Day: 19 May 2021

The Ministry of Health announced that four Palestinians were killed and 202 were injured, most of them with live ammunition, during confrontations that broke on Tuesday with Israeli forces throughout the West Bank.

In a statement, the ministry said 10 people, including a two-year-old toddler, were seriously injured, including an injury to the eye.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

The number of Palestinians detained by Israeli forces since the recent aggression and escalation in Palestine has reached more than 1800, including minors, women, wounded and sick people, the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS) said today.

It said in a statement that the current rate of arrests constitutes the highest rate since 2015, in terms of numbers of detainees and the time period in which they took place.

According to the statement, more than 900 Palestinian citizens of Israel have been detained in Arab towns in Israel since May 9, while in the West Bank and Jerusalem since the beginning of last April, more than 900 people have been detained, some of them are held in Israeli hospitals where they were admitted after being severely beaten by the Israeli occupation forces.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

A Palestinian woman was killed and seven others were wounded in the Israeli airstrikes that hit Rafah and Khan Younis cities, in the southern besieged Gaza Strip.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

A Palestinian girl was shot and killed today by Israeli occupation forces gunfire to the east of Hebron in the south of the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

WAFA correspondent said Israeli forces opened fire at a girl near the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba, built illegally on Palestinian land, critically injuring her as she was left bleeding on the ground for a while until she was pronounced dead.

The Israeli forces prevented Palestinian medics from approaching the scene to save the girl, leaving her to die, he said.

Some reports, however, said an Israeli settler from Kiryat Arba was the one who shot and killed her then left his M16 automatic rifle near her body to prove that she was intending to wage an attack.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a new report on Palestinians killed and injured by Israelis since May 7 that 26 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank, not including today’s girl in Hebron, and including four children, while 5164 people were injured in clashes throughout the West Bank.

In East Jerusalem, one Palestinian was shot dead, 1108 wounded, including 489 who were transferred to hospitals, including 60 critical, after being attacked by Israeli forces and settlers.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

Israeli forces have displayed a shocking disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians by carrying out a number of airstrikes targeting residential buildings in some cases killing entire families – including children – and causing wanton destruction to civilian property, in attacks that may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity, said Amnesty International today.

The organization has documented four deadly attacks by Israel launched on residential homes without prior warning and is calling for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to urgently investigate these attacks. The death toll in Gaza continues to climb with at least 198 Palestinians killed including 58 children and more than 1,220 injured. Ten people in Israel, including two children, have been killed and at least 27 injured by Palestinian attacks.

“There is a horrific pattern emerging of Israel launching air strikes in Gaza targeting residential buildings and family homes – in some cases entire families were buried beneath the rubble when the buildings they lived in collapsed.

“Under international humanitarian law, all parties must distinguish between military targets and civilian objects and direct their attacks only at military objectives. When carrying out attacks, parties must take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians,” said Saleh Higazi, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“Although the Israeli military has given no explanation of what military objectives it was targeting in these attacks, it is hard to imagine how bombing residential buildings full of civilian families without warning could be considered proportionate under international humanitarian law. It is not possible to use large explosive weapons, like aircraft bombs that have a blast radius of many hundreds of meters, in populated areas without anticipating major civilian casualties,” said the statement.

“By carrying out these brazen deadly attacks on family homes without warning Israel has demonstrated a callous disregard for lives of Palestinian civilians who are already suffering the collective punishment of Israel’s illegal blockade on Gaza since 2007.”

The Israeli army claims that it only attacks military targets and has justified airstrikes on residential buildings on that basis. However, residents told Amnesty International that there were no fighters or military objectives in the vicinity at the time of the attacks documented.

“Deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian property and infrastructure are war crimes, as are disproportionate attacks. The International Criminal Court has an active investigation into the situation in Palestine and should urgently investigate these attacks as war crimes. States should also consider exercising universal jurisdiction over those who commit war crimes. Impunity only works to fuel the pattern of unlawful attacks and civilian bloodshed, which have we have repeatedly documented in previous Israeli military offensives on Gaza,” said Saleh Higazi.

At least 152 residential properties in Gaza have been destroyed since 11 May, according to the Gaza-based human rights organization, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Public Works and Housing in Gaza, Israeli strikes have destroyed 94 buildings, comprising 461 housing and commercial units while 285 housing units have been severely damaged and rendered uninhabitable.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) more than 2,500 people have been made homeless due to the destruction of their homes and more than 38,000 people have been internally displaced and have sought shelter in 48 UNRWA schools across Gaza.

Amnesty International has previously published evidence that the Israeli military had a deliberate policy of targeting family homes during the 2014 conflict.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

Four Palestinian civilians, including a seven-month pregnant mother, her husband, and their two-year-old toddler, were killed today and others were wounded as the ongoing Israeli bombardment of Gaza stretched into the tenth day.

Israeli warplanes shelled a civilian house in Deir al-Balah city, in central Gaza Strip, without any prior warning, killing three members of one family and injuring many others.

Iyad Salha, 33, his pregnant wife, Amani Mahawesh, 33, and their two-year-old baby girl, Nagham, were killed in the Israeli airstrike.

The injured were rushed to Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital for treatment.

Israeli artillery bombed a site along Gaza borderline in Juhr al-Dik, to the south of Gaza City, killing a 63-year-old Palestinian farmer while he was working on his land.

The death toll among Palestinians after 10 consecutive days of the brutal Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip has risen to 227, including 64 children, and 38 women, while 1620 people were wounded.

Twenty-seven Palestinians were killed in the West Bank, including four children.

Tension has been running high since mid-April as a result of the Israeli forces and settler extremists’ escalated attacks against Al-Aqsa Mosque and Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem, who are being threatened with forcible expulsion from their homes for the benefit of Israeli settlers.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

A second Palestinian citizen of Israel has died today in hospital of wounds sustained after he was shot by Israeli forces in the town of Umm al-Fahem inside Israel last week, according to Israeli medical sources.

They confirmed that Muhammad Kiwan, 17, who was shot in the head last Wednesday during protests in Umm al-Fahem against the Israeli aggression in East Jerusalem and against Gaza, has died of his wounds.

His family said Muhammad was in a coma in a hospital in Haifa since he was shot in the head when forces opened fire at Palestinian youths in the Arab town in northern Israel and kept on ventilators until he was pronounced dead today.

Another Palestinian was shot dead by a Jewish Israeli in the Arab area of the mixed Jewish-Arab city of Lydda two weeks ago, who was later released from prison for “lack of evidence.” Israeli Jews and Palestinian Israelis have been at loggerheads since the Israeli systematic campaign in occupied East Jerusalem that started in mid-April and the aggression on Gaza earlier this month.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA