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Showing posts with label Break The siege. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Break The siege. Show all posts
On Friday, 26 October 2018, in excessive use of force against peaceful protesters on the 31th Friday of the March of Return and Breaking the Siege, Israeli forces killed 4 Palestinian civilians and wounded 236 others, including 51 children, 8 women, 3 journalists and 6 paramedics, with live bullets and directly hit tear gas canisters in eastern Gaza Strip. Sixteen of those wounded sustained serious wounds.
According to the fieldworkers of Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), the Israeli forces increased the use of live bullets against peaceful demonstrators, especially in eastern Khan Younis, where demonstrations moved to a new location in the east of Khuza’a and 3 demonstrators were killed in addition to dozen others were wounded.
PCHR’s investigations and fieldworkers’ observations emphasize that though limited attempts to approach the border fence were reported in the demonstration areas, there was no imminent threat posed to the life of the Israeli soldiers and the protests were totally peaceful. PCHR’s fieldworkers did not witness any armed manifestations while the Israeli soldiers continued to position on the top of sand berms and hills, in military jeeps and tanks along the border fence.
This proves that Israeli forces continue to use excessive force against the protestors upon highest Israeli military and political echelons despite no danger or threat posed to the life of Israeli soldiers.
The incidents today, 26 October 2018, were as follows:
At approximately 15:00, thousands of civilians, including women, children and entire families, started swarming to the 5 encampments established by the Supreme National Authority for the Great March of Return and Breaking Siege along the border fence, east of the Gaza Strip governorates. They raised flags and chanted national songs. Hundreds, including children and women, approached the border fence with Israel, set fire to tires and gathered 300 meters away from the main border fence. Some of them attempted to throw stones at the Israeli forces, limitedly threw Molotov Cocktails and pulled parts of the second barbed-wire few meters away from the fence established inside the Palestinian territories few meters away from the border fence and in limited cases, they threw Molotov Cocktails along the border fence. However, there was no threat posed on the lives of Israeli soldiers stationed behind barracks and sand berms, 70 meters away the border fence.
The Israeli shooting, which continued until 18:30, resulted in the killing of 4 civilians; 3 of them were killed in eastern Khan Yunis, east of Khuza’ah, where demonstrations moved to a new location near the border fence in eastern Khan Yunis. The death of civilians killed was declared few hours after their arrival at the European Hospital and they were identified as:
Nassar Eyad Nassar Abu Tayyim (19), from Bani Suhiylah, east of Khan Yunis, was hit with a live bullet to the head in eastern Khan Yunis.
Ahmed Sa’ied ‘Abed al-‘Aziz Abu Lebda (22), from Bani Suhiylah, east of Khan Yunis, was hit with a live bullet to the chest in eastern Khan Yunis.
‘Ayish Ghassan ‘Ayish Sha’at (23), from al-Fukhari neighborhood, east of Khan Yunis, was hit with a live bullet to the head in eastern Khan Yunis.
Mohamed Khaled Mahmoud ‘Abed al-Nabi (27), from Jabalia, was hit with a live bullet to the head at approximately 15:20, in eastern Abu Safiyia area, northeast of Jabalia. His death was declared at approximately 16:30 in al-Shifa Hospital after referring him from the Indonesian Hospital.
Moreover, 236 civilians, including 51 children, 8 women, 3 journalists, and 6 paramedics, were wounded with live bullets and directly hit with tear gas canisters. Sixteen of those wounded sustained serious wounds in addition dozens suffering tear gas inhalation and seizures after tear gas canisters were heavily fired by the Israeli soldiers from the military jeeps and riffles in the eastern Gaza Strip.
Table of Civilian Casualties due to the Israeli Suppression since the Beginning of the Great March of Return on 30 March
Notes
Medical Crews
Journalists
Women
Children
Total
Casualties
Among those Killed, there are 5 Persons with Disabilities and a girl
3
2
1
33
168
Killed
Among those wounded, 495 are in serious condition and 76 had their lower or upper limbs amputated. The number of those wounded only include those wounded with live bullet and directly hit with tear gas canisters as there have been thousand others who suffered tear gas inhalation.
128
116
247
1586
9073
Wounded
PCHR hereby condemns the crimes committed by the Israeli forces, believing it is as a result of Israel’s enjoying impunity thanks to the U.S. and so encouraging the Israeli forces to commit further crimes upon an official decision by the highest military and political echelons.
PCHR emphasizes that continuously targeting civilians, who exercise their right to peaceful assembly or while carrying out their humanitarian duty, is a serious violation of the rules of international law, international humanitarian law, the ICC Rome Statute and Fourth Geneva Convention. Thus, PCHR calls upon the ICC Prosecutor to open an official investigation in these crimes and to prosecute and hold accountable all those applying or involved in issuing orders within the Israeli Forces at the security and political echelons.
PCHR also reiterates its call upon the High Contracting Parties to the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their obligations under Article 1; i.e., to respect and ensure respect for the Convention in all circumstances and their obligations under Article 146 to prosecute persons alleged to commit grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
PCHR calls upon Switzerland, in its capacity as the Depository State for the Convention, to demand the High Contracting Parties to convene a meeting and ensure Israel’s respect for this Convention, noting that these grave breaches constitute war crimes under Article 147 of the same Convention and Protocol (I) Additional to the Geneva Conventions regarding the guarantee of Palestinian civilians’ right to protection in the occupied territories.
