PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS oPt WEEKLY 7-13 JANUARY 2014 Key issues ● An incident involving Israeli settlers detained and beaten by Palestinians during a settler attack, triggers a wave of retaliation, resulting in damage to Palestinian property. ● Three families forcibly displaced from a “firing zone” in the Jericho area. ● Rocket-fire towards southern Israel, alongside tank shelling by Israeli forces, continued intermittently during the week along the Gaza strip-Israel fence. ● Fragile energy situation in Gaza continues. WEST BANK 25 Palestinians injured by Israeli forces Palestinian Fatalities by Isr. forces This week, 25 Palestinians, including four children, were injured during clashes with Israeli forces in a This week: 0 In 2014 (to date): 1 range of incidents across the West Bank. This brings Total 2013: 27 the total number of Palestinians injured by Israeli forces so far in 2014 to 42, roughly the same as Palestinian Injuries by Isr. forces during the last two weeks of 2013, and a 47 per cent decline compared to the equivalent period in 2013. Nearly half of this week’s injuries (12) took place on 10 January, in the Ramallah governorate, during Weekly various clashes with Israeli forces. Three of these average clashes erupted during weekly demonstrations against the Barrier, in the villages of Bi’lin and Ni’lin, and against the expansion of the Halamish 38 Total in 2013 3,736 settlement in An Nabi Saleh village, resulting in the Total in 2014 injury of seven Palestinians, including a man shot with live ammunition and a 17-year-old boy directly Search and arrest operations by Isr. forces hit with a tear gas canister in the back. Another four Palestinians were shot with live ammunition and injured in Al Jalazun Refugee Camp in clashes with Israeli forces at the entrance of the camp, during Weekly which Israeli forces fired live ammunition, tear average gas canisters and rubber-coated metal bullets at Palestinian stone throwers. This incident occurred in the context of an increased number of similar clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinians near the entrance to the camp, across from the Israeli Another eight Palestinians were injured this week settlement of Beit El, where Israeli forces maintain in a number of incidents across the Qalqiliya a semi-permanent presence. In 2013, OCHA governorate: four of them, including two children, recorded 28 incidents in the area that resulted in the during the weekly demonstration in Kafr Qaddum injury of 80 Palestinians, including during clashes village, against the longstanding closure of one that erupted during search and arrest operations by of the village’s main entrances; and another two Israeli forces in the camp. in ‘Azzun ‘Atma, whilst attempting to enter Israel www.ochaopt.org United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs occupied Palestinian territory P. O. Box 38712 East Jerusalem 91386 l tel +972 (0)2 582 9962 l fax +972 (0)2 582 5841 l [email protected] Coordination Saves Lives through an opening in an unfinished section of the Barrier that runs through the villages’ land, Settler-related violence* reportedly in search of work inside Israel. In 2013, Incidents resulting in Pal. casualties or property damage at least 28 Palestinian workers were injured during attempts to enter Israel without permits from the West Bank. Weekly Israeli settlers detained and beaten by average Palestinians during a settler attack This week witnessed eleven incidents involving Total in 2014 12 Total in 2013 399 Israeli settlers and other Israeli civilians, which Incidents resulting in Isr. casualties or property damage resulted in injuries or property damage. One of the most significant incidents this week took place on 7 January in and around Qusra village (Nablus). Following the Israeli army’s evacuation Weekly of a plot of private Palestinian land taken over average and cultivated by Israeli settlers from Esh Kodesh settlement, the latter raided the neighboring village Total in 2014 5 Total in 2013 98 Israeli forces. *Excluding casualties by of Qusra (Nablus) and uprooted 27 olive seedlings belonging to three Palestinian families; the settlers withdrew from the village after clashing with local Demolitions and related displacements residents. A few hours later, settlers raided the Structures demolished village again from the southern side and assaulted a Palestinian family whilst working on their land, injuring a man. A group of Palestinian residents that arrived at the site, apprehended the settlers Weekly (16), and physically assaulted them, reportedly average injuring ten of the settlers. Subsequently, local Palestinian authorities and human rights activists intervened and prevented Palestinians from beating the settlers, then handed them over to the Israeli military. Farming constitutes the largest source of income in Qusra. The establishment and expansion of Israeli Total in 2013 Total in 2014 settlements has encroached onto a significant part of the villages’ agricultural land which is mainly