Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestine

An Israeli soldier gets ready to fire a tear gas canister at
Palestinian houses in Nabi Saleh village, northwest of
Ramallah

Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law in the OPT continued during the reporting period (14 – 20 April 2011)

Shooting: A Palestinian civilian from the Gaza Strip died of wounds that he sustained last week and three Palestinian civilians, including a child, were wounded in peaceful protests in the West Bank. In addition, a Palestinian was wounded in a new attack launched by Israeli settlers in the south of Nablus.

In the Gaza Strip, on 14 April 2011, medical sources at Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, announced that Mahdi Jumaa Abu Athreh, 22, from al-Shouka village in the southeast of Rafah, died of his wounds. According to PCHR's investigations, at approximately 08:00 on Friday, 08 April 2011, IOF fired two artillery shells at the vicinity of Gaza International Airport. Four Palestinian civilians, including a child, were wounded as a result. Medical sources at Abu Yousif al-Najjar hospital described the wounds of two of them, including Abu Athreh, to be serious.

In the West Bank, during the reporting period, IOF used excessive force to disperse peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to Israeli settlement activities and the construction of the annexation wall in the West Bank. As a result, 3 Palestinian civilians, including a child, were wounded in Bil'ein weekly protest in the west of Ramallah.

Incursions: During the reporting period, IOF conducted at least 40 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, during which they arrested 12 Palestinian civilians, including 5 children and two women.

During the reporting period, IOF have continued to attempt to prevent international human rights defenders from participating in peaceful assemblies against settlement activities and construction of the annexation wall. As part of these attempts, IOF arrested three participants in peaceful protests, including two international human rights defenders and a Palestinian civilian.

IOF also raided a house belonging to Ahmed Khalil Abu Hashem, 43, Secretary of the National Committee Against the Wall and Settlements in Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron. IOF held Abu Hashem and his nine-member family in one room. They ill-treated two of his sons, one of whom is a child. Abu Hashem told the PCHR fieldworker that an IOF officer explicitly asked him to stop protests organized by the National Committee Against the Wall and Settlements especially in the vicinity of "Karmi Tsur" settlement, south of Beit Ummar. Abu Hashem also reported that this raid is the twenty second one conducted by IOF within fifty days and that these raids are aimed at forcing him to stop his peaceful activities against the wall and settlements.

Restrictions on Movement: Israel had 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.