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Scottish Friends of Palestine
Briefing Paper
July 2020
Baby denied medical treatment dies Celine Hagbard PHRI 23/06/2020 https://imemc.org/article/palestinian-baby-dies-after-israel-denies-permit-for-medical-treatment/
The Israeli Annexation Plan, announced last month by Israeli authorities, and put into practice this month, has apparently claimed its first victim, as a Palestinian baby scheduled for a lifesaving operation in Israel was denied a permit by Israeli authorities who run the West Bank and Gaza under martial law. The eight-month-old infant from the Gaza Strip was the first to die under this new system of closure and annexation – but the Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI) warn that he will not be the last.
Omar Yaghi, with a cardiac condition, died on Thursday after Israeli military officials denied his family the access to go to Israel for his scheduled May 24th surgery at Sheba Medical Center. The stated reason for the denial of his travel was the cessation of coordination between the Palestinian Civil Affairs Committee (PCAC) – a part of the Palestinian Authority (PA) – and the Israeli military authorities which control all access to the West Bank and Gaza, and all internal roadways and travel.
Israeli authorities have long used an antiquated and nearly-impossible to navigate ‘permit’ system which requires Palestinians who need medical care to go to a military base and wait for hours or days to try to get a permit to reach the hospital. This system has cost hundreds of lives over the years, and now, with the Palestinian Authority pulling its implicit consent for this martial law, there are no permits being issued and therefore, no travel for medical care. The problem lies not with the Palestinian Authority, however, as most media have tried to claim, but with Israel, which has an obligation under international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention to provide the means for the population under its military’s occupation since 1967 to be allowed freedom of access to medical care.
Soldier kills boy in Hebron IMEMC 13/05/2020
https://imemc.org/article/israeli-soldiers-kill-a-palestinian-child-in-hebron/
Israeli soldiers killed, earlier on Wednesday morning, a Palestinian child, and injured four young men, in the al-Fawwar refugee camp, southwest of the southern West Bank city of Hebron. Media sources said dozens of soldiers invaded the refugee camp, and attacked local youngsters, who protested the invasion into their alley and neighborhoods.
They added that the soldiers fired many live rounds at the unarmed protesters, and at random, in addition to rubber-coated steel bullets and gas bombs. Medical sources in Hebron said the soldiers killed a child, identified as Zeid Fadel Qaisiyya, 15, after shooting him with a live round in the head. They added that the soldiers also shot four other Palestinians with live fire; two of them were shot in the chest and abdomen, and two in their lower extremities.
Hospital guards kill epileptic Palestinian IMEMC 16/05/2020 https://imemc.org/article/israeli-hospital-guards-kill-epileptic-palestinian-man/
Security guards at a Tel Aviv hospital on Wednesday killed an epileptic Palestinian man in front of his mother. He was killed at the entrance to the hospital where he frequently received treatment for his epilepsy.
Mustafa Younis, from Aara town, was killed by the guards after an argument at the entrance to the hospital. A video shows three security guards shooting Younis, who has his hands up and is standing near the driver’s side of his car. The attack took place at Sheba hospital in Tel Aviv, where Younis had gone with his mother to seek treatment.
The three security guards all shot at him, with seven bullets hitting him at close range, killing him while his mother looked on, horrified but unable to stop the killing of her son.
Israeli sources claimed that Mustafa tried to stab the guards, but that claim contradicts the video evidence — and there was no evidence presented to back the absurd claim.
“My brother was murdered in cold blood,” said Mahmoud Younis, Mustafa’s younger brother
Israeli forces kill autistic man in Jerusalem IMEMC 31/05/2020
https://imemc.org/article/israeli-forces-kill-autistic-palestinian-man-in-jerusalem/
On Saturday, Israeli police in Jerusalem shot and killed an unarmed, autistic Palestinian man, then left him lying on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds for over an hour until he bled to death. Eyad Khairi al-Hallaq, 32, was on his way to an institution for people with special needs, where he would go each day, in Wad al-Jouz neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem. . . . Following the Israeli police shooting, protests erupted in the city of Jerusalem. Israeli police closed all the gates leading into Jerusalem’s old city, banning all entry and exit.
The police also raided Hallaq’s home in Wad el-Joz and questioned his family. Khairi Hallaq, the father of the deceased, told reporters “They found nothing”, and noting that police had cursed his daughter when she became upset at them.
Mourning tents invaded by Israeli police Ali Salam IMEMC 06/06/2020
Israeli police, on Thursday evening, invaded the home and mourning tent of Palestinian martyr, Eyad al-Hallaq, in Wad al-Jouz neighborhood in Occupied Jerusalem, the Palestinian Information Center reported.
