On the Agenda

On the morning of Friday, 13 October 2023, settlers stood on the roofs of homes in the settlement of Givon Hahadasha that lie next to homes in the Palestinian village of Beit Ijza, and shouted slogans calling for revenge. After noon prayers in the village mosque, at around 1:30 P.M., about 200 area residents set out from the mosque in a protest march towards the agricultural gate in the Separation Barrier, which lies between the village and the settlement. When they arrived at the gate, about 20 Border Police officers and two armed settlers were waiting there. The protesters burned tires and threw stones at the officers, who fired tear gas and rubber-coated metal bullets at them... 

On Friday morning, 20 October 2023, at around 9:00 A.M., soldiers entered the neighborhood of ‘Ein Misbah in Ramallah and arrested a resident. On their way back from the arrest, they passed through the town of Bitunya, where three Palestinian youths were waiting to throw stones at them. One of the youths was Suhaib a-Sus (15). At 10:30 A.M., when the first two jeeps drove by, a-Sus and another youth threw stones at them from about 20 meters away. After the jeeps passed, the two drew closer to the road and waited five to ten meters from it...

Israel is continuing to implement a lethal open-fire policy in the West Bank during the war in Gaza. In the last three weeks of October, it killed at least 115 Palestinians, incl. 37 minors. This figure is high even compared to the second intifada, which saw heavy clashes including live fire by Palestinians. The death toll of Israel’s unlawful policy even then did not exceed 30 casualties a month and was often much lower – with the exception of Operation Defensive Shield, in which Israel killed 134 Palestinians in March and 208 in April 2002.

On Thursday, 12 October 2023, at around 6:00 P.M., Shadi ‘Ajaj (44), his wife Randah (40) and their sons Isma’il (18) and Karam (1.5) were driving to Ramallah from their home in the village of Deir Jarir. When they reached the Yabrud underpass under Route 60, they saw a flying checkpoint with soldiers inspecting passing cars. A soldier at the checkpoint gestured for ‘Ajaj to drive on..

In clashes between young Palestinians and Israeli forces that broke out near Qalandiya Checkpoint on Sunday evening, 8 October 2023, the forces shot and killed four Palestinians. In the clashes, which began around 8:30 P.M., the Palestinians threw stones and Molotov cocktails and sometimes fired live shots, and the forces fired tear gas canisters, rubber-coated metal bullets and live shots...

The war in the Gaza Strip has been ongoing for over seventy days. Since its start, Hamas and Israel have demonstrated flagrant disregard for the rules of international humanitarian law: Israel has waged an unconstrained attack on the population of Gaza that includes bombing on an unprecedented scale, that have killed around 19,000 people and created a humanitarian catastrophe. Hamas for its part uses Gazans as human shields and endangers their lives. In light of this, the inescapable conclusion is that continuing the war will entail more human rights violations and more war crimes, and the fighting must therefore be stopped immediately to prevent further harm to civilians.

Israeli Human rights and civil society organizations sent a letter yesterday (Tuesday, 12 Dec. 2023) to US President Biden, asking him to use his influence to change Israel’s policy and prevent the deteriorating humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip. The letter is also published as a print advertisement in the New York Times.  Read the letter...
 

Life in the Gaza Strip right now is an unimaginable nightmare, as the result of a deliberate Israeli policy. Millions of residents are dangerously overcrowded in inhuman conditions – without water, food, medicine or fuel – and hospitals that have collapsed. All of this under unprecedented and relentless Israeli bombings. The situation is deteriorating and aid organizations are almost incapable of helping. This reality isn’t the war’s biproduct, it’s the deliberate outcome of Israel’s policy – a manufactured humanitarian catastrophe.
Our analysis of the policy over the past two months:

On Saturday, 2 December 2023, Israel bombed the neighborhood of Shuja’iyeh in Gaza City, declaring the goal was to kill Wissam Farhat. According to initial reports, the strike killed dozens of people and destroyed scores of residential buildings. Hundreds of people are still buried under the rubble. A strike such as this is not and cannot be considered proportional. Israel is implementing a criminal bombing policy in Gaza, which mostly hurts civilians, not Hamas...

Since the war began, Israel has blatantly disregarded its obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants and is committing war crimes. In these circumstances, renewing the hostilities will almost certainly endanger the lives of civilians on an inconceivable scale, as Israel has proven it is not fighting against Hamas but against the entire population of Gaza, which consists of more than two million residents. The international community must clarify the red lines and prohibitions applying to Israel – regardless of the circumstances.