Updates

Open-Fire Policy

The Occupied Territories in 2022: largest number of Palestinians killed by Israel in the West Bank since 2004

The figures illustrate Israel’s reckless open-fire policy in the Occupied Territories, which grew deadlier over the last year. Every Palestinian is “suspect” and any risk posed to Israeli forces – real or imagined – is met with lethal gunfire. These cases are not “exceptions,” but an integral policy feature of the Israeli apartheid regime, which relies on violence to promote its guiding principle of Jewish supremacy. In order to advance this principle, the regime also works to ensure that no one will be held accountable for these killings.

8 January 2023

Open-Fire Policy

Another “car-ramming attack” that never was: Israeli soldiers fire at Palestinian car, killing two passengers and wounding third

On Monday, 3 October 2022, at around 3:00 A.M., three young men from al-Jalazun Refugee Camp – Salamah Sharay’ah (18), Khaled ‘Anbar (20) and Basel Basbus (18) – left work at a restaurant in Bir Zeit and made their way home in a car driven by Sharay’ah. About half an hour later, when they stopped by the roadside for a moment, some Palestinian youths stopped next to them and warned them there were soldiers in the area. The three, who were fearful of encountering the soldiers, decided to take a detour. Sharay’ah took a sharp turn off the main road (Route 466) into a narrow road, going against traffic and driving slowly as the road was bad. After he had driven 10 to 20 meters along the road, several volleys were fired at the car from the front and back by soldiers lying in ambush. Read more

5 January 2023

The South Hebron Hills

Fast-tracked war crime: Israel informs Palestinians from Masafer Yatta of imminent expulsion

Today (Monday, 2 Jan. 2023), the Israeli District Coordination and Liaison Office (DCO) notified the Palestinian DCO that in the coming days, about 1,000 Palestinians from Masafer Yatta whose land was designated “Firing Zone 918” will receive notices to evict their homes. The Israeli DCO added that the state plans to offer the residents an alternative location, to which they will be expelled. B’Tselem responded: “Forcible transfer of protected persons in occupied territory is a war crime. Therefore, the Israeli ‘offer’ of an alternative is meaningless. It is a violent threat that leaves the residents with no choice.”

2 January 2023

Open-Fire Policy

Israeli soldiers shoot and kill Palestinian Salah Sawafteh (58), who was endangering no one; military again rushes to deny responsibility

On 19 Aug. 2022, Salah Sawafteh (58) was on his way home in Tubas after morning prayers. He tried to shelter in a bakery from an exchange of fire between Israeli soldiers and armed Palestinians, but was shot and killed. B’Tselem’s investigation and video footage belie the military’s claim that the troops had left the area and did not shoot him. This lie is an attempt to whitewash yet another direct outcome of Israel’s immoral, unlawful open-fire policy in the Occupied Territories.

2 January 2023

Open-Fire Policy

Israeli soldiers lying in ambush shoot and kill Mahdi Ladadwah (17) and injure another Palestinian teen, al-Mazra’ah al-Qibliyah, 7 October 2022

On Friday, 7 October 2022, at around 3:30 P.M., a group of settlers went down from the settlement of Haresha towards ‘Ein Harashah, a freshwater spring located south of the village of al-Mazra’ah al-Qibliyah. About 10 to 15 teenagers from the village went to a nearby hill known as Khirbet Harashah, and began swearing at the settlers from there. After about 30 minutes, several military jeeps arrived, and about 20 soldiers got out of them and fired tear gas canisters at the Palestinian teens. Within roughly an hour, about 100 to 150 Palestinian youths gathered on the hill and some of them threw stones at the soldiers and at six or seven Border Police officers who joined them meanwhile. The soldiers and officers fired rubber-coated metal bullets and sponge rounds at the youths, as well as live shots in the air. Click here for more details

29 December 2022

Open-Fire Policy

5 Oct., Israeli military enters Deir al-Hatab. By the time it leaves, one man, Alaa Zaghal, is dead and two journalists are wounded by soldiers’ gunfire

On Wednesday, 5 October 2022, at around 2:00 P.M., a military force entered the village of Deir al-Hatab, which lies east of Nablus, to arrest resident Simran ‘Imran (39). The soldiers surrounded his house and entered into an exchange of fire with ‘Imran and other armed Palestinians. At around 5:30 P.M., ‘Imran turned himself in to the soldiers. Click here for more details

22 December 2022

Open-Fire Policy

25 Oct., Israeli soldiers shoot and kill Palestinian Qusai Tamimi, 19, who posed no danger to anyone

On 25 October 2022, at around midnight, posts about a military incursion into Nablus began appearing on social media, prompting some young men from the Palestinian village of a-Nabi Saleh in Ramallah District to gather near the military tower at the entrance to the village. Soldiers fired tear gas canisters and threw stun grenades at them, and the young men dispersed within a short time. Click here for more details