Local sources said that the Israeli police searched the family home and mourning tent, showing grave disrespect, and provoking confrontations with locals, which resulted in the arrest of two Palestinian civilians.
Eyad al-Hallaq, a 32-year-old Palestinian with autism, was shot and killed by Israeli police forces, in Jerusalem’s Old City, while he was on his way to his special education school.
Palestinians count on Israel's separation barrier Suha Arraf +972 Mag 16/04/2020 https://www.972mag.com/separation-barrier-west-bank-coronavirus/
It’s a story that even a screenwriter would have a hard time coming up with: fearing that Palestinians employed inside the Green Line will bring the new coronavirus back into the West Bank, Palestinians are reporting breaches in the separation barrier that divides Israel from the occupied territories. Members of the Popular Committees, who for the past two decades have coordinated non-violent demonstrations against the concrete wall and metal fences that make up the barrier, are themselves trying to fix the holes. Palestinian officials are claiming that the Israeli government is failing to properly maintain the barrier, thereby allowing Palestinian laborers to freely cross into Israel via damaged parts of the metal fence and drainage canals, and return without any kind of medical checks. According to Israeli media, almost two-thirds of all confirmed COVID-19 cases in the occupied territories can be traced back to Palestinian laborers returning from Israel.
Arrests and raids during coronavirus pandemic B'Tselem 16/04/20 https://www.btselem.org/video/20200416_israel_continues_arrests_and_raids_during_coronavirus_pandemic#full
The entire world has ground to a halt, but the Israeli military is carrying on its violent routine of occupation throughout the West Bank. From 1 March 2020 to 3 April 2020, Israeli security forces raided 100 homes in the West Bank and arrested 217 Palestinians, 16 of them minors. Forty percent of the individuals detained, and 60% of the minors, were arrested between 12 March and 3 April 2020 – after Israel and the Palestinian Authority had tightened restrictions on movement in the West Bank. B’Tselem field researchers documented night raids on 12 homes, eight of which belong to members of an extended family. In every case, soldiers forced their way in, waking the entire family. In some instances, the soldiers trapped all the members of the family in a single room while they turned the rest of the house upside down. Some of the raids lasted about three hours. Armed soldiers invading your home, an inherently violent affair – and in the middle of the night, to boot – is always terrifying. The “usual” terror is now compounded by the specific fear of contracting coronavirus from strangers who break into your home and stay there for some time
Vineyards flooded with sewage PNN 15/04/2020
For the second time in less than a fortnight several armed Israelis from Gush Etzion settlement caused flooding of Palestinian-owned vineyards in Beit Ummar town northwest of al-Khalil (Hebron), with sewage. Israeli settlers have been intentionally deluging Palestinian farmlands with huge volumes of wastewater over the past few years, causing a great deal of financial loss
Worker abandoned outside settlement Ali Salam IMEMC 13/04/2020 https://imemc.org/article/sick-palestinian-worker-abandoned-outside-settlement-near-salfit/
A Palestinian worker showing coronavirus symptoms was abandoned, on Sunday by Israeli settlers, outside the illegal Burkan settlement, near the town of Salfit in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian WAFA News Agency reported. Abdullah Kmail, the Governor of Salfit, said the worker, who had remained at his workplace in Israel for several weeks, was found dumped near the Burkan colony, in the central West Bank. He added that the Palestinian Ministry of Health picked up the sick man, tested him for the coronavirus and moved him to safety. The governor denounced the inhumane practice of dumping sick Palestinian workers at Israeli checkpoints or outside illegal settlements. There have been some incidents where Palestinians employed in Israeli settlements in Palestine and inside Israel have been abandoned for showing signs and symptoms of the infectious disease.
Coronavirus response stirs Jerusalem sovereignty struggle AFP 18/04/2020 https://www.afp.com/en/news/15/coronavirus-response-stirs-jerusalem-sovereignty-struggle-doc-1ql8jr9 Israel's arrest of senior Palestinian officials for "illegal" efforts to contain coronavirus and the Jewish state's closure of a clinic have exacerbated a long-running row over the status of east Jerusalem. Since the onset of the health crisis, Palestinian officials allege the Arab population of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem has been overlooked by Israeli efforts to curb the spread of the virus. Israeli police recently shuttered a COVID-19 screening facility in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan -- the testing was unauthorised, they said, because it was only overseen by the Palestinian Authority, and not Israel. "Our goal is to provide aid to the people of east Jerusalem who are intentionally being neglected" by Israel, Fadi al-Hadami, the Palestinian government's minister for Jerusalem affairs, told AFP. But meetings with "hospital doctors in Jerusalem, interviews with media calling on people to stay at home to fight corona(virus) -- they (Israel) consider these things violations," he lamented. Earlier this month, Hadami and Adnan Ghaith, the Palestinians' governor of Jerusalem, were detained by Israeli authorities amid their on-the-ground response to the coronavirus crisis. Both men were released within 24 hours. But the spread of COVID-19 in predominantly Palestinian east Jerusalem risks exacerbating political tensions that could put lives at risk.
