Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in Occupied Palestine

Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law in the OPT continued during the reporting period (05 – 11 April 2012)

Shooting: During the reporting period, IOF wounded 8 Palestinians, including 6 civilians, one of whom is a journalist, in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. - In the West Bank, IOF wounded 5 civilians, including journalist, during the dispersion of peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to the construction of the annexation wall and settlement activities in the West Bank. Dozens of civilians also suffered from tear gas inhalation. In the Gaza Strip, on 07 April 2012, two Palestinian resistance activists were wounded by an Israeli air strike in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah. On 08 April, a Palestinian civilian was wounded by IOF while he was collecting junks in the east of Gaza City. During the reporting period, IOF opened fire at Palestinian agricultural and residential areas in the northern and southern Gaza Strip. No casualties were reported. Israeli gunboats also opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats in the northern Gaza Strip 3 times.

Incursions: During the reporting period, IOF conducted at least 52 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, during which they arrested 32 Palestinian civilians, including 6 children. - In the Gaza Strip, IOF conducted 3 limited incursions into Palestinian areas in the Gaza Strip, during which they leveled areas of Palestinian land which they had already razed.

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. The illegal Israeli-imposed closure of the Gaza Strip, which has steadily tightened since June 2007, has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the Gaza Strip. The illegal closure has caused not only a humanitarian crisis but a crisis of human rights and human dignity for the population of the Gaza Strip. Measures declared recently to ease the blockade are vague, purely cosmetic and fail to deal with the root causes of the crisis, which can only be addressed by an immediate and complete lifting of the closure, including lifting the travel ban into and out of the Gaza Strip and the ban on exports. Palestinians in Gaza may no longer suffer from the same shortage of goods, but they will remain economically dependent and unable to care for themselves, and socially, culturally and academically isolated from the rest of the world. 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. [Photo: Friends of Freedom and Justice - Bilin]