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PCHR Report graphic. Published by IMEMC News
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by IMEMC News
Jan 20, 2022

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR): Weekly Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (13– 19 January 2022)

Summary for January 13 – 19, 2022
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) continued to commit crimes and multi-layered violations against Palestinian civilians and their properties in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).

IOF shooting and violation of right to life and bodily integrity:
On 17 January 2022, 69-year-old Suliman Eid Al-Hathaleen, from Khirbet Umm al-Khair in eastern Yatta, died of his wounds after an Israeli police truck ran over. Al-Hathaleen was a prominent Palestinian figure and activist against the Israeli settlement and forcible transfer policies practiced against Palestinians. On the day of the incident, the Israeli truck fled the scene leaving Al-Hathaleen without any aid until a Palestinian ambulance was able to transport him to a local hospital in Hebron, where he succumbed to his injuries.

IOF attacks rendered 5 Palestinians wounded, including a child:
On Thursday, 13 January 2022, a Palestinian was wounded during an IOF raid in Tubas,
On Friday, 14 January 2022, four Palestinians, including a child, were wounded in Kafr Qaddum, Qalqilya, during the IOF attacks on the weekly peaceful protest held there.
In the Gaza Strip, IOF opened fire twice targeting agricultural lands and fishing boats.

IOF incursions and arrests of Palestinian civilians:
IOF carried out 147 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. Those incursions included raids of civilian houses and shootings, enticing fear and havoc, destroying their property, and attacking many of them. During this week’s incursions, 102 Palestinians were arrested, including 10 children and a woman. Among the arrestees were two minor students who were detained after IOF raided their school in Ramallah and assaulted the teaching staff.

In the Gaza Strip, IOF conducted 2 limited incursions into its southern and northern areas.

Demolitions:
PCHR documented the following 11 incidents:

Occupied East Jerusalem: 5 shops self-demolished in Shufat refugee camp and Jabel Mukaber; administrative decision issued to demolish an under-construction mosque in Issaweiya. IOF demolished 2 houses, 5 facilities, and confiscated 6-dunum’s of land in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. IOF also forced 2 Palestinians to self-demolish their houses in Beit Hanina and Wadi al-Joz neighborhood. Another Palestinian was forced to self-demolish 2 under-construction apartments in Shufat refugee camp.

Salfit: IOF served evacuation notice against 5 dunums of land in Kafr al-Deek.
Hebron: a house and a concrete foundation demolished in al-Ramadin.

Settler-attacks:
PCHR documented settler-attacks in Burqa and Sebastia in Nablus.

Israeli closure policy and restrictions on freedom of movement:

The Israeli occupation authorities continued its collective punishment measures against the Gaza Strip as the 15-year Israeli closure imposed on the territory deepened the population’s humanitarian and living crises, with unemployment skyrocketing at 45%, i.e. 217,000 able workers are unemployed, 63% of whom are youth.

More than half of the Gaza Strip’s population suffer from poverty, as the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics data shows that 53% of the Gaza Strip population is impoverished with more than 62.2% classified as food insecure, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Additionally, IOF continued to divide the West Bank into separate cantons with key roads blocked by the Israeli occupation since the Second Intifada in 2000 restricting civilian movement with temporary and permanent checkpoints, where civilian are also subject to arrest, especially at al-Karama border crossing, alongside the Palestinian-Jordanian border.

I. Shooting and other Violations of the Right to Life and Bodily Integrity
At around 01:55 on Thursday, 13 January 2022, IOF moved into Tubas, during which several Palestinians gathered to throw stones at IOF, who fired rubber and live bullets as well as sound bombs at the protesters. As a result, Yousif Malek Qasrawi (22) was wounded with a bullet to his right hand and taken to Tubas Turkish Hospital for treatment. Many protesters who suffocated due to teargas inhalation, received treatment on the spot.
At around 18:00, Mohammed Marwan al-Faqih (15) sustained foot fractures after falling during an IOF’s patrol who was chasing him near al-Qotnah village, northwest of occupied East Jerusalem.