Further to the article by Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) New Cold War posted on June 29, 2018 MAP has released a new fact sheet, which discusses the humanitarian emergency in Gaza and recommends how the UK Government can address the unprecedented crisis.
First published by MAP on Oct 10, 2018 _____________________________________________________________________________
The UK Government has announced three main aid responses to humanitarian needs in Gaza in 2018:
£2 million funding for UNICEF to provide water tanks, water drums and chlorine treatment to ensure access to safe drinking water
£1.5 million for the ICRC to support restocking of medical supplies and physical rehabilitation for 4,000 people in Gaza
£38 million over five years to support economic activity in Gaza and the West Bank, through support for the construction of a desalination plant in Gaza; finances to install solar panels for electricity; and technical assistance to increase Palestinian exports and tax collection
In addition, the UK brought forward its funding to UNRWA in the face of severe cuts by the US administration and the UN Agency’s prolonged budgetary shortfall.
Such support is vital and should expand. Development of a desalination plant is particularly welcome, and similarly future aid to Gaza’s health system should develop infrastructure and its human resources.
UK aid programmes should always be developed in meaningful consultation with the Palestinian communities they seek to serve. British Parliamentarians should be supported to enter Gaza to assess the situation for themselves and provide democratic oversight of the UK’s aid spending.
Ultimately there are no humanitarian solutions to political problems. The UK’s aid programmes are not matched by adequate political will to address the root causes of the needs they seek to address. The unlawful closure is just one symptom of a chronic, global failure to ensure adherence to international humanitarian and human rights law in Israel’s 51-year military occupation of Palestinian territory.
When an opportunity to pursue accountability was presented in May this year – in the form of a UN Human Rights Council vote to establish an independent Commission of Inquiry to investigate violations of international law in the context of the protests since 30 March – the UK abstained.
In 2012, the UN warned that Gaza would be unliveable by 2020. In July 2017, then-UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Aid and Development Activities, Robert Piper, revised the projection, stating: “[T]hat unlivability threshold has been passed quite a long time ago.”
MAP shares that view. Chronic needs and injustices must be addressed now. The people of Gaza cannot wait for a successful “Peace Process” for the closure to be lifted and international law adhered to.
The Zionist occupation forces shot and injured several Palestinians in northern Gaza during a protest to support a marine rally aimed at breaking the siege imposed by the enemy on the Strip and stressing the right to return to the Israeli-held territories.
The protest on Gaza Coast aimed at supporting the marine rally as the Palestinian youths incinerated tires after the Zionist occupation troops fired tear bombs at them.
At least three people, including a 12-year-old, were killed by Israeli troops as some 20,000 Palestinians rallied at the Gaza border. Amid the clashes, the IAF struck ‘terrorist targets’ in retaliation for border breach attempts.
Thousands of Palestinian activists assembled near the Gazan-Israeli border, with some trying to breach the fence amid a heavy Israeli security presence, burning tires and throwing incendiary devices at the IDF soldiers. The crowd was, once again, met with a crackdown by the Israeli forces who used live bullets, rubber ammunition and tear gas to drive the crowd back.
Palestinians claimed that an Israeli drone attacked just east of Gaza City, while a helicopter struck a site east of the town of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.
At least three activists were killed by sniper fire, including a 12-year-old boy, Wafa news reported. In addition, another 376 activists were wounded during the confrontation, including 126 injured by live gunfire. At least seven of them remain in critical condition. Among those injured were 10 females, 30 children, a paramedic and a journalist.
RIGHT NOW: A mob of approx 20K Gazans are burning tires, throwing bombs and grenades, and attempting to break through the border fence with Israel, which 10 armed terrorists did, until we stopped them. In response, an IDF aircraft carried out two strikes in Gaza.
Tensions have been running high on the border for seven months now, since the first Great March of Return protest started in March. So far, 198 Palestinians have been killed and over 21,000 injured in the weekly clashes.
Israeli forces continued with systematic crimes, in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), for the week of 27 September – 03 October, 2018.
Israeli forces continued to use excessive force against unarmed civilians and peaceful protestors in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. 9 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children, were killed; 7 of them, including 2 children, were killed on Friday. 307 civilians, including 47 children, 5 women, 4 journalists and a paramedic, were wounded. 22 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children and 4 journalists, were wounded in the West Bank Israeli forces continued to open fire at the border areas in the Gaza Strip. A Palestinian elderly was killed in eastern Maghazi refugee camp.
Shooting:
Israeli forces continued to use lethal force against Palestinian civilians, who participated in peaceful demonstrations organized within the activities of the “Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege” in the Gaza Strip, which witnessed for the 27th week in a row peaceful demonstrations along the eastern and northern Gaza Strip border area. During the reporting period, the Israeli forces killed 8 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children, and wounded 307 civilians, including 47 children, 5 women, 4 journalists, and a paramedic. Meanwhile, a Palestinian elderly was killed in the central Gaza Strip after Israeli forces opened fire from the eastern borders at the area to the west of the border fence with Israel. In the West Bank, 22 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children and 4 journalists, were wounded; one of those wounded is in serious condition.
