Scottish Friends of Palestine

Briefing Paper                                                       

December 2019           

A Bedouin family gets evicted by Israel, and their baby gets killed
Amira Hass Haaretz 17/8/19 by https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-a-bedouin-family-gets-evicted-by-israel-and-their-baby-gets-killed-1.7690279 In her 2-month life, her tent was demolished twice. She died in an accident and her mother was seriously injured, the day after the family was evicted by Israel. For 50 communities in the Jordan Valley, such evictions are common  

Sarah Ka‘abneh, 24, doesn’t know yet that her 2-month-old daughter Hana has died. For nearly two weeks the mother has been unconscious in intensive care at Jerusalem’s Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem. When the accident happened on the morning of August 5, she had the baby in her arms. She was sitting in a cart harnessed to a tractor driven by her father-in-law. Her eldest son Khaled, 2, her mother-in-law and her parents-in-law’s young children sat to each side, among the family’s meagre belongings.

Sarah’s husband, Odeh Ka‘abneh, took the sheep out to pasture and knew nothing until 9am, when his cousins found him in the hills and told him. He was always a man of few of words, and since he buried his tiny daughter and saw his wife badly bruised on the face and then linked up to various IVs at the hospital, he has been saying even less. This Bedouin family is no stranger to seasonal wandering between two permanent sites and searching for food for the sheep. But this time the wandering was premature, forced. On August 4, a day before the disaster, a Civil Administration inspector appeared at the family’s encampment near al-Hadidiya in the Jordan Valley in the West Bank. He ordered the family to move away from the place where they and their herd stay several months each year during the warm weather. About half an hour earlier, Odeh says, a settler from the settlement of Ro’i showed up and also ordered them out. . . . .

House demolition in East Jerusalem

Hundreds of Israeli troops and border police stormed the Wadi al-Hummus area of Sur Bahir (East Jerusalem) in the early hours of July 22nd and began forcibly evicting Palestinian families from their homes in preparation for the demolition of 11 buildings in the area. I have watched several videos of the event and talked with four British activists injured by border police during that morning. I have agonised over the story of Ishmael and his family, told by an Israeli activist as she watched the demolitions at first hand and stood in close solidarity with Ishmael and his family.

His sense of shock and disbelief as he waited for it to happen; his repeated whispers of hope that it wouldn’t happen after all. He and the family had chosen the colours of the decor so carefully - the bright pink kitchen cabinets; all had been so clearly done with love and care and with bright hope for the future, as is the case for any of us, looking forward to moving into a beautiful new home. In the worst picture I saw of this event, soldiers were laughing and clapping each other on the back, as they watched the building they had just dynamited collapse. Many other onlookers stood around clapping too.

Israel intensifies attacks on Palestinian institutions in East Jerusalem MEMO 26/08/19 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190826-israel-intensifies-attacks-on-palestinian-activities-institutions-in-east-jerusalem/ Israeli authorities have been intensifying their attacks on Palestinian activities and institutions in occupied East Jerusalem, reported Al-Monitor, citing a number of recent incidents.. On 5 August, Israeli forces prevented a memorial service for the Palestinian writer Subhi Ghosheh from taking place at the Yabous Cultural Centre, assaulting participants and summoning a number for interrogation. The next day, Israeli forces stopped a ceremony from being held in honour of the late athlete Ahmad Adilah at The East Jerusalem YMCA, while on 17 August, a lecture on the Israeli demolition of Jerusalemite homes at the Burj Luqluq Social Centre Society was also shutdown.

According to the report, these actions are a result of Minister of Internal Security Gilad Ardan’s 5 August order “to extend the closure of Palestinian institutions in the city and prohibit any cultural or political activities held by Palestinian organisations”. “The decision deems such events terror activities that violate Israeli sovereignty and laws in the city”, Al-Monitor added. Ziad al-Hammouri, director of the Jerusalem Centre for Social and Economic Rights, himself interrogated on 8 August, said such steps were “a prelude to the enactment of an Israeli law that sentences any Jerusalemite with ties to the PA [Palestinian Authority] to up to three years in prison in an effort to clamp down on Jerusalemites”. Adnan al-Husseini, a member of the PLO Executive Committee in charge of Jerusalem affairs, told Al-Monitor “that the Israeli harassment and actions in East Jerusalem are becoming more severe in the wake of the Jerusalem-related US decisions”.