Mohammed’s family said that he was playing with other boys near the annexation wall in the village when an Israeli patrol passed by. The boys escaped and the patrol chased them. Mohammed fell on the ground when was escaping from the patrol and could not get up after that, the family stated. IOF detained him for a while and then handed him to the medical crews at Beit EIksa checkpoint. They took him to the Palestine Medical Complex to receive treatment, where he underwent surgery to his foot.

Around the same time, a number of young men gathered at the entrance to al-‘Aroub refugee camp, north of Hebron, where IOF established a checkpoint. The young men threw stones at the watchtower while the soldiers deployed in the area chased the young men into the houses. IOF fired sound bombs and teargas canisters at the stone-throwers. As a result, many of them suffocated. The clashes continued until 21:00, but neither arrests nor house raids were reported.

At around 12:30 on Friday, 14 January 2022, IOF stationed at the northern entrance to Kafr Qaddoum village, north of Qalqilya, suppressed a protest, where tens of Palestinians participated. IOF chased the protesters in the area and clashes broke out. IOF fired rubber bullets, sound bombs, and teargas canisters at the protesters. As a result, 4 of them were wounded, including a child with rubber bullets; 2 were wounded in the shoulder and 2 in the back.

At around 05:00 on Saturday, 15 January 2022, large number of IOF backed by special units moved into al-Dheisha refugee camp, southwest of Bethlehem. They raided and searched several houses and arrested 6 civilians, including a young girl. The arrestees were identified as Ranim Mohammed al-Ja’afari (17), Hasan Mohammed al-Zeghari (25), Ahmed Ramadan (63), his son, Ra’ed (34), Ashraf Mohammed Sajdiyah (27), and Rani Ra’fat Abu ‘Akar (20).

Meanwhile, dozens of young men gathered in the camp alleys were throwing stones, empty bottles and Molotov Cocktails at IOF and their vehicles. Violent clashes broke out, and IOF heavily fired rubber bullets, teargas canisters, and sound bombs at the young men. Before withdrawing, IOF stuck posters on the houses and shops’ walls issued by the Israeli Intelligence Service saying “the popular front’s activities are unacceptable, and anyone who would participate in their activities will be arrested. The popular front’s activities inflict harm to the camps’ residents.”

At around 07:30 on Monday, 17 January 2022, IOF stationed along the border fence opened fire at the agricultural lands, east of al-Qararah, east of Khan Younis. No casualties were reported.

At around 08:20, IOF gunboats, stationed off al-Wahah shore, northwest of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, chased Palestinian fishing boats sailing within 3 nautical miles and heavily opened fire around them. As a result, fishermen were frightened and had to flee to shore. No casualties were reported.

At around 09:00, medical sources at al-Mizan Specialist Hospital in Hebron declared the death of Suliman ‘Eid al-Hathaleen (69), from Kherbet Um al-Kheir, east of Yatta, south of Hebron. He succumbed to his serious wounds that he sustained 12 days ago when an Israeli police truck ran over him; noting that the truck fled the scene, and the Israeli police did not provide him first aid as he was taken by a Palestinian ambulance to a local hospital in Hebron. This raises suspicions that the run-over was deliberate, especially that al- Hathaleen is a prominent activist and widely known person for his iconic steadfastness and resistance against the Israeli settlement activity and forced displacement of Palestinian civilians.

According to PCHR’s investigations, at around 15:00 on Wednesday, 05 January 2022, an Israeli police vehicle accompanied with a truck arrived at Kherbet Um al-Kheir entrance to confiscate a few vehicles parked on the road, claiming it was illegal. Meanwhile, several young men closed the main road with stones, and Soliman al-Hatahleen (69) was standing on the side of the road when the truck suddenly veered off the road and struck him meters away before leaving the scene immediately. AS a result, al- Hatahleen sustained serious injuries all over his body, including Brain Hemorrhage, chest bone and spine fractures and lung bleeding. He underwent surgeries and was admitted to the intensive care unit at the hospital until his death was declared at the time mentioned above.

II. Incursions and arrests

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Read full report at PCHR News Source Line

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