In the Gaza Strip, on 28 September 2018, which coincided the 27th Friday of the Return and Breaking the Siege protests, in new use of lethal force, Israeli forces killed 7 Palestinian civilians, including 2 children. Three of them were killed in eastern Malakah intersection in eastern al-Zaytoun neighborhood in eastern Gaza City and were identified as Eyad al-Sha’er (18); Mohammed Shakhsah (24), both from al-Shija’iyah; and Mohammed Haniyah (33) from al-Sheikh Redwan neighborhood. In the central Gaza Strip, Mohammed al-Home (14) and Mohammed al-‘Awawdah (25), both from al-Bureij, were killed in addition to Naser Musabeh (12) from ‘Abasan al-Kabirah and Mohammed Anshasi (18) from Khan Younis refugee camp. Three of those killed were hit with bullets in the heads, 2 were hit with bullets to the chest, 1 in the back and another in the abdomen.
On 03 October 2018, Israeli forces stationed inside the watchtowers at Beit Hanoun “Erez” Crossing, northwest of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, killed Ahmed Abu Jabal (15) from Beit Lahia after being hit with a tear gas canister that penetrated his head front, causing a fracture to the skull and parts of his head got out. The child in question was with dozens of other civilians on the asphalt road leading to the vehicles gate at the crossing when the Israeli forces opened fire and heavily fired tear gas canisters at them.
As part of the ongoing shooting from the eastern borders with Israel at civilians’ houses and property, Ibrahim al-‘Arouqi (74) from al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip was killed on 01 October 2018 after being hit with a bullet to the back when he was 2000 meters away in the vicinity of the area he lived in, west of the border fence. the Ministry of Health declared in a statement that: “Following the competent authorities’ procedures, it was confirmed that the above-mentioned was wounded in an area near the borders as the competent authorities initiated an investigation to confirm he was wounded by the Israeli forces’ fire.”
As part of targeting Palestinian fishermen in the Gaza Sea, the Israeli forces continued to escalate their attacks against the Palestinian fishermen, pointing out to the ongoing Israeli policy of targeting their livelihoods. During the reporting period, the Israeli forces opened fire 5 times at the fishermen; 2 incidents in the north-western Beit Lahia and 3 others in the Western Soudaniyah area, west of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.
In the West Bank, the Israeli forces during the reporting period wounded 22 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children and 4 journalists; one of those wounded sustained serious wounds.
Use of Force against Demonstrations in Protest against the U.S. President’s Decision to Recognize Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel:
Israeli forces continued its excessive use of lethal force against peaceful demonstration organized by Palestinian civilians in in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and it was named as “The Great March of Return and Breaking Siege.” The demonstration was in protest against the U.S. President Donald Trump’s declaration to move the U.S. Embassy to it. According to PCHR fieldworkers’ observations, the border area witnessed large participation by Palestinian civilians as the Israeli forces continued to use upon highest military and political echelons excessive force against the peaceful demonstrators, though the demonstration were fully peaceful. The demonstration was as follows during the reporting period:
Gaza Strip:
At approximately 22:30 on Tuesday, 27 September 2018, 2 civilians were wounded during their participation in March of Return activities established in the east of Malakah intersection, east of al-Zaytoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City.
In the evening hours, 2 other civilians were wounded during their participation in the March of Return activities established in the east of Abu Safiyah Hill, northeast of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.
In the evening hours on the same Tuesday, a 24-year-old civilian from al-Zawaidah was hit with a shrapnel to the back during his participation in the March of Return activities, east of al-Buraij in the central Gaza Strip.
Note: On the same Tuesday, Israeli forces stationed along the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel opened fire at Palestinian protestors, east of al-Na’iamah Street, east of Beit Hanoun, north of Buret Abu Samrah, north of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, but no casualties were reported.
On Friday, 28 September 2018, Israeli forces killed 3 Palestinian civilians and wounded 104 others, including 4 children, 2 women and 4 journalists. Eighty three of them were hit with live bullets and their shrapnel, one civilian was hit with a rubber bullet and 20 were hit with tear gas canisters during their participation in the March of Return and Breaking Siege activities, east of Malakah intersection, east of al-Zaytoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City. Those who were killed were identified as:
Eyad Khalil Ahmed al-Sha’er (18), from al-Sheja’eya neighborhood, was hit with a live bullet to the chest;
Mohammed Walid Mustafa Haniyah (33), from Sheikh Redwan neighborhood, was hit with a live bullet to the head; and
Mohammed Bassam Mohammed Shakhsah (24), from al-Shija’iyah neighborhood, was hit with a live bullet to the head.
On the same Friday, Israeli forces killed 2 Palestinian civilians, including a child, and wounded 27 others, including 4 children. Twenty four of them were hit with live bullets and their shrapnel and 3 others were hit with tear gas canisters during their participation in the March of Return and Breaking Siege, east of Khuza’ah village, east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. doctors classified 2 civilians’ injuries as serious. Those killed civilians were identified as:
Nasser ‘Azmi Mohammed Mesbeh (12), from ‘Abasan al-Kabirah, east of Khan Younis, was hit with a live bullet to the head.
Mohammed ‘Ali Mohammed Enshasi (18), from Khan Younis, was hit with a live bullet to the abdomen.
On Friday evening, Israeli forces killed Mohammed Nayef Yusuf al-Houm (14), from al-Buraij, after being hit with a live bullet that penetrated the back and exited the chest and Mohammed Ashraf Mohammed al-‘Awawdah (25) from al-Buraij, after he sustained a live bullet to the chest, during their participation in the March of Return and Breaking Siege activities, east of al-Buraij in the central Gaza Strip. moreover, 12 civilians, including 3 children, were wounded. Eleven of them were hit with live bullets and their shrapnel and one civilian was hit with a tear gas canister.
On the same Friday, 18 civilians, including 3 children and a woman, were hit with live bullets and their shrapnel during their participation in the March of Return and Breaking Siege activities, east of al-Shawkah village, east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Doctors classified 2 civilians’ injuries as serious.
