On the Agenda

Administrative detention is the incarceration of people who have not been convicted of – or even charged with – a crime. Israel uses this extreme power continuously and extensively, detaining hundreds of Palestinians on a regular basis. According to Israel Prison Service figures, in March 2023, Israel was holding 1,017 people in administrative detention, all but 15 of them Palestinians. Ten of the detainees are minors between the ages of 16 and 18. This is the highest number of administrative detainees since April 2003, when Israel held 1,140 administrative detainees.

In the early morning of Monday, 3 April 2023, Israeli forces entered Nablus, arrested two armed Palestinian operatives and killed two others: Muhammad Abu Baker (42) and Muhammad Sa’id (al-Halaq) (20). Then, at around 6:30 A.M., the forces entered a residential building in the city and went through the apartments. Half an hour or so later, about five soldiers broke into a third-floor apartment housing three students: ‘Alaa Salameh (19), ‘Omar a-Dalu (20) and Yazan Badad (26). A dog the soldiers brought with them ran towards Salameh and a-Dalu, who fled to Badad’s room, where the dog lunged at Badad and bit him on his left leg. A-Dalu called the soldiers and told them the dog was biting his friend, but they did nothing. One of the soldiers entered the room, ignored the dog and took a-Dalu and Salameh to the apartment next door, where they were questioned about other residents of the building...

Yesterday (Monday, 22 May 2023), the last residents of the Palestinian community of ‘Ein Samia, a community next to Ramallah that was home to about 200 residents, were forced to leave their land. Israel has made their lives unbearable, leaving residents with no other choice. For years, residents of the community have suffered from violence carried out by Israeli forces, from settler violence carried out with the full backing of the State, and from extreme restrictions on building homes and infrastructure, as well as demolitions. The community’s school is set to be demolished soon, following a recent court approval...

On Monday, 17 April 2023, at around 8:00 AM., four armored military vehicles made their way out of the southern al-Birah neighborhood of Umm a-Sharayet after the military arrested Palestinians in the area. A security camera in a toy store belonging to the Khalif family in the Satah Marahaba area at the entrance to al-Birah captured one of the armored vehicles crashing into one of the family’s cars, which was parked in front of the store, for no reason, and dragging it for a few meters on the sidewalk. The convoy drove on without stopping...

On Thursday, 16 March 2023, at around 3:00 P.M., approximately eight members of an Israeli undercover unit arrived in downtown Jenin in two cars with Palestinian license plates. They got out of the cars and immediately fired at Nidal Khazem (28), an Islamic Jihad military operative, who was walking down the street with Yusef Abu Shrein (30), a Hamas military operative. Abu Shrein ran, and several members of the undercover unit gave chase, while firing at him. He managed to advance only a few meters before being hit and falling...

On Wednesday, 22 March 2023, at around 4:30 P.M., bus driver Ahmad al-A’war (32) drove passengers from Bab al-Amud (Damascus Gate) to the Abu Tur neighborhood, where he got stuck in a traffic jam on the eastern side of HaMefaked Street, north of Abu Tur. After the bus stood in place for a few minutes, two Border Police officers approached al-A’war’s window and asked him to reverse. Al-A’war explained that he couldn’t reverse without guidance. A verbal confrontation, including cursing and swearing, then broke out. One of the police officers pulled Al-A’war’s shirt, and the officer standing behind him pepper sprayed him in the face. Both of the police officers approached the bus’s front door, which was closed, and ordered him to open it. One of them hit the front windshield, went back to Al-A’war’s window, and once again ordered him to open it. Al-A’war refused and cursed the officer.

On Saturday, 18 March 2023, at around 2:30 P.M., Muhammad Abdu (17) heard shouts outside and left his grandfather’s home in the Al-Madaris neighborhood of the village of Jabal al-Mukabber in East Jerusalem. When he got to the street, he found his brother Karam (20), who had left the house a few minutes before him on his electric bicycle, lying unconscious on the road. Locals at the scene told him that his brother had been hit by a car. About 15 minutes later, a Magen David Adom (MDA) ambulance arrived, accompanied by two police officers. When the medical personnel tried to load Karam into the ambulance, the police officers didn’t let them, claiming they needed to prepare a report on the accident. This required examining Karam’s bike, which had vanished...

Average Israeli daily water consumption is 247 per person – three times the amount used by Palestinians in the West Bank, which is 82.4. Only 36% of the latter have daily running water. The shortage is not a force majeure but an outcome of Israel’s policy since the Interim Agreement, which treats water as another aspect of the mechanism controlling Palestinians. Israel has become a water superpower that no longer depends on natural sources, yet continues to deprive the rapidly growing Palestinian population of water.  

On Thursday, 16 March 2023, at around 4:00 A.M., dozens of soldiers arrived at the home of the Sarur family in the village of Ni’lin, east of Ramallah, and removed the gate to the yard. Several soldiers entered the first floor apartment, in which Ibrahim (65) and Zohadia (64) live. They ordered Ibrahim, at gunpoint, to gather everyone who was home. Other soldiers went to the second floor, where the couple’s son Diaa’ (38) lives with his wife Maysaa (36) and their three young children. Ibrahim followed the soldiers to the second floor and tried, in vain, to stop them entering the apartment. The soldiers ordered Diaa’ to hand over the cellphones of all the apartment’s inhabitants. A few moments later, the soldiers brought Zohadia and her daughter Fidaa (36), who was sleeping over at her parents’ house, up to Diaa’s apartment, and gathered all the family members in the living room with a soldier guarding them...

On Thursday, 26 January 2023, at around 7:00 A.M., scores of soldiers, Border Police officers and Israel Security Agency (ISA) personnel raided Jenin Refugee Camp. Some of the forces entered the camp hidden in a refrigeration truck, jumping out soon after it arrived at the camp’s main square. In the half hour that followed, scores of Israeli forces’ vehicles poured into the camp through various entrances...

On Saturday, 11 February 2023, at around 4:00 P.M., about 30 settlers, some of them armed with handguns and rifles, came to the outskirts of the village of Qarawat Bani Hassan. About 10 of them entered a house still under construction and went up to the second floor, where two brothers were working. The settlers pounced on one of the brothers, punching him. The other got away and alerted local residents. Within a few minutes, his brother also managed to escape the settlers....

The blockade Israel has been imposing on the Gaza Strip for more than 15 years has crushed Gaza’s healthcare system. The level of medical services available falls far short of residents’ needs, and there is a constant shortage of medicines and medical equipment. In 2022, as in previous years, patients who need medical care unavailable in Gaza are the ones to pay the price: Israel forces them to file for permits to leave the Gaza Strip in an exhausting bureaucratic process, extending also to the persons accompanying them. The criteria for approving these requests are unknown and the grounds for rejection are never disclosed. Many of the requests go unanswered, and patients must apply time and again without knowing whether they will ever get the permit they desperately need to reach hospital in the West Bank, East Jerusalem or Israel...