Israeli Military Uses Excessive Force

Israeli Military Uses Excessive Force To Disperse Protesters In Palestinian Villages Near Wall

Palestine News Network

Nablus / Amin Abu Wardeh - Three Palestinians died last week, two in the Gaza Strip and one in the West Bank, and ten others were wounded, including four children and one woman, according to the weekly report by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.

In the southern Gaza Strip, two Palestinians were killed on 1 May when Israeli warplanes dropped three missiles into Rafah. The stated Israeli “target” was a tunnel along the border with Egypt near the Salah Addin Gate District next to Ibn Taymiyah Mosque. The tunnel collapsed from the bombing, killing two people.

Also on the first of the month, a Palestinian citizen was wounded when Israeli occupation forces stationed along the boundary line east of the town of Jabaliya fired directly at them while their sheep were grazing on the land of Abu Safiya.

On the second of May, soldiers dismounted from two military jeeps east of Khan Younis and fired at a group of farmers who were working on harvesting their wheat and barley crops from their land. One of them was injured.

Three Palestinian civilians, including children, were injured slightly in the town of Beit Lahiya, in the northern the Gaza Strip on 3 May. A rocket left over from the recent Israeli war exploded. On the same date, according to the International Red Cross, the family of 12 year old Ayman Shami of Jabaliya Refugee Camp said that their child, who had been lost, was being detained by the Israeli occupying forces. The parents told the Palestinian liaison that their child had been arrested near the boundary with Israel in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun where he been earlier shot by the occupation forces.

In the southern West Bank, showing excessive use of deadly armed force, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian civilian at an entrance to the Ibrihimi Mosque in the Old City of Hebron.

Israeli military sources claimed that the Palestinian had tried to kidnap a soldier near the mosque that is surrounded by a maze of metal gates and fences, Israeli settlers and soldiers.

The soldiers fired a shot at the man and he was killed on impact. It is being said that the young man was being arrested and attempted to leave. When he did not stop the soldiers shot and killed him. He was mentally disabled.

The deceased’s father said that their son suffers from mental disabilities and has the papers to prove it. Israeli forces give themselves the right to use deadly force in such instances.

Another story of the use of excessive force and systematic attacks is that of the nonviolent march organized by Palestinian civilians and Israeli solidarity supporters and foreign human rights defenders against the construction of the Wall. The occupation forces used force to disperse protesters in several Palestinian villages now adjacent to the Israeli Wall. This resulted in the wounding of seven Palestinian demonstrators, including children, as well as the injury of dozens of demonstrators who suffered from suffocation due to inhalation of gas.

Incursions

Israeli forces continue the practice of incursions and raids and the arrest of Palestinian civilians on a daily basis in most provinces of the West Bank. During the period covered by this report (29 April – 6 May), these forces carried out 30 throughout most cities, towns and camps in the West Bank, and arrested 25 Palestinians, including one child. Through the monitoring and documenting of violations committed against Palestinian civilians and property by researchers at the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in the West Bank, it is clear that the Israeli forces deliberately mistreat Palestinian civilians: torturing them, terrorizing their homes and damaging material possessions, and destroying parts of their premises.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces carried out a limited incursion on 2 May with a military force consisting of ten foot soldiers entering the vicinity of the Martyrs’ Cemetery, east of the town of Jabaliya. They started shooting at houses and agricultural land, forcing farmers to flee. And the next day Israeli occupation troops arrested three Palestinians from Maghazi Refugee Camp in the centre of the Gaza Strip; they were trying to pass through to Israel across the boundary line in order to search for work.

Judaization procedures in occupied East Jerusalem

Israeli forces continued their arbitrary measures against Palestinian civilians and property in occupied East Jerusalem in an unprecedented way. Their ultimate goal as stated by Israeli officials is the expulsion and displacement of the largest possible number of Palestinian inhabitants. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights strongly condemns all Israeli actions in East Jerusalem.

Israeli occupation authorities handed over a decision issued by a court of local affairs in the municipality of West Jerusalem to Nabil Disi, aged 61, which required the demolition of part of an appendix to his home located in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City. The court of local affairs in the municipality also decided to demolish the family home of Darweesh Disi, 27 years old, in the same area.

In a related incident on Tuesday the fifth of May, a deadline was given by the occupation authorities to Abdel Nasser Hamdallah to demolish his house in the neighborhood of Sala’ah, on Mount Scopus, Jabal Al Masharif, in Jerusalem. The occupation municipality has issued an administrative order which compelled the citizen Hamdallah to demolish his own two-bedroom home of 55 square meters under the pretext of building without obtaining a license from the municipality.

Settlement building and attacks by settlers:

The settlers living in the occupied West Bank are there contrary to international humanitarian law yet still frequently commit crimes against Palestinian civilians and their property. These crimes usually take place in plain sight and hearing of the Israeli army that provides permanent protection for them; complaints filed by Palestinian civilians against the aggressors are ignored and not investigated.

The blockade and restrictions on freedom of movement:

The continued occupation imposes a blockade on the occupied Palestinian territory, and has done since the start of the Al Aqsa Intifada. The siege on the Gaza Strip has tightened, completely isolating it from the outside world; an estimated 1.5 million Palestinians are imprisoned. This has led to paralysis of all aspects of life, as well as a blatant violation of all economic, social and cultural rights.

The West Bank still suffers from crippling blockade procedures, and the spread unprecedented of military barriers between cities, villages and refugee camps. Most of these are now isolated from one another into small cantons.

ENDS

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