Month in Pictures: October 2012

The Electronic Intifada 5 November 2012

A Palestinian farmer from the village of Qaryut near the northern West Bank city of Nablus inspects the remains of his vandalized olive trees on 9 October. Jewish settlers from a nearby settlement colony are suspected of perpetrating the overnight attack.

Nedal Eshtayah APA images

Sixteen Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza during the month of October, bringing the number of Palestinians in Gaza killed by the Israeli military this year to 67 and the numbered of injured to 277.

The escalated violence was set off on 7 October when the Israeli Air Force fired at two Palestinians fighters who were riding a motorcycle in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, killing one and injuring the other, and wounding eight civilians, including a four-week old baby and three other children. Palestinian armed groups fired dozens of projectiles towards southern Israel in response; six Israeli citizens were injured as a result of rocket fire from Gaza last month and one Palestinian civilian in Gaza was killed by a rocket that fell short of its target in southern Israel.

Gaza remained under siege and naval blockade; the Israeli army fired at Palestinians attempting to fish off of Gaza’s coast. Four Palestinian laborers died in smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt, a vital source of basic goods in Gaza, bringing the year’s total tunnel-related deaths to 17 and injuries to 44. Two Palestinian children in Gaza died in incidents related to the fuel crisis as a result of the siege; a baby died from injuries during a fire caused by a candle lit during a power outage, and a seven-year-old child died after being electrocuted by a power generator.

Meanwhile in the West Bank, Israeli forces conducted dozens of search and arrest operations each week. Nearly two dozen were injured during clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces in around the Noble Sanctuary (al-Haram al-Sharif) in the Old City of Jerusalem at the beginning of the month after infiltration by right-wing Israelis. A dozen Palestinians were arrested during the protests.

Palestinians began the annual olive harvest but faced violence by Israeli settlers, who damaged or destroyed approximately 1,000 trees since the beginning of this year’s harvest. (Above statistics compiled from documentation by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs).

A Palestinian man mourns over the bodies of Hamas fighters Ismail al-Tili and Louai Abu Jarad at a hospital morgue in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, 24 October. The two men were killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza.

Ashraf Amra APA images

A wounded Palestinian boy in a hospital following an Israeli air strike in Rafah camp in the southern Gaza Strip, 7 October.

Eyad Al Baba APA images

Mahmoud Sarsak, Palestinian football player and former political prisoner, speaks during a press conference outside the Red Crescent headquarters in Gaza City, 1 October. Sarsak, who went on a long-term hunger strike in an Israeli prison, announced his turning down of an invitation to see Barcelona play Real Madrid after Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was also asked to attend.

Majdi Fathi APA images

Tariq Issawi of Issawiyeh village in East Jerusalem, with his daughter Shireen, holds a photo of his son Samer, who has been on a prolonged hunger strike in Israeli prison, 10 October. Samer Issawi was one of more than 1,000 Palestinians released in exchange for a captured Israeli soldier beginning in October 2011. He was re-arrested for violating the terms of his release which stated that he remain in Jerusalem. However, the checkpoint at which he was arrested was within Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries.

Ryan Rodrick Beiler ActiveStills

Palestinian children hold pictures of prisoners and candles during a protest outside of Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City, 12 October, calling for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails and in support of prisoners on hunger strike.

Mahfouz Abu Turk APA images

Protesters demanding the end of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ rule, the dissolution of the Oslo agreement, the end of security coordination with Israel and the end of political arrests march towards the Palestinian presidential compound in Ramallah, West Bank, 2 October.

Issam Rimawi APA images

Appointed Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad casts his vote for the municipal elections at a polling station in the West Bank village of of Deir al-Ghusun, north of Tulkarm, 20 October. Local elections were held in the West Bank only and Hamas, one of the two main Palestinian political parties, boycotted in protest. Critics warned that the election entrenched the division between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Mustafa Abu Dayeh APA images

Workers hang banner of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani in Gaza City, 22 October, on the eve of the Qatari head of state’s visit.

Ashraf Amra APA images

A Palestinian woman is released by an Israeli court after she was arrested for her participation in a rally in front of al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City that morning, 24 October.

Mahfouz Abu Turk APA images

A Palestinian family walks by graffiti reading: “Gas the Arabs! JDL” spray-painted on a wall near Shuhada Street in the West Bank city of Hebron, 22 October. “JDL” stands for Jewish Defense League, an extremist group founded by Meir Kahane and designated as a terrorist group by the FBI. On February 25, 1994, JDL charter member Baruch Goldstein opened fire on Muslims at Hebron’s al-Ibrahimi Mosque (Cave of the Patriarchs), killing 29 worshippers and injuring 125.

Ryan Rodrick Beiler ActiveStills

Palestinian protesters, together with international and Israeli activists, break into Rami Levi supermarket, located in the Shaar Binyamin settlement near Jerusalem, to protest against the Israeli occupation and call for a boycott of Israeli settlements, 24 October.

