooperate with them to be able to
received medical treatment outside the Gaza Strip. Thus, the number of
Palestinian patients who died because IOF did not allow them to receive medical
treatment outside the Gaza Strip or due to the lack of medicines in the Gaza
Strip has mounted to 47, including 16 women and 10 children.
· Fuel supplies allowed into the Gaza Strip through the Nahal
Ouz crossing have sharply dropped to amounts that could hardly satisfy the
minimum needs of the population; the Gaza Strip has received only 19.6% of its
daily needs of energy fuel required for the operation of the power plant; 4.1%
of the daily needs of benzene; 2.9% of the daily needs of diesel; and 4.8% of
the daily needs of cooking gas.
· IOF have closed all commercial crossings of the Gaza Strip
have been closed; al-Mentar (Karni) crossing have been partially reopened for 3
days and Karm Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing has been partially reopened for
6 days only to allow the entry of limited amounts of humanitarian aids.
· Living conditions of the Palestinian civilian population
have seriously deteriorated; levels of poverty and unemployment have sharply
mounted.
· At least 900 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have
been deprived for family visitation for more than 15 months.
West Bank
IOF have continued to impose severe
restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians throughout the West Bank,
including occupied East Jerusalem. Thousands of Palestinian civilians from the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip continue to be denied access to Jerusalem.
· IOF have established checkpoints in and around Jerusalem,
severely restricting Palestinian access to the city. Civilians are frequently
prevented from praying at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
· There are approximately permanent 630 roadblocks, manned and
unmanned checkpoints across the West Bank. In addition, there are some 60-80
‘flying’ or temporary checkpoints erected across the West Bank by IOF every
week.
· When complete, the illegal Annexation Wall will stretch for
724 kilometers around the West Bank, further isolating the entire population.
350 kilometers of the Wall has already been constructed. Approximately 99% of
the Wall has been constructed inside the West Bank itself, further confiscating
Palestinian land.
· At least 65% of the main roads that leads to 18 Palestinian
communities in the West Bank are closed or fully controlled by IOF (47 out of
72 roads).
· There are around 500 kilometers of restricted roads across
the West Bank. In addition, approximately one third of the West Bank, including
occupied East Jerusalem, is inaccessible to Palestinians without a permit
issued by the IOF. These permits are extremely difficult to obtain.
· IOF continue to harass, and assault demonstrators who hold
peaceful protests against the construction of the Annexation Wall.
· Palestinian civilians continue to be harassed by IOF in
Jerusalem, and across the West Bank, including being regularly stopped and
searched in the streets by IOF.
· During the reporting period, IOF arrested 4 Palestinian
civilians, including 3 children, at various checkpoints in the West Bank.
Judaization of
Jerusalem: IOF have
escalated arbitrary measures against Palestinian civilians in East Jerusalem to
force them to leave the city.
On 22 November 2008,
Mohammed Kamel Mohammed al-Kurd, 62, died from a heart attack. According to
investigations conducted by PCHR, on 9 November 2008, al-Kurd suffered from a
heart attack when IOF seized his house in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East
Jerusalem. IOF prevented ambulances from attending him. After IOF had expelled
the family out of the house, he was evacuated to French Hospital in Jerusalem.
He received medical treatment, but in the end, medical efforts to save his life
failed and he died on 22 November 2008.
On 24 November 2008,
IOF demolished a 130-square-meter, newly built house belonging Mohammed Mahoud
Maz’aru in al-‘Eizariya village, east of Jerusalem.
On 21 November 2008,
IOF banned the organization of a student assembly in the Palestinian National
Theater in Jerusalem under the auspices of a number of NGOs and in cooperation
with a number of schools.
Settlement Activities: IOF have continued settlement
activities and Israeli settlers living in the OPT in violation of international
humanitarian law have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property.
On 23 November 2008, hundreds of Israeli settlers
from “Kiryat Arba” settlement, east of Hebron, accompanied by dozens
of settlers from other settlements attacked Palestinian civilians and property
between the aforementioned settlement and the Ibrahimi Mosque. According to
eyewitnesses, the settlers used stones, empty bottles and iron bars.
On 24 November 2008, Israeli settlers who had already
seized al-Tajabi builing near “Kiryat Arba” settlement, east of
Hebron, attacked 5 Palestinian civilian vehicles. They cut the tires and broke
windows.
On 26 November 2008, a number of Israeli settlers
attacked an ambulance of Palestine Red Crescent Society in Deir Estia village,
northwest of Salfir. They wrote provocative and racist words on the body of the
ambulance.
On the same day, Israeli settlers who had already
seized al-Rajabi building, accompanied by settlers from “Kiryat Arba”
settlement, attacked Palestinian civilians and property in Hebron.
Israeli Violations Documented during
the Reporting Period (20 – 26 November 2008)
The full report is available PDF format.
