Updates

No Accountability

Soldiers severely abused Palestinians in al-Fawar R.C. under the pretext of a military operation

On Wednesday, 18 September 2024, around 3:00 A.M., hundreds of Israeli soldiers raided al-Fawar Refugee Camp southwest of Hebron, entering in dozens of military vehicles. The troops spread out in the camp, sealed off the entrances to the camp and forbade residents from leaving their homes. They stayed for more than 12 hours, during which time movement was forbidden, shops were shuttered and school was canceled. The troops seized the al-Khatib family’s home, removed the inhabitants and used it as a center for Shin Bet interrogations...

1 January 2025

Settler Violence = State Violence

Dozens of settlers attack the village of Jit and kill a local resident. Soldiers arrive later and also attack villagers

On Thursday, 15 August 2024, at around 7:30 P.M., residents of the southeastern neighborhood of Jit noticed dozens of settlers, most of them masked and some armed, approaching the al-Bayada area of the village from the direction of the Gilad Farm outpost. The settlers set fire to vehicles and homes, and when village residents came out to protect their property and belongings, confrontations developed between them and the settlers, which included mutual stone-throwing. About 20 minutes into the attack, Rashid a-Sadeh, 22, left his house with a relative to join the residents defending their homes.

11 December 2024

Hebron City Center

Unleashed: Abuse of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers in the center of Hebron

For over a year, Israel has been waging an unrestrained war against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and within the State of Israel. The violence that has always characterized the Israeli apartheid regime’s treatment of Palestinians is now appearing in its most direct and exposed form. This report focuses on one facet of this violence: recurring instances of severe abuse of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers in the center of Hebron throughout the summer of 2024...

3 December 2024

The Occupied Territories and International Law

Personal accountability is a key element in the struggle for justice and freedom for all

The ICC’s issuing of international arrest warrants for Israel’s leaders on the suspicion they committed the crimes of starvation, persecution, and intentionally directing an attack against civilians is one of the lowest points in Israeli history. Unfortunately, all we know about the conduct of Israel in the Gaza Strip over the past year - which was conducted with the knowledge and the direction of the prime minister and the ministerial cabinet – it isn’t surprising that the evidence indicates that Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity...

21 November 2024

Open-Fire Policy

Israel soldiers killed a Palestinian girl, 13, at home in Qaryut after entering the village following a settler attack

On Friday, 6 September 2024, at around 3:00 P.M., dozens of settlers, some of them armed, arrived at the southern edge of the village of Qaryut in Nablus District. Soldiers escorting them in a military jeep stopped near the ‘Ein Silon freshwater spring, about a kilometer away from village homes. Some of the soldiers walked up the road leading to the village and stopped about a 100 meters from the homes. From there, they occasionally fired live rounds at residents who gathered to defend the village. The settlers stopped about 100 meters from the homes and pelted them with stones. Three settlers, one of them holding a Molotov cocktail, went towards one of the homes and tried to set it on fire. Residents pushed them away and started chasing them. During the chase, one of the settlers threw a stone that hit Muhammad Musa (28) in the jaw. Musa was taken to hospital and remained there until 18 September.

29 October 2024

Open-Fire Policy

Israeli soldiers shot and killed an American-Turkish protester endangering no one in the town of Beita

On Friday, 6 September 2024, about 100-150 Palestinians from the town of Beita and around 20 international and Israeli activists gathered for the weekly demonstration against the outpost of Evyatar, built on town land in Jabal Sbeih. Soldiers arrived before noon and deployed near the public park in the area of the Nimer grove, on a hill in the southern part of the town, where prayers are regularly held before the demonstration. At around 12:15 P.M., as locals gathered for the prayers, Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, an international activist, arrived in the area with other international activists. The prayers proceeded without incident, and then, at around 1:00 P.M., the residents and activists began leaving through the park gate. Most of the residents began making their way back home...

27 October 2024

The Gaza Strip

The world must stop the ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza

The magnitude of the crimes Israel is currently committing in the northern Gaza Strip in its campaign to empty it of however many residents are left is impossible to describe, not just because hundreds of thousands of people enduring starvation, disease without access to medical care and incessant bombardments and gunfire defies comprehension, but because Israel has cut them off from the world. Ever since Israel’s current operation in the northern Gaza Strip began on 5 October, the area has been under a near complete siege, relentlessly pummeled by the military...

22 October 2024

The Gaza Strip

Israeli NGOs warn international community it will be complicit if Israel forcibly transfers the population of Northern Gaza

Human rights NGOs based in Israel today called on the international community to take action now to prevent Israel from forcibly transferring hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have remained in the Northern Gaza Strip, including by denying entry of essential humanitarian aid and fuel. The Israeli ceasefire coalition, said that there are alarming signs that the Israeli military is beginning to quietly implement the Generals’ Plan, also referred to as the Eiland Plan, which calls for complete forcible transfer of the civilians of the northern Gaza Strip.

