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Protection of Civilians Weekly Report | 18 - 31 July 2017

Countries
oPt
Sources
OCHA
Publication date
Origin
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Biweekly highlights

  • Three Israelis and three Palestinian suspected perpetrators were killed in the course of five Palestinian attacks and alleged attacks; four Israelis and one Palestinian were also injured during these incidents. On 21 July, a 19-year-old Palestinian stabbed and killed three Israelis, two men and a woman, and injured another woman, all members of the same family, after he broke into their house in the Israeli settlement of Halamish (Ramallah); the perpetrator was shot and injured by an Israeli soldier, and then arrested. On 18 July, a Palestinian man drove his vehicle into a group of Israeli soldiers at the Beit ‘Einoun junction (Hebron), injuring two of them, and was subsequently shot and killed. Two Palestinian men were shot and killed by Israeli forces at the entrance of Tuqu’ village (20 July) and near the Gush Etzion junction (28 July), reportedly after they attempted to stab Israeli soldiers; no Israeli casualties were reported. Finally, on 24 July, a Palestinian stabbed and injured an Israeli man in Petach Tikva city (Israel), and was subsequently arrested, according to Israeli media reports.

  • Israeli forces raided the village of Kobar (Ramallah), where the perpetrator of the attack in Halamish settlement lives, and blocked all its entrances, except for humanitarian cases coordinated in advance, through the end of the reporting period. The access of the around 5,000 residents to services and livelihoods has been severely disrupted as a result. During the raid, Israeli forces confiscated vehicles, documents and money from the house of the perpetrator, and clashes occurred with local youth, with injury to 24 Palestinians.

  • Ongoing clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces in and around East Jerusalem resulted in five Palestinian fatalities, as well as in 1,015 Palestinian injuries, including at least 34 children, and injury to two Israeli policemen. Most clashes followed large-scale assemblies of worshippers carrying out prayers in the street, in protest against the installation of metal detectors at the entrances to the Haram ash Sharif/Temple Mount compound, following the 14 July attack next to the compound. Two of the fatalities, 18 and 21-years-old, were shot on 21 July in the Ras al ‘Amud and At Tur areas, one of them by an Israeli settler; another two Palestinians, 18 and 23-years-old, were shot during clashes in Abu Dis town on 21 and 22 July; and one, 28-year-old, died of wounds sustained on 24 July in similar clashes in Hizma village. Of the Palestinian injuries, 19 were hit by live ammunition, and most of the rest were injured by rubber bullets or required medical treatment due to tear gas inhalation. Two of the Palestinian injuries, a child and a man, lost an eye. On 24 July the Israeli authorities removed the metal detectors, reducing significantly the level of tension and clashes.

  • On 21 July, Israeli border policemen forcefully broke into Al Maqased Hospital in East Jerusalem, reportedly searching for protesters injured that day, and disrupted the provision of emergency medical care. The forces reportedly harassed some of the hospital’s staff and, on their way out, fired a tear gas canister at Palestinians gathering in the hospital’s courtyard. A similar raid in the same context was recorded on 17 July.

  • Additional clashes elsewhere in the oPt, including in connection to events in East Jerusalem, resulted in another Palestinian fatality and 535 Palestinian injuries. On 28 July, a 15-year-old boy was shot and killed by Israeli forces during clashes next to Gaza’s perimeter fence, east of Al Bureij refugee camp, while another 34 Palestinians were injured in this and similar incidents along the fence in the Gaza Strip. The largest numbers of injuries in the West Bank, outside the Jerusalem area, were recorded during clashes at the Beit El/DCO (Ramallah) and Huwwara (Nablus) checkpoints.

  • On at least 15 occasions, Israeli forces opened warning or direct fire into Gaza’s Access Restricted Areas (ARA) on land and sea, with no injuries reported. On some of these cases, the work of Palestinian farmers and fishermen was disrupted. On another four occasions, Israeli forces carried out levelling and digging inside Gaza, near the perimeter fence.

  • No developments were recorded regarding Gaza’s electricity crisis, with power cuts remaining at 18-20 hours a day, undermining the provision of essential services. The Palestinian NGO network (PNGO) reported that more than 44,000 people suffering from disabilities are particularly affected by the long power cuts, including people dependent on oxygen and mobility devices, which require electricity.

  • Five settler attacks leading to Palestinian injuries or property damage were reported. Two Palestinian children were injured in two separate stone-throwing incidents at Beit ‘Einoun junction (Hebron) and ‘Asira al Qibliya (Nablus), and a Palestinian man was injured by a dog unleashed by settlers near Za’tara checkpoint (Nablus). Two incidents of arson to Palestinian land, reportedly by Israeli settlers, were recorded in Jalud and Madama villages, both in the Nablus governorate, resulting in damage to an agricultural structure, and irrigation networks.

  • On 25 July, Israeli settlers took over an apartment in a building located in the H2 area of Hebron city, in violation of an Israeli order declaring part of the building as a closed military area. A Palestinian family of 16, half of them children, residing in another apartment of the same building, reported access restrictions and intimidation since the takeover. A petition filed by the Palestinian family with an Israeli court three years ago, challenging the settlers’ ownership claims, is still pending.

  • Three Israeli settlers including one child were injured and at least five vehicles damaged in multiple incidents of stone-throwing by Palestinians near Jerusalem, Ramallah, Hebron and Bethlehem, according to Israeli media reports.

  • The Israeli authorities demolished or seized four Palestinian-owned structures in Area C of the West Bank, on the grounds of lack of building permits, affecting the livelihoods of some 250 people. The targeted structures included a commercial caravan in Battir village (Bethlehem); two commercial booths in Ar Ram town (Jerusalem); and a segment of a road connecting Wadi Sneysel community to Road 1; the latter is one of the 46 Bedouin communities in the central West Bank at risk of forcible transfer. The authorities also issued at least 17 demolition and stop-work orders against residential and livelihoods structures in three Area C communities in southern Hebron, including four donor-funded structures provided as humanitarian assistance in the community of Al Bowereh.

  • The Egyptian-controlled Rafah crossing was exceptionally open during the reporting period, only for the entry of fuel, primarily for the GPP, but remained closed for the movement of passengers. According to the Palestinian authorities in Gaza, over 20,000 people, including humanitarian cases, are registered to pass through the crossing. It was last exceptionally opened for passengers on 9 May, bringing to 16 the number of days it has opened so far in 2017.

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit https://www.unocha.org/.