Israel continues to erase Palestinian presence in Jerusalem  WAFA 20/11/19
Israel attempts to erase Palestinian presence in Jerusalem by shutting down more Palestinian institutions, today said Hanan Ashrawi, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) reacting to Israel’s closure of Palestine TV office among others in the occupied city today. "We strongly condemn Israel's closure of several Palestinian institutions in occupied Jerusalem, including the Office of the Directorate of Education, Palestine TV offices and the Al-Rasasi mosque. This is a continuation of the Israeli government's campaign against everything Palestinian in occupied Jerusalem and an attempt to alter the cultural and demographic composition of the City, in violation of its previous commitment to guarantee preserving Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem as well,” she said in a statement....
http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=N5CTdXa114160868844aN5CTdX

Israeli government block new school for Bedouin village MEMO 26/08/19 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190826-right-wing-israeli-activists-block-new-school-for-bedouin-village/ The Israeli government has moved to stop construction of a school in an unrecognised Bedouin Palestinian village, after pressure from a notorious right-wing group, reported Haaretz. According to the report, a Finance Ministry department that enforces planning and building laws has issued the stop-work order for the high school at al-Zarnug in the Negev.

Haaretz stated, pro-settler group Regavim “has put pressure on the authorities to halt the school’s construction”. “Obviously, building a school for the local population is an act that makes illegal settlement more permanent”, Regavim said. “Moreover, it gives residents an erroneous message that the state is shirking its responsibility for enforcing planning and building laws in this area, in contrast to its commitment in court”. The local regional council had already begun building the prefab school, with work due to be finished before the opening of the new school year ...  The village of al-Zarnug has a population of several thousand, whom the Israeli state ultimately plans to forcibly relocate to Rahat. Regavim argues that “public buildings should not be built on land slated for evacuation”, a position supported by Yair Maayan of the Authority for Development and Settlement of the Bedouin.

'This place is only for Jews' Gideon Levy & Alex Levac  Haaretz Magazine 30/08/19 https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-this-place-is-only-for-jews-the-west-bank-s-apartheid-springs-1.7767344....And what could be more moving than the sign next to one of these springs of salvation: “Dear hikers, Welcome to Anar Springs, built thanks to an intensive effort by the youth of [the nearby settlement of] Niria. Lovers of this place, we have one small request: to dress in a way that respects all visitors, based on consideration for the needs of the Other. We built the site for your sake and for the sake of the people of Israel. Our goal is for everyone to hike and enjoy the springs together.” The heart swells at the words “lovers of this place,” “consideration for the needs of the Other,” “enjoy the springs together.” Mankind is happy, nature is spectacular, but this spring, like all the others like it in the West Bank, was stolen from its owners. Robbed. Plundered. With a stomach-churning crudeness and violence. The “everyone” and the “consideration” – those words refer to Jews only. In these apartheid springs, stolen waters shall not be sweetened. Palestinian owners of these lands can only look on despairingly from the windows of their homes at their neglected olive groves, which they were forced to abandon to the insatiable greed of the lords of the land, and at the gushing springs nearby that were also stolen from them. The groves are gone, the springs are gone, justice is gone. And all, of course, under the aegis of the state and its institutions.

According to Dror Etkes, the founder of Kerem Navot, an organization that studies Israeli land policy in the West Bank, there are today more than 60 springs in the central West Bank that settlers coveted and seized as part of a project of plunder that began 10 years ago. The landscaping and renovation work at about half of them has been completed, the dispossession made absolute, the Palestinians blocked from even approaching the springs and their lands. Other springs targeted by the settlers are in various stages of takeover. Etkes explains that the seizure of the springs is part of an ambitious plan of a far larger scope – to take control of the remaining open spaces in the West Bank. This is being done by way of creation of bathing areas and hiking trails, designation of graves of Jewish spiritual figures as “holy sites,” and development of picnic sites, all on Palestinian-owned private land. The aim: to isolate the Palestinian villages, instead of isolating settlements, and of course to seize more and more land....

The Most Vegan Army in the World https://mondoweiss.net/2019/09/veganism-palestinian-oppression/?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=2fcbd099e4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_09_10&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b86bace129-2fcbd099e4-398602169&mc_cid=2fcbd099e4&mc_eid=8695252804

The IDF is also issuing leather free combat boots and wool free berets to soldiers who register as vegan, so they can march into battle knowing that no living creature has been harmed in their provisioning.

