The Electronic Intifada 6 November 2015
Yahya Hassan mourns while holding the body of his daughter, Rahaf, during a funeral for the toddler and her pregnant mother Nour in al-Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, on 11 October. Nour and Rahaf Hassan were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting their home in the al-Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City.
APA imagesEscalated levels of unchecked violence, provoked by Israeli assaults and incursions at the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, reached a dangerous tipping point during the month of October.
Israeli forces cracked down on fierce protests by youths fed up with military occupation and an ineffectual Palestinian leadership.
Nearly 70 Palestinians were slain by Israeli forces and settlers and 9 Israelis were killed by Palestinians during the month, according to the United Nations monitoring group OCHA.
More than two dozen Palestinians, including a 13-year-old bystander, were killed during protests in October. The majority were killed during demonstrations in the Gaza Strip.
More than 7,000 Palestinians suffered injuries requiring medical treatment during that same period. More than half of them were injured after inhaling tear gas fired by Israeli forces during daily protests in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
A quarter of those injured were hit with rubber-coated steel bullets, and more than 1,000 were shot with live ammunition.
Shoot-to-kill policy
Forty Palestinians, including 10 children, were shot dead during alleged attacks on Israelis.
But videos of many of the incidents — including the 3 October slaying of 19-year-old Jerusalemite Fadi Alloun while he was being chased by a mob calling for his death — show that Palestinians were killed when they posed no immediate danger.
Human rights groups have slammed Israel for executing Palestinians as part of a shoot-to-kill policy encouraged by its top leadership.
The United Nations Deputy Secretary-General stated before the Security Council that “a number of incidents, many caught on video and widely disseminated, call into question the degree of response, including the apparent disproportionate use of lethal force as a first resort.”
An Eritrean asylum-seeker died after he was shot by a security guard in southern Israel and then beaten by a mob who mistakenly thought he was involved in the fatal shooting of an Israeli soldier at a bus station.
But most of the extrajudicial executions occurred in Hebron and Jerusalem, where hostile Jewish settlers, protected and abetted by the Israeli army, live in close proximity to Palestinians.
As of 2 November, Israel was still withholding the bodies of 22 Palestinians killed in alleged attacks. Palestinians have demonstrated in large numbers calling for the return of the bodies so that bereaved families can bury them.
Killed in their home
A pregnant woman and her 3-year-old daughter were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting their home in the Gaza Strip, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed there last month to 18.
In addition to the 70 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in October, 30-year-old Fadi al-Darbi died in Israeli custody after suffering a stroke and not receiving proper medical treatment from prison authorities.
A Palestinian man had a heart attack and died a day after being assaulted by Israeli forces. Five other Palestinians, including an infant, died after inhaling tear gas fired by the army, or after delays caused by Israeli movement restrictions while trying to access emergency medical care. (Update: after this story was published, Defence for International — Palestine reported that medical sources stated that the aforementioned child’s death was not related to tear gas inhalation.)
State of emergency
OCHA reported that the Palestine Red Crescent Society declared a state of emergency on 4 October following 14 attacks by Israeli forces and settlers against its ambulances and staff in the 72 hours prior.
“The following day, a number of Palestinian schools in the Jerusalem area canceled classes citing safety concerns,” OCHA added.
Israeli forces repeatedly raided East Jerusalem’s only emergency care hospital and fired tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets inside the facility when staff held a peaceful sit-in protesting the interference with their treatment of patients. A hospital in the West Bank city of Nablus was also raided by Israeli agents disguised as civilians, who abducted a patient from his bed.
Nearly 1,200 Palestinians were arrested in the occupied West Bank in October, and Israel is also taking repressive measures against Palestinian citizens of the state, charging them with incitement.
Meanwhile, the Action Group for Palestinians of Syria reported that 26 Palestinians died in that country during October in circumstances related to the ongoing violence there.
Palestinians commemorate the killing of 13 protesters by the Israeli police in October 2000, in the city of Sakhnin in the north of present-day Israel, on 1 October.
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Israeli forces search the area of a shooting attack near the West Bank city of Nablus on 1 October. Palestinian assailants shot and killed an Israeli settler couple while they were travelling with their children on a road connecting two settlements near the city.
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Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas greets supporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah on 2 October upon his return from New York City, where he attended a ceremony marking the raising of the Palestinian flag at the United Nations headquarters.
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A Palestinian boy looks at a car which residents said was set on fire by Jewish settlers in Beitillu village west of Ramallah on 2 October.
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Settlers are guarded by Israeli soldiers on 3 October after the settlers set fire to Palestinian agricultural fields in the Nablus-area village of Burin in a reprisal attack following the killing of two Israelis in the northern West Bank earlier in the week.
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Palestinian youth run from Israeli occupation forces during clashes in the Shuafat neighbourhood of East Jerusalem on 5 October.