located in Area C. In recent years, the main modality People displaced of expansion of the six adjacent settlement outposts has been the takeover and subsequent cultivation of Palestinian land. Moreover, systematic attacks Weekly and intimidation by Israeli settlers residing in these average outposts have resulted in a gradual reduction in Palestinian farmers’ access to land that has not been expropriated or taken over. At least five other settler attacks recorded during the remainder of the week were reportedly carried out in retaliation for the Qusra incident. A total of six Palestinian vehicles were burned or damaged near Total in 2013 Total in 2014 Al Jalazun Refugee Camp (Ramallah), in Al Funduq 2 PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS WEEKLY 7-13 JANUARY 2014 (Qalqiliya) and in Kifl Haris (Salfit). Settler raids six tents that had been provided to the families by also took place in Sinjil (Ramallah) and Madama an international organisation as emergency shelters. (Nablus), during which “price tag” slogans, such as “death to Arabs”, were sprayed on houses and On 3 December 2013, the Israeli High Court of shops. Justice rejected an appeal from the affected families to have a previously-issued order calling for their Also this week, according to Israeli media, four eviction from the area overturned. The Israeli Israelis were injured by Palestinians in various authorities have designated some 18 percent of the incidents, including one stabbed and one physically West Bank as ”firing zones”. The Israeli authorities assaulted in East Jerusalem (near Bab Al Amoud and also demolished another two structures in Jiftlik on on board the light train respectively), and another 8 January on the grounds that they lacked Israeli two as a result of stones thrown at their vehicles building permits in Area C, displacing one family. while travelling on West Bank roads (Ramallah and Also in Jericho, the Israeli authorities demolished Qalqiliya). a fodder storage structure belong to a Palestinian family in Al ‘Auja. During the demolition, one sheep Three families forcibly displaced in a was killed. “firing zone” in Jericho area In 2013, the number of Palestinian structures demolished by the Israeli authorities, and the number On 8 January, the Israeli authorities demolished a of Palestinians subsequently displaced in the Jordan total of 17 Palestinian-owned residential and other Valley more than doubled: from 192 structures livelihood structures in Area C in the Jericho and demolished in 2012 to 393 in 2013, and from 279 Nablus governorates, resulting in the displacement people displaced in 2012 to 575 in 2013, alongside a of 33 Palestinians, over half of them children, and slight decrease in other sections of Area C. affecting an additional 26 people. Over 6,200 Palestinians currently reside in these Thirteen (13) of the demolished structures including areas and face the chronic risk of displacement three residential and eight animal structures were as a result. The UN Secretary-General has raised demolished in the Abu al ‘Ajaj area of Al Jiftlik concerns regarding a similar situation in southern town, in the Jordan Valley (Jericho), on grounds Hebron (“Firing Zone 918”), in which he noted that they were located in area designated by the that the displacement of Palestinian communities Israeli authorities as a “firing zone”, closed for from their homes located in “firing zones” raises Israeli military training. Three families, comprising serious concerns that may run counter to Israel’s 26 people, who reportedly have been living in the obligations under international humanitarian law” area for decades, were displaced and around 750 [A/HRC/24/30, para. 29, 22 August 2013]. heads of sheep lost their shelter. On 13 January, the Israeli authorities also demolished and confiscated GAZA STRIP Intermittent rocket-fire, tank shelling Palestinian Fatalities by Isr. forces This week: 0 and armed clashes In 2014 (to date): 1 2013 total: 11 Rocket-fire by Palestinian armed groups towards southern Israel, alongside tank shelling by Israeli Palestinian Injuries by Isr. forces forces, continued intermittently during the week along the Gaza strip-Israel fence. No Israeli casualties or damage have been reported as a result of Palestinian rocket fire. In one incident on Weekly 9 January, a three-year-old Palestinian girl from average Khan Younis was injured when the windows of her home shattered as a result of an Israeli tank shell, shot in response to Palestinian shooting. Two members of an armed group were also injured. On Total in 2014 8 Total in 2013 83 PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS 3 WEEKLY 7-13 JANUARY 2014 the same day, Israeli forces clashed with Palestinian slopes and making it difficult to climb out of the armed groups during a “land leveling” operation lagoon. The water inside the lagoon was 1.5 meters inside Gaza east of Khuza’a, which ended without deep. The area around the lagoon is generally casualty. The previous day, another member of an unsafe because of storm-related damage.