PCHR Weekly Report: 15 Palestinians killed, 29 injured, 78 kidnapped

The Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) has released its weekly report on Israeli human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza for the week of October 25th – 31st, 2007.  During the week, Israeli forces killed 15 Palestinians, including a disabled civilian.

According to the report, Israeli forces injured 29 Palestinians, including 9 children, 2 women, an old man, a journalist and a human rights worker.  The injuries and deaths occurred mainly during 49 separate incursions by Israeli forces into civilian areas in the West Bank and Gaza.  79 Palestinians were abducted by Israeli forces this week, including 6 children and 2 women.

 

In addition, Israeli forces razed an entire village near Hebron, forcing the inhabitants to scramble to the other side of the Wall and remain there, homeless and disconnected from their community.  Israeli forces also razed 32 dunums of land in the Gaza Strip.

 

Israeli attacks in the West Bank:

 

According to the PCHR report, a Palestinian died on October 30th from a previous wound he had sustained on October 16th.  Six civilians, including 4 children, were also wounded by Israeli forces. Three of these civilians - a Palestinian child, an Italian journalist and an Italian human rights activist - were wounded when Israeli forces used so-called ‘non-lethal weapons’ to disperse a peaceful demonstration organized by Palestinian civilians and international and Israeli human rights defenders in Bil’in village, west of Ramallah on Friday. 

 

Israeli occupation forces have continued to impose severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians to and from Jerusalem, including additional checkpoints throughout the city and the denial of the right of thousands of Palestinians to pray in the Al-Aqsa mosque.  The city has been isolated from the rest of the West Bank by the Israeli Annexation Wall and checkpoints.

 

The Israeli occupying army has also tightened the siege imposed on Palestinian communities in the West Bank, including maintaining the 700 checkpoints and roadblocks set up throughout the West Bank, and erecting temporary checkpoints several times throughout the week.

Settler attacks and settlements:

 

According to the PCHR weekly report, Israeli forces have continued to allow and promote illegal Israeli settlement activities in the Palestinian territories, and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property.

 

In one instance, on Friday October 26th, Israeli occupying forces told villagers from Hares, west of Salfit, that seven houses, home to 30 people, would be demolished, claiming that they were built without licenses (Israel has refused to issue any licenses to Palestinians to build on their land since 1967).

 

And also on Friday, Israeli settlers from “Ramat Yishai” settlement in Tal Rumeida neighborhood in the center of Hebron attacked a nearby house belonging to Mohammed Hamed Abu ‘Eisha with stones and empty bottles.

 

Israeli Annexation Wall:

 

Israeli forces have continued construction of the Annexation Wall throughout the West Bank this week, in direct contravention of international law and signed agreements.

 

During the reporting period, Israeli forces used force against a peaceful demonstration organized on Friday October 26th by Palestinian civilian in protest to the construction of the Wall in Bil’in village, west of Ramallah.  The weekly non-violent demonstration was attacked by Israeli forces who fired rubber-coated metal bullets, sound bombs and tear gas canisters at the demonstrators, injuring three.

 

Also, on Monday, October 29th, Israeli forces, accompanied by bulldozers, moved into the Kherbet Qussa area, northwest of Hebron, which is isolated behind the Wall. They opened fire into the air. They then demolished 15 houses, 12 caves and 27 barnyards. At least 250 Palestinian civilians have become homeless, and Israeli soldiers forced them to flee the area.

 

Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip:

 

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces killed 15 Palestinians over the last week, including a disabled civilian and 4 policemen, and wounded 29 others, including 5 children, 2 women and an elderly man, according to the PCHR report.

 

Three of these casualties occurred during an Israeli invasion of the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, October 29th.  During that invasion, Israeli troops fired at school children who were on their way to school. Ahmed ‘Ata al-Za’anin, 17, was seriously wounded by a gunshot to the chest. The United Nations Refugee Works Agency, UNRWA, was forced to evacuate its school and suspend education due to the intense shooting by the soldiers. At approximately 07:45, Fareed Ibrahim Abu ‘Ouda, 44, who is physically disabled, was killed by 3 gunshots to the head, when he was inside his house as Israeli troops opened fire indiscriminately at houses. Two civilians, including a child, were also wounded at that time.

 

All border crossings in Gaza remain closed for the 16th month.  In addition, since the state of Israel declared Gaza an ‘enemy entity’ in September, the occupying authority has imposed even more severe restrictions and measures of collective punishment against the civilian population of Gaza.  As a consequence, local markets have run out of many goods, which caused a sharp increase in prices – up to 500% in some cases. 

 

Israeli occupation forces have banned the flow of some medicines, furniture, electrical appliances, cows and cigarettes into the Gaza Strip, and have decreased the amounts of some goods allowed into the Gaza Strip, such as fruits, milk and some dairy products.

 

Click the link below for a comprehensive PCHR report