On the same day, 39 Palestinian civilians, including 9 children and a woman, were wounded during their participation in the March of Return and Breaking Siege activities, northeast of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.
At approximately 21:00 on Sunday, 30 September 2018, an 18-year-old civilian was hit with a live bullet to the abdomen during his participation in the March of Return and Breaking Siege activities, east of Khuza’ah village, east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
On Sunday evening, 3 civilians were hit with live bullets to the lower and upper limbs during their participation in the March of Return and Breaking Siege activities, east of al-Buraij in the southern Gaza Strip.
On Monday evening, 01 October 2018, Israeli gunboats stationed offshore, and the Israeli forces stationed along the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel, opened fire at dozens of Palestinian civilians, who were in the Return encampment at the coastline between the Gaza Strip and Israel, adjacent to “Zikim Military Base”, northwest of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, towards the tenth time for Palestinian boats to sail for Breaking the Siege. As a result, 39 civilians, including 7 children and a paramedic, were wounded. Twenty of them were hit with live bullets and their shrapnel and 19 were hit with tear gas canisters. doctors classified 2 civilians’ injury as serious. The wounded paramedic identified as Hani Mahmoud Husein Wadi (33), a volunteer paramedics at PRCS from Beit Lahia Housing Project, was hit with a tear gas canister to the abdomen.
On Monday evening, a 15-year-old child from al-Nuseirat was hit with a live bullet to the left leg during his participation in the March of Return and Breaking Siege activities, east of al-Buraij in the central Gaza Strip.
On Tuesday, evening, 02 October 2018, 4 civilians, including 2 children, during their participation in the March of Return and Breaking Siege activities, northeast of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.
On the same Tuesday evening, a 29-year0old civilians was hit with a live bullet to the lower limbs during his participation in the March of Return and Breaking Siege activities, east of al-Buraij in the central Gaza Strip.
On Tuesday evening, 5 civilians, including 2 children, were wounded adjacent to the Return encampment, east of Abu Safiyah Hill, northeast of Jabalia. Moreover, 4 other civilians, including 2 children, were wounded, east of al-Na’aimah Street, east of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip.
At approximately 17:00 on Wednesday, 03 October 2018, Israeli forces stationed in military watchtowers at Beit Hanoun “Erez” crossing, northwest of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, killed Ahmed Samir Harb Abu Habel (15), from Beit Lahia, who was hit with a tear gas canister that penetrated his head, causing a fracture to the skull and parts of the head went out. Ahmed and dozens of civilians were on the Asphalt road leading to the vehicles gate at the crossing in addition to the sand area adjacent to the road from the western side when the Israeli forces heavily opened fire and fired tear gas canisters at them. As a result, 22 civilians, including 10 children and a woman, were wounded. Three of them were hit with live bullets and their shrapnel and 19 others were hit with tear gas canisters.
West Bank:
At approximately 13:40 on the same Friday, 28 September 2018, a group of Palestinian civilians moved from Kufor Qaddoum village, northeast of Qalqiliyah, to the eastern entrance to the village, which has been closed for 15 years. The protestors chanted national slogans demanding end of occupation, condemning the Israeli decisions to demolish Khan al-Ahmer Bedouin Community deporting its residents and condemning the Israeli forces’ crimes against Palestinian protestors at the eastern border in the Gaza Strip within the Marcg of Return and Breaking Siege activities. Several representatives of national factions and representatives of National Action Factions in the north of the West Bank and a number of foreign and Israeli activists participated in the demonstration. Israeli soldiers fired live and rubber bullets, sound bombs and tear gas canisters at them. As a result, a 22- year-old civilian was hit with a rubber bullet to the thigh and a 17-year-old civilian was hit with a rubber bullet to the right leg.
At approximately 13:30 on Monday, 01 October 2018, dozens of Palestinian youngsters and young men gathered at the northern entrance to al-Birah. They threw stones and empty bottles at Israeli soldiers stationed at “al-Mahkamah” checkpoint established near Beit Eil settlement, north of the city. The soldiers fired live and rubber bullets, sound bombs and tear gas canisters at them. As a result, Shadi Hatem (26), a photojournalist at Raya News Network, was hit with a rubber bullet to the foot.
At approximately 15:00 on the same Monday, dozens of Palestinian young men and youngsters gathered at the northern entrance to al-Quds (the vicinity of Qalandiya military checkpoint), coinciding with the general national strike in protest against the extremist Jewish nationalism decision and in protest against the confiscation decision of Khan al-Ahmer lands. The protestors threw stones and empty bottles at Israeli soldiers. The soldiers fired live and rubber bullets, sound bombs and tear gas canisters at them. As a result, 5 protestors were wounded. One of them was hit with a live bullet to the back while the 4 others were hit with rubber bullets.
Settlement activities and attacks by settlers against Palestinian civilians and property
Israeli forces’ attack:
At approximately 15:00 on Tuesday, 02 October 2018, Israeli forces accompanied with 2 military vehicles, a vehicle of the Israeli Civil Administration and a mounted-crane truck moved into al-Halawa area, which is located in al-Masafer area, southeast of Yatta, south of Hebron. The Israeli forces dismantled a 40-square-merter barrack built of tin plates under the pretext of non-licensing. The barrack belongs to Ahmed Isma’il Shehada Abu ‘Arram.
