Updates

Open-Fire Policy

Israeli forces enter al-Am’ari R.C., arrest two Palestinians, fatally shoot a passerby and wound six others

On Thursday, 9 November 2023, at around 6:00 A.M., Israeli Border Police officers and soldiers entered al-Am’ari Refugee Camp, south of the city of Ramallah, and arrested two of its residents. Several officers then took up positions at the entrance to the camp, on the main street and on some rooftops, and fired at passersby. Israeli media reported exchanges of fire between the forces and camp residents, but in footage filmed by residents, the officers do not appear to be defending themselves from gunfire and there is no sign of clashes in the area...

5 February 2024

Open-Fire Policy

Soldiers walked three detainees through the streets of al-Birah, and in clashes that developed killed a boy and a young man and injured two

On Thursday, 2 November 2023, at around 6:00 A.M., dozens of soldiers, some of them masked, entered the town of al-Birah and went into a building. About three hours later, at around 9:00 A.M., they emerged with three detainees blindfolded and handcuffed. They led the three men on foot towards the settlement of Beit El, through residential neighborhoods and the al-Birah industrial zone...

5 February 2024

Open-Fire Policy

Nov. 2023: Israel continued its lethal open-fire policy in the West Bank, killing 116 Palestinians, 25 of them minors

In November, this policy led to the killing of 116 Palestinians, 25 of them under the age of 18. 43 were killed in clashes with Israeli forces in which Palestinians threw stones, set off firecrackers and burned tires. However, more than half of them – 23 – were not taking part in the clashes themselves, but only watching or passing by. One Palestinian was killed while harvesting olives, and a Palestinian minor was killed after throwing an empty bottle at a settlement gate. Another 51 November casualties were killed in exchanges of fire or immediately after…

5 February 2024

The Gaza Strip

Epidemics on the rise and masses injured and ill – yet Gaza’s healthcare system is barely functioning

After 117 days of war, Gaza’s health system can no longer care for more than 60,000 people injured and tens of thousands ill. Doctors report severely-injured people they could not save and others left permanently disabled for lack of care, while preventable epidemics spread. Denying the special protשection international humanitarian law provides for the most vulnerable populations sentences thousands in Gaza to suffering and death.

1 February 2024

Open-Fire Policy

Soldiers lying in ambush shot young Palestinians at short range, killing one and wounding 11

On Sunday, 29 October 2023, at around 2:00 A.M., soldiers drove into the center of Beit Rima, a village southwest of the town of Salfit. Some of them got out of the jeeps and stood next to the Abu Baker Mosque on the main road of the village. News of their presence spread on social media, and about 20 young men went to the area, gathered about 100 meters away from the soldiers and watched...

16 January 2024

Settler Violence = State Violence

In two days, settlers killed five Palestinians from Qusrah, one of them 17, and soldiers killed another

On Wednesday, 11 October 2023, at around 1:30 P.M., several settlers drove on two ATVs along the road that leads to the southeastern entrance to the village of Qusrah in Nablus District, and attacked workers at a construction site by the roadside, throwing stones at them. The workers threw stones back, and the settlers fired live shots in the air and then drove towards the outpost of Esh Kodesh, which was established south of the village. At around 3:00 P.M., several settlers drove on ATVs into the eastern part of the village, set a utility pole on fire and threw stones at the home of the ‘Odeh family. Eight members of the family were home at the time, four of them children. One family member, ‘Awad ‘Odeh, 29, went up to the roof and threw a stone at the settlers to fend them off. Meanwhile, three soldiers standing about 150 meters away from the house did nothing, even when several settlers tried to break through the gate...

15 January 2024

The Gaza Strip

Israel is starving Gaza

The 2.2 million residents of Gaza are hungry. This is not a byproduct of war but a direct result of Israel’s declared policy. The population now depends entirely on food from outside as stockpiles in Gaza have run out and there is almost no way to produce food. Israel is deliberately not letting enough supplies into Gaza and refusing to change this policy despite the growing horror and real risk of famine. Starving a civilian population and blocking humanitarian aid are considered a war crime.

8 January 2024

Open-Fire Policy

Israeli soldiers killed two Palestinian teens endangering no one in Zawata, west of Nablus

On Monday afternoon, 30 October 2023, the media reported armed Palestinians had fired at two cars driving on Route 60 near the settlement of Shavei Shomron. According to the report, one of the passengers fired back and the armed Palestinians fled. After the incident, the military launched a search for the shooters. At around 4:00 P.M., as part of the search, soldiers arrived in several military jeeps at the Zawata roundabout, located on the road that connects Nablus to the villages west of it. About 15 Palestinian youths and teens gathered at the roundabout and threw stones at the soldiers. Several soldiers got out of the jeeps and hid behind them...