Supposed baptismal site mine-free after 53 years i24NEWS 12/04/2020 https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/1586689302-jesus-supposed-baptismal-site-mine-free-after-53-years The minefield covered around 250 acres and contained an estimated 2,600 landmines -- After 53 years of being a vast minefield, the holy site of Qaser al-Yahud, where John the Baptist is thought to have baptized Jesus in the Jordan River, has finally been cleared of landmines. After the 1967 Six Day War, the border between the West Bank and Jordan was heavily mined, including churches belonging to major sects of Christianity at Qaser al-Yahud, located in the Jordan River Valley in the West Bank. The last mine was cleared on April 9, allowing safe access to the churches and compounds that had been off limits to worshippers and the clergy for more than five decades.
Domestic abuse soars Farah Najjar Al Jazeera 20/04/2020 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/domestic-abuse-palestinian-women-soars-200420175924348.html Since start of coronavirus lockdown, at least five women have been killed at the hands of their abusers, activists say -- Banging pots and pans and waving homemade banners, scores of Palestinians have expressed their solidarity with women enduring various forms of domestic violence during a lockdown imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The initiative on Monday, which saw both women and men stand at their windows and balconies across the occupied Palestinian territories and historic Palestine, was aimed at shedding light on the plight of women who are locked down with their abusers. According to a tally combined by Tal‘at, an independent political feminist movement that organised the campaign, 11 Palestinian women have been killed as a result of domestic violence so far this year, with five of the fatalities occurring since the implementation of the lockdown in early March
Pupils struggle to learn at home in Gaza Ola Mousa Electronic Intifada 23/04/2020 https://electronicintifada.net/content/pupils-struggle-learn-home-gaza/30046
Raya Nofal finds it hard to attend classes over the internet. “I don’t have a tablet,” the 11-year-old said. “My mother gives me her phone. But sometimes she gets a call and that interrupts our lessons. At other times, I can’t focus because the internet is slow.” Raya’s experience is shared by numerous pupils in Gaza. Schools have been closed since March in an attempt to halt the spread of the new coronavirus. While teachers have been giving lessons online, participating in them has been difficult for children who do not have adequate equipment. As Raya’s father has been unemployed for the past two years, her family cannot afford to buy her a computer or other electronic device suitable for e-learning. The problems have been compounded by frequent power cuts in Gaza. Aya and Nisreen Saad are aged 10 and 15. Most mornings they are unable to follow classes on the internet as there is no electricity available. Furthermore, they do not have their own phones, tablets or computers. Both have to use their mother’s mobile phone . . Israel prevents Gaza from developing a third-generation mobile phone network. It is, therefore, rare for people in Gaza to have good quality internet access on their mobile phones. . . .
Mossad promoting drugs in Palestinian refugee camps MEMO 23/04/2020 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200423-hamas-israel-mossad-involved-in-promoting-drugs-in-palestine-refugee-camps/
Hamas yesterday accused Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad of being involved in promoting drugs among Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Quds Press reported. During a meeting with other Palestinian factions, Hamas representative in Lebanon Ahmed Abdul-Hadi hailed the detention of drug dealers in the refugee camps. Abdul-Hadi reiterated that Mossad is involved in promoting drugs in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, pointing out that the intelligence agency makes drugs available with very low prices in order to make it accessible to a large number of people. Israel, the movement said, promotes drugs among Palestinian refugees in order to undermine their spirit of resistance. Palestinian factions carried out a campaign to capture drug dealers in Burj El-Barajneh camp on Tuesday, handing them over to the Lebanese security services.
Israeli settlers carry out violent attacks IMEMC 26/04/2020
Since the start of the corona crisis, Israeli settlers have ramped up attacks against Palestinians throughout the West Bank, with full state backing.. . . . . some of them carrying firearms, clubs, axes, electroshock weapons, stones and assault dogs, in some cases causing severe injury. . . . also attacked homes, torched cars, vandalized and uprooted olive trees and other crops, and stole livestock. . . .
