PCHR Weekly Report: 3 Palestinians dead, 8 injured, 27 abducted this week
According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, during the week of 26 March- 01 April 2009, two members of the Palestinian resistance were killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip. A Palestinian woman died of injuries sustained during the recent Israeli forces offensive on the Gaza Strip. 8 Palestinian civilians, including a PCHR field worker, were injured by Israeli gunfire in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian woman cooking over the ruins of her destroyed home in Gaza (PCHR photo)
During the last week, Israeli forces conducted 20 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and two into the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces abducted 27 Palestinian civilians, including 10 children and two women, in the West Bank. And Israeli forces have continued measures aimed at creating a Jewish demographic majority in east Jerusalem.
Israeli attacks in the West Bank:
In the West Bank, during the last week, 6 Palestinian civilians, including two human rights defenders, were injured when Israeli forces used force against peaceful demonstrations organized in protest of the construction of Israel’s annexation wall in the West Bank.
During the reporting period, Israeli forces conducted at least 20 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and two into the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces abducted 27 Palestinian civilians, including 10 children and two women. The two women work at the Prisoners Studies Center. Israeli forces positioned at military checkpoints in the West Bank abducted two Palestinian civilians.
In the morning of 28 of March, dozens of Palestinian civilians from ‘Youth against Settlements’, a number of international human rights defenders and Mr. Mohammed Baraka, a member of the Israeli Knesset organized a peaceful demonstration in Hebron to commemorate Palestinian ‘Land Day’. Israeli forces set up a presence in the vicinity of the old city of Hebron to prevent the demonstration from entering al-Shuhada Street, which has been closed by the Israeli forces since 1994. They also declared the area a closed military zone and besieged the demonstration, which ended with a sit-in at the entrance of al-Shuhada Street near the "Beit Romano" settlement outpost. Israeli forces used force against the demonstrators to drive them away from the streets. They fired tear gas canisters and sound bombs and beat a number of demonstrators. As a result, two Palestinian human rights defenders were injured.
Israeli forces 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. Israeli forces 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.
Israeli forces have escalated arbitrary measures against Palestinian civilians in East Jerusalem to force them to leave the city. During the reporting period, Israeli forces handed a demolition notice to al-Huda School that belongs to the al-Aqsa Islamic Charity in the old town in East Jerusalem, claiming that structures were added to the school without obtaining necessary licenses. The elementary school includes five classrooms, in which 130 students attend classes.
Also during the reporting period, the Israeli forces police issued an order from the Israeli District Court on 19 March 2009 to the al-Silwadi family in the Yemen quarter of Silwan village, south of Jerusalem’s Old City. The court's decision orders the family to evacuate their three houses and confiscates a tract of land belonging to the family, claiming that the land on which the houses stand belongs to the department of protecting property of people in absentia. It is worth noting that Ibrahim Ahmed al-Silwadi purchased the land from a Jewish rabbi in 1942, and the family submitted supporting documents to the court, but the court ordered the evacuation of the houses and the land. Thirteen people, including 8 children, live in these houses.
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 Israeli forces every week.
Israeli Annexation Wall:
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 lead to 18 Palestinian communities in the West Bank are closed or fully controlled by Israeli forces (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 Israeli forces. These permits are extremely difficult to obtain.
Israeli forces continue to harass and assault demonstrators who hold peaceful protests against the construction of the Annexation Wall.
Israeli forces have continued to construct the Annexation Wall inside the West Bank. During the reporting period, Israeli forces used force against peaceful demonstrations organized by Palestinian civilians and international and Israeli human rights defenders in protest to the construction of the Wall.
Following Friday Prayers on 27 March 2009, dozens of Palestinian civilians and international and Israeli human rights defenders gathered in the center of Ne’lin village, west of Ramallah. They moved towards the area where Israeli forces were razing land to construct a section of the Wall in the village. Immediately, Israeli forces fired at the demonstrators. As a result, four Palestinian civilians were injured.
Also following Friday Prayers on 27 March 2009, scores of Palestinian civilians and a number of international human rights defenders organized a peaceful demonstration against the construction of the Wall in al-Ma'sara village, south of Bethlehem. The demonstrators moved towards the Wall, but Israeli forces intercepted them at the entrance of the village. Israeli forces fired tear gas canisters at the demonstrators, many of whom suffered from tear gas inhalation. Israeli forces also violently beat four Palestinian civilians, including two journalists.
On Monday noon, 30 March 2009, dozens of Palestinian civilians organized a peaceful demonstration in Beit 'Allam area near the Annexation Wall to the north of Ethna village, north of Hebron. Israeli forces positioned near the Wall prevented the demonstrators from moving forward and declared the area a closed military zone. They then fired tear gas canisters and sound bombs at the demonstrators and violently beat some of them. As a result, 6 demonstrators were injured, including Mr. Bassam al-Salhi, Secretary General of the Palestinian People’s Party.
During the reporting period, Israeli forces continued to raze areas of Palestinian land in Wadi al-Rasha and Ras Teera villages, south of Qalqilya, for the purpose of constructing a new route to the wall in line with a decision by the Israeli High Court. According to local sources, Israeli forces have uprooted at least 400 olive trees.
Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip:
During the reporting period, Israeli forces killed two members of the Palestinian resistance and injured two others in the Gaza Strip. A Palestinian woman also died of injuries she had sustained during the January Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip.
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces conducted two limited incursions into Palestinian areas. On 26 March 2009, Israeli forces moved into 'Abassan village, east of Khan Yunis, and abducted a Palestinian civilian. On 31 March 2009, Israeli forces moved into al-Mussaddar village in the central Gaza Strip. During this incursion, Israeli forces killed two activists of the Palestinian resistance and injured two others.
Israeli forces have continued to close all border crossings to the Gaza Strip for over two years. The Israeli forces 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. Israeli forces have continued to prevent the entry of raw construction materials into the Gaza Strip for more than two years. Israeli forces have not allowed fuel supplies into the Gaza Strip, except very limited amounts of cooking gas, since 10 December 2008.
The Rafah International Crossing Point opened for a few days for a number of patients to receive medical treatment abroad and for some to return home to the Gaza Strip.
Israeli forces have continued to close Beit Hanoun [Erez] crossing to Palestinian civilians wishing to travel to the West Bank and Israeli for medical treatment, trade or family visits. In the past two months, five patients, including two children, died due to the denial of their access to medical treatment outside the Gaza Strip.
Israeli forces 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.
Recommendations to the international community:
Due to the number and severity of Israeli human rights violations this week, the PCHR made a number of recommendations to the international community. Among these were a recommendation that the European Union activate Article 2 of the Euro-Israel Association Agreement, which provides that Israel must respect human rights as a precondition for economic cooperation between the EU states and Israel. PCHR further calls upon the EU states to prohibit import of goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
PCHR calls on the international community to recognize the Gaza disengagement plan, which was implemented in September 2005, for what it is – not an end to occupation but a compounding of the occupation and the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
In recognition of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as the guardian of the Fourth Geneva Convention, PCHR calls upon the ICRC to increase its staff and activities in the West Bank and Gaza, including the facilitation of family visitations to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