1 January 2024

Open-Fire Policy

Soldiers in armored jeep shoot and kill fleeing Palestinian youth who threw stones at them earlier

On Friday morning, 20 October 2023, at around 9:00 A.M., soldiers entered the neighborhood of ‘Ein Misbah in Ramallah and arrested a resident. On their way back from the arrest, they passed through the town of Bitunya, where three Palestinian youths were waiting to throw stones at them. One of the youths was Suhaib a-Sus (15). At 10:30 A.M., when the first two jeeps drove by, a-Sus and another youth threw stones at them from about 20 meters away. After the jeeps passed, the two drew closer to the road and waited five to ten meters from it...

27 December 2023

Open-Fire Policy

Forces shoot at protestors in the village of Beit Ijza and kill a young man posing no danger to them

On the morning of Friday, 13 October 2023, settlers stood on the roofs of homes in the settlement of Givon Hahadasha that lie next to homes in the Palestinian village of Beit Ijza, and shouted slogans calling for revenge. After noon prayers in the village mosque, at around 1:30 P.M., about 200 area residents set out from the mosque in a protest march towards the agricultural gate in the Separation Barrier, which lies between the village and the settlement. When they arrived at the gate, about 20 Border Police officers and two armed settlers were waiting there. The protesters burned tires and threw stones at the officers, who fired tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets at them...

27 December 2023

Open-Fire Policy

Soldiers shoot at car of family that escaped a flying checkpoint after the father suspected they were armed settlers, killing mother and injuring son

On Thursday, 12 October 2023, at around 6:00 P.M., Shadi ‘Ajaj (44), his wife Randah (40) and their sons Isma’il (18) and Karam (1.5) were driving to Ramallah from their home in the village of Deir Jarir. When they reached the Yabrud underpass under Route 60, they saw a flying checkpoint with soldiers inspecting passing cars. A soldier at the checkpoint gestured for ‘Ajaj to drive on..

27 December 2023

Open-Fire Policy

In one evening of clashes at Qalandiya Checkpoint, Israeli forces killed a youth who fled after hurling a Molotov cocktail and three car passengers not involved in the clashes

In clashes between young Palestinians and Israeli forces that broke out near Qalandiya Checkpoint on Sunday evening, 8 October 2023, the forces shot and killed four Palestinians. In the clashes, which began around 8:30 P.M., the Palestinians threw stones and Molotov cocktails and sometimes fired live shots, and the forces fired tear gas canisters, rubber-coated metal bullets and live shots...

27 December 2023

Open-Fire Policy

In three weeks in October, Israeli soldiers and police killed at least 115 Palestinians, 37 of them minors in the West Bank

Israel is continuing to implement a lethal open-fire policy in the West Bank during the war in Gaza. In the last three weeks of October, it killed at least 115 Palestinians, incl. 37 minors. This figure is high even compared to the second intifada, which saw heavy clashes including live fire by Palestinians. The death toll of Israel’s unlawful policy even then did not exceed 30 casualties a month and was often much lower – with the exception of Operation Defensive Shield, in which Israel killed 134 Palestinians in March and 208 in April 2002.

27 December 2023

The Gaza Strip

B’Tselem calls for ceasefire in Gaza Strip

The war in the Gaza Strip has been ongoing for over seventy days. Since its start, Hamas and Israel have demonstrated flagrant disregard for the rules of international humanitarian law: Israel has waged an unconstrained attack on the population of Gaza that includes bombing on an unprecedented scale, that have killed around 19,000 people and created a humanitarian catastrophe. Hamas for its part uses Gazans as human shields and endangers their lives. In light of this, the inescapable conclusion is that continuing the war will entail more human rights violations and more war crimes, and the fighting must therefore be stopped immediately to prevent further harm to civilians.

18 December 2023

The Gaza Strip

Israeli organizations to President Biden: stop the humanitarian catastrophe

Israeli Human rights and civil society organizations sent a letter yesterday (Tuesday, 12 Dec. 2023) to US President Biden, asking him to use his influence to change Israel’s policy and prevent the deteriorating humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip. The letter is also published as a print advertisement in the New York Times. Read the letter...