Israeli settlers’ attack:
On Thursday, 27 September 2018, hundreds of Israeli settlers moved into occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City via al-Maghrabah Gate om the 4th day of the Jewish Sukkot Holiday. The Islamic Endowment Department (Awqaf) said that the Israeli forces allowed hundreds settlers to raid al-Aqsa Mosque via al-Magharbah Gate and provided protection for them while restrictions were imposed on Palestinian worshipers flocking to the mosque. The Islamic Endowment Department added that around 1135 settlers raided the mosque in the morning and afternoon. Eyewitnesses said that the Israeli police pushed and beat the worshipers in Bab al-Selselah area and then arrested one of them, who is so far unknown.
At approximately 23:00 on Sunday, 30 September 2018, a group of Israeli settlers attacked commercial shops in al-Mosrarah neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem. The Israeli settlers beat the shop’s owners under the Israeli forces’ protection. As a result, 3 civilians sustained various wounds. It should be noted that a demonstration for Israeli settlers started from Jerusalem’s streets, during which the Israeli police officers and special forces provide protection for the settlers by closing many streets and establishing steel barriers. When the demonstration arrived at Street No. “1”, which leads to al-Mosrarah neighborhood, the settlers dispersed towards shops and attacked their owners, causing material damage and causalities. Eyewitnesses said that the Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian civilians’ vehicles parked in the neighborhood and then damaged them. Meanwhile, clashes erupted between the Israeli settlers and Palestinian young men before the intervention of the Israeli police, who fired sound bombs at the youngsters.
Recommendations to the International Community
PCHR warns of the escalating settlement construction in the West Bank, the attempts to legitimize settlement outposts established on Palestinian lands in the West Bank and the continued summary executions of Palestinian civilians under the pretext that they pose a security threat to the Israeli forces. PCHR reminds the international community that thousands of Palestinian civilians have been rendered homeless and lived in caravans under tragic circumstances due to the latest Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip that has been under a tight closure for almost 11 years. PCHR welcomes the UN Security Council’s Resolution No. 2334, which states that settlements are a blatant violation of the Geneva Conventions and calls upon Israel to stop them and not to recognize any demographic change in the oPt since 1967. PCHR hopes this resolution will pave the way for eliminating the settlement crime and bring to justice those responsible for it. PCHR further reiterates that the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are still under Israeli occupation in spite of Israel’s unilateral disengagement plan of 2005. PCHR emphasizes that there is international recognition of Israel’s obligation to respect international human rights instruments and international humanitarian law. Israel is bound to apply international human rights law and the law of war, sometimes reciprocally and other times in parallel, in a way that achieves the best protection for civilians and remedy for the victims.
PCHR calls upon the international community to respect the Security Council’s Resolution No. 2334 and to ensure that Israel respects it as well, in particular point 5 which obliges Israel not to deal with settlements as if they were part of Israel.
PCHR calls upon the ICC this year to open an investigation into Israeli crimes committed in the oPt, particularly the settlement crimes and the 2014 offensive on the Gaza Strip.
PCHR Calls upon the European Union (EU) and all international bodies to boycott settlements and ban working and investing in them in application of their obligations according to international human rights law and international humanitarian law considering settlements as a war crime.
PCHR calls upon the international community to use all available means to allow the Palestinian people to enjoy their right to self-determination through the establishment of the Palestinian State, which was recognized by the UN General Assembly with a vast majority, using all international legal mechanisms, including sanctions to end the occupation of the State of Palestine.
PCHR calls upon the international community and United Nations to take all necessary measures to stop Israeli policies aimed at creating a Jewish demographic majority in Jerusalem and at voiding Palestine from its original inhabitants through deportations and house demolitions as a collective punishment, which violates international humanitarian law, amounting to a crime against humanity.
PCHR calls upon the international community to condemn summary executions carried out by Israeli forces against Palestinians and to pressurize Israel to stop them.
PCHR calls upon the States Parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC to work hard to hold Israeli war criminals accountable.
PCHR calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions to fulfill their obligations under article (1) of the Convention to ensure respect for the Conventions under all circumstances, and under articles (146) and (147) to search for and prosecute those responsible for committing grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions to ensure justice and remedy for Palestinian victims, especially in light of the almost complete denial of justice for them before the Israeli judiciary.
PCHR calls upon the international community to speed up the reconstruction process necessary because of the destruction inflicted by the Israeli offensive on Gaza.
PCHR calls for a prompt intervention to compel the Israeli authorities to lift the closure that obstructs the freedom of movement of goods and 1.8 million civilians that experience unprecedented economic, social, political and cultural hardships due to collective punishment policies and retaliatory action against civilians.
PCHR calls upon the European Union to apply human rights standards embedded in the EU-Israel Association Agreement and to respect its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights when dealing with Israel.
PCHR calls upon the international community, especially states that import Israeli weapons and military services, to meet their moral and legal responsibility not to allow Israel to use the offensive in Gaza to test new weapons and not accept training services based on the field experience in Gaza in order to avoid turning Palestinian civilians in Gaza into testing objects for Israeli weapons and military tactics.
PCHR calls upon the parties to international human rights instruments, especially the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), to pressurize Israel to comply with its provisions in the oPt and to compel it to incorporate the human rights situation in the oPt in its reports submitted to the relevant committees.
PCHR calls upon the EU and international human rights bodies to pressurize the Israeli forces to stop their attacks against Palestinian fishermen and farmers, mainly in the border area.
