In photos: Palestinians in West Bank and Israel protest Gaza slaughter

Mock coffins are readied in the West Bank city of Ramallah for a protest in solidarity with Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip on 22 July.

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Thirty-two-year-old Mahmoud Hamamra was shot in the chest and killed early today during a confrontation between Palestinians and Israeli forces in the village of Husan near the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, according to the Ma’an News Agency and Agence France Pressse.

Hamamra is the third Palestinian in the West Bank slain since the start of Israel’s bloodbath in the Gaza Strip, which has claimed at least 695 lives since 7 July. More than 4,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been injured as Israel’s relentless bombing, shelling and ground assault enters its sixteenth consecutive day.

Earlier this week, 21-year-old Mahmoud Shawamreh of al-Ram town near Jerusalem was reportedly shot dead by an Israeli motorist near Hizma checkpoint. An unnamed Palestinian security source told Ma’an News Agency that the youth had been throwing stones at the Israeli man’s car.

And on 14 July, “Israeli forces shot with live ammunition and killed” a 19-year-old Palestinian man near Hebron, the United Nations monitoring and documenting group OCHA reported.

“While Palestinian youth [were] throwing stones at Israeli-plated vehicles in this area during the day of the incident, according to Palestinian sources, no stone-throwing was ongoing at the time of the shooting,” OCHA added.

Injuries and arrests

Ma’an added today:

“There has been a growing wave of protest across the West Bank and in Palestinian towns in Israel, with police saying they had arrested 800 Palestinian citizens of Israelis and another 295 from East Jerusalem in the past three weeks in protests which began before the July 8 start of Israel’s Gaza campaign.”

Two youths were hospitalized after being injured by Israeli forces in the Ramallah-area village of Silwad early today, Ma’an reported. One of them was seriously injured, medical sources told Ma’an.

“Local sources said that Israeli soldiers blocked ambulances from accessing the young man during the clashes,” the news agency added.

According to the UN agency OCHA, of the 200 injuries inflicted on Palestinians by Israeli forces during West Bank protests between 8 and 14 July, the vast majority were caused by live ammunition and rubber-coated steel bullets.

Palestinian Authority repression

Meanwhile, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority is suppressing West Bank demonstrations held in solidarity with the Gaza Strip, according to the rights group Al-Haq.

Al-Haq reported last Thursday that clashes broke out in the northern West Bank city of Jenin on 10 July when Palestinian Authority forces attempted to prevent protesters from reaching al-Jalameh military checkpoint.

“Stones were thrown by the protestors at the PA officers while the latter retaliated by firing two bullets in the air as well as tear gas canisters at the protestors,” according to Al-Haq. “The clashes lasted for about one hour and resulted in the arrest of approximately nine protestors.”

The group added: “These protestors were brought before the Palestinian judicial system and were accused of disrupting public order as well as attacking Palestinian security officers.”

Al-Haq reported that PA forces also prevented protesters from reaching a checkpoint near Tulkarem on 11 July. Protesters in Ramallah were blocked from reaching Beit El checkpoint on both 10 and 11 July, the group added.

A relative of Mahmud al-Hamamra mourns over his body at a hospital in Hebron on 23 July after the 32-year-old was shot dead by Israeli soldiers during confrontations in the West Bank village of Husan, near Bethlehem.

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Palestinians carry the body of Mahmoud al-Shawamreh during his funeral in the West Bank town of al-Ram, near Jerusalem, on 22 July. The youth was reportedly shot dead by an Israeli at a checkpoint the day before.

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Palestinian fighters display their weapons during the funeral for Mahmoud al-Shawamreh in the West Bank town of al-Ram near Jerusalem on 22 July.

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Palestinians walk past closed shops in Jerusalem’s Old City on 21 July. Shops were shut in West Bank cites following Israel’s massacre in the eastern Gaza City neighborhood of Shujaiya the day before.

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Palestinians in Jaffa, a Palestinian city in present-day Israel, demonstrate against Israel’s assault on Gaza on 21 July.

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Palestinian citizens of Israel march during a protest against Israel’s assault on Gaza in the northern city of Nazareth on 21 July. Police used tear gas and a water canon to disperse the protest and arrested at least ten youth.

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Palestinian citizens of Israel march during a protest against Israel’s assault on Gaza in the northern city of Nazareth on 21 July. Police used tear gas and a water canon to disperse the protest and arrested at least ten youths.

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Palestinian journalists protest the killing of Palestinian cameraman Khaled Hamad outside the offices of the Red Cross in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shiekh Jarrah on 21 July. Cameraman Khaled Hamad was killed in Gaza during Israel’s massacre in the eastern Gaza City neighborhood of Shujaiya on 20 July.

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Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron celebrate after hearing reports of a kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip on 20 July.

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Palestinians living in Israel and Israeli left-wing activists protest Israel’s assault on Gaza in downtown Haifa on 18 July.

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Israeli police push Jamal Zahalka, a Palestinian member of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, as Palestinians living in Israel and Israeli left-wing activists protest Israel’s attacks on Gaza in downtown Haifa on 18 July.

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Israeli police arrest a demonstrator as Palestinians living in Israel and Israeli left-wing activists protest Israel’s assault on Gaza in downtown Haifa on 18 July. Israeli police arrested 28 activists as protesters took the streets and blocked roads calling for an end to the attacks.

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Palestinian protesters protest in solidarity with Gaza in the West Bank city of Ramallah on 17 July.

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Palestinian Authority forces prevent protesters in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah reach Beit El military checkpoint during a demonstration against Israel’s bombing of the Gaza Strip on 17 July.

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A masked Palestinian man cuts an electricity pole on 14 July as he tries to sabotage power lines to the Jewish settlement of Dolev near the West Bank city of Ramallah in protest of the Israeli military assault on Gaza, which has badly damaged the Strip’s electricity infrastructure. The vast majority of Gaza’s households have only four hours of electricity or less per day, according to the United Nations group OCHA.

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Palestinians hold pictures of Israeli airstrike victims during a demonstration in solidarity with the Gaza Strip at Huwwara military checkpoint near the northern West Bank city of Nablus on 14 July.

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Hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus participate in a candlelight vigil in solidarity with Palestinians the Gaza Strip on 14 July.

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Israeli soldiers invade Bethlehem during clashes with Palestinian youth who were protesting in solidarity with Gaza on 12 July.

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Fires burn during confrontations between Palestinian protesters and Israeli occupation forces at Qalandiya military checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah on 12 July.

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