‘Issa Qatash described the terrifying moments he endured in a testimony he gave to B’Tselem field researcher Iyad Hadad on 18 April:
I could barely protect my head and face from the blows. Someone hit me hard on the mouth and I could feel my front teeth break. Blood started trickling into my mouth and down my face. I shouted and cried out: “For God’s sake, what did I do to you? Do you have no mercy? You’re killing me. Have mercy.” But none of them listened. At some point, I collapsed. I had no strength left. Then they tied my hands behind my back with some rope. The armed settler pointed his gun at my head and cocked it, as if he was going to shoot me in the head. I started reciting the “shahada” over and over: “There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet.” I thought my time had come to die.
They kept on beating me and swearing at me, and threatened to kill me. Then they pulled me up on my feet. I could barely walk and it felt like my left leg was broken, but they forced me to walk. They led me, limping, through the wild oats, rocks, bushes and thorns. Every now and then I fell down, but they pulled me back up and forced me to keep walking. I was in a terrible state, bleeding from the mouth and hardly able to open my eyes, which were swelling up with every step I took. My throat was dry and I felt like I was dying of thirst. Psychologically, I was broken. It was a terrible situation, only God can imagine it. They kept slapping and kicking me and swearing at me the whole way. They spat on me, too.
These actions are part of a joint strategy by the settlers and Israeli authorities to systematically block Palestinian access to land – one acre, field, fertile plot, grove or pasture at a time – for decades on end, and take effective control of it. This way the state transfers the means of livelihood of Palestinians into the hands of Israelis. Settler violence is the state’s unofficial, privatized arm that serves to gradually achieve this goal.
Settlers uproot hundreds of grapevines in Bethlehem IMEMC 07/05/2020
https://imemc.org/article/colonial-settlers-uproot-hundreds-of-grapevines-in-bethlehem/
Head of the Palestinian Office for Fighting Israeli Settlements and Israel’s Apartheid wall in Bethlehem, Hassan Breega, told media outlets that Israeli settlers from the nearby colonial illegal Israeli settlement of Ephrat, uprooted around 450 newly-planted grapevines, owned by local resident, Ibrahim Sobaih.
Recently, Israeli troops, along with armed Israeli colonial settlers, have reportedly attacked a number of Palestinian-owned farm lands in the Alkhudor town, on the outskirts of the Bethlehem district.
Undercover soldiers kidnap 13 Palestinians Silwanic 11/05/2020
https://imemc.org/article/undercover-israeli-soldiers-kidnap-13-palestinians-in-silwan/
Undercover Israeli soldiers assaulted and kidnapped, on Monday evening, 13 young Palestinian men in Silwan town, in occupied East Jerusalem.
Silwanic added that the officers repeatedly assaulted the Palestinians with clubs and batons, before moving them to the Police Station in Salahuddin Street, in Jerusalem.
Ya’bad town isolated, disabled Palestinian assaulted WAFA 16/05.2020
https://imemc.org/article/israeli-forces-isolate-yabad-town-assault-disabled-palestinian-man/
Israeli forces blocked all entrances to Ya’bad town, west of Jenin city, on Friday morning, after several days of military invasions into the northern West Bank town.
On Tuesday, a 21-year old Israeli soldier was killed during a pre-dawn invasion of the town, the military has since invaded the town several times and arrested dozens of Palestinians.
WAFA correspondent said that Israeli troops closed the main eastern entrance of the town and secondary roads, with barrels and cement blocks, isolating the town, a possible prelude to even more incursions. The invasion is part of the manhunt for the Palestinian responsible for the death of the soldier, detaining one Palestinian minor, after ransacking his home.
Israel constructs settler-only bypass road IMEMC 19/05/2020
https://imemc.org/article/israeli-troops-erect-settler-only-bypass-road-in-southern-nablus/
Israeli troops reportedly embarked on erecting a bypass road, on Tuesday, in the Huwara village, south of Nablus city in the northern occupied West Bank.
Local Palestinian media sources said that the road is seven kilometers-long and that it will be located on about 100 acres of Palestinian farm lands. . . . . noted that the bulldozing will cause the destruction of a total of 2800 olive trees owned by Palestinians in the villages of Burin, Huwara Beta, Ourta, Yatma, Sawiya and Yasouf, located in southern Nablus city.