Israeli soldiers shot, on Sunday at night, six Palestinians, including two who suffered serious injuries, in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
The soldiers shot three Palestinians, east of the al-Boreij refugee camp, in central Gaza, before they were rushed to the Al-Aqsa Hospital, in nearby Deir al-Balah.
Medical sources said one of the Palestinians suffered life-threatening wounds.
Furthermore, the soldiers shot two Palestinians, including one who suffered a serious injury, near the perimeter fence, east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. They were rushed to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
Another Palestinian was shot with a gas bomb, east of Gaza city, and suffered a moderate injury.
Media sources in Gaza said the soldiers fired many live rounds, high-velocity gas bombs and concussion grenades, at Palestinians, protesting on their lands, near the perimeter fence, in several parts of the Gaza Strip.
On Friday, September 28th, the soldiers killed seven Palestinians, including two children, and injured 506 others, including 90 with live fire; three of them suffered serious wounds, during the Great Return March processions, in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli soldiers killed, Monday, one Palestinian and injured 90 others, during a protest in northern Gaza, especially at the shore where many boats attempted to sail and challenge the ongoing Israeli siege on the coastal region.
Media sources in Gaza said the soldiers fired a barrage of live fire, in addition to high-velocity gas bombs and rubber-coated steel bullets.
The Health Ministry in Gaza has confirmed that the soldiers killed Mohammad Fayez Salim Abu Sadeq, 21, and injured ninety other Palestinians, including ten who were shot with live fire.
It added that the soldiers also fired a gas bomb directly at a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance, while trying to reach some of the wounded protesters.
Furthermore, the soldiers shot Monser Sawwaf, a cameraman working of the Anadolu Turkish News Agency, with a gas bomb in his leg, while live rounds also struck his camera and equipment.
It is worth mentioning that, using slingshots, Palestinian protesters managed to down an Israeli drone while firing gas bombs at them.
The soldiers also fired many gas bombs and live rounds at the boats, trying to break the illegal siege on Gaza.
On Sunday evening, the soldiers killed a young Palestinian man, identified as Emad Daoud Eshteiwi, 21, and injured at least 20 others, including one medic, along the eastern part of the besieged Gaza Strip.
Delegation chairman Neoklis Sylikiotis condemns move as ‘arbitrary, unacceptable.’
Israel on Tuesday denied a European Parliament (EP) delegation access to the blockaded Gaza Strip, according to an official EP statement.
“The Israeli authorities have once again refused the EP’s Delegation for Relations with Palestine permission to enter the Gaza Strip,” the statement read.
The delegation, it added, had requested permission to enter the strip as part of a three-day planned mission to the Palestinian territories.
Stating that the purpose of the visit was “to monitor the humanitarian situation caused by a decade of blockade”, the statement asserted that Israel had barred successive EP delegations from entering Gaza since 2011.
“The EP delegation started its work in East Jerusalem and other parts of the occupied West Bank on Tuesday and was set to visit Gaza on Thursday,” it explained.
As a result of the Israeli blockade and successive conflicts, the statement added, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip had “insufficient access to basic needs, such as potable drinking water, food, housing, schools and health care”.
“Denying the EP entry to Gaza has become systematic. It is arbitrary and unacceptable,” the statement quoted delegation chairman Neoklis Sylikiotis as saying.
Asserting that Israel had tried to prevent the delegation from seeing Gaza’s dire humanitarian situation, Sylikiotis said it was clear that the self-proclaimed Jewish state was “ashamed and afraid” to allow the delegation into the besieged coastal enclave.
Sylikiotis went on to urge the international community to pressure Israel to end its 11-year Gaza blockade.
Israel first imposed the blockade in 2006 after resistance group Hamas swept Palestinian legislative elections.
The siege was tightened the following year after Hamas seized the strip from rival Palestinian faction Fatah.
Still in effect today, the blockade has gutted Gaza’s economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.
The bold journey of the 2018 Freedom Flotilla Coalition dared Palestinians and the world to dream of peace, dignity and freedom for all. Now, we must keep working to build a culture of nonviolence, writes Elizabeth Murray.
In August, the crew and passengers of the Freedom Flotilla ships, Al Awda and Freedom, returned to their home countries after being hijacked, interrogated and imprisoned by Israeli commandos. The outcome may have appeared anticlimactic, since many supporters had hoped for a triumphant arrival by the flotilla ships in Gaza Harbor and a breaking of Israel’s illegal 12-year land and sea blockade of the small Palestinian enclave.
But in many ways, the 2018 Freedom Flotilla mission has achieved its goals—which were to challenge the Israeli blockade of Gaza, raise public awareness of the blockade and other human rights violations, and let the people of Gaza know that they are not alone.
Of course, had the flotilla ships been able to reach Gaza unhindered, it would have been a remarkable accomplishment and the first time the blockade had been breached in 10 years.
Back then—in August 2008—two boats carrying international solidarity activists sailed into Gaza’s shores to a hero’s welcome from the locals, including children, who swam out to greet them. It was a dramatic display of people-to-people solidarity against the illegal Israeli blockade.
Their arrival in Gaza was momentous and cathartic, and served notice to the people of Gaza that their plight—and Israel’s criminal blockade—had not gone unnoticed by the world. Israel has since shown great resolve in its determination to prevent such a display of humanity and solidarity from ever recurring again—even at the cost of innocent lives.
Since then, Israel has blocked similar solidarity ships from arriving in Gaza, either by hijacking them in international waters (as took place this year) or by pressuring other governments to detain the ships, as when the Greek government compelled the Gaza-bound Audacity of Hope to return to port shortly after its departure from Athens—under threat of armed force.
