Protection of Civilians Report | 17 - 30 July 2018

Latest Development

On 2 August, the Israeli authorities reinstated the ban on the entry of fuel and cooking gas to the Gaza Strip.

Biweekly Highlights

• Friday demonstrations and clashes along Israel’s perimeter fence with Gaza continued, resulting in the killing of four Palestinians, including two children, and the injury of 763. Another three Palestinian men died of wounds sustained in previous weeks’ demonstrations. During demonstrations that took place on 27 July in the Rafah and Khan Younis areas, Israeli forces shot with live ammunition two boys, 11 and 16 years old, killing the former immediately, and badly injuring the latter, who died the following day of his wounds. The other two fatalities, both men, were shot and killed during demonstrations on 20 and 27 July in Gaza and Khan Younis. Nearly half of the injuries were hospitalized, including 217 people hit by live ammunition. For cumulative casualty figures and breakdowns, see here.
• These incidents bring the number of Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, since 30 March 2018, to 26. Of them, 21 were killed during the demonstrations, and five in other circumstances. Additionally, 1,487 Palestinian and two Israeli children have been injured and hospitalized during this period. In a statement issued on 1 August, senior UN officials expressed concern about the violation of children’s rights and called on Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas authorities in Gaza to respect the rights of children and refrain from instrumentalizing their plight.
• Seven members of Hamas armed wing and one Israeli soldier were killed in various other incidents near Gaza’s perimeter fence. On 19 July, Israeli forces fired a number of shells killing a male member of Hamas’ armed wing, east of Rafah, and injuring three other members of the armed group. On the next day, during one of the demonstrations, a Palestinian shot and killed an Israeli soldier east of Khan Younis, the first such fatality since the 2014 hostilities. Subsequently, the Israeli army launched massive airstrikes and shelling across Gaza, killing three members of Hamas’ armed wing, and injuring 28 people, including 8 children. Palestinians launched three missiles towards Israel, without injury or damage. A precarious ceasefire, brokered by Egypt and the UN, was reached in the early hours of 21 July. However, on 25 July, Palestinians shot and injured an Israeli soldier patrolling along the fence, and Israeli tanks shelled military posts in Gaza, killing another three members of Hamas’ armed wing and injuring a child.
• While a significant decline in the launching of incendiary kites and balloons from Gaza towards Israel was reported following the ceasefire, the intensity increased again since 26 July. According to the Israeli authorities, since late April, some 1,200 fires have been recorded, which have burnt more than 7,400 acres of cultivated land and nature reserves. No Israeli casualties have been reported in this context.
• On at least 21 occasions, outside of the mass demonstrations, Israeli forces opened fire in the Access Restricted Areas (ARA) at land and sea in Gaza. Four Palestinians, including a fisherman and two children, were injured. On four occasions, Israeli forces entered Gaza, and carried out land-levelling and excavation operations near the perimeter fence.
• On 24 July, the Israeli authorities lifted the ban on the entry of fuel and cooking gas to the Gaza Strip, imposed on 16 July. The ban on the entry to Gaza of a range of items, including building materials, furniture, wood, electronics and fabric, as well as on the exit of all goods, has remained in place. The restrictions were reportedly imposed in response to the launching of the incendiary kites and balloons. According to the Palestinian Federation of Industries, since the imposition of the import restrictions, over 4,000 workers in the construction sector have been temporarily laid off, primarily due to the shortage of construction materials.
• Gaza’s Power Plant (GPP) was forced to shut down completely on 23 July due to lack of fuel, increasing power cuts to an average of 20 hours per day, up from 19 hours previously. This development has been attributed to the lack of funds to purchase the fuel imported from Egypt. The GPP resumed partial operations on 26 July.
• The Egyptian-controlled crossing between Gaza and Egypt has remained open in both directions five days a week throughout the reporting period, except for one day. A total of 2,934 people entered Gaza and 2,552 exited. The crossing has been almost continuously open since 12 May 2018. 