Israeli forces deliver demolition orders PIC 21/05/2020
https://imemc.org/article/halt-construction-seize-mobile-home-wednesday/
Israeli occupation forces handed Palestinian citizen, Jamal Rashayda, a demolition order, on Tuesday, for several structures in Ras al-Auja area in the Jordan Valley, the Palestinian Information Center reported. Israeli troops, on Wednesday morning, confiscated a mobile home in Furush Beit Dajan village, east of the northern West Bank city of Nablus., Witnesses stated that Israeli soldiers in army vehicles entered the village, with no warning, and seized a mobile home belonging to Palestinian villager, Muhammad Hamed.
Ten Palestinian-owned water wells closed IMEMC 26/05/2020
https://imemc.org/article/israeli-authorities-order-ten-palestinian-owned-water-wells-closed/
Israeli military authorities reportedly plan to shut down ten Palestinian-owned water wells, to the west of city Salfit, in the northern occupied West Bank.
Local Palestinian sources in the Al-Sawiya village in western Salfit, told media outlets including the Palestine WAFA News Agency, that Israeli military authorities delivered shutdown warrants to the owners of those wells..
Palestinian Authority sources in the occupied West Bank, where Israel has full security control over large parts of the area, have recently noted that Israeli authorities have begun decreasing the water supply for the Palestinian population, in many West Bank areas.
Israel escalates demolition of Palestinian homes Ali Salam WAFA 28/05/2020
https://imemc.org/article/israel-escalates-demolition-of-palestinian-homes-in-the-west-bank/
The Palestinian Siam family, on Wednesday, began to tear down parts their own home in occupied East Jerusalem. The family told Palestinian WAFA News Agency that the Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem delivered a demolition order to their Silwan home. The pretext used by the so-called Israeli authorities, for the […]
Troops obstruct repair of a Bethlehem street IMEMC 29/05/2020
https://imemc.org/article/israeli-troops-obstruct-reconstruction-of-a-street-in-bethlehem/
Israeli troops reportedly blocked, on Friday morning, reconstruction of a local street in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. Local municipality sources told media outlets that Israeli troops stormed the Almaqbara or Cemetery street in the Rashayda village, east of Bethlehem and ordered municipal workers, by force, to stop reconstruction …..
Israeli soldiers kill a Palestinian driver IMEMC 30/05/2020
https://imemc.org/article/palestinian-shot-dead-by-israeli-troops-after-alleged-car-ramming-attack/ Israeli soldiers killed, on Friday evening, a Palestinian father of five children, including an infant, allegedly after he tried to ram them with his car near Nabi Saleh village, northwest of the central West Bank city of Ramallah. His family denied the military allegations and said the man lost control . . . .
Israel’s UK ambassador is a settler extremist Asa Winstanley EI 12/06/2020
Israel’s next ambassador to the UK is a pro-settler activist who has promoted the movement to destroy Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Tzipi Hotovely once claimed that there is “no Palestinian people.”A 41-year-old extremist, she openly states that Palestinians deserve less rights than Jews. She tries to justify her bigotry using an explictly religious Zionist ideology. Her years of dedication to the settler “sovereignty” movement have now finally paid off. Before her appointment to the London post was announced, she became Israel’s first minister for settlements. That gives her responsibility for preparing Israel’s annexation of a significant proportion of the West Bank.
Israeli police demolish 4 Palestinian homes inside Israel Ali Salam 01/06/2020
https://imemc.org/article/israeli-police-forces-demolish-4-palestinian-owned-homes-inside-israel/ Israeli occupation police, on Sunday, demolished four homes under construction in the Arab city of Tira, inside the 1948 occupied lands, known as Israel. The justification given by authorities for the demolition, was the alleged lack of a building permit, Shehab News reported. According to witnesses, police stormed the city . . .
Israel to demolish 200 Palestinian-owned industrial units Ali Salam 02/06/20
https://imemc.org/article/israel-to-demolish-200-palestinian-owned-industrial-structures-in-jerusalem/ The Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem, on Sunday, finalized an order to evict and demolish 200 Palestinian-owned industrial structures in Wad al-Joz neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem, sources said . Chairman of East Jerusalem’s Arab Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Kamal Obeidat, told Palestinian WAFA News Agency that the municipality […]
Jordan Valley 8000 dunams of Palestinian land torched Ali Salam IMEMC 03/06/2020
https://imemc.org/article/over-8000-dunams-of-palestinian-farmland-burned-by-israeli-training-in-jordan-valley/ Israeli military training on Tuesday caused a wide area of agricultural land in the Jordan Valley to burn, Quds News Network reported.
Local sources said that the Israeli military’s use of live ammunition caused fire to burn nearly 180 dunams of agricultural land and 8200 dunams of pastoral land, used for the purpose of grazing livestock.
