Updates

The Occupied Territories and International Law

The era of impunity for Israeli decision-makers is over

The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor’s request to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on suspicion of committing war crimes in Gaza signals Israel’s rapid decline into a moral abyss. The international community is signaling to Israel that it can no longer maintain its policy of violence, killing and destruction without accountability. Likewise, the request for arrest warrants against Hamas leaders for the crimes of October 7 is important and draws a red line where harm to civilians is concerned...

20 May 2024

The Gaza Strip

New position paper: Manufacturing famine

Today, (Monday, 22.2.2024) Israeli human rights group B’Tselem is issuing a new position paper, Manufacturing Famine. The organization concludes, based on various reports from international bodies about the situation in Gaza and on testimonies gathered by B'Tselem's field researchers, that for months, Israel has been committing the crime of starvation under international law in the Gaza Strip. Read more...

21 April 2024

Open-Fire Policy

Jan. 2024: Israel continued its lethal open-fire policy in the West Bank, killing 62 Palestinians, 14 of them minors

From the start of the war through January 2024, Israeli forces killed 358 Palestinians in the West Bank, more than half of whom – 187 people – were endangering no one. In January 2024, Israeli forces killed 62 Palestinians in the West Bank, 22 of whom were endangering no one. B’Tselem’s findings regarding several incidents in which Palestinians were killed in January 2024...

18 April 2024

Minors

Israeli soldiers take 8-year-old Palestinian from house in Qabatiya, claiming he threw stones

On 9 March 2024, around 5:00 P.M., three military jeeps drove along a street in the southern neighborhood of Qabatiya, a town in Jenin District, where eight-year-old ‘Abdallah Saba’anah was playing with two younger relatives. According to the soldiers, the children threw stones at the jeeps and a stone hit the body of one of the jeeps. The jeeps turned around and drove back towards the children, who were scared and ran away to hide in a nearby home. Soldiers got out of one of the jeeps, chased the children into the house and forcefully removed ‘Abdallah...

3 April 2024

Settler Violence = State Violence

A year after Huwarah pogrom: B’Tselem and Earshot uncover new findings on killing of Sameh Aqtash

On 26 Feb. 2023, Sameh Aqtash, 36, was shot and killed in a settler attack on the village of Za'tara, south of Huwarah. Instead of preventing the forseeable assault, Israeli military and police forces stood by as settlers threw stones and then joined them in shooting at the Palestinians. B'Tselem and Earshot found that the shot that killed Aqtash was fired from a small caliber gun, apparently close to the village gate where only settlers were seen, most of them firing guns...

28 March 2024

Open-Fire Policy

Israeli military strikes Palestinians watching clashes from a distance in two separate incidents in Nur Shams R.C., killing 16 people, including 6 minors

Between the start of the war on 7 October 2023 and 29 February 2024, B’Tselem documented 20 fatal missile air strikes in various cities and refugee camps in the West Bank in which 85 people, including 21 minors were killed. The strikes, marking a significant increase in the use of this method, took place in the city of Jenin, Jenin R.C., Nur Shams R.C., the city of Tulkarm, Tulkarm R.C., and the village of a-Shuhada north of the town of Qabatiyah. To provide some perspective, from the beginning of 2022 until 6 October 2023, B’Tselem recorded five missile air strikes in the West Bank, all in the Jenin area. Ten people were killed in these attacks...

21 March 2024

Open-Fire Policy

Israeli soldiers fatally shot in the head a Palestinian, 25, crossing the Separation Fence to reach work

Since the war in Gaza broke out, Israel has suspended entry permits into its territory, as well as into parts of the West Bank cut off by the Separation Barrier. The Hajar family from the village of Shweikah in Tulkarm District owns an aluminum factory in the village of Barta’ah a-Sharqiyah. This village and others are trapped in an enclave created by the Separation Barrier, cut off from the rest of the West Bank. The family has been unable to access the factory due to the sweeping suspension of permits...