A Challenge to Israel
In 2010, heavily armed Israeli commandos boarded the Gaza-bound cruise ship Mavi Marmara, assaulting and injuring numerous passengers and killing nine of them, including a U.S. citizen. Despite the clear death threat from Israel, the Freedom Flotilla boats keep coming, including the Estelle in 2012 and the Marianne in 2015, challenging the Israeli blockade.
The Freedom Flotilla phenomenon makes it evident that the movement’s momentum, persistence and staying power have little to do with its actual physical arrival in Gaza and more to do with other less tangible aspects of the journey.
The actual act of challenging Israel’s illegal land and sea blockade of the Gaza Strip is in itself a bold and even revolutionary statement of the need to hold Israel accountable under international law for its human rights violations. These repeated sea-based challenges to Israeli impunity have garnered international attention and admiration from the grassroots public—particularly in view of the unwillingness of governments to acknowledge and confront Israel’s 70-year subjugation and occupation of the Palestinian people.
When will Gaza be free? (freegazaorg / Wikimedia)
The Freedom Flotilla’s international composition—with crew and delegates of numerous nationalities (including New Zealand, Malaysia, Australia, Canada, First Nations, Spain, Israel, United States, Norway, Sweden, etc.) has inspired and energized Palestinians in the diaspora and in their homeland. They realize that this small group of activists willing to undergo significant collective risk to highlight the Palestinians’ plight and break the silence represents the world’s people.
Palestinians have responded by staging bold nonviolent actions of their own, such as the recent series of seaborne flotillas Gaza fishermen initiated to challenge the sea blockade and protest Israel’s arbitrary fishing restrictions and random acts of terrorism against fishers, who are routinely harassed and shot at while they are trying to fish, and whose fishing boats are either shot up or confiscated. Diaspora Palestinians showed up in large numbers to greet, celebrate and host the Freedom Flotilla at every port of call.
United Against Inhumanity
The Freedom Flotilla’s engagement of local grassroots community organizations, media interviews, interaction with the public through boat tours and one-on-one conversations have raised the profile of Gaza’s plight, reminding the outside world that residents of Gaza have no freedom of movement, and that repeated, massive Israeli aerial bombings have disabled the electricity grid, destroyed the sewage treatment plant and rendered 98 percent of the water undrinkable.
Meanwhile, the blockade prevents the entry of critical food, medicine and construction materials—preventing Gazans from rebuilding or repairing their destroyed homes and infrastructure.
Freedom Flotilla delegates were honored at parliamentary sessions and feted by local dignitaries and government officials in several cities along their route, raising the profile of Palestinian suffering under the Israeli blockade. As a result, the Freedom Flotilla earned explicit statements of political support for their anti-blockade mission from the Spanish municipality of Asturias-Gijon and from other grassroots political organizations.
(Gringer / CC BY-SA 3.0)
Some Freedom Flotilla participants have provided media accounts describing abusive treatment at the hands of their Israeli captors, including this piece by United Kingdom-based Al Awda delegate and orthopedic surgeon Dr. Swee Ang. This reporting has outraged the public in their respective countries and redoubled the resolve of many organizations to promote the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS).
Roger Waters, the musician of Pink Floyd fame and an active proponent of BDS, recently invited several Freedom Flotilla crew members to his August concert in Oslo and publically hailed them as his “heroes.”
Indeed, in the wake of the Freedom Flotilla action, the BDS movement has seen several notable successes. At least 15 international bands and artists have withdrawn from an Israeli music festival. Six of 11 invited speakers also have confirmed their withdrawal from a scientific forum at Ariel University, which is built on occupied Palestinian land in an Israeli settlement. Palestinian scholars had urged speakers to withdraw, citing Israeli travel restrictions on Palestinian academics. As Israeli crimes against Palestinians continue unchecked, these developments build on the international outrage.
At the same time, the Freedom Flotilla’s nonviolent challenge to Israel’s blockade coincided with the (still ongoing) weekly protest by Gazans known as the Great March of Return. During this peaceful action—in which unarmed Palestinians have been asserting their rights to liberty and freedom—Israeli snipers have been shooting and killing civilians of all ages, including children, women and medical workers. Casualties now are in the thousands. Images of the victims of Israeli violence have elicited expressions of disgust and outrage toward Israel, as well as sympathy and support for Palestinian freedom.
Giving Palestinians a Voice
These are the atrocities that have moved members of the Freedom Flotilla to risk their own lives to make a change.
First Mate Charlie Andreasson, a red-haired, blue-eyed Swede,explains: “Anything I’ve suffered at the hands of the Israelis is nothing compared to what the Palestinians suffer.”
Asked why he was on his third Freedom Flotilla mission (he was aboard the Estelle and Marianne), Andreasson said: “I have blue eyes and white skin. I may as well put them to good use.” The remark alluded to an awareness that because of his race and nationality, any suffering he might be subjected to would draw international media attention—unlike the suffering of ordinary Gazans, whose daily tragedies and humiliations pass largely unnoticed by most Western news services.
Charlie Andreasson.
Andreasson noted that historically, change is not initiated by governments, but by ordinary people “who have had enough” and who are “standing united against injustice.” He cited as examples the U.S. civil rights movement, women’s rights, the fall of the apartheid regime in South Africa, and the rights of LGBT persons.