21 December 2022

Open-Fire Policy

15 Oct., Israeli soldiers who enter town to take down poster shoot and kill Palestinian Mujahed Dawood (30), who threw stones at them from 70 meters away, Qarawat Bani Hassan, Salfit District

On Saturday, 15 October 2022, at around noon, about five military vehicles entered the town of Qarawat Bani Hassan, northwest of Salfit. Soldiers got out and started removing a poster of Fathi Hazem, which hanging at the entrance to the town. Hazem became a public figure in the West Bank after his son Ra’d killed three Israelis in Tel Aviv on 7 April 2022 and was shot to death the next day. Shortly after the force arrived, several dozen young men gathered in the area, burned tires, blocked the road and threw stones at the soldiers. Click here for more details

21 December 2022

Open-Fire Policy

1 Oct, Israeli Border Police shoot and kill Palestinian Fayez Damdum (17), who skidded on his motorcycle while riding behind their jeep, and then issue false statement he was about to hurl a Molotov cocktail

On Saturday, 1 October 2022, at around 3:30 P.M., two Border Police vehicles were driving along the main road of al-’Eizariyah, a Palestinian town that lies east of Jerusalem. Fayez Damdum, a 17-year-old local, was riding a motorcycle behind them with a friend sitting behind him. At some point, the Border Police vehicles slowed down and the motorcycle skidded, apparently after Damdum braked suddenly. His friend managed to jump off the motorcycle and flee. Click here for more details

21 December 2022

Open-Fire Policy

Lethal routine: Israeli forces kill at least 23 Palestinians in one month

In October 2022, Israeli forces killed at least 23 Palestinians in the West Bank, five of them minors, in the most lethal year for this population since 2004. Israel’s apartheid regime uses violence to cement Jewish supremacy in the area under its control. That is why no one is held accountable for killing Palestinians who pose no danger – for pulling the trigger, giving the order, legally sanctioning the open-fire rules or directing the policy from above. Below are investigations into several incidents.

21 December 2022

The Gaza Strip

For two years, Israel barred Muhammad a-Lidawi, a 31-year-old father of five with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, from traveling to East Jerusalem for treatment. He died on 6 September 2022 after the cancer spread to his lungs.

In a testimony she gave B’Tselem field researcher Muhammad Sabah on 9 December 2022, his widow, Hanin a-Lidawi, 29, a mother of five children between the ages of one and 10, from a-Shaburah R.C. in Rafah, said: In 2016, my husband started complaining of chest pain and shortness of breath. It lasted for a few days, soand we went to the European Hospital to have him checked out. The doctors found a lump in his chest and did a biopsy. Two weeks later, it turned out he was suffering from cancer in the lymph nodes. When we heard the grim news, we were both shocked because we knew it was a serious illness...

18 December 2022

Settler Violence = State Violence

Israeli settlers attack members of Palestinian family harvesting olives on their land, injuring several, a-Shuyukh, Hebron District

On Thursday, 3 November 2022, at around 6:00 A.M., seven members of the Mashni family went to pick olives on their farmland located in the al-Majales area, some six kilometers from their home in the town of a-Shuyukh. The party included ‘Ayed Mashni (64), his wife ‘Afaf (61), their children Muhammad (37), Hamed (30), and twins Maryam and ‘Omar (28), and Muhammad’s son Thaer (7). The family left their car next to the grove and began picking olives...

30 November 2022

Hebron City Center

Israeli soldiers attack and detain young Palestinian man transporting goods through checkpoint in downtown Hebron, as well as neighbors who come to his aid

On Sunday, 23 October 2022, at around 10:00 P.M., brothers Rajeh (24) and Bassem (21) Razem set out from their home in the Jaber neighborhood in the Hebron city center to deliver goods to the family store, which is located about 200 meters away. As they approached the Jaber checkpoint, the brothers saw several soldiers chasing youths from the neighborhood. Bassem got scared and ran back towards the house, while Rajeh kept walking towards the store. One of the soldiers suddenly approached Rajeh, pushed him, knocked him down and pressed his knee into his neck, choking him. More soldiers arrived. They handcuffed and blindfolded Rajeh and made him sit by the checkpoint. ...

17 November 2022

Hebron City Center

Israeli soldiers and Border Police officers enter school in Hebron and attack students and teachers

On Thursday, 29 September 2022, at around 9:30 A.M., some Palestinian youths threw stones at the Pharmacy (Abu a-Rish) Checkpoint located in the center of Hebron. One of the young men, who was masked, ran into the al-Hajeriyah school for boys next to the checkpoint, crossed the schoolyard and exited the premises through a back gate. About 15 soldiers and Border Police officers who were chasing him searched the school, entered classrooms, attacked staff members and forcibly removed two 14-year-old students from their classroom, dragging and beating them...