Ahmad Safi, the Executive Director of the Palestinian Animal League, perhaps best encapsulates the IDF’s breathtaking hypocrisy around veganism in his piece “On the ‘IDF’s vegan warriors’: A vegan Palestinian’s perspective.” In describing a BBC special on the “vegan warriors” of the IDF, Safi notes, “I was somewhat baffled by a particular passage in the article, taken from a radio interview which said of one of the vegan soldiers: ‘Her diet is so important to her that had the army not been able to provide conditions that had harmed no living creatures, she might not have enlisted in a combat unit.’ The only way in which I can interpret this is that the soldier in question does not consider Palestinians to be ‘living creatures.’” The IDF not only dehumanizes Palestinians, it goes one step further to objectify and place them outside the sphere of living beings, humans and non-human animals, that deserve moral consideration. Such an act is heinous, but should come as no surprise from an institution whose chief of staff is a vegan philosophy major who also happens to be best-known for destroying refugee camp homes with a hammer.

Let annexation begin  Gideon Levy Haaretz 12/09/19 https://israelpalestinenews.org/gideon-levy-please-bibi-let-annexation-begin/

There’s no longer any real debate in Israel. The right wants to annex Palestinian land openly, and the center wants to annex, but deceive us. All that’s left now is to admit to the world that in reality Israel annexed the West Bank many years ago… it’s one country with an apartheid system

Here’s one campaign promise by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that we should hope will be fulfilled: annexing the Jordan Valley to Israel. So far, no other campaign promise has been as encouraging as this one. Not one Zionist party has offered even a hint of an idea that could shake up the existing situation like this annexation proposal, and the status quo is crying for a shake-up. I obviously won’t vote for Netanyahu, but I hope that this time he keeps his promise. Let him annex the Jordan Valley, and afterward the entire West Bank. Let him turn the reality in this territory into a political reality, without hiding it any longer. The time has come for truth. The time has come to put an end to the great masked ball that Israel and the world have been holding for 52 years already. The apparently eternal reality in this territory should be translated into legal language. The Jordan Valley was annexed long ago, as was the entire West Bank. The Green Line has been erased; nothing remains of it.  All that’s left now is to say so officially....

Bodies of dead Palestinians as bargaining chip WAFA  9/09/19 http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=YFEQVca111494056938aYFEQVc

The Israeli High Court today gave the Israeli military the green light to keep bodies of Palestinians killed by Israelis as a bargaining chip in any future exchange negotiations, according to the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC). It said an expanded High Court hearing of seven judges ruled 4 to 3 in favor of giving the military governor the power to withhold bodies of dead Palestinians and bury them for a period of time and use them in the future as a bargaining chip. The court said that Israeli emergency regulations permit the Israeli military to order the interim burial of bodies designated as deceased enemies, based on considerations that take into account state security, civil order, and the need to negotiate for the return of the bodies of Israeli soldiers, according to Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel.. The new ruling overturns an earlier decision by a regular High Court which said the military ruler does not have the power to keep the bodies of the dead Palestinians.

Israeli snipers kill two Gaza children  Maureen Clare Murphy  EI  6/09/19 https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israeli-snipers-kill-two-gaza-boys

Israeli occupation forces shot and killed two Palestinian children during Great March of Return protests, Gaza’s health ministry stated on Friday. The ministry named one of those slain as Ali Sami Ali al-Ashqar, 17. He was reportedly shot in the head east of Jabaliya, northern Gaza. Palestinian outlets published this photo of the teen after his death: ... The second killed child was identified as Khalid Abu Bakr al-Rabai, 14, shot in the chest east of Gaza City. Sixty-six others were injured during Friday’s protests, 38 of them by live fire.

            Nearly 50 children are among the 210 Palestinians who have been killed during the protests since their launch in early 2018. Nineteen Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza so far this year, most of them during Great March of Return protests.