14 October 2024

Settler Violence = State Violence

Settlers driving out Wadi al-Qalt community with state assistance

Over the past decade, settlement outposts and “agricultural farms” have become one of Israel’s primary methods for taking over land in the West Bank and driving Palestinian communities out. Unlike the bureaucratic process involved in establishing an official settlement, ‘pirate’ outposts can be set up quickly, with relatively few resources and laborers. Taking control of farmland via setting up outposts also allows the state to evade direct responsibility for land seizure and shrug off the violent, illegal acts by settlers involved in the process, while effectively supporting them in various ways. By using these settlers as proxies, the state frames the establishment of outposts as an issue of law enforcement rather than policy.

13 October 2024

A Routine Founded on Violence

Deir Dobwan, Ramallah District: Soldier steals Palestinian’s car after he and two settlers blocked its way with civilian pickup truck

On Tuesday, 10 September 2024, at around 11:00 AM, Samir Safi was driving his car in the eastern part of the village of Deir Dobwan when a civilian pickup truck entered his lane and blocked his way. In the truck were a soldier and two settlers. Safi reversed and tried to turn around, at which point the soldier got out of the truck, ran over to Safi's car, opened the door and ordered him to get out. The settler driving the truck turned it around and stopped, and then got out with the other settler, both of them carrying clubs. Safi got out of his car, and the soldier ordered him to leave. Safi moved away, and the soldier got in the car and drove off. Safi reported the theft to the Palestinian DCO.

30 September 2024

Open-Fire Policy

Israeli soldiers on an arrest mission in Tubas shot a PA customs officer, and shot him again as he lay on the ground

On Wednesday, 24 July 2024, at around 6:30 A.M., military jeeps and a white van with Palestinian license plates drove into the town of Tubas. Inside were soldiers, some of them masked and some wearing civilian clothes. The van drove into a dirt parking lot next to a Palestinian Authority customs office and stopped. Two soldiers in civilian clothes got out and greeted customs officers who were standing at the entrance to the building. Three soldiers in uniforms then got out of the van.

29 September 2024

Open-Fire Policy

Soldiers who entered al-Birah shot a 12-year-old running home frightened by shots fired at stone-throwers, and then delayed his evacuation by ambulance

[...] At around 5:10 P.M., about 20 to 30 children and youths gathered in an alley in al-Am'ari Refugee Camp, which is adjacent to al-Birah. Some of them threw stones at the forces by the fire station, and the latter responded by shooting live bullets, tear gas canisters and stun grenades. Shortly before the shooting, 12-year-old Muhammad Hushiyeh set out home from the soccer field in al-Am’ari R.C. At around 5:15, he came out of an alley about 15 meters from the jeeps and turned west on Haifa Street. He heard the shots and started running west, away from the carwash. In video footage captured from the west, he is seen running away from the soldiers, and then several more shots are heard. Muhammad is then seen lying wounded on the sidewalk, about 70-75 meters from the soldiers who shot him, who were likely across the street from him...

25 September 2024

Open-Fire Policy

Border Police officer exits armored jeep and shoots young man endangering no one in the head from 100 meters away

On the night between 20 and 21 March 2024, Israeli military, Border Police and Israel Police forces entered the neighborhoods of Umm a-Sharayet and Kafr ‘Aqab northeast of Jerusalem and carried out an arrest. At around 5:00 A.M., as the armed forces made their way out of the area on the Ramallah-Jerusalem main road, about 15 young men waited for them by the road, on the outskirts of the Sateh Marhaba neighborhood in al-Birah. Once the forces turned into the Sateh Marhaba neighborhood, the young men also entered the neighborhood through alleyways and threw stones at the armored vehicles from about 10 meters away. The convoy kept driving towards the settlement of Kochav Ya’akov.

22 September 2024

The Gaza Strip

B'Tselem at the UNSC: For the Israeli government, the occupation and the settlements matter more than human life

On Sunday, we woke up to the news that six Israeli hostages were executed by Hamas, just before soldiers reached them in a tunnel in Gaza. Another six, added to tens of thousands of people in this land who should not have died over the past year. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets, understading, perhaps for the first time, that the Israeli government does not want to return the hostages in a deal, but to continue the war indefinitely, said B'Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak, who addressed the UN Security Council last night. Watch Yuli Novak’s address...

5 September 2024

Open-Fire Policy

Israeli soldiers and undercover Border Police extrajudicially executed a military wing operative in front of bystanders in the Jenin industrial zone

On Wednesday, 3 July 2024, at around 2:00 P.M., soldiers and undercover Border Police officers entered the industrial zone in the city of Jenin, riding in four civilian jeeps with Palestinian license plates. They drove against traffic until they reached a car wash, where the first jeep crashed into a customer, Nidal ‘Amer (22), an operative of the Jenin Brigade. The jeeps then stopped. ‘Amer, who was standing and talking to people at the car wash, fell to the ground. Two members of the force emerged from the jeep that hit him and stated in Arabic that they were special forces. Immediately afterwards, one of them fired at least two shots at ‘Amer, and then a third shot that hit his head. Then they both got back into the jeep and all the jeeps drove off...