Settlers chop down dozens of olive trees Ali Salam WAFA 06/06/2020
https://imemc.org/article/israeli-settlers-chop-down-dozens-of-olive-trees-near-nablus/
Illegal Israeli settlers, on Thursday, destroyed dozens of several year old olive trees in the village of Burin, south of Nablus, northern occupied West Bank, according to a local official.
Munir Qadous, with the human rights group, Yesh Din, told Palestinian WAFA News Agency that Israeli colonists snuck into Palestinian agricultural land in the village of Burin, and proceeded to chop down at least 36 fully grown Palestinian-owned olive trees.
It was further noted that illegal colonists set fire to the wheat fields in the village, residents were able to extinguish the fire.
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Settler injures a Palestinian child in the eye IMEMC 08/06/2020
https://imemc.org/article/israeli-colonist-injures-a-palestinian-child-in-her-eye/
An illegal Israeli colonialist settler attacked, Sunday, a Palestinian child in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem, causing an injury in one of her eyes, in addition to cuts and bruises.
Media sources said the colonist assaulted the child, identified as Mariam Yasser Najeeb, 11, while playing and riding her scooter in the alleys of the al-Waad Street in the Old City.
Her uncle, Adel Najeeb, stated that Mariam was riding her scooter next to her family’s home, when a colonialist settler deliberately pushed her, causing her to fall onto the ground, before fleeing the scene.
160 dunams of Palestinian land confiscated IMEMC 10/06/2020
https://imemc.org/article/army-confiscates-160-dunams-of-palestinian-lands-in-qalqilia/
The Israeli military issued, Wednesday, military orders for the illegal confiscation of privately-owned Palestinian lands in the Qalqilia governorate, in northern West Bank.
Mohammad Abu Sheikh, a Palestinian official who monitors Israel’s colonialist activities in northern West Bank, said the orders were handed to many residents, informing them of the decision to confiscate parts of their lands.The lands, 160 Dunams (39.53 Acres) are located in parts of Qalqilia city, Hibla and Nabi Elias villages, in the southern and eastern areas of Qalqilia and are already isolated behind the illegal Annexation Wall.
Sentence for Palestinian arrested at age 15 IMEMC 11/06/2020
Two prisoners, both of whom were arrested when they were 15 years old, have had extensive sentences handed down by the Israeli Ofer Military Court. The now-19-year-old prisoner, Omar Samir Rimawi, had his sentence changed from 35 years to Life in prison with no possibility of parole. Hi co-defendant, Ahmad Ayoub Obaidah, 19, had his 32-year sentence confirmed by the court.The two boys stand convicted of a stabbing in 2015 that left an Israeli colonial settler dead. Both were shot and wounded at that time. Both were 15 years old when they allegedly participated in the stabbing attack.
Main water pipe in Jordan Valley destroyed WAFA 12/06/2020
https://imemc.org/article/israeli-tank-destroy-main-water-pipe-in-jordan-valley/
Israeli military tanks destroyed, on Thursday at night, a main water pipe serving Palestinian communities in the northern Jordan Valley region, northeast of the occupied West Bank.
Dirar Sawafta, a member of the Local Council of Bardala Village, in the northern Jordan Valley, told WAFA that a 200-meter-long water pipe was destroyed as the Israeli armored vehicles ran over it during a live-fire military exercise, in the area. Furthermore, dozens of armored vehicles were also deployed on the outskirts of the villages of Tayasir and al-Aqaba, east of Tubas town. In several incidents, many Palestinians, including children, were injured or killed, when explosives dropped by the soldiers during training went off near them.
Boy sentenced to ten years by Israeli authorities Ali Salam IMEMC 15/06/2020
https://imemc.org/article/palestinian-child-sentenced-to-ten-years-by-israeli-authorities/
The Israeli administration, on Sunday, sentenced Palestinian child, Hammoudeh Khader Sheikh, to 10 years in prison, Quds News Network reported. The boy, 15, from occupied East Jerusalem, southern West Bank, was shot and injured by occupation soldiers on August 15, 2019, while with his friend Naseem Imkafeh, 15, whom the soldiers killed.
