Israeli occupation forces killed 12 Palestinians during August.

Nassim Abu Rumi, 14, was shot dead by Israeli police in Jerusalem’s Old City on 15 August as he and another boy attempted to stab officers, wounding one.

Israel is currently holding the slain child’s body. The other youth, Hamoudeh al-Sheikh, was critically injured and detained by Israel.

The deadly incident occurred at the Lion’s Gate to the al-Aqsa mosque compound. Days earlier, police injured dozens of worshippers attempting to pray at the holy site during the Eid al-Adha holiday.

Also in the West Bank, Alaa al-Hreimi, 27, was shot and killed by a police officer after hitting two Israeli siblings with his car near the Hebron-area Elazar settlement, injuring one of them seriously.

Israeli media reported that a police officer shot at al-Hreimi as he was trying to exit the car, suggesting that he may have been extrajudicially executed.

In Gaza, Badr al-Din Abu Mousa, 25, died on 31 August of injuries sustained the previous day during Great March of Return protests east of Khan Younis.

Israeli forces have killed 208 Palestinians during the protests that began in late March 2018. More than 9,000 Palestinians have been wounded by live fire during the protests.

Armed Gaza men killed

Several Gaza men were killed in multiple incidents as they allegedly attempted to infiltrate or wage attacks on Israel.

A man identified as Hani Abu Salah was killed on 1 August after he reportedly infiltrated Israel from Gaza and, armed with a rifle and grenades, wounded three soldiers. Israel is holding his body.

On 10 August, four Palestinians – identified as Abdullah Ismail al-Hamaida, 21, Abdullah Ashraf al-Ghomri, 19, Ahmad Ayman al-Adeini, 20 and Abdullah al-Masri, 21 – were killed along the Gaza-Israel boundary.

Israeli forces opened fire on the group after one of them crossed the boundary and fired at and threw a grenade toward soldiers.

The following day, another armed Palestinian, Marwan Nasser, 26, was killed while allegedly attempting to breach the Gaza-Israel boundary fence.

Also in Gaza, three armed Palestinians – identified as Mahmoud Adel al-Walayda, 24, Muhammad Farid Abu Namous, 27 and Muhammad Samir al-Taramsi, 26 – were killed by Israeli helicopter and tank fire along the boundary with Israel on 18 August.

Israeli media reported that the deadly strike on Gaza followed the launch of three rockets from the territory, causing no injuries.

There were six incidents of rocket fire from Gaza toward Israel during the second half of the month, according to Israeli media. Israel bombed what it said were Hamas posts in Gaza, claiming to be acting in retaliation.

Israel also cut by half oil imports to Gaza’s power station in response to the rocket fire. The fuel cuts reduced the number of hours of electricity available to residents of the territory to four to five consecutive hours at a time, followed by 12 hours of outages.

The reduced capacity of Gaza’s power station has also caused the amount of untreated sewage pumped into the Mediterranean Sea to increase significantly. Water distribution to Gaza households has meanwhile declined by once every three days to once every four or five days.

Gisha, a human rights group that monitors Israel’s blockade of Gaza, now in its 12th year, said that Israel’s decision “constitutes illegal collective punishment.” It added that fuel reduction “has nothing to do with the security of Israeli citizens.”

Three police officers in Gaza were killed on 27 August in suicide attacks at two police stations in the territory. Hamas security forces arrested Salafi activists following the deadly explosions.

Israeli teens slain

Two young Israelis were killed in the West Bank during the month.

Dvir Sorek, 19, was found stabbed to death on a road outside the Migdal Oz settlement near the West Bank city of Hebron on 7 August.

Three days later, Israeli forces arrested two Palestinian cousins suspected of killing the off-duty soldier and yeshiva student.

Rina Shnerb, 17, was killed by what the Israeli military said was an improvised explosive device near the Dolev settlement in the central West Bank on 23 August. The teen’s father and adult brother were also injured in the explosion, the latter critically.

She was the first child among the eight Israelis killed in conflict-related violence so far this year. Additionally, a Palestinian resident of the West Bank was killed by a rocket fired from Gaza into southern Israel earlier this year.

Cluster bomb kills Lebanese child

In Lebanon, a child was killed by a cluster bomb left over from the 2006 war.

Eight-year-old Ali Abbas Maatouk was fatally injured when the bomb detonated while he played with another child in Toul village in the south of the country.

The deadly incident occurred on the anniversary of the end of the war, during which Israel dropped some 4 million cluster bombs over the south of the country.

During August, Israel waged new attacks in Lebanon, along with Syria and Iraq.

US officials stated that on 20 August, Israel targeted a weapons depot near Baghdad, claiming that it was used by Iran to transfer weapons to Syria.

The Israeli military attacked a site near the Syrian capital Damascus on 24 August, claiming that it preempted an imminent drone attack by Iranian forces.

Days later, Lebanon said two Israeli drones fell on its territory in a failed attack on a Hizballah media office in a southern suburb of Beirut.

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