Palestine in Pictures: June 2022

Ibtihaj Doula, 88, sits with her granddaughter at Gaza City’s Beach refugee camp on 5 June, the day that Palestinians mark Naksa Day to mourn the anniversary of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967.

Omar Ashtawy APA images

Israeli forces and settlers killed 13 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank during June.

On the first day of the month, soldiers shot and killed Ghufran Warasneh, 31, at the entrance to al-Arroub refugee camp in the southern occupied West Bank.

The Israeli military claimed that the woman tried to stab a soldier but Palestinian eyewitnesses denied there was any attack “and video footage showed no weapon in her possession,” the UN monitoring group OCHA stated.

Warasneh was reportedly on the way to her first day of work as a news presenter at a local radio station when she was killed.

Israeli forces fatally injured four Palestinians the following day, 2 June.

Bilal Kabha, 24, was shot and killed during a home demolition raid in Yabad village in the northern West Bank. Kabha was reportedly engaged in a firefight with occupation forces when he was shot, Israeli media reported.

Soldiers invaded the village to demolish the home of Dia Hamarsheh, who killed four people in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Brak in March. Hamarsheh was killed in a shootout with police shortly thereafter, during which an officer was fatally injured.

The punitive demolition, the sixth so far this year, displaced three families, according to OCHA.

A second man, 37-year-old Samih Amarneh, died on 11 June from injuries sustained during the home demolition operation.

Also on 2 June, Israeli forces shot 16-year-old Odeh Muhammad Odeh Sadaqa while he was walking with friends in al-Midya village near the central West Bank city of Ramallah.

The teen was “struck in the back with a single bullet that struck his heart and exited through his chest,” Defense for Children International-Palestine stated.

Soldiers fired on Palestinians who attempted to come to the boy’s aid. An Israeli military spokesperson claimed that Sadaqa and two others threw Molotov cocktails at occupation forces near Israel’s wall in the West Bank.

That same day, Israeli forces shot and killed Ayman Ahmad Muhaisen, 29, while he was standing in front of his home during an arrest raid on Dheisheh refugee camp in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

While the troops were withdrawing, Israeli soldiers fired on Muhaisen without warning, hitting him in the chest. The slain man was a bystander who wasn’t participating in the confrontations, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.

Another Palestinian, 27-year-old Mahmoud Fayiz Abu Ayhour, was shot and killed by soldiers during a raid in Halhul, a town near the southern West Bank city of Hebron, on 9 June.

Abu Ayhour was fatally injured while Palestinians confronted soldiers raiding a currency exchange office, where Israeli forces confiscated around $300,000.

Jenin executions

On 17 June, Israeli forces extrajudicially executed three Palestinians in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

The three men – Yusif Naser Salah, 23, Laith Salah Abu Srour, 24, and Baraa Kamal Lahlouh, 24, were killed when Israeli forces surrounded their vehicle and directly targeted them.

Eight Palestinians were injured, one of them critically, during protests that erupted after the extrajudicial killings.

An Israeli military spokesperson claimed that the three slain men had opened fire at troops from the Golani Brigade while the latter were “searching for weapons in the city,” the Tel Aviv daily Haaretz reported.

The military claimed it found weapons in the car in which the three were killed.

The Jenin incident echoes the killing of three Palestinians when Israeli forces intercepted the car in which they were traveling in Nablus in February and reportedly fired some 80 bullets at the targeted vehicle.

According to OCHA, “Since the beginning of the year, Israeli forces have shot and killed 26 Palestinians, including six children, during search-and-arrest operations across the West Bank; 11 of the fatalities were in Jenin refugee camp.”

Two days later, on 19 June, Nabil Ahmad Salim Ghanim, a 53-year-old father of four, was shot and killed while attempting to cross Israel’s wall in the West Bank town of Qalqilya.

Witnesses said he was likely attempting to enter Israel in search of work. Israel held his body for four days before allowing the man’s family to bury him.

On 21 June, Ali Hasan Harb, 27, was stabbed and killed by a settler while trying to defend his land from colonization in Iskaka village in the central West Bank.

Settlers had arrived on village land to establish an outpost near Ariel, a major Jewish-only colony.

Palestinians claimed that Israeli police were at the scene but the suspected perpetrator wasn’t arrested until the following day. Israeli soldiers prevented Palestinians from reaching Harb to render aid, the slain man’s cousin told media.

Children killed

Israeli soldiers shot and killed a second child during the month on 24 June.

Muhammad Abdullah Salah Suleiman, 16, was shot and left to bleed by occupation forces deployed near Route 60, south of the central West Bank village of Silwad.