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Palestinian youths clash with Israeli forces at the main entrance of the West Bank city of Bethlehem on 6 October following the funeral of 13-year-old Abdulrahman Shadi Obeidallah. The boy was shot dead by Israeli forces the previous day as he and a friend were standing more than 200 feet away from confrontations between youths and the army near Aida refugee camp.
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An Israeli jeep burns during a raid on the West Bank city of Nablus on 6 October. The Israeli government announced the day prior that it had arrested a Hamas cell in the city for the 1 October slaying of a couple from a nearby Jewish settlement.
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Palestinian youth set up barricades in Surda, the Ramallah-area hometown of Muhannad Halabi, who killed two Israelis in the Old City of Jerusalem, as Israeli forces surrounded his family’s house on 6 October. Halabi, 19, was shot dead by police during the 3 October attack.
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An Israeli Border Police officer is injured as Palestinian stone-throwers confront occupation forces near Beit El settlement on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Ramallah on 7 October.
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Undercover Israeli agents disguised as Palestinian protesters are seen along with uniformed Israeli soldiers during clashes outside the Jewish settlement of Beit El, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, on 7 October.
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A Palestinian woman inspects her home in the West Bank city of Nablus after it was raided by Israeli forces on 8 October.
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Palestinian protesters throw stones at Israeli forces during confrontations at the Huwwara checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus on 9 October.
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Palestinians pray outside Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday, 9 October, after Israel prohibited access to the area.
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The body of a Palestinian teen is seen on the street near the Old City of Jerusalem on 10 October. The teen, later identified as 16-year-old Ishaq Badran from the Jerusalem neighborhood of Kafr Aqab, was shot and killed by the Israeli police after allegedly carrying out stabbing attack in the area.
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Palestinian protesters carry an injured comrade during confrontations with Israeli forces near the fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip, east of Gaza City, on 11 October.
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Thousands march in Jalazone refugee camp on the outskirts of Ramallah on 12 October during the funeral of 14-year-old Ahmad Sharaka, who was shot dead by Israeli soldiers while protesting near the Beit El settlement the previous day.
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Emergency responders stand near the body of Yeshayahu Krishevsky, who was killed when a Alaa Abu Jamal, a Palestinian resident of the Jabal al-Mukabir neighborhood of East Jerusalem, drove into a bus stop and began attacking those he hit with a meat cleaver in West Jerusalem on 13 October. Abu Jamal was shot at the scene and later died of his injuries.
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The parents of 18-year-old Mustafa al-Khatib hold photos of their son at the family’s home in the Jabal al-Mukabir neighborhood of East Jerusalem on 13 October. The youth was shot dead by Israeli police after allegedly attempting to stab an officer, but Palestinian witnesses told media that the youth had no knife.
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Palestinians protest during a general strike in the town of Sakhnin in the north of present-day Israel on 13 October. Palestinians called for a Day of Rage following restrictions on the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem and recent violent attacks on both Israelis and Palestinians.
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Closed shops at the market in the West Bank city of Nablus during a general strike amid ongoing clashes surrounding access to Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound on 14 October. Israel began setting up dozens of checkpoints and roadblocks in Palestinian areas of East Jerusalem following a series of alleged attacks.
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Palestinian protesters throw stones during confrontations with Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on 14 October following the funeral of 28-year-old Mutaz Ibrahim Zawahreh, who was shot dead by Israeli forces during clashes the day before.
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Palestinians run from tear gas fired by Israeli forces during a protest near Gaza’s boundary with Israel, east of al-Bureij refugee camp, on 16 October. Thousands of Palestinians marched towards the boundary in different locations of the Gaza Strip following a call for “Day of Rage” protests. Three Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces during the demonstrations.
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A wounded Palestinian protester is evacuated after he was shot by Israeli troops during protests near the boundary with Israel in the central Gaza Strip on 17 October.
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Palestinian farmers ride past Israeli settlers during the olive harvest in the West Bank city of Nablus on 19 October.
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Israelis gather at the site where two Palestinians were shot by police after an alleged stabbing attack in the city of Beit Shemesh, west of Jerusalem, on 22 October.
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A Palestinian youth throws stones towards a skunk water cannon during confrontations with Israeli forces near the Jewish settlement of Beit El, north of the West Bank city of Ramallah, on 23 October.
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Lightning streaks the sky above Gaza City on 28 October.
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Israeli forces stand near the body of Farouk Sidr, shot dead after he allegedly tried to stab a soldier at a Jewish settlement in the center of Hebron on 29 October.
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Palestinian protesters confront Israeli soldiers during a protest near Gaza’s boundary with Israel on 30 October.
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Palestinian protesters prepare molotov cocktails during confrontations with Israeli forces outside the Jewish settlement of Beit El, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, on 30 October.
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Israeli forces cordon off the area at the scene of an alleged stabbing attack in Jerusalem on 30 October. Ahmad Qneibi, a Palestinian from the Kufr Aqab neighborhood of the city, allegedly stabbed an Israeli before being shot and severely wounded, police said, in the first such incident in the city in two weeks.
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Palestinian women rally after Friday prayer at the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City on 30 October.
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