2 September 2024

Settler Violence = State Violence

Meged Ha’aretz Farm: Settler takeover of Shufah and Kafa lands with military assistance

Over the last decade, outposts and “agricultural farms” have become one of the primary methods employed by Israel to take over areas in the West Bank and to expel Palestinian communities. One of these outposts is Meged Ha’aretz, which was founded in 2018 in the Tulkarm district, west of the settlement of Avnei Hefetz, northwest of the village of Shufah—which, with the establishment of Avnei Hefetz, had already lost a significant portion of its land —and east of the village of Kafa. Since the establishment of the outpost, there has been a significant increase in the harassment of farmers whose agricultural plots are located a few hundred meters from the outpost and the settlement fence. Settlers have harassed farmers working on their lands, provoked them.

27 August 2024

Open-Fire Policy

Israeli soldiers chased two motorcyclists in Jenin and fatally shot them for no reason

On 6 June 2024, during a raid on the Jenin refugee camp, an exchange of fire broke out between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli soldiers, resulting in the fatal shooting of an armed Palestinian man and the arrest of another. Before withdrawing from the area, soldiers in a military jeep were documented fatally shooting two men, Ibrahim a-S’adi (20) and ‘Issa Jallad (16), who were riding a motorcycle in the city of Jenin, far from the clashes. The circumstances surrounding the deaths of Jalad and a-Sa'di mirror dozens of other cases where security forces have fatally shot Palestinians who posed no threat.

19 August 2024

Detainees & Prisoners

New report: Welcome to Hell

The Israeli Prison System as a Network of Torture Camps The report reveals Israel’s abuse and inhuman treatment of Palestinian prisoners since 7 Oct. 2023, based on the testimonies of 55 Palestinians held during that time and released, almost all without charges. The testimonies expose the outcomes of a rushed transformation of more than a dozen military and civilian detention facilities into de-facto torture camps.

7 August 2024

The Occupied Territories and International Law

Responding to the ICJ’s advisory opinion, B'Tselem says: No more excuses. The international community must force Israel to end the occupation.

Over the past 57 years, Israel has demonstrated it has no intention of ending the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, but the opposite, working to further entrench it and annex the territory (whether formally or in practice). Military occupation is one element of Israel’s apartheid regime. The international community has evaded its duty to protect the Palestinians using various excuses. The release of the ICJ’s advisory opinion puts an end to these justifications, and now the international community must use every tool to force Israeli decision-makers to end the occupation.

19 July 2024

Settler Violence = State Violence

Havat Oppenheimer: settlers use outpost to take over Deir Istiya land with military backing

Over the last decade, outposts and “agricultural farms” have become one of the primary methods employed by Israel to take over areas in the West Bank and to expel Palestinian communities. One of the many examples built using this method is the Oppenheimer outpost (or “Barley Farm). This settlement was established north of the town of Deir Istiya in mid-June 2023 by Hadar Oppenheimer, head of the Land Department in the Samaria Regional Council. Initially, tents and a sheep pen were set up, and dozens of sheep were brought to the site.

16 July 2024

The Gaza Strip

Israel must free the hostages in a deal, not at the cost of killing hundreds of civilians in Gaza

Freeing the hostages is a worthy goal, especially as Hamas chose to abduct them and does not intend to fulfil its duty to release them unconditionally. Their families are understandably relieved to have their loved ones back. Yet the cost to Palestinian lives is horrifying – and predictable, given Israel’s policy on use of force in Gaza. The Israeli government must, therefore, stop promoting the ill-founded idea that hostages can, and should, be freed in military operations. It must immediately reach a deal with Hamas.

30 June 2024

Open-Fire Policy

Israeli soldiers lying in ambush shoot Palestinians trying to cross Separation Barrier without endangering anyone, killing two brothers, injuring a third and severely abusing another young man

On Thursday, 29 February 2024, at around 4:30 P.M., three brothers from the Shawamreh family, Najm a-Din, 29, Salah a-Din, 25, and Nur a-Din, 30, arrived at the western side of the Separation Barrier, near Beit Mirsim. They were headed back home to the village of Deir al-’Asal al-Foqa in Hebron District. The three crossed the barrier into Israeli territory a few days earlier with another brother to pick some ‘aqub (gundelia). A taxi dropped them off near the barrier with another passenger, Muhammad ‘Amru, 21, who was returning from his job in Israel. The four men were planning to climb the barrier using a rope ladder. They were in touch with a Palestinian lookout who was paid to climb the barrier and warn people if Israeli forces are nearby.

5 June 2024