Israeli authorities alleged that the youths attempted to stab Israeli soldiers near the entrance of the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. According to Addameer, Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, 150 children between 16 and 18 years of age and 20 children below the age of 16 are currently imprisoned by the Israeli occupation
Soldiers abduct Palestinian children in Jerusalem Silwanic 17/06/2020
https://imemc.org/article/israeli-soldiers-abduct-four-palestinians-in-jerusalem-5/
Israeli soldiers abducted, on Tuesday evening, four Palestinians, including two children, in the Old City and the al-‘Isawiya town, in occupied East Jerusalem, after assaulting them. The child was kidnapped by undercover soldiers. The Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan (Silwanic) has reported that the soldiers attacked several children in the Council Gate area of the Old City, and repeatedly tasered one of them. The abducted Palestinians in the Old City have been identified as Abdul-Rahman Basheeti, 15, Adham Za’tari, and Mohammad Teryaqi. In addition, undercover Israeli soldiers kidnapped one child, identified as Abdullah Rafat Mahmoud, in the al-‘Isawiya town.
Morning after Israel’s West Bank annexation will be ‘vision of 21st century apartheid’ Adalah 18/06/2020
The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights In Israel: UN experts: Annexation would be a crystallization of already unjust reality: two peoples living in same space, ruled by the same state, but with profoundly unequal rights; Adalah and partners: UN and the international community must oppose annexation . . . .
Settlers assault Palestinian child IMEMC 20/06/2020
A group of armed fanatic Israeli colonialist settlers, squatting on stolen Palestinian lands in direct violation of International Law, assaulted a child, Friday, near the West Bank city of Bethlehem, south of the occupied Palestinian capital, Jerusalem. Eyewitnesses said the child, only fifteen years of age, was attacked by a group of colonists near the al-Khader Palestinian town, south of Bethlehem. They added that the settlers first chased the child, identified as Wadea’ Fadi Salah, and pushed him down a cliff near his house in Abu Sood neighborhood in al-Khader. The child suffered various serious cuts and bruises, and was rushed to a hospital in Bethlehem city. Bethlehem is one of the main Palestinian areas of the West Bank where Israel continuously builds and expands its illegal colonies, and is subject to escalating violations by the colonists, and the soldiers.
Nearly six million Palestinians remain refugees WAFA 21/06/2020
https://imemc.org/article/on-world-refugee-day-nearly-six-million-palestinians-remain-refugees/
More than 5.6 million Palestinians are registered by United Nations (UN) as refugees, after seven decades of the Palestinian catastrophe or Nakba that began when Israel expelled more than 700,000 Palestinians from their homes in historical Palestine, declaring it the state of Israel, in 1948. The Palestinian refugee population is distributed in different Near East regions, including the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Many hundreds of thousands of refugees live in extremely difficult circumstances in those regions, particularly in Syria and Lebanon, with no prospect for a just solution to their plight. Since 1948, the number of Palestinian refugees has multiplied nine times, resulting in the figure of 5.6 million refugees today, not including those who are not registered or were displaced in 1967.
According to the 2019 Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Jordan has 39 % of the total Palestinian refugee population, the Gaza Strip has 25 %, the West Bank has 17 %, Syria 11 %, and Lebanon has 9 %.
Fourteen arrested, including two children Ali Salam PPS 21/06/2020
https://imemc.org/article/israeli-forces-arrest-fourteen-palestinians-including-two-children/
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS), reported that Israeli forces detained fourteen Palestinians across the West Bank, on Saturday night and Sunday morning, nine of whom were abducted by Israeli police from Al-‘Isawiya town in East Jerusalem.
The nine abductees included Hassan Yasser Darwish, 14, a wounded child, Amr Sabarna, 17. The PPS added that Israeli forces arrested at least ten other Palestinian civilians from several governorates in the West Bank over the past two days.
Hours before his sister’s wedding, soldiers kill young Palestinian IMEMC 23/06/2020
Israeli soldiers shot and killed, Tuesday, a young Palestinian man near the “Container” military roadblock, northeast of Bethlehem, east of occupied Jerusalem in the West Bank.
The head of Abu Dis Town Council, Ahmad Abu Hilal, said the soldiers shot the young man, identified as Ahmad Mustafa Erekat, 26, from Abu Dis, and left him to bleed to death, before taking his corpse away. Erekat suffered several gunshot wounds. Abu Hilal added that Ahmad was driving to Bethlehem city to fetch his sisters, and his mother, from a hairdressing shop in Bethlehem, as the family was preparing for the wedding of one of his sisters, which was supposed to take place on the same day, Tuesday, June 23 2019.
Also: |Erekat: “Netanyahu Is Responsible For Ahmad Erekat’s Execution”|
Derisory sentence al Mezan 25/06/2020
On 15 June 2020, an Israeli military court sentenced an Israeli soldier, who shot and killed 23-year-old Palestinian fisherman, Nawwaf al-Attar, off the coast of Beit Lahia in the Gaza Strip, to a derisory 45-day prison sentence to be served through military-related labor.
