The Electronic Intifada 5 August 2013
People inspect damaged areas in Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus, 24 July.
ReutersAt least 28 Palestinian refugees were killed in Syria during July as refugee camps in the country continue to be dragged into the country’s civil war.
The UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, estimates that the homes of 44,000 Palestinian refugees in Syria have been damaged by conflict, and that half of the approximately 500,000 Palestinian refugees in the country are now displaced either in Syria or in neighboring countries. According to UNRWA statistics, there are more than 8,300 Palestinian refugees who have fled Syria to Jordan and 92,000 who have fled to Lebanon, where UNRWA-registered Palestinian refugees lack basic civil rights and suffer poor living conditions.
An UNRWA staff member was killed in Syria in July, the seventh to have been killed in the conflict; 13 of the agency’s staff are detained or have been reported missing.
Palestinians were also affected by the Egyptian military’s ouster of President Muhammad Morsi on 3 July. Rafah crossing, the sole outlet for the vast majority of Gaza’s 1.7 million residents, was closed by Egypt for several consecutive days following Morsi’s removal. More than 3,000 Palestinians waiting to enter Gaza were stranded in Egypt, while others were deported from Cairo’s airport while attempting to travel to Gaza via Egypt. The UN Agency for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance reported that the closure mean delayed access to medical treatment for hundreds of people. The crossing continues to operate under tight restrictions imposed by Egypt.
Also during July, protests were held throughout historic Palestine and beyond against Israel’s plans to forcibly evict tens of thousands of Bedouins from the Naqab (Negev) Desert. In June Israel’s parliament passed the Prawer-Begin law that would see 40 Bedouin villages demolished.
Palestinian mourners carry the body of Palestinian youth Moataz Sharawna, 19, during his funeral in the West Bank village of Dura, near Hebron, 2 July. Sharawna was struck and killed by an Israeli military jeep during overnight clashes in the village.
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Wael Abu Rida sits next to Israeli prison guards before his indictment at the district court in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, 19 July. The Gaza resident, secretly held by Israel after he vanished during a visit to Egypt the previous month, was indicted on terrorism charges, though Israeli authorities kept a lid on how and where he was detained.
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Israeli forces detain a Palestinian youth after an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man was stabbed and seriously wounded near Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem, 16 July.
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Palestinians use a ladder to climb over Israel’s wall in al-Ram, north of Jerusalem, on their way to Al-Aqsa mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem to attend the third Friday prayers of Ramadan, 26 July.
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Palestinian worshippers pray outside the Dome of the Rock at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem during the third Friday of the month of Ramadan, 26 July.
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Palestinian youths use sledgehammers to knock holes through part of a wall connected to Israel’s wall in the Abu Dis neighborhood near Jerusalem, 9 July, the ninth anniversary of the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion calling for an end to construction of the wall on occupied West Bank land and the tearing down of sections already built.
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Palestinian journalists hold banners during a demonstration demanding the free movement of journalists and Palestinians at Qalandia checkpoint between Ramallah and Jerusalem, 17 July.
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Palestinian scouts in Jerusalem perform during a rally supporting the city’s markets, 20 July. A group of Palestinians from Ramallah and Jerusalem, along with Palestinian citizens of Israel from Haifa, Nazareth, Jaffa and Acre are undertaking an awareness campaign to encourage Palestinians to buy from only Palestinian-owned shops during Ramadan.
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Demonstrators in Of Rahat city carry a sign reading: “Stop the demolition of al-Araqib” during a 27 July protest marking the third anniversary of the first demolition of the Bedouin village and Israel’s plan to forcibly transfer as many as 40,000 Bedouins in the Naqab (Negev) desert. Al-Araqib village has been demolished 54 times by Israeli authorities since 2010.
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Israeli riot police in Beer Sheva, in the south of present-day Israel, arrest a protester as a few hundred Bedouins accompanied by activists from other parts of the country demonstrate against the Prawer Plan to forcibly transfer tens of thousands of Bedouins from the Naqab (Negev) desert, 15 July. Israeli police reportedly arrested 14 protesters during the protest.