• In the West Bank, one Palestinian child was killed and 57 Palestinians, including 21 children, injured during multiple clashes with Israeli forces. On 23 July, Israeli forces shot with live ammunition and killed a 15-year-old boy during a search and arrest operation in Ad Duheisha refugee camp (Bethlehem). This brings to six the number of Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of the year in the West Bank. The rest of the injuries were recorded during other search and arrest operations, including in Kobar village (Ramallah, see below), the weekly Kafr Qaddum demonstrations, and clashes at the Al Haram ash Sharif/Temple Mount compound (see below).
• On 26 July, a 17-year-old Palestinian child stabbed and killed an Israeli settler and injured another two settlers in the settlement of Adam (Jerusalem governorate); he was subsequently shot dead by another settler. His body continues to be withheld by the Israeli authorities. Israeli soldiers raided Kobar village, where the perpetrator lived, triggering clashes during which 17 Palestinians, including nine children, were injured. Israeli forces also surveyed the family house of the perpetrator in preparation of its punitive demolition.
• Tensions in and around the Al Haram ash Sharif/ Temple Mount compound in the Old City of Jerusalem increased following the entry of large groups of Israelis. On 22 July, some 1,000 Israelis accompanied by Israeli forces entered the compound, some of whom subsequently damaged Palestinian property in the Old City, including at least three shops. The following Friday, clashes erupted in the area between Palestinians and Israeli forces, and the latter closed all gates to the compound and raided the two mosques there to remove Palestinians, during which 10 Palestinians were injured and 26 arrested; normal access was restored later the same day.
• Fourteen Israeli settler attacks resulted in six Palestinian injuries and damage to 760 trees, 6 houses, 3 shops, 11 vehicles and the theft of 2 tents provided as humanitarian assistance. Half of the incidents were recorded in the northern West Bank, four of which involved arson of a house and trees in the Nablus villages of Qusra, Jalud and Asira al Qibliya and in Immatin (Qalqiliya). Three of the attacks were carried out in the H2 area of Hebron city, and involved physical assaults on an elderly man, a couple and a child.  Two attacks were recorded in the Ramallah villages of Beitillu and Al Mughayyir, the former involved an attack on an elderly man while on his land. Two attacks were recorded in the Jerusalem governorate and involved the vandalism of three shops upon the exit of Israeli settlers from Al Haram ash Sharif/ Temple Mount compound (see above), and the injury of a man as a result of stone throwing at his vehicle near the settlement of Adam.
• One Israeli settler was injured near Al Mughayyir village (Ramallah) as a result of Palestinian stone-throwing at his vehicle; at least 9 other Israeli vehicles were damaged in similar incidents across the West Bank.     
• Citing lack of Israeli-issued building permits, the Israeli authorities demolished 15 Palestinian structures in Area C and East Jerusalem displacing 14 Palestinians, including seven children, and affecting 333 others. One of the targeted structures was a donor-funded caravan in the Bedouin community of Jabal Al Baba (Jerusalem). It was used to operate the only kindergarten and women’s centre and was sometimes used as a mobile health clinic as well. A house, along with three other structures, were demolished in an Area C part of Jericho city, and an animal barrack was demolished in an area of southern Hebron (Massafer Yatta) designated as a firing zone. The rest of the demolitions, including one carried out by their owners, took place in East Jerusalem.
• Also in East Jerusalem, two homes were self-demolished by their Palestinian owners in the Beit Hanina area, following an Israeli Supreme Court ruling in favor of Israeli settlers claiming ownership over the land on which the homes were built.  As a result, 19 people, including eight children, were displaced. Independently from the eviction case at the court, the houses had pending demolition orders on grounds of lack building permits. In recent decades, Israeli settler organizations, with the support of the Israeli authorities, have taken control of properties within Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem, and some 180 Palestinian families are currently facing eviction cases filed by settlers at Israeli courts.