Updates

B’Tselem’s investigation into four killings since the beginning of March 2019 clearly shows the lethal fire was completely unjustified. These cases illustrate, once more, just how little value Israel’s security establishment places on the lives of Palestinians. None of the victims posed a threat to the lives of security personnel. Not one of these incidents should have ended in death. As B'Tselem has cautioned countless times in the past, these are not aberrations, or “bad apples”. These are incidents that occur as part of the routine actions of soldiers and police officers, pursuant to Israel’s dangerous, lethal open-fire policy.

On 8 March 2019, at a demonstration in Beit Sira, Ramallah District, to protest the killing of two Palestinians, an ambulance found itself amidst the clashes. As it tried to drive away, an officer ordered the driver at gunpoint to shut off the engine and hand over the keys. The ambulance was detained for about 15 minutes. Interfering with the work of medical crews or causing them harm is prohibited. There were no grounds for threatening, detaining or endangering the EMTs. These actions by the security forces are but another example of their disregard for the lives of Palestinians, conduct always carried out with impunity.

Israel permits live fire, from some distance, at non-dangerous protestors by the Gaza perimeter fence, an unlawful policy that has caused thousands of casualties. Yet the injury does not end there: Israel has rejected more than 80% of requests by wounded protestors to leave Gaza for treatment in the West Bank or in Israel. Israel is responsible for the injuries and for Gaza’s failing healthcare system after more than a decade of blockade. It follows that Israel is responsible for changing this reality.

“Since the Israeli navy confiscated my hasake (boat) I’ve been out of work and can’t support my family. Things in the Gaza Strip are very bad because of the blockade, and there are no other jobs available. I used to make about 20 shekels a day fishing. That enabled me to buy food and drink for my family. Now our lives are very hard.” Tamer Zayed, Beit Lahiya, 27 August 2018

As of 5 Dec. 2018, for more than a month, the military closed off a road that links Ramallah with villages northwest of the city and the entire area with the Ni’lin checkpoint, which thousands of laborers and businesspeople cross daily into Israel. This forced tens of thousands of Palestinians to use a treacherous alternate road. Israel’s arbitrary closure of roads has a particularly disruptive impact on daily life. The closure was unlawful and constituted deliberate collective punishment of residents whose only “crime” was living there.

Over the course of nine days in December, Israeli security forces shot and killed three Palestinians in the West Bank, alleging that they had attempted to attack Israelis by car - incidents that never occurred. All three victims were shot although they were not endangering the lives of the security forces or of anyone else. Their death is a direct outcome of the reckless and illegal open-fire policy that permits, and retroactively supports, lethal fire in situations that do not justify it.

40,000 Palestinians and 800 Israeli settlers live in the city center of Hebron, where Israeli authorities impose a regime of legal and physical segregation. While Palestinians are subjected to extreme restrictions on movement by car or on foot, including the closure of main streets, settlers are free to go where they wish. These restrictions impact every aspect of life, preventing Palestinian residents from maintaining a normal routine and making their lives intolerable. Below are testimonies collected by B'Tselem in recent months, in which Hebron residents describe how the checkpoints affect their daily lives:

The olive harvest was once a joyful time for Palestinian families. Yet for many years now, it has been taking place under the shadow of landgrab, restrictions on access to land, attacks on harvesters and vandalization of trees. This reality, which forces farmers to abandon their lands, is no accident. It is the outcome of Israeli policy, facilitating the takeover of land to expand settlements or advance other Israeli interests. This year, B’Tselem recorded 2 physical assaults on harvesters and 9 cases of vandalization or crop theft in the Nablus and Ramallah Districts.

In Sept. and Oct. the Israeli military blocked the entrances to three Palestinian communities (Kafr a-Dik, ‘Azzun, al-Jalazun R.C.) for 11-24 days, citing the throwing of stones or Molotov cocktails on nearby roads. Blocking roads on this pretext is unlawful and constitutes collective punishment of people whose only “crime” is that they happen to live nearby. The roadblocks severely disrupt residents’ lives, harming their ability to simply maintain a normal routine. There is absolutely no moral or legal justification for inflicting this harm.

On 15 Aug. 2018, at about 2:00 A.M., soldiers with dogs entered 10 homes in the village of ‘Azzun. They woke the inhabitants, kept some confined to rooms in their homes, intimidated children and conducted violent searches. Raids on homes in the dead of night, in which soldiers wake families and ransack their houses, are by now a routine part of the occupation in the West Bank. These actions, which are clearly intended to intimidate the population, are unjustified. This is yet another example of daily Palestinian life under occupation.