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Activists block a road in the city of Jaffa during a demonstration against the Prawer Plan, 15 July.
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New units under construction at the illegal settlement of Elkana, built on Masha lands near the central West Bank town of Salfit, 6 July.
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Israeli security forces disperse Palestinian protesters during a demonstration against the expropriation of Palestinian land for the Israeli settlement of Beit El, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, 3 July.
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Actors potray Israeli soldiers attacking Palestinian children during a celebration of the second anniversary of the popular struggle against the occupation in the northern West Bank village of Kufr Qaddum, 4 July. There have been regular demonstrations against the blocking of the main road linking the village to Nablus.
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A Palestinian woman in the village of Kufr Qaddum, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, flashes a victory sign as she shouts at Israeli military forces during clashes following a protest against the expropriation of Palestinian land by Israel, 19 July.
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A Palestinian boy flies a kite at Gaza’s southern border with Egypt at Rafah, 1 July. The Egyptian army deployed tanks and armored vehicles along the border during anti-Muslim Brotherhood demonstrations in Egypt before the ouster of President Muhammad Morsi.
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Palestinians wait to cross the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in the southern Gaza Strip, 10 July. Egyptian authorities partly reopened Rafah crossing for two days after five days of consecutive closure. The crossing was closed in the wake of turmoil that followed the ouster of Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi, leaving Palestinian travelers stranded.
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A Palestinian man works inside a smuggling tunnel connecting the Gaza Strip and Egypt in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, 19 July. Since the toppling of Egypt’s president, Muhammad Morsi, the Egyptian military has blown up and bulldozed many of the hundreds of smuggling tunnels dug under the border with Gaza that serve as the major supply line for the enclave’s approximately 1.7 million residents.
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Palestinians in Gaza City wave Egyptian and Palestinian flags during a rally protesting incitement against Palestinians in the Egyptian media, 27 July.
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Hamas leaders participate in a press conference in Gaza City on 30 July. Salah al-Bardawil announced the exposure of documents that Hamas claims show the role of the rival Fatah party in manufacturing allegations about Hamas’ relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and its interference in Egyptian affairs. Fatah leaders responded by asserting that the documents were fabricated.
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Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas speaks during his joint press conference with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman in Beirut, 3 July. Abbas flew to Lebanon via Jordan as part of efforts to ensure that the Palestinian refugee camps will stay clear of the country’s growing Syria-related unrest.
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Palestinian riot police clash with protesters as they try to march towards the headquarters of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas during a protest against the upcoming negotiations between the Palestinian leadership and Israel in the West Bank city of Ramallah, 28 July.
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Ismail Haniyeh, Palestinian prime minister in the Gaza Strip, leads a night prayer known as Tarawih during a rally in solidarity with the nearly 5,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israel, Gaza City, 22 July.
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Palestinian students of medical colleges at Jerusalem’s al-Quds University protest in front of Hadassah medical center, demanding that the Israeli health ministry issue their certification to allow them to work in Israeli hospitals, Jerusalem, 31 July.
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Palestinian students in Ramallah search for their scores in a local newspaper after announcement of the tawjihi high school final exam scores, which determine a student’s placement at university, 25 July.
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A Palestinian vendor in Gaza City sells sweets after the announcement of the tawjihi exam scores, 25 July.
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A Palestinian refugee family break their fast at their home in one of the poorest regions of Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, 26 July.
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A Palestinian woman picks sour grapes at her family’s farm in the West Bank village of Beit Ommar near Hebron, 7 July. The grapes are dried and ground and sold as a spice. The price of local grapes has deflated due to the importing of grapes from Israeli settlements.
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A Palestinian vendor in the West Bank city of Hebron prepares the traditional sweet known as qatayef enjoyed during the month of Ramadan, 14 July.
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The Siraj Choir perform in honor of Sayed Darwish, considered the grandfather of Egyptian popular music, during the Jerusalem Festival 2013 at the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, 1 July.
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Football fans celebrate at a match between rival Gaza teams at al-Yarmouk Stadium in Gaza City, 29 July. The stadium was badly damaged when Israel bombed it last November.
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