13 December 2023

The Gaza Strip

Humanitarian catastrophe as policy

Life in the Gaza Strip right now is an unimaginable nightmare, as the result of a deliberate Israeli policy. Millions of residents are dangerously overcrowded in inhuman conditions – without water, food, medicine or fuel – and hospitals that have collapsed. All of this under unprecedented and relentless Israeli bombings. The situation is deteriorating and aid organizations are almost incapable of helping. This reality isn’t the war’s biproduct, it’s the deliberate outcome of Israel’s policy – a manufactured humanitarian catastrophe. Our analysis of the policy over the past two months:

7 December 2023

The Gaza Strip

Israel is not fighting against Hamas but against civilians, implementing a criminal policy of bombings

On Saturday, 2 December 2023, Israel bombed the neighborhood of Shuja’iyeh in Gaza City, declaring the goal was to kill Wissam Farhat. According to initial reports, the strike killed dozens of people and destroyed scores of residential buildings. Hundreds of people are still buried under the rubble. A strike such as this is not and cannot be considered proportional. Israel is implementing a criminal bombing policy in Gaza, which mostly hurts civilians, not Hamas...

5 December 2023

The Gaza Strip

International community has to clarify red lines Israel must not cross again

Since the war began, Israel has blatantly disregarded its obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants and is committing war crimes. In these circumstances, renewing the hostilities will almost certainly endanger the lives of civilians on an inconceivable scale, as Israel has proven it is not fighting against Hamas but against the entire population of Gaza, which consists of more than two million residents. The international community must clarify the red lines and prohibitions applying to Israel – regardless of the circumstances...

29 November 2023

The Gaza Strip

Nowhere to go: Israeli military evacuation order for east of Khan Yunis unfeasible

Yesterday, the Israeli military told Gaza residents living near the border, east of the city of Khan Yunis, to evacuate. The announcement was made by dropping flyers in the neighborhoods of al-Qararah, Bani Suheila, ‘Abasan and Khuza’a, where tens of thousands of people live. There is nowhere left to run in the Gaza Strip, one of the world’s most densely populated areas. More than 1.6 million residents have already been displaced after fleeing to the south in response to the Israeli military’s threats…

16 November 2023

Settler Violence = State Violence

Israel using Gaza war to forcibly transfer Palestinians from South Hebron Hills

The Palestinians have no one left to defend them. Residents’ attempts at self-defense are met with more violence, arrests and even gunfire. The military and police are also trying to remove Israeli and international activists, who stay in the area to help the residents and have extensive documentation of the settlers’ actions In these circumstances, it seems only a matter of time before Israel succeeds in taking over the entire area. Apparently, it has abandoned any pretense of trying to protect Palestinian residents in the South Hebron Hills, and has decided to carry out the war crime of forcibly transferring them.

13 November 2023

The Gaza Strip

Gaza needs a humanitarian pause now

Not everyone in the Gaza Strip is Hamas. 2.2 million people live there - human beings with faces, names, and families, who are in desperate need of food, water, medicine, hospitals, electricity, and shelter just so they can somehow survive. Claiming humanitarian aid cannot be brought in the name of the need to fight Hamas implies an underlying assumption that, at least for now, these civilians can be ignored and left to starve, get sick, and die. This is as cruel as it is willfully blind to the humanitarian crisis unfolding right in front of our eyes.

10 November 2023

Hebron City Center

Israel holding 750 families in Hebron’s Area H2 under curfew for last month, in form of collective punishment

Since the war broke out on 7 October 2023, the military has been imposing a curfew on 11 neighborhoods in Area H2 in Hebron. Stores and businesses have been shut down and thousands of people are imprisoned at home. Only after two weeks of full curfew, on 21 October 2023, did the military pemit residents to leave home on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. There is no justification for keeping hundreds of people under a blanket movement ban, locked up at home for weeks on end...

9 November 2023

The Gaza Strip

Israel has killed more than 10,000 people, over half of them women and children, in its attacks on Gaza. It must stop

Israel is killing more, and more, and more civilians. More than 10,000 people in Gaza have been killed, over half of them women and children. There cannot be any justification for such a horrific death toll. Entire streets have been reduced to rubble, with people trapped underneath. More than a million people have been turned into refugees, some killed while fleeing, others where they sought shelter from the bombings. Thousands are missing, their fate unknown...

8 November 2023