Yotam Ronen ActiveStills

Israeli settlers from the Tel Rumeida settlement in the West Bank city of Hebron watch from above while Israeli soldiers arrest Ahmad al-Atrash of B’Tselem for documenting on video the confrontations between settlers, a Palestinian family who had just harvested their olives and the military, 22 October. The arrest followed the first time the al-Azzeh family was able to harvest their olives since 2007. Despite coordinating with the Israeli authorities, their harvest was disrupted by settlers from the adjacent Tel Rumeida settlement.

Ryan Rodrick Beiler ActiveStills

Islamic Jihad militants stand guard during a ceremony in Gaza City on 4 October marking the 25th anniversary of the movement’s foundation and the 17th anniversary of the assassination of the group’s leader, Fathi Shaqaqi.

Majdi Fathi APA images

American scholar and activist Noam Chomsky during a press conference to support the Gaza-bound flotilla in the port of Gaza City, Saturday, 20 October. Israeli soldiers commandeered a vessel carrying solidarity activists destined for Gaza that day, cutting off communications and steering it from international waters toward the Israeli port of Ashdod. The ship was the latest in a series of vessels challenging Israel’s blockade on the territory.

Ashraf Amra APA images

Samira Kadi cries during a women’s protest against violence on 19 October as she holds photos of men murdered in Yaffa (Jaffa), among them her cousin, Hani Mahjna, who was murdered in August. Protesters demanded that the Israeli police to invest more resources in stopping the violence after a string of shootings in the city.

Oren Ziv ActiveStills

Eritrean refugees living in Israel take part in a protest outside the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv on 18 October, calling for the ousting of the regime in Eritrea and the release of all political prisoners. They also called on the Israeli government recognize them as refugees and to an end of Israel’s rounding up and imprisoning of asylum-seekers.

Yotam Ronen ActiveStills

Students and political leaders protest outside the Council for Higher Education in Jerusalem on 30 October in protest of attempts to close Ben Gurion University’s political science department after right wing groups accused its faculty of “left-wing terror” and “post-Zionist bias.”

Oren Ziv ActiveStills

The Haifa-based reggae group Ministry of Dub-Key performs at a concert organized as part of the Freedom Bus tour in the West Bank town of Beit Sahour, near Bethlehem, 1 October. The Freedom Bus, an initiative of the Jenin Freedom Theatre, traveled throughout the West Bank using cultural activism to bear witness, raise awareness and build alliances throughout Palestine and beyond.

Ryan Rodrick Beiler ActiveStills

Palestinian Muslim pilgrims arrive at the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Saudi Arabia as they prepare for <em>hajj</em> to Mecca, 12 October.

Momen Faiz APA images

Palestinians visit the graves of relatives at a cemetery in the West Bank city of Ramallah on 26 October, the first day of Eid al-Adha, as Muslims worldwide observe the Feast of the Sacrifice, marking the end of the <em>hajj</em> (pilgrimage to Mecca) and commemorating Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail on God’s command.

Issam Rimawi APA images

A member of the Samaritan community decorates a house with fresh fruit for the holy day of the Tabernacles or Sukkot in Mount Gerizim near the West Bank city of Nablus, 28 October 2012.

Nedal Eshtayah APA images

A Palestinian farmer dries Arabic tobacco leaves at a farm in the northern West Bank village Yaabed, near Jenin, 8 October. The village is famous for Arabic Tobacco cigarette manufacturing, producing a local cigarette cheaper than imported cigarettes.

Nedal Eshtayah APA images

Workers inspect biscuits at the al-Awda factory in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, 10 October. The World Food Programme will export the biscuits to United Nations-run schools in the occupied Palestinian West Bank.

Majdi Fathi APA images

A housing project to replace homes destroyed by Israel nearly a decade ago, funded by the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, 3 October.

Eyad Al Baba APA images

A Palestinian man displays Apple’s new iPhone 5 at a mobile phone store in Gaza City, 16 October. Apple’s new product is selling well in the Gaza Strip despite inflated prices, reaching the Palestinian enclave via smuggling tunnels even before Israel.

Majdi Fathi APA images

Young women model traditional Palestinian costume at a show in the West Bank city of Nablus, 9 October. Traditional Palestinian dress reflected a woman’s economic and marital status and her town or area of origin, with knowledgeable observers discerning this information from the fabric, colors, cut and embroidery motifs (or lack thereof) used in the garment.

Nedal Eshtayah APA images

Palestinian jockeys race during an annual championship in the village of Turmus Aya, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, 12 October.

Issam Rimawi APA images

Palestinian girls go on a boat ride off the coast of Gaza City during a school trip, 21 October.

Ashraf Amra APA images

The Electronic Intifada welcomes photographic contributions from readers. If you have high-quality images for consideration for the next edition of the Month in Photos, email info A T electronicintifada D O T net.

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