“So I believe we are wasting our energy when time after time we demand that our governments take action instead of getting people united around the world,” he said. “That is why we have to get our asses off the sofa and start to make a change. After all, we want to be able to look at ourselves in the mirror without feeling ashamed that we didn’t do anything.”
Addressing those who might not be up for a sea journey to Gaza, Andreasson counseled: “You don’t have to sail with the Freedom Flotilla, you don’t have to risk your life or take any time off—it can be enough just to refuse to buy Israeli products.”
Divina Levrini, a passenger aboard the Al Awda who also hails from Sweden and, like Andreasson, is a veteran of previous Freedom Flotilla journeys, said she has worked on behalf of the Palestinian cause since her teenage years. It was “a natural thing” for her “to go and try to put an end to the blockade” since she has been educating others about it for so many years. “If it takes Westerners to give the Palestinians a voice, so be it,” she said.
Levrini thought the flotilla “made a difference.” In addition to the “very important” media publicity, the flotilla mission helped bring about political change, she said. “During the two-and-one-half months the flotilla journeyed from port to port, we actually compelled politicians to act,” she said—a reference in part to Navarre becoming the first Spanish state to adopt a BDS resolution.
Pointing to the dire United Nations warning that Gaza would be “uninhabitable” in two years, Levrini stated that political change “is what Gaza needs. They need that change right now. We need to take an extreme course of action to make a change.”
Asked what message she would like to send to Israel, Levrini—who briefly staged a hunger strike during her incarceration in Israel to protest prison conditions—stated: “My only message to Israel is a bold one. The ships will continue to sail until Palestine is free from Israeli terror.”
Right to a Just Future
Before we can move toward any real justice in Gaza, more people need to acknowledge the injustice that exists.
On July 29, Israeli Navy gunboats surrounded the Al Awda as it approached Gaza Harbor with 22 passengers and crew aboard (five days later, the Freedom followed with 12 aboard). Masked commandos armed with machine guns boarded the ship and violently tasered and assaulted several passengers and crew members, including the ship’s captain, Norwegian national Herman Reksten. They did this despite being repeatedly advised by Al Awda crew member Mikkel Gruener by radio that the Al Awda was in international waters and “wanted no business” with Israel.
The Israelis seemed to reserve a special contempt for the mostly Norwegian crew. Not only did they physically assault them, but they tore down the Norwegian flag and trampled it underfoot, deeply offending the crew members, who managed to salvage it.
Both the Al Awda and the boats were purchased, refurbished, and outfitted through the private donations of Freedom Flotilla supporters from around the world. They were to have been delivered to Gaza’s fishers as gifts of friendship and solidarity from the international seafarers. Instead, Israel has confiscated them and looted the personal effects of the passenger and crew on both flotilla ships—taking laptops computers, camera equipment, watches, credit cards, cell phones, clothing and cash.
“They stole everything,” said Levrini, who was reduced to tears after witnessing Israeli commandos savagely beat, head-slam and then threaten to execute Al Awda captain Reksten. First Mate Andreasson tweeted that Israel “stole our private belongings” adding: “Once again, we got to know what it’s like to be Palestinians.”
Three Nobel Peace laureates, from left, Mairead Maguire (Northern Ireland) Shirin Ebadi (Iran) and Tawakkol Karman (Yemen) in Bangladesh in March 2018. (Nashirul Islam / Wikimedia)
Perhaps worst of all has been the Israeli military’s failure thus far to release 114 boxes of medical supplies—including medical gauze and sutures for the Gaza health system—that had been loaded onto the Al Awda just prior to the final leg of its journey. The consignment of medical aid was to have provided needed medical supplies and equipment to a populace being bombed and shot at mercilessly, even as weekly Great March of Return demonstrations at the no-man’s land between Gaza and Israel continue. A petition is circulating to demand that the medical supplies be delivered to Gaza.
The passengers and crew of the Freedom Flotilla boats are people of privilege. We can travel freely and do not have to deal with incessant Israeli repression, violence and humiliation. We know our experience cannot hold a candle to what people living in Gaza are forced to endure under Israel’s suffocating yoke of oppression.
But the bold journey of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition dared Palestinians and the world to dream—to dream of a day when people of the world unite with such fervor for justice and human rights that barriers and obstacles will fall away, and peace, dignity, and freedom will be possible for all.
The sentiment of all those who shared in the Freedom Flotilla’s journey—passengers, crew, and the land-based support teams—perhaps can best be summed up by the words of Irish Nobel Peace Prize recipient Mairead Maguire, a veteran of many Gaza solidarity boat journeys (one of the 2018 Freedom Flotilla ships was named after her) who understands the challenge ahead.
“I believe, with Gandhi, that we need to take an imaginative leap toward fresh and generous idealism for the sake of humanity—that we need to renew this ancient wisdom of nonviolence, to strive for a disarmed world, and to create a culture of nonviolence.”
Elizabeth Murray served as Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East in the National Intelligence Council before retiring after a 27-year career in the U.S. government, where she specialized in Middle Eastern political and media analysis. She is a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
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Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.
The incidents today, 26 October 2018, were as follows:
In August, the crew and passengers of the Freedom Flotilla ships, Al Awda and Freedom, returned to their home countries after being hijacked, interrogated and imprisoned by Israeli commandos. The outcome may have appeared anticlimactic, since many supporters had hoped for a triumphant arrival by the flotilla ships in Gaza Harbor and a breaking of Israel’s illegal 12-year land and sea blockade of the small Palestinian enclave.