14 November 2022

The Gaza Strip

Married but apart: Women from Gaza with spouses from the West Bank forced to raise children alone

Israel’s apartheid regime prevents thousands of Palestinian families, in which one spouse is from the West Bank and the other is from the Gaza Strip, from living together as a family in the West Bank. These families are forced to make an impossible choice between living together in Gaza – at the cost of separating from family in the West Bank and enduring the harsh living conditions and financial hardships in Gaza – or living apart, with one spouse raising the children on their own...

13 November 2022

Hebron City Center

Soldiers steal gold jewelry during night raid on family compound

On Monday, 5 September 2022, at around 3:30 A.M., dozens of soldiers came to the a-Razem family compound in the Jabal Jales neighborhood of Hebron. The soldiers knocked on the gate leading into the compound, which houses more than 20 members of the extended a-Razem family, most of them women and minors, in two buildings with a total of six apartments. When Sharif a-Razem (34) and his brother Jihad (35) went to the gate, the soldiers pushed them forcefully against a wall and asked for their names. The soldiers then raided the compound, and as they were about to enter the building where the two brothers live, Jihad protested, saying women and children were asleep inside. The soldiers jumped him, handcuffed and blindfolded him, and had him sit in the building stairwell. Some of the soldiers then spread out in the compound courtyard, while others entered the two buildings and led all the occupants to the living room in Sharif’s unit. A female soldier took three female members of the family into another room one by one, where she searched them with a muzzled dog present. Some of the women were strip-searched...

2 November 2022

East Jerusalem

Border Police attack young Palestinian in Silwan, beat him, and arrest him with his father and brother

On 14 September 2022, around 12:30 P.M., Mu'taz a-Rajabi (27) and his friend Mahdi Jaber (24) were driving back home from work to the Batan al-Hawa neighborhood in the heart of Silwan, East Jerusalem. When they were near the Beit Yonatan settlement point established in the neighborhood, they passed by four Border Police officers who were walking down the street. One of the officers ordered the two men to stop and demanded that a-Rajabi, the driver, get out, accusing him of interfering with his work and of swearing at him. When a-Rajabi got out of the car, the officers pushed him, sprayed pepper spray in his face and started beating him. Jaber tried to film the assault, but then another Border Police officer arrived and pepper-sprayed him in the face, too. A-Rajabi was taken to the police station on Salah a-Din Street...

31 October 2022

Apartheid

Not a "vibrant democracy". This is apartheid.

Some 15 million people live under one regime between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, about half Jews and half Palestinians. Yet all Palestinians – whether defined citizens, residents or subjects – are excluded, fully or in part, from the coming elections. The regime is organized around a single principle: cementing the supremacy of one group – Jews – over another – Palestinians. Jews have the monopoly on political power, and only they have a true seat at the table where the fate of all who live here is determined. This is apartheid.

28 October 2022

Restrictions on Movement

Israel holding Nablus and nearby villages in chokehold for 15 days

On 11 October 2022, armed Palestinians shot and killed Israeli soldier Ido Baruch, who was standing in a military post near a settlement. Early the next morning, the military imposed a closure on the city of Nablus and the surrounding villages. Since then, for more than two weeks, Nablus has been blockaded from almost every direction, restricting movement of more than 200,000 Palestinians in the area. Imposing the restrictions in full knowledge of the harm they would reflects Israeli decision-makers’ view that Palestinian subjects are lesser human beings. This is what apartheid looks like.

26 October 2022

Israeli soldiers detain 8- and 10-year-old at Hebron checkpoint for over 5 hours

On Monday, 12 September 2022, at around 12:30 P.M., two soldiers stationed at Checkpoint 160 (Diwan a-Rajabi) in central Hebron detained Palestinian brothers Hamam (8) and Ghazi (10) Mahamreh, who were on their way home from the UNRWA school located about 250 meters away. The soldiers made the two children sit on the ground outside the checkpoint, and later put them in a room inside it where, they were questioned about throwing stones at the checkpoint. No one informed their family they were detained...

25 October 2022

Settler Violence = State Violence

Soldiers fire massive amount of tear gas at Palestinians defending against settlers who entered the village of Kissan

On Tuesday, 30 August 2022, at around 5:00 P.M., three young settlers drove a car through the village of Kisan in Bethlehem District. They sped inside the village and ran over a goat belonging to a local resident. They then tried to escape, but their car was blocked by a vehicle carrying cargo and they had to slow down. At that point, children and youths from the village threw stones at them and smashed the car windows. The settlers turned around and left the village...

3 October 2022

A Routine Founded on Violence

Soldiers shoot and injured 16-year-old twice and abuse him, in central Hebron

On Tuesday, 9 August 2022, at around midday, clashes broke out between Palestinians and soldiers in the city center of Hebron. A group of Palestinian children and youths burned tires and hurled stones at soldiers located at the Bab a-Zawiya Checkpoint, and the soldiers fired live and rubber-coated metal bullets at them. At around 3:30 P.M., a soldier fired a “rubber” bullet from about 10 meters away at Mustafa al-Hasis, 16, hitting him in the thigh...

4 September 2022