'Around 30 boys are shot every Friday' - an Irish anaesthetist on trying to dull the pain in the war zone of Gaza Francesca Holt Independent (Ireland) 18/09/19 https://www.independent.ie/world-news/middle-east/around-30-boys-are-shot-every-friday-an-irish-anaesthetist-on-trying-to-dull-the-pain-in-the-war-zone-of-gaza-38509122.html 'Sagheer' - meaning young boy in Arabic - is 16. His curly brown hair is piled high and shaved short around the sides. Every second day, Sagheer cries as dressings are pulled from the crusted pus and blood that seeps from his lower leg. One Friday, four months ago, Sagheer was shot in the leg by the Israeli military as he threw rocks across a fence. That fence is the land crossing controlled by Israel, which keeps two million people inside Gaza, on a 41km-long strip of land ...

Friday, March 30, 2018 was the first mass demonstration against 11 years of blockade in Gaza. Since that Friday, more than 7,500 Palestinians have been wounded by Israeli live fire. Every Friday since then, young boys like Sagheer have gone to the fence that pens them in from the rest of the world, to protest. Then they are shot. Every single Friday. In August, the numbers dwindled; around 30 boys are shot, every Friday. This is not considered war. This is just what happens in Gaza, every single Friday.

 I am a paediatric anaesthetist and I spent the last month working on an orthoplastic limb salvage project in Gaza. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has responded to the health crisis created by these shootings. Multi-disciplinary teams are trying to salvage these young men's legs. Live bullets cause such destruction to the bone that they mushroom inside and obliterate the structure, causing gaps that have to be filled with cement. I heard the term 'bone-gap' more often than I hear the word allergy or asthma, at home in Ireland ...  Of all injuries, 80pc are to the lower limb, maiming the future generation ... Sagheer's leg is rotting. He, like many others, suffers from chronic infection inside his bone. We need to identify the specific organisms dragged into the wound from the cavitating path of the bullet, so that Sagheer's antibiotics are targeted and do not create a milieu of resistance. Bone biopsies are sampled from the wound. During my mission, these samples were taken through checkpoints at the land crossing, into Israel, for analysis....

Gaza: Bone infections rise with shortage of critical medicine IMEMC/Agencies 18/10/19 https://imemc.org/article/medical-crisis-in-gaza-bone-infections-rise-with-shortage-of-critical-medicine/

The release of two new reports point to the severity of the Israeli-imposed crisis on the Gaza Strip, with thousands of Palestinian patients — many of whom have been injured by Israeli gunfire, shells and missiles — unable to access much-needed medicines and treatment due to the ongoing Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip. The first report, by Doctors without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), reports a rapid and severe increase of bone infections among injured Palestinians ...

In the second report, focused on shortages of essential medicines, Yousef al-Jamal, writing for the Electronic Intifada, states: Israel’s siege – imposed since 2007 – has affected Gaza’s healthcare system enormously. A new report by the World Health Organization states that of the 516 items on Gaza’s essential medicines list, nearly half had less than a month’s stock remaining in 2018. The depletion of stocks had worsened by 15 percent since the previous year, the report adds. Data from 2019 paint a similarly disturbing picture. During August, stocks of 225 essential medicines held in the central store of Gaza’s health ministry had run out by at least 90 percent.

Israel stops 661 Gaza patients from traveling for treatment MEMO 28/08/19 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190828-israel-stops-661-gaza-patients-from-travelling-for-treatment/The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) said that Israel continued to impose severe restrictions on the movement of people in Gaza Strip during July, impeding 661 patients and reducing exports by 42.2 per cent.

PCHR stated “the Israeli occupation authorities refuse to allow most of the residents of the Gaza Strip to leave or return to it through Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing. However, it allows patients with serious health issues, subject to a lengthy and complicated process to obtain a pass and strict security measures, to pass through the crossing.” During the period covered by the report, the Israeli authorities prevented 661 patients referred to Israeli or to West Bank hospitals, including occupied Jerusalem. According to the report, the Israeli authorities justified denying patients the right to travel through various pretexts, including security reasons and request to change facilities, responses’ delay and request for new appointments and the patient’s request for a security interview. Israel continued to ban the export of products from the Gaza Strip, except for minimal quantities, mostly agricultural products.

Construction of school halted  IMEMC19/09/19   https://imemc.org/article/army-issues-orders-halting-construction-of-school-near-hebron/ Israeli soldiers invaded the Ramadin area, southwest of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and delivered orders halting the construction of the al-Badia Basic School.