21 March 2024

Open-Fire Policy

Soldiers execute two Palestinians in al-Far’ah Refugee Camp

On Friday, 8 December 2023, around 6:30 A.M., soldiers and Shin Bet agents entered al-Far’ah Refugee Camp near Jericho. In violent clashes that broke out, seven Palestinians were killed: two took part in exchanges of fire with the forces; two, one of them a 14-year-old, were killed after throwing stones at the forces; one was a passerby; and two were killed in the incident detailed below. Another five Palestinians were injured in the clashes...

21 March 2024

Open-Fire Policy

Soldiers blow up five doors in Palestinian family’s building, killing one member

On Tuesday, 5 December 2023, around 5:30 A.M., more than 20 soldiers entered Qalandia Refugee Camp in northeastern Jerusalem. Some of them broke into the building of the extended Manasrah family, which is home to five families totaling some 40 people, about half of them minors. The soldiers blew up the doors to all the apartments, without asking the inhabitants to open them or giving them prior warning...

21 March 2024

Open-Fire Policy

Israeli forces enter Qalandiya R.C. in search of armed Palestinians and fatally shoot passerby

On Monday, 4 December 2023, at around 10:00 A.M., dozens of soldiers, Border Police officers, and officials from the Egg and Poultry Board and from the Israel Nature and Parks Authority entered the neighborhood of Kafr ‘Aqab in northern East Jerusalem. According to a police statement, the forces seized two cars and three scooters suspected as stolen, as well as counterfeit goods and protected birds...

21 March 2024

Open-Fire Policy

Dec. 2023: Israel continued its lethal open-fire policy in the West Bank, killing 62 Palestinians, over half of them endangering no one

In December, soldiers and police killed 62 Palestinians in the West Bank, 17 of them minors. Of the persons killed, 36 were endangering no one: 11 were shot while throwing stones or burning tires during clashes, 18 were shot while standing by clashes without taking part (9 of them by an aerial bombing), and 6 were killed in other circumstances. Regarding 1 other Palestinian, B’Tselem could not determine whether he was killed by soldiers or settlers. B’Tselem’s findings regarding several incidents in which Palestinians were killed in Nov. 2023...

21 March 2024

Communities Facing Expulsion

Since 7 October, Israel has ramped up efforts to drive Palestinian shepherding communities out of the northern Jordan Valley

Since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, Israel has stepped up its efforts to drive dozens of Palestinian shepherding communities in the northern Jordan Valley out of their homes and lands. Through cooperation and collaboration among the military, police, settlers and the Jordan Valley Regional Council, Israel has reduced grazing areas available to Palestinians, blocked regular water supply and took measures to isolate the Jordan Valley from the rest of the West Bank...

18 March 2024

Restrictions on Movement

Israel is drastically restricting movement in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, disrupting the lives of 2 million Palestinians

Since 7 October 2023, Israel has extremely tightened the restrictions, using its network of checkpoints to tighten supervision, setting up dozens of new checkpoints, blocking access from dozens of villages to main roads, and revoking all permits for Palestinians to enter Israel for work or other reasons. Click to view map and a description of the movement restrictions in Nablus and Ramallah...

5 March 2024

Open-Fire Policy

The execution in the hospital in Jenin contravenes fundamental legal and moral principles

On Tuesday, 30 January 2024, at 5:30 A.M., security cameras at Jenin’s Ibn Sina Hospital captured 12 soldiers, Special Police Unit officers and Shin Bet agents entering the hospital disguised as medical staff, women and patients. They went up to the third floor and one of them, in a white doctor’s coat, rang the bell of the rehabilitation department...

29 February 2024

A Routine Founded on Violence

Soldiers invade family building and release attack dog that injures toddler, Balata R.C.

On 4 February 2024, around 7:00 A.M., a military force entered the al-Jamasin neighborhood of Balata Refugee Camp in Nablus District. The soldiers entered a building and went up to the third floor, where Amani and Jamal Hashash live with their five children. Jamal was at work in the Nablus Municipality and Amani was home with four of their children. When she realized soldiers were in the building, she sat the three older children down on her bed and sat next to them holding Ibrahim, 3, who was still asleep, in her arms...