A suspended sentence ranging from two months to two years, and a demotion in rank were added by the court, which convicted the soldier on the charges of “disobeying an order leading to a threat to life or health”, per article 72 of Israeli Martial Law (1955) and “negligence and reckless endangerment”, per article 341 of Israeli Penal Law (1977).
The proceedings represent a shallow attempt at portraying a system that functions in accordance with international justice principles.
Army shells Gaza IMEMC 27/06/2020
https://imemc.org/article/israeli-army-shells-gaza/
Israeli war jets and tanks fired, late on Friday at night, several missiles, and shells, into Palestinian areas in the besieged and impoverished Gaza Strip, causing damage. The Israeli army claimed it was retaliating to shells reportedly fired from Gaza. Media sources in Gaza said the army fired at least one missile into a Palestinian agricultural land east of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza; the attack did not lead to casualties but caused property damage.
The sources added that the army fired at least two artillery shells into farmland near the Shuhada Graveyard, east of Gaza city, causing damage and fire. Furthermore, the soldiers also fired at least two missiles targeting sites, reportedly run by the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, in Khan Younis, in the southern part of the coastal region, causing fire and serious damage not only to the targeted sites, but also to surrounding homes and property. The army also fired three missiles targeting two sites in central Gaza, and in Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, causing serious damage.
Armed settlers burn hundreds of olive trees IMEMC 27/06/2020
Israeli settlers set on fire to a Palestinian-owned farm land, on Saturday, in Burin village, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus. Armed Israeli settlers, from the illegal Israeli settlement of Giv’at Ronaie, broke into the nearby Palestinian-owned farm land, east of Burin village and set fire to hundreds of fruitful olive trees among other crops.
European petition rejects annexation of West Bank Ali Salam Quds news 28/06/20https://imemc.org/article/1080-european-lawmakers-sign-petition-to-reject-israeli-annexation-of-west-bak/ 1080 lawmakers from 25 European countries signed a petition, last week, pressing their foreign ministers to reject the Israeli plans to annex large swathes of the occupied West Bank, Quds News Network reported.The lawmakers affirmed their support for the European Union (EU) foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, who stated that Israel’s annexation “could not pass unchallenged.” US President, Donald Trump, unveiled his so-called ‘peace plan’ in January, proposing Israeli annexation of up to 30 percent of the West Bank, and legitimizing illegal settlements, built on expropriated Palestinian land in the West Bank. Israeli Premier, Benjamin Netanyahu, expressed his intention to begin expropriating parts of the occupied West Bank by July 1.
Young Palestinian mother released after 12 months detention without trial
IMEMC 30’06/2020
https://imemc.org/article/after-12-months-in-administrative-detention-israel-releases-young-palestinian-mother/ The Israeli authorities released, Monday, a young Palestinian woman, a mother, identified as Shorouq al-Badan, 25, after holding her under arbitrary Administrative Detention orders, without charges or trial, for nearly 12 months. Al-Badan was welcomed by her family, including her children who were unable to see her throughout the duration of her imprisonment, as well as dozens of residents who celebrated her release. Shorouq was abducted by the Israeli army on July 15th, 2019, when soldiers stormed and ransacked her home in Teqoua’ town, southeast of Bethlehem. During her imprisonment, she suffered various health issues, including severe neurological, abdominal, and kidney complications.
Israel still holds captive more than 40 Palestinian women, including Khaleda Jarrar, a democratically elected legislator and a member of the PFLP
Israeli navy attacks Palestinian fishermen off coast of Gaza IMEMC 30/6/20
https://imemc.org/article/israeli-navy-attacks-palestinian-fishermen-off-the-coast-of-gaza/
Israeli naval vessels attacked, early on Tuesday morning, a number of Palestinian fishing boats, off the coast of Gaza, while Israeli tanks rolled into the eastern parts of the coastal enclave. Media sources in Gaza said that fishing boats sailing off the northern coast of Gaza, were exposed to indiscriminate Israeli navy fire. The sources added that the Israeli naval vessels, forced fishing boats carrying several fishermen, to leave the shores immediately, impeding their ability to earn a living, just three nautical miles off the northern coast of Al-Sudaniya. This latest attack by the Israeli navy is part of a long series of aggression towards Palestinian fishermen, since Israel imposed a marine siege on the coastal enclave, back in 2007. Since then, Israel has restricted the fishing zone from between 3 and 9 nautical miles, along the Gaza’s 45-km-long coast
Hugh Humphries
Secretary
Scottish Friends of Palestine 0141 637 8046 info@scottish-friends-of-palestine.org