 Khaled Abu Sharar, the head of the Hebron office of the Education Ministry in southern Hebron, said the soldiers ordered halting the construction of the school, located in the western part of the town. Abu Sharar added that the school is close to the illegal Annexation Wall, which was built on Palestinian lands in the area. There are thirty students in this school, and construction was underway to expand it to be able to provide the needed education to more children. It is one of many Somoud and Tahadi Schools which were recently built by the Palestinian Education Ministry, and a few them have been demolished.

Israel ramps up assault on civil society raid on Palestinian NGO Addameer  Amnesty 19/09/19 https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/09/israel-ramps-up-assault-on-civil-society-with-chilling-raid-on-palestinian-ngo-addameer/ An overnight raid on the offices of a prominent Palestinian human rights organization is the latest attack on civil society in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) by Israeli authorities, said Amnesty International today. At around 2am, Israeli forces ransacked the offices in Ramallah of the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association (Addameer), seizing computers, hard drives, files and equipment.

The raid is part of a wider crackdown on Palestinian human rights and civil society organizations and their staff. "The chilling raid by Israeli forces against Addameer demonstrates the Israeli authorities’ clear determination to crush peaceful activism and silence NGOs. This was a sinister and calculated attack designed to curtail Addameer’s vital human rights work,” said Saleh Higazi, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International. “Israeli authorities have been sending a clear message to Palestinian civil society: anyone who dares to speak out about Israeli human rights violations in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories risks coming under attack.” This is the third time Israeli forces have raided Addameer’s offices; previous raids took place in 2002 and 2012. Over the years Israeli authorities have also arrested and detained many Addameer staff members. Ayman Nasser, the NGO’s legal unit co-ordinator, has been detained without charge or trial since 17 September 2018. Last week, his administrative detention was renewed for a further four months ...  In the crackdown on civil society, Israeli authorities have targeted organizations calling for an end to Israel’s occupation and accountability for crimes under international law, including through boycotts as a form of advocacy.

Settlers assault three child siblings in Hebron  IMEMC 2/10/19 https://imemc.org/article/illegal-israeli-colonists-assault-three-child-siblings-in-hebron/ Several fanatic illegal Israeli colonialist settlers attacked, Wednesday, three children in front of their home, near the illegal Ramat Yishai colony which was installed on Palestinian lands and property in Tal Romeida neighborhood, in the center of the southern West Bank city of Hebron. Eyewitnesses said the colonists surrounded the three siblings, the sons of Taiseer Abu ‘Aisha, while walking near their home. They added that the siblings, 11-13 years of age, live with their parents in their home, which is now located inside the fence of the illegal Ramat Yishai colony. The family has been subject to repeated assaults and violations by the illegal colonists, who are trying to force them out of their home in order to illegally confiscate it.

Israel allows in Gaza workers in bid to ease tensions Asharq Al-Awsat 1/10/19 https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1926601/israel-quietly-lets-gaza-workers-bid-ease-tensions Israel is quietly allowing thousands of Palestinians to enter from the Gaza Strip to conduct business and work menial jobs, apparently as part of understandings with the Hamas movement aimed at preventing a fourth war in the blockaded territory.

Israel effectively revoked thousands of work permits when it imposed a crippling blockade on Gaza after Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007. The blockade, along with three wars between Hamas and Israel, has devastated the economy in Gaza, where unemployment is over 50 percent. In recent months, Israel has quietly provided some relief as part of an unofficial, Egyptian-brokered truce with Hamas, in exchange for reduced rocket fire from the territory and the scaling back of weekly protests along the border. It has allowed Qatar to deliver millions of dollars in cash to allow Hamas to pay its civil servants and has allowed the United Nations to step up aid efforts.

Now it appears Israel has expanded a program in which it had long provided hundreds of permits to business owners to travel to Israel and the West Bank for commerce, reported The Associated Press.  Palestinian officials say it is now providing some 5,000 so-called merchant permits and awarding them to Palestinians working as laborers in construction, agriculture and manufacturing. The Israeli military body that administers civilian affairs in Gaza did not respond to AP requests for comment. Hamas officials also declined to comment.

427,000 Israelis in West Bank  ANSAmed 4/10/19 http://www.ansamed..info/ansamed/en/news/sections/generalnews/2019/10/04/peace-now-427000-israelis-in-west-bank_7c16d132-1007-4b4c-981f-1a525b669c79.html A reported 427,800 Israelis were living in the West Bank at the end of 2018, up 3.5% from 2017, while the population in Israel increased 1.9% last year, Peace Now reports, based on data released by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Peace Now said the number of settlers has grown in 2018 by 14,400 units, two thirds of whom were born in Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Quoting official Palestinian data, Peace Now added that there are 2,636,244 Palestinians in the West Bank (with the exclusion of East Jerusalem). The NGO reported that "thousands of new settlers" this year have not raised "the public's attention or discussion". Israeli pacifists are concerned in particular about the fact that the majority of new arrivals are moving to settlements that Israel would likely need to evacuate as part of a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

Farmers from harvesting olives  Palestine Chronicle 9/10/19 http://www.palestinechronicle.com/   Israeli forces  prevented Palestinian farmers from harvesting their olive trees in the village of Kufr Qaddoum, to the east of the occupied northern West Bank city of Qalqiliya, according to the farmers. Akef Juma, a farmer, told WAFA that the soldiers forced him and other farmers out of their lands located close to the illegal Jewish settlement of Kedumim under the pretext that the area is a closed military zone.  The olive harvest season, which has just started, is one of the most important for thousands of Palestinian households in the occupied territories whose income depends heavily on the success of this season.

Hunger striker reveals details of degrading, horrific torture by Israel
Days of Palestine 9/10/19 https://daysofpalestine.com/post/12857/hunger-striker-reveals-details-of-her-horrific-torture-in-israeli-prisons A Palestinian-Jordanian who has been on hunger strike for 15 days in Israeli prisons has revealed the details of her horrific interrogation and torture, the PLO Prisoners’ Committee reported on Monday.

Heba Al-Labadi, 24, was arrested on 20 August by Israeli soldiers as she crossed the Allenby Bridge from Jordan to attend a wedding in the occupied West Bank with her mother. According to her lawyer, Al-Labadi has been subjected to inhumane treatment in detention. She was apparently stripped of all of her clothes as soon as she was arrested, handcuffed, blindfolded and leg-chained before being moved to the Bitah-Tikva investigation centre. She told her lawyer that she was embarrassed when she saw the female Israeli soldiers looking at her private parts when she entered and left the toilet.

Al-Labadi also explained that she was interrogated for 20 consecutive hours during the first 16 days of her detention and said that she was given only two breaks for meals every day. She was then moved to rooms full of collaborators, who started to interrogate her; this lasted for up to 35 days, during which she was subjected to verbal, physical and psychological abuse and torture. The Israeli interrogators, she insisted, got close to her body intentionally and used the dirtiest words to insult her. “They also insulted Islam and Christianity,” she said, “and said that I am an extremist and told me that they had arrested my mother and sister and they would put me under renewable administrative detention for seven and a half years and then release me to the West Bank and put me under 24-hour surveillance.”

A large number of investigators are said to have interrogated Al-Labadi and kept her in a very dirty cell with insects and spiders ... On 25 September, Heba Al-Labadi was issued with a 5-month administrative detention order with neither charges made against her nor a trial. That was why she started her hunger strike. Two days later, she was moved to a cell monitored by four cameras. The toilet in her cell has a see-through door, so her every move is monitored by the prison guards. Despite being ordered to end her hunger strike, she insisted that the “tragedy” of the administrative detention must end first. “I will continue until the end or I shall die.”

Shot and injured 144 Palestinian civilians, including 53 children, 3 women, 2 paramedics and a journalist  PCHR 1/11/19 https://pchrgaza.org/en/?p=13128

The increased number of injuries in this week’s Great March of Return protest reflects an escalation in IOF use of excessive force, as 73 civilians sustained live bullet injuries – including 4 in critical condition - in addition to other injuries by rubber bullets and tear gas canisters, mainly in protesters’ upper bodies.

Today’s protest was titled “Down with the Balfour Declaration” as it coincided with its 102nd anniversary. Large crowds participated in the protest, as thousands of civilians joined across the 5 GMR encampments. Hundreds of civilians protested at varied distances from the Gaza border with Israel, where some protestors set tires, attempted to throw stones, Molotov Cocktails and firecrackers at IOF, who responded with live and rubber bullets as well as tear gas canisters ...
The following is a summary of today’s events along the Gaza Strip border:
Northern Gaza Strip: IOF shot and injured 47 civilians, including 20 children, 2 women and a paramedic: 24 with live bullets and shrapnel; 19 with rubber bullets; and 4 were hit with tear gas canisters. Shady Fayez Awadallah Awadallah (33), a paramedic, was shot with a rubber bullet in his right leg. Also, Moath Mohammed Mohammed Abu-Amira (25) was shot in the head with a live bullet; he is in extremely critical condition...
Rafah: IOF shot and injured 39 civilians, including 10 children and a journalist; three injuries were deemed critical: 27 with live bullets and shrapnel, 8 with rubber bullets and 4 were hit with tear gas canisters. . .

Polluted water leading cause of child mortality in Gaza Yaniv Kubovich Haaretz 16/10/19 https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium.MAGAZINE-polluted-water-a-leading-cause-of-gazan-child-mortality-says-rand-corp-study-1.6566812 Illness caused by water pollution is a leading cause of child mortality in the Gaza Strip, says a study by the RAND Corporation. The study shows that water pollution accounts for more than a quarter of illnesses in Gaza and that more than 12 percent of child deaths up until four years ago was linked to gastrointestinal disorders due to water pollution. Since that time these numbers have continued to grow. The collapse of water infrastructure has led to a sharp rise in germs and viruses such as rotavirus, cholera and salmonella, the report says ... Today 97 percent of drinking water in the Strip is not drinkable by any recognized international standard ... The study shows Gaza schools have one toilet per 75 pupils and one sink for washing hands per 80. Most of this water is either recycled or from a reservoir. As a result, the very presence of children in these schools puts them at risk of contracting gastrointestinal diseases. Schools, public buildings and hospitals are only cleaned when necessary in order to conserve water. Hospital staff only wash their hands when it’s essential and not on a regular basis when going from one patient to another, in order to conserve the water for life-saving treatment. The researchers estimate that within two years, even the isolated sources of water used today will cease to operate without proper maintenance....

No justifying Israel's bloodshed in Gaza Maureen Clare Murphy EI 14/11/19 https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/no-justifying-israels-bloodshed-gaza

A truce was declared by Israel and Islamic Jihad early Thursday, bringing an end to 48 hours of violence across the Gaza-Israel boundary that teetered on the brink of a full-blown war. Gaza’s health ministry stated that Israeli forces killed 34 Palestinians during the fighting, nearly half of them civilians, including eight children and three women. No Israeli fatalities were reported. Three members of the Ayyad family, among them a 7-year-old child, were killed as they were on a motorcycle in front of their Gaza City home on Wednesday, 13 November. They were targeted as they were rushing to a hospital after a relative had been injured in a separate attack. Israeli forces killed two boys in a strike on a carpentry shop in Gaza City that same day. Their father, who owned the shop, and two other men affiliated with Islamic Jihad’s military wing were also killed.

The deadliest single incident in the 48 hours of bombardment occurred soon before the truce took effect on Thursday. Eight persons from the al-Sawarka family – five of them children – were killed and 13 injured when Israel fired four missiles at a pair of tin-roofed shacks in central Gaza. Israel initially claimed that one of those killed was a commander of an Islamic Jihad rocket unit who was “hiding ammunition and military infrastructure” in his home ... Reports later emerged indicating that the Israeli military had mistakenly targeted the home of a different man with the same name as the Islamic Jihad commander.

Even if it wasn’t a case of mistaken identity, and weapons were present at the al-Sawarka homes, the laws of armed conflict would forbid Israel from striking them while civilians were present. Article 57 of the Geneva Conventions states that an attack must be canceled or postponed if it poses a danger to civilians “excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.” ...  Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, claimed that the targeted man, Baha Abu al-Ata, was a “ticking time bomb,” using the same phrase that Israel has used to justify its torture of Palestinian detainees ...  The “ticking time bomb” loophole has no basis in international law, whether concerning the use of torture and ill-treatment of detainees or extrajudicial executions....

'I did not find our house, there was only a huge hole.' IMEMC/Agencies 16/11/19 https://imemc.org/article/i-did-not-find-our-house-there-was-only-a-huge-hole-sawarkah-children-speak-about-a-massacre-they-survived/ Surviving children of the Abu Malhous “Sawarkah” family, who survived the massacre in which an Israeli air-strike killed 8, including five children and two women, spoke about what happened to them this past Thursday. That night, Noor Sawarkah, 12, could not sleep for fear, listening to the Israeli drones hover over the area, Quds News Network reported. “I couldn’t sleep that night, I was scared of the sounds of the Israeli drones”, said Noor, who now lives with her grandmother. Noor spotted a red light and heard a massive explosion, “I rushed out of the house and couldn’t wake my family up. I stood near the house, shaking and crying”, Noor said.