28 February 2024

Open-Fire Policy

Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 46-year-old Palestinian who approached Route 60 to sell a can of olive oil

On Thursday, 23 November 2023, around 1:00 P.M., Khader ‘Alwan, 46, was shot and killed near Route 60 in the Ramallah area. The IDF Spokesperson said soldiers “identified the suspect, who was carrying a large rock and approaching the road in order to throw it. Fearing for the safety of passengers on the road, the soldiers fired and neutralized him.” The findings of B’Tselem’s investigation indicate otherwise...

22 February 2024

The Gaza Strip

Establishing a “security zone” in Gaza is a war crime

In Nov. 2023, Israel started work on a buffer zone inside the Gaza Strip. The media reported it will be about 1 km wide and run along the border, with military posts, paved roads and surveillance devices. Israel is demolishing almost everything in the designated area, which will be off limits to Palestinians – even those who lived or worked fields there before. The need to defend southern Israeli communities cannot justify this massive demolition, which is prohibited under international law, and the creation of a “security zone”.

21 February 2024

Settler Violence = State Violence

Israel used the Gaza war to impose extreme restrictions on the annual West Bank olive harvest

The annual olive harvest in the West Bank is a key element of the Palestinian economy and a crucial source of income for tens of thousands of families. The World Bank and the Palestine Trade Center estimate that in good years, it injects almost 200 million dollars into the Palestinian economy. However, every year, Israel extensively restricts Palestinians’ ability to carry out the harvest, using official and unofficial means. In 2023, while the war in the Gaza Strip was underway, these restrictions reached new heights, leaving about 50% of Palestinian farmers unable to harvest their trees, according to estimates of the Palestinian Farmers’ Union...

14 February 2024

Torture and Abuse

Palestinian women from Hebron area, arrested in late October and released as part of Israel’s deal with Hamas, recount severe abuse in detention

From the start of the war in Gaza Strip to the end of 2023, Israel arrested about 5,500 Palestinians, including 184 women, some of them Palestinian citizens of Israel. B’Tselem collected testimonies from three women who were arrested in the Hebron area on 26 October 2023. All three were released in late November along with other female detainees and prisoners, as part of a deal with Hamas, which released women and minors abducted on 7 October 2023. The testimonies paint a picture of extreme violence against these women , from the moment soldiers barged into their homes and arrested them to the day they were released....

11 February 2024

The Gaza Strip

Israel-based civil society and human rights organizations call for a ceasefire

We, the undersigned Israel-based civil society and human rights organizations, call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and demand the immediate release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip. An immediate ceasefire will prevent further loss of civilian lives and facilitate access to vital aid for Gaza to address the unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe there...

7 February 2024

Open-Fire Policy

Soldiers shot dead a Palestinian teen trying to place a rock on a village road to block their way, endangering no one

On Tuesday, 28 November 2023, at around 4:00 A.M., soldiers entered the village of Kafr ‘Ein, northwest of Ramallah, and stopped by a house to arrest one of its occupants. About 20 young men who heard they were in the village, gathered about 200 meters from the spot and watched. Meanwhile, four soldiers went into a grove near the house and lay in wait, watching the young men...

5 February 2024

Open-Fire Policy

Israeli forces kill Palestinian in clashes during a gathering to welcome released prisoners

On 21 November 2023, Hamas and Israel agreed on a deal in which Hamas would release women and minors abducted from Israel on 7 October 2023 in exchange for Palestinian women and minors jailed by Israel. The swap was carried out in several phases. In every phase, Israel transferred the Palestinians released from Ofer Prison to an ICRC (Red Cross) bus. The bus then drove through the town of Bitunya, with residents gathering along the main street to welcome the released prisoners. Every evening, Border Police officers entered the town to disperse the crowd, leading to clashes with local residents...

5 February 2024

Open-Fire Policy

Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian, 15, after he threw an empty bottle at the Psagot settlement gate

On Saturday, 25 November 2023, at around 10:00 P.M., Muhammad Saleh, 15, a resident of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Kafr ‘Aqab, went to the Jabal a-Tawil neighborhood of al-Birah, near which the settlement of Psagot was established. He parked his moped dozens of meters away from the military gate at the entrance to the settlement, and then walked towards the gate and threw an empty glass bottle at it. The bottle landed a few meters away from the gate. Saleh turned around and ran. Just then, live rounds were fired at him from the military post at the gate...

5 February 2024