Updates

Beating and Abuse

Testimony: Soldiers abuse elderly shepherd

According to a testimony given to B'Tselem, on 28 Jan. '09, soldiers attacked Sharif Abu Hayah while he was herding his flock, beat him severely, and dragged him over rocks and thorns with his hands tied and his eyes covered.

5 March 2009

Minors

Testimony: Settlers beat and abduct youth

On 12 Feb. '09, Adham Ghaneimat, 14, went with two other youths to his family's orchard. Two settlers who came there beat him and then forced him to run before them as they drove to a settlement nearby, hitting him in the feet on the way.

5 March 2009

Restrictions on Movement

Allow al-Haq director to leave OPT

On 3 March, 10 human rights organizations in Israel called on defense officials to lift the travel ban on Shawan Jabarin, who has been barred exit from the West Bank since 2006, when he became director of al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights organization.

4 March 2009

Open-Fire Policy

Prohibit use of Ruger rifle to disperse demonstrators

In recent weeks, the army has once again begun using Ruger rifles to disperse demonstrators, although such use of this lethal weapon has been prohibited. As a result, many Palestinians and at last one foreign national have been injured.

1 March 2009

Settlements

Settlement expansion plans

Protocols of a Civil Administration committee reveal plans for substantial expansion of settlements. For some settlements, the committee approved the construction of sewage-treatment facilities intended to meet the needs of a much larger population than presently lives there, indicating the existence of expansion plans.

27 February 2009

Beating and Abuse

Testimony: Soldiers at checkpoint assault taxi driver

On 21 June '09, taxi driver Mustafa Shuli waited for an hour with passengers at a checkpoint near Nablus. According to his testimony, soldiers made him return to the end of the line and when he objected, they beat him and aimed weapons at the taxi.

26 February 2009

Beating and Abuse

Testimony: Soldiers arrest and abuse youths

On 15 Jan. '09, teenagers Muaiad, Islam, and Lu'ai Hun crossed the road to the Elon Moreh settlement on their way to gather firewood for their family. According to testimonies, soldiers who saw them arrested and abused them.

25 February 2009

The Gaza Strip

Army denies human rights monitors access to Gaza

Israel continues to obstruct independent investigations into allegations of laws of war violations by the Israel and Hamas by preventing Human Rights Watch and B'Tselem researchers from entering Gaza.

22 February 2009

Beating and Abuse

Testimony: Soldiers abuse family in a-Zeitun, Gaza City

Pensioner 'Izzat Kasab told B'Tselem that on 7 Jan. soldiers took over his home, beat family members and arrested him along with three sons. Kasab, who has a heart condition, said he was held for over a week under harsh conditions, without his medication.

19 February 2009

The Gaza Strip

Testimony: 3-year old killed in shelling in Beit Hanun

On 4 Jan. '09, the entire al-Kafarneh family was injured when their house was shelled, in Beit Hanun. 3-year-old Wiam died of shrapnel wounds the next day. After the family left the house, the army demolished it.

15 February 2009

Beating and Abuse

Testimony: Soldiers club and beat merchant, injuring him

On 17 January 2009, Majed al-Hajahjeh went to the main road next to Tuqu', Bethlehem District, to go by taxi to meet with shopkeepers in Beit Fajer. According to his testimony, an army jeep passing along the road stopped and soldiers got out and beat him severely with clubs, leaving him lying, injured and bleeding, on the road.

11 February 2009

The Gaza Strip

Guidelines for Israel's Investigation into Operation Cast Lead

B'Tselem issued a position paper detailing the guidelines of the necessary Israeli investigation of its conduct during the operation in Gaza. B'Tselem's initial survey of the military operation calls into question Israeli statements that the military acted according to International Humanitarian Law and that responsibility for the harm to the civilian population rests exclusively with Hamas.

8 February 2009

Detainees & Prisoners

42 Palestinians held without trial for over two years

B'Tselem's annual report, published today (5 Feb.), surveys a wide range of Israeli human rights violations in the OPT in 2008, until Operation Cast Lead. As house demolition and lack of law enforcement on violent settlers continued, Israel largely refrained from holding members of the security forces accountable for their actions.

5 February 2009

Beating and Abuse

Border policemen assault workers in carpentry shop

On 11 Jan. '09 two border policemen drove up to a carpentry shop in Tsur Hadassah while Muhammad Hamamrah and Maher Mahmoud, residents of Husan, Bethlehem District, were unloading wood from the vehicle of the shop's owner. They beat the two Palestinians and then took them to a checkpoint, where soldiers detained them for hours in the cold, without giving them shelter.

2 February 2009

The Gaza Strip

Testimony: 12 days under non-stop shelling

25 members of the a-Shteiwi family, 12 of them children, were besieged in their home with shelling going on outside for over a week. When they were evacuated, the army demolished the house.

2 February 2009

The Gaza Strip

Testimony: Soldiers shoot woman carrying white flag

On 12 Jan. '09, soldiers called residents of the Khuza'a neighborhood, in the Gaza Strip, to leave their homes. When Rawhiya a-Najar stepped out of her house waving a white flag, soldiers shot her and then a young woman who tried to help her. A-Najar remained on the ground and bled to death.

1 February 2009

Detainees & Prisoners

Prisoners from Gaza were held in appalling conditions

On 28 Jan. seven Israeli human rights organizations appealed to the Military Judge Advocate General and to the Attorney General concerning the appalling conditions in which Palestinians arrested during the fighting in Gaza were held, and the humiliating and inhuman treatment to which they were subjected.

28 January 2009

Beating and Abuse

Testimony: Soldier beats young man and fractures his skull

On 20 Jan., Mahmoud 'Awwad reached Huwara checkpoint on his way to work and saw soldiers beating his brother. Testimonies indicate that when he addressed the soldiers, a soldier hit him on the head with a rifle butt. 'Awwad collapsed, his head bleeding. He has undergone surgery for his fractured skull and according to doctors, may have suffered brain damage.

28 January 2009

Intra-Palestinian Violations

Extra-judicial execution of alleged collaborators by Hamas

According to several media reports, since the start of the Israeli attack in Gaza, Hamas has executed an unknown number of residents of Gaza that it considered to be collaborators with Israel. These acts are grave breaches of international law.

26 January 2009

Beating and Abuse

Testimony: Police in Jaffa assault young men from East Jerusalem

On 4 January, policemen in Jaffa stopped a car of young men from East Jerusalem who were out on the town. According to Khaled Jaradat, police searched them in a degrading manner and assaulted him and his friend, both on the street and later at the police station.

22 January 2009

The Gaza Strip

Human rights groups report on Gaza from the field

During the fighting in Gaza Israeli human rights groups worked together to inform the Israeli public of the impact on civilians. Upon the declaration of the cease-fire, we have stopped the daily updates. The organizations will continue to use the Blog to provide information on the war and its consequences.

20 January 2009