When the explosions stopped Noor turned around to return to her house, “I did not find the house but there was only a huge hole while everything was thrown here and there and my family was buried in the sand.” she declared. The injuries among members of Noor’s family are, her siblings; Nermin, 10 has broken legs, Reem, 8, has a broken nose, and Salem, 3, has a fractured pelvis. Her father Muhammad, 40, is still in the Intensive Care Unit. Noor’s mother, Yusra, 39, and two brothers Muath, 7, and Waseem, 13, were killed in the strike. Noor prefers now to spend her days at the hospital, comforting her siblings, who ask for their mother, but they are unaware that she was killed in the bombing. Several Palestinian families spend their time with the survivors to alleviate their grief.

Diaa Sawarkah, 13, is another survivor, who is still in shock of what he witnessed. He suffered shrapnel wounds to his face, while escaping to his grandmother's home. “I was in the house when everything turned red, I heard an explosion in my uncle’s house, so I rushed to my grandmother’s house close by.” said the boy, whose relatives call a daring and strong-hearted child....

Israel to destroy all Palestinian structures in Area C IMEMC/Agencies 9/12/19  https://imemc.org/article/israel-threatens-to-destroy-all-palestinian-structures-in-area-c/

Israeli Minister of Defense, Naftali Bennett, has threatened to destroy all Palestinian structures in West Bank areas under complete Israeli control (Area C), including those which were funded by Europeans, under the pretext of unlicensed construction. According to Days of Palestine, Bennett made the threat during a meeting with ambassadors of European Union states, last week. He called on Europeans to direct their money towards humanitarian aid instead of what he called unlicensed construction. The minister’s threat came one day after the Israeli army’s central region commander announced a plan to launch an unprecedented demolition campaign, against Palestinian buildings, in Area C of the West Bank. The occupied West Bank was divided into three areas – A, B and C – as part of the Oslo Accords, signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel, in 1993 and 1995....

Travel ban against Amnesty campaigner from West Bank  Areeb Ullah MEE 31/10/19 https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-issues-travel-ban-against-amnesty-international-campaigner-west-bank Israel has issued a travel ban against a Palestinian campaigner for Amnesty International amid a growing Israeli crackdown on human rights groups inside the West Bank and Gaza Strip. On 26 October, Israeli authorities stopped Laith Abu Zeyad, Amnesty's campaigner on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), from leaving the West Bank to attend a relative's funeral in Jordan. Zeyad was banned from travelling abroad by Israeli intelligence for "security reasons", Amnesty said.

In September, he was denied a humanitarian permit to accompany his mother to Jerusalem for cancer treatment also on the grounds of "security reasons" which were not disclosed to him at the time. Kumi Naidoo, secretary-general of Amnesty International, condemned the travel ban and described Israeli authorities' claim to have security reasons for banning Zeyad as "totally absurd". "Their failure to provide any details to justify the ban reveals its true intent. This is a sinister move imposed as punishment for his work defending human rights of Palestinians,” Naidoo said in a statement..

Israel's top court upholds deportation of senior HRW official Al Jazeera 5/11/19 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/israel-top-court-upholds-deportation-senior-hrw-official-191105095825860.html Israel's Supreme Court has upheld a government decision to expel a senior Human Rights Watch (HRW) official over his alleged support for promoting boycotts of the country. The unanimous three-judge decision supporting the Israeli government's move against Omar Shakir, a US citizen who represents HRW in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, was published on Tuesday on the court's website. 

It will now be up to the government whether to follow through and deport Shakir, who brands the move a bid by Israel to silence and delegitimise critics of its treatment of Palestinians. "If it proceeds, I have 20 days to leave and it'll join ranks of Iran, North Korea & Egypt in blocking access for HRW official," Shakir tweeted after the decision was announced, referring to Israel, which has sought to expel him for more than a year ...  It would be the first expulsion of its kind under a 2017 law allowing the deportation of foreigners who support boycotting Israel, though there have been cases of people being denied entry under the measure....

Hugh Humphries  

Secretary                                   

Scottish Friends of Palestine     0141 637 8046                    info@scottish-friends-of-palestine.org