“It is unclear exactly where on his body Muhammad sustained gunshot wounds because Israeli authorities have not yet released his body to Palestinian authorities or to Muhammad’s family,” Defense for Children International-Palestine stated the following day.

Sixteen Palestinian children have been shot and killed by Israeli forces in 2022, according to the rights group.

On 29 June, Muhammad Maher Marei, an Islamic Jihad fighter, was killed while confronting Israeli soldiers during a raid on Jenin.

Wissam Baker, the head of the Khalil Suleiman Governmental Hospital in Jenin, told media that “this is what we’ve been getting used to in the recent raids on Jenin governorate – no raid takes place without lethal injuries. Even those that are wounded come with critical injuries.”

More than 70 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers, police and settlers during the course of Israeli military and police operations since the beginning of the year.

Additionally, on 1 June, Yasir al-Masri, a 41-year-old Islamic Jihad commander, died of wounds sustained during an Israeli airstrike on Gaza in May 2021.

Twenty people in Israel and Israelis in the West Bank have been killed in the context of the occupation since the beginning of the year.

15 years of Gaza blockade

Meanwhile, June marked 15 years of comprehensive Israeli closures on the Gaza Strip.

More than half of Gaza’s population of over two million live in poverty and 80 percent depend on humanitarian assistance as a result of the blockade and occupation, according to the UN.

In the intervening decade and a half, Israel has killed more than 4,000 Palestinians, including 1,000 children, in four major military offensives in Gaza. An additional 1,400 Palestinians in Gaza were killed in other Israeli attacks during the same period.

More than 12,600 homes were destroyed and nearly 42,000 damaged in Gaza.

Impunity reigns in the absence of meaningful pressure on Israel to end the blockade and other abuses against Palestinians.

A new UN commission of inquiry examining Israel’s system of repression against Palestinians as a whole released its first report in June.

The commission stated that dismantling the Israeli occupation imposed on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza since 1967 “remains essential in ending the persistent cycle of violence.”

Instead of dismantling the occupation, Israel’s parliament voted late June in favor of dissolving the government in order to preserve its apartheid system in the West Bank.

Palestinians live under military dictatorship in the West Bank while Israeli civil law is extended to Jewish settlers living in the same territory.

Palestinians gather at the destroyed home belonging to the family of Diaa Hamarsheh after it was demolished by Israeli troops in the town of Yabad, north of the West Bank city of Jenin, on 2 June. Israel destroyed the home in revenge for the killing of four people in a Tel Aviv suburb earlier this year. Hamarsheh was killed in a shootout with police, during which a police officer was fatally injured.

Ahmed Ibrahim APA images

Palestinians mourn over the body of Ayman Ahmad Muhaisen during his funeral in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on 2 June. Muhaisen was shot and killed in front of his home during confrontations that erupted after Israeli forces raided Dheisheh refugee camp, south of the West Bank city of Bethlehem

Ahmad Tayem APA images

Palestinians mourn over the body of Islamic Jihad commander Yasir al-Masri, who died from injuries sustained during an Israeli airstrike on Gaza in May 2021, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, 2 June.

Ashraf Amra APA images

Palestinians attend the opening of Shireen Abu Akleh Square in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on 6 June. The square is named for the veteran Al Jazeera journalist who was shot dead by Israeli troops as she covered a raid in Jenin in May.

Ashraf Amra APA images

Israeli soldiers argue with Palestinian demonstrators during a protest at Tayasir checkpoint near Tubas against settlements in the Jordan Valley, 6 June.

Shadi Jarar’ah APA images

An Israeli bulldozer razes a Palestinian building under construction in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on 9 June. Wissam Zarina, son of the owner of the house, told WAFA news agency that a large force of the Israeli army stormed the Bir Aouneh area of Beit Jala and demolished their one-story house on the pretext that it was being built without a permit.

Ahmad Tayem APA images

A vendor sells grilled corn on the Gaza City coast on 9 June.

Atia Darwish APA images

Palestinians confront Israeli forces after an attempt by Israeli settlers to remove Palestinian flag in Izbet al-Tabib village east of the central West Bank city of Qalqilya, on 9 June. The boy’s sign reads “Don’t want to see the Palestinian flag? Then get out of Palestine!” in Hebrew.

Shadi Jarar’ah APA images

Palestinian artist Bilal Khaled paints calligraphy reading “in the name of the camp, I did not die, ask Jenin” in Burj al-Barajneh, a Palestinian refugee camp in the Lebanese capital Beirut on 10 June.

Nidal Al-Wahidi APA images

A Jewish setter attacks a car carrying Israeli activists who oppose the occupation during a protest in Masafer Yatta in the southern West Bank following an Israeli high court ruling paving the way for the forced transfer of eight Palestinian communities in the area, 10 June.

Oren Ziv ActiveStills

Israeli army commander Yehuda Rozilio escorts armed Jewish settlers during a demonstration held by Palestinians in Masafer Yatta in the southern West Bank following an Israeli high court ruling paving the way for the forced transfer of eight Palestinian communities in the area, 10 June.

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Palestinians scuffle with Israeli forces during a protest against settlements in the West Bank city of Hebron on 11 June.

Mamoun Wazwaz APA images

Palestinian Authority prime minister Mohammed Ishtayeh receives Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, in the West Bank city of Ramallah on 14 June. During her trip to the region, von der Leyen signed a trilateral agreement on energy cooperation between the EU, Egypt and Israel.

Prime Minister’s office

Palestinians examine livestock at a market ahead of Eid al-Adha in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on 15 June.

Ashraf Amra APA images

Khalil El Halabi, the father of persecuted aid worker Mohammed El Halabi, speaks during a protest in front of the Gaza City offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross, on 15 June. An Israeli court issued a guilty verdict against the younger El Halabi after a six-year trial over manufactured “terror” financing charges rejected by the international Christian charity World Vision, where El Halabi worked before his arrest.

Youssef Abu Watfa APA images

Teenagers in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, demonstrate a smart rescue robot that they invented to help locate people trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings, 16 June. The miniature car-shaped device, equipped with Wi-Fi remote control function, was developed by Rama Ibrahim, her brother Ahmed and their classmate Yousef Aqil, all of whom are secondary school students, following months of research and experiment.

Ashraf Amra APA images

Mourners attend the funeral of three Palestinians killed during an extrajudicial execution operation in the northern West Bank city of Jenin on 17 June.

Ahmed Ibrahim APA images

Medics treat one of two protesters injured after they were run over intentionally by an Israeli scooter driver during a protest marking 55 years of occupation, in Tel Aviv on 19 June.

Oren Ziv ActiveStills

Palestinian fighters launch rockets towards the Mediterranean sea during a drill in Gaza City, 20 June.

Ashraf Amra APA images

Palestinian pilgrims bid farewell to their loved ones before boarding a bus at the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on 21 June on their way to Saudi Arabia for the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

Ashraf Amra APA images

Palestinian residents of the village of Al Majaz watch an Israeli military training exercise in the Masafer Yatta area in the southern West Bank, which Israel defines as a military firing zone, 21 June.

Oren Ziv ActiveStills

Palestinians mourn during the funeral for Ali Hasan Harb in the West Bank village of Iskaka on 22 June. Harb was fatally stabbed by a Jewish settler the previous day while defending his land from colonization near Ariel settlement.

Oren Ziv ActiveStills

Israeli soldiers confront Palestinian activists during a protest in Masafer Yatta, south of the West Bank city of Hebron, on 22 June.

Mamoun Wazwaz APA images

Palestinians mourn Nabil Ghanem, a Palestinian father who was killed while trying to cross Israel’s wall in the West Bank days earlier, during his funeral in Nablus on 23 June.

Shadi Jarar’ah APA images

Workers place a concrete slab during the erection of a new barrier parallel to the Israel’s West Bank wall near the village of Salem on 23 June. The concrete wall will be nearly 30 miles in length in order to block holes in the barrier that Palestinians from the West Bank use to enter Israel.

Oren Ziv ActiveStills

Israeli occupation forces protect Jewish settlers who invaded a water spring on Palestinian land in the West Bank village of Qaryut on 24 June.

Oren Ziv ActiveStills

Palestinian artist Salsabil Hasouna, 23, makes decorative objects from precious metals at her Gaza City home on 26 June. Hasouna studied nursing to help herself and her family. After 15 decades of siege, unemployment rates in Gaza are among the highest in the world, with youth unemployment between the ages of 15-29 standing at 62.5 percent.

Omar Ashtawy APA images

Mohammed Ishtayeh, Palestinian Authority prime minister, visits the village of Masafer Yatta, south of the West Bank city of Hebron, 26 June. Israel’s high court recently approved the forced transfer of roughly 1,000 Palestinian villagers to make way for a military training zone.

Shadi Hatem APA images

Palestinians in Gaza protest in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails on 28 June. Israel is currently holding some 640 Palestinians without charge or trial under indefinitely renewable administrative detention orders, according to the human rights group Addameer.

Omar Ashtawy APA images

The children of Palestinian political prisoners deliver the longest letter to an international organization in front of the Gaza City office of the International Committee of the Red Cross on 28 June.

Youssef Abu Watfa APA images

Mourners carry the body of Muhammad Maher Marei, an Islamic Jihad fighter who was killed during an Israeli raid, during his funeral in the West Bank city of Jenin on 29 June.

Ahmed Ibrahim APA images

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