The Israeli occupation forces shot and killed 58 Palestinians, including 12 children, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem so far this year, all by live ammunition, compared to 24 Palestinians killed last year, according to a report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The latest fatality was a 50-year-old Palestinian physician shot and killed by Israeli police yesterday in occupied East Jerusalem following an alleged stabbing attack.
In its report on Protection of Civilians covering the period from 24 August to 6 September, OCHA said Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinians in the West Bank, including a boy. During a nighttime operation on 24 August, in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, Israeli forces shot and killed a 15-year-old boy and on 2 September, a 39-year-old Palestinian was shot and killed near a barrier gate leading to Beit Ur al-Tahta village near Ramallah while on his way back from work in Israel.
Also in the West Bank, Israeli forces injured 288 Palestinians across the West Bank during the OCHA reporting period for a total exceeding 12,500 since the start of this year and compared to over 2600 last year. The vast majority of the recent injuries (273) were in ongoing protests against settlement activities near Beita village, south of Nablus.
Israeli forces also carried out 118 search-and-arrest operations and arrested 134 Palestinians across the West Bank during the two-week reporting period. Most of the operations took place in the Jerusalem and Hebron governorates. Total search-and-arrest operation since the start of the year has exceeded 2700.
The Israeli authorities demolished, seized, or forced owners to demolish, 31 Palestinian-owned structures across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, due to a lack of Israeli-issued building permits. These displaced 30 people, including 21 children, and affected the livelihoods of about 130 others. All of the displacement was recorded in East Jerusalem, resulting the demolition of five homes, three of which were demolished by their owners themselves to avoid fines.
So far this year, Israel has demolished 552 Palestinian-owned structures in the West Bank displacing 733 people, and 106 in East Jerusalem displacing 178 people.
On 28 August, a 17-year-old Palestinian boy died in Beit Hanina area of Jerusalem when a concrete wall fell on him while he was helping his neighbours to demolish their home, as the Israeli authorities ordered them to do.
The demolition of 23 structures in Area C of the occupied West Bank, including eight animal shelters in Khirbet al Rahwa near Hebron and Ibziq near Tubas, affected 10n communities. The latter locality is in an area designated by the Israeli authorities as a “firing zone” used for military training.
Israeli settlers damaged Palestinian property in multiple incidents.
Overall, local sources indicate that at least 650 Palestinian-owned trees were vandalized in al Taybe, near Hebron, and Jamma’in, near Nablus, during the reporting period. Also in Hebron, nine vehicles were damaged in the H2 area of Hebron city, and a driver of a water tanker in Khirbet Bir al-Idd was attacked and a mobile water tank damaged.
In two incidents, water pipelines and a greenhouse were vandalized; agricultural tools were stolen in al-Lubban al-Sharqiya, near Nablus, and at least two houses and a vehicle were damaged by stones thrown by settlers in Silat al-Dhahr, near Jenin.
This year has so far recorded more than 230 attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their properties in the occupied West Bank, according to the OCHA report.
The report also said that at the Israeli perimeter fence around the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces shot and killed one Palestinian and injured over 70 others while two additional Palestinians died of wounds that were sustained in similar circumstances before the reporting period.
With the recent killings, Israel has killed a total of 256 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip this year, most of them killed during the 11-day Israeli military onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip in May.
Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency