Palestine in Pictures: September 2018

Palestinians march against Israel’s siege on Gaza during a demonstration near Erez checkpoint, northern Gaza Strip, 4 September.

Mohammed Zaanoun ActiveStills

Twenty-three Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces and armed civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip during the month of September.

All but three of those fatalities occurred in Gaza, where Israeli forces shot and killed seven Palestinians during mass protests on 28 September alone.

Two boys aged 11 and 14 were killed during that last Friday of September.

Children killed

Four additional children were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza during the month.

One of those children, Naji Jamil Abu Assi, 16, was killed in an airstrike along with Alaa Ziyad Abu Assi on 17 September. Israel claimed that the pair were among a group attempting to cross the boundary fence. The human rights group Al Mezan said that Israeli forces fired on a group of protesters and that the youths were found dead the next day.

A fifth child, Suhaib Abu Kashif, 16, died on 15 September from his injuries after being shot in the neck during protests the month before. “The bullet severed his spinal cord paralyzing him so he could not breathe on his own,” Defense for Children International Palestine stated.

Twelve patients have been paralyzed due to spinal cord injuries sustained during the Great March of Return protests and two of them have died, a UN spokesperson stated at the end of September.

More than 10,000 Palestinians have been injured and required hospitalization during the protests, around half of them wounded by live fire. There have been 77 cases of injuries requiring amputation, among them 14 children and one woman, according to the UN spokesperson.

More than 150 Palestinians have been killed during the six months of mass protests along Gaza’s eastern and northern perimeters. The slain include more than 30 children, three persons with disabilities, three paramedics and two journalists.

West Bank violence

In the West Bank, Muhammad al-Rimawi, 24, died after he was detained during a raid on his home by Israeli forces. An autopsy suggested that he died as a result of severe beating during his arrest, as alleged by his family, but this was rejected by Israel.

Wael Abd al-Fattah al-Jaabari, 36, was shot and killed during what Israel claimed was an attempted stabbing attack near the Kiryat Arba settlement on 3 September. No Israelis were injured.

Another Palestinian man, Muhammad Yusif Alayan, was killed during an alleged stabbing in East Jerusalem on 18 September. No Israelis were injured during that incident.

Israel is withholding the body of both men killed during the alleged stabbing attempts along with the bodies of 15 others killed in previous alleged attacks.

Seven Israelis and seven Palestinian assailants and alleged assailants have been killed in the context of alleged attacks since the beginning of the year.

An Israeli man of American origin died after he was stabbed by a 16-year-old Palestinian at a shopping center in a Hebron-area settlement on 16 September. The Palestinian assailant was shot multiple times during the incident but survived and was arrested by Israel.

Nine Israelis have been killed by Palestinians so far this year; around 235 Palestinians were killed by Israeli occupation forces and armed civilians during the same period.

Humanitarian funding crisis

UNRWA, the UN agency which provides services to 5.4 million Palestine refugees, announced at the end of September that it had raised $122 million to overcome a budget shortfall of $186 million.

The agency was plunged into unprecedented crisis after the US, formerly its largest donor, announced that it would cut $300 million in aid. A funding gap of $64 million remains.

During the month of September the Trump administration in Washington slashed more than $25 million in approved aid for six hospitals in East Jerusalem providing care to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

The cuts are in addition to the $200 million more in bilateral aid to the West Bank and Gaza frozen by the US in August.

Gaza’s two million residents endured power outages of up to 20 hours per day amid a longstanding electricity crisis resulting from more than a decade of Israeli siege, subsequent military assaults, and a bitter impasse between the Hamas authorities in the Strip and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

“Gaza’s water and sanitation facilities have a near zero stock of emergency fuel, while public hospitals currently have only enough fuel to maintain essential services for a few more weeks, on average, with some facilities facing even greater risks,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated in mid-September.

War crime imminent

On 23 September the Israeli occupation authorities gave official warning to the residents of Khan al-Ahmar village in the West Bank that they must demolish their own homes by 1 October or else state forces would do so.

Amnesty International stated that the forced demolition of the West Bank village would be a “war crime.”

Meanwhile settler violence in the West Bank “has been on the rise since the beginning of 2018,” according to UN OCHA, “with a weekly average of five attacks resulting in injuries or property damage, compared with an average of three in 2017 and two in 2016.”

The Action Group for Palestinians of Syria meanwhile stated that 18 Palestinians died in September in the context of the ongoing war in the country. The majority were fighters in pro-government groups killed in battle against Islamic State in the southern province of Sweida.

Israeli soldiers gather at the scene where a Palestinian was shot dead during an alleged stabbing attempt near a checkpoint at the Kiryat Arba settlement in the West Bank city of Hebron, 3 September.

Wisam Hashlamoun APA images

Palestinians receive food aid at an UNRWA distribution center in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on 4 September. The US said it had halted all funding to the UN agency for Palestine refugees with State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert calling it an “irredeemably flawed operation.”

Ashraf Amra APA images

A bride and groom link arms as 80 couples take part in a mass wedding in the West Bank city of Nablus on 6 September.

Shadi Jarar’ah APA images

Palestinians set fire to an effigy of US President Donald Trump during Great March of Return protests along Gaza’s eastern perimeter, 7 September.

Mohammed Zaanoun ActiveStills

Palestinian women stand in front of the Gaza-Israel boundary fence during the 24th consecutive Friday of the Great March of Return protests on 7 September. Two teenage boys, both under the age of 18, were fatally wounded during the protests. Video shows that one of the teens, Ahmad Misbah Abu Tuyour, was shot while his hands were up in the air.

Mohammed Zaanoun ActiveStills

Palestinians protest against Israel’s closure of a road for nearly 20 years in the West Bank village of Khirbat Qalqas, south of Hebron, on 7 September.

Wisam Hashlamoun APA images

Recent university graduates hold placards during a protest to demand their rights outside the Ministry of Labor headquarters in Gaza City on 9 September. A World Bank report published in September stated that in Gaza, “every second person living in poverty and the unemployment rate for its overwhelmingly young population at over 70 percent.”

Ashraf Amra APA images

Palestinians attend a grape harvest festival in Halhoul village, near the West Bank city of Hebron, on 10 September. Hebron is renowned for its grape production.

Shadi Hatem APA images

Palestinian women practice karate at a Gaza City club on 11 September.

Ashraf Amra APA images

Palestinian boats sail towards the maritime boundary between Gaza and Israel in protest against the decade-long Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip, 11 September. 

ActiveStills

Israeli forces raid the village of Khan al Ahmar in the early hours of the morning, and demolish several structures that were built by Palestinian activists, in protest of the imminent risk of demolition over the entire village, Khan al Ahmar, Jerusalem Periphery, September 13, 2018.

Oren Ziv ActiveStills

Israeli occupation forces detain a Palestinian protester during a demonstration against the blocking of the road leading to the West Bank village of Khan al-Ahmar, 14 September.

Wisam Hashlamoun APA images

A nurse checks on a baby in an incubator at the neonatal intensive care unit of Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital as the health ministry and UN officials warned that essential services in Gaza may soon shut down amid an acute phase of a chronic electricity and fuel crisis, 16 September.

Mahmoud Ajour APA images

Palestinian children walk through a tunnel under Highway 1 on their way to school in the village of Khan al-Ahmar on 17 September. The entire Bedouin village, located in the periphery of Jerusalem, is under imminent threat of demolition.

Oren Ziv ActiveStills

Employees of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, protest in Gaza City against job cuts amid the agency’s unprecedented financial crisis, 19 September.

Dawoud Abo Alkas APA images

Palestinian student Ola Marshoud is greeted by family and friends at al-Jalameh military checkpoint, south of the West Bank city of Jenin, following her release after seven months of Israeli imprisonment, 20 September.

Shadi Jarar’ah APA images

Israeli and international activists protest on the northern side of the Gaza boundary fence in solidarity with Palestinians during the weekly Great March of Return demonstrations, 21 September.

Oren Ziv ActiveStills

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas meets Ehud Olmert in Paris on 21 September. Olmert was prime minister of Israel during the military operation dubbed Operation Cast Lead, in which some 1,400 Palestinians were killed during three weeks of intensive bombing on Gaza.

Thaer Ganaim APA images

A farmer harvests dates in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, on 23 September.

Ashraf Amra APA images

A wounded protester is evacuated during mass protests along the Gaza-Israel maritime boundary, north of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, on 24 September.

Ashraf Amra APA images

Palestinians look on as Israeli occupation forces stand guard as religious Jews, not seen in the photo, visit the tomb of Biblical figure Othniel ben Kenaz in the West Bank city of Hebron on 25 September.

Wisam Hashlamoun APA images

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas delivers a speech at the United Nations in New York City during the world body’s General Assembly on 27 September.

Thaer Ganaim APA images

A Palestinian woman in the West Bank city of Hebron carries a poster of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas during a rally on the occasion of his speech at the UN General Assembly, 27 September.

Wisam Hashlamoun APA images

Palestinians in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, protest against Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas following his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, 27 September.

Ashraf Amra APA images

The head of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, in tan shirt at center, participates in mass protests in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on 29 September. Earlier in the month Sinwar said that his faction and other resistance groups in the territory would break the siege by any means necessary and within the coming weeks.

Ashraf Amra APA images

A Palestinian protester hurls stones towards Israeli occupation forces during confrontations following a weekly demonstration against Israeli land expropriation in the village of Kfar Qaddum, near the West Bank city of Nablus, on 28 September.

Shadi Jarar’ah APA images

The family of Muhammad Ali Muhammad Inshasi, 18, who was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers in mass protests the previous day, mourn over his body during his funeral in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 29 September.

Ashraf Amra APA images

Mourners carry the bodies of Muhammad Ashraf al-Awawdeh, 25, and Muhammad Nayif Yusif al-Hawm, 14, both shot and killed by Israeli forces in mass protests the previous day, during their funeral in Bureij refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, 29 September.

Mahmoud Khattab APA images

 

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