Palestine in Pictures: September 2021

The sons of Raed Jadallah bid farewell to their father during his funeral in the West Bank City of Ramallah on 1 September. Israeli soldiers lying in ambush reportedly shot at Jadallah, who was returning home from work, the previous night after he lit a cigarette. The troops failed to check whether they hit anyone, and so the father of four was left to bleed to death in a ditch before he was found by one of his sons around 90 minutes later.

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Israeli occupation forces killed 11 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza during September.

Around 325 Palestinians have been killed in the context of the occupation so far this year, 260 of them during Israel’s 11-day attack on Gaza in May.

Ahmad Mustafa Saleh, 27, was shot in the stomach and killed​​ during protests against Israel’s blockade held near Gaza’s boundary with Israel on 2 September. Fourteen others were injured, including three children, one of them seriously.

Al Mezan, a human rights group in Gaza, condemned “Israel’s use of excessive and disproportionate force against protesters.”

Another Gaza man, Muhammad Ammar, 41, was shot and killed near the boundary east of Bureij refugee camp on 30 September. The military claimed the man was digging in the ground while “carrying a suspicious bag.” Palestinian outlets said that Ammar was killed while trapping birds.

In the West Bank, Hazem al-Joulani, 50, was shot and killed in Jerusalem’s Old City on 10 September.

Video shows al-Joulani being shot at close range after approaching police while holding a knife behind his back.

A statement by Israeli police admitted that al-Joulani, the director of a school of alternative medicine, was shot as a matter of first resort “before he could carry out” his alleged intention to injure occupation forces.

One Israeli officer was lightly injured in the leg from a ricocheted bullet fired by police.

Woman killed

A Palestinian woman was also shot and killed in Jerusalem’s Old City on 30 September when she reportedly pulled out a knife after being stopped by Israeli police.

The slain woman was identified as Isra Khaled Khazimiya, 30, from the village of Qabatiya in the northern West Bank.

No Israelis were injured, as in so many incidents during which an alleged Palestinian assailant is killed.

Israeli forces shot and killed several Palestinians elsewhere in the West Bank during September.

Muhammad Ali Khabisa, 28, died after being shot in the head in Beita during protests in the Nablus-area village on 24 September.

Seven residents have been killed by occupation forces since May when a new Israeli settlement outpost was built on land belonging to Beita and other nearby Palestinian villages. Hundreds more have been injured, nearly 300 people between 7-20 September alone.

Israeli forces killed Osama Subuh, 28, during a firefight that erupted during an arrest raid in Burqin village near Jenin, in the northern West Bank, on 26 September. An Israeli soldier and an officer were injured by friendly fire during the raid, according to the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz.

Soldiers killed 15-year-old Yousef Muhammad Odeh in Burqin that same night. Odeh picked up a gun that was dropped by a Palestinian fighter injured during a shootout with Israeli soldiers, according to Defense for Children International Palestine.

Soldiers struck Odeh in the leg and head and ran over his body with a military vehicle, the rights group said.

In Beit Anan, in the West Bank’s Jerusalem governate, Israeli Border police killed Ahmad Zahran, Zakaria Badwan and Mahmoud Humeidan during another firefight on 26 September.

Another Palestinian, Alaa Nasser Zayud, 22, was killed after allegedly shooting at soldiers during an arrest raid in Burqin village on 30 September.

Prison escape

The deadly raids in the northern West Bank followed the escape of six Palestinians from a maximum-security prison in Israel earlier in the month in an “unthinkable” act of daring.

The men, all from Jenin, were at large for several days following their escape from Gilboa prison on 6 September before eventually being recaptured.

During their manhunt, Israeli forces meted out collective punishment in the Jenin area by conducting mass arrests, including the escaped prisoners’ family members, and imposing more severe movement restrictions.

Israeli authorities also retaliated against Palestinian prisoners, imposing a lockdown on all detention centers and preventing all access to prisoners, including visits from family members and lawyers, among other measures.

More than 350 Palestinian prisoners were forcibly transferred from Gilboa to other detention centers, according to human rights groups, and conducted violent raids in multiple prisons, particularly the notorious Naqab desert prison.

Israel is currently holding some 4,650 Palestinian political prisoners, according to Addameer, a human rights group.

Palestinian officials accused Israeli authorities of “medical negligence” in the death of Hussein Masalmah, 39, seven months after being released from prison due to a leukemia-related illness.

Masalmah complained of severe stomach pain for two months before prison officials transferred him to a hospital where he was diagnosed with advanced-stage cancer.

The former prisoner, who had nearly finished a 20-year sentence given in 2002, was released in February and died in a Ramallah hospital on 23 September.

Israeli occupation forces arbitrarily arrested Jamal Zaid, 63, at his home near al-Amari refugee camp in Ramallah on 15 September despite his kidney failure requiring dialysis. Zaid was held without charge or trial for a year beginning in May 2019.

Zaid needs “urgent medical care to prevent his health from deteriorating in light of his struggles with diabetes and complications with his kidneys and glands,” Addameer stated.

Palestinians gassed

Meanwhile, three Palestinian men died in a smuggling tunnel along the Gaza-Egypt border on 2 September. Hamas authorities in Gaza “accused Egypt of pumping poisonous gas into the tunnel,” the AP news agency reported.

Dozens of students and teachers were teargassed by Israeli soldiers in six schools during the month, according to the UN monitoring group OCHA. In one such incident, Israeli forces fired tear gas into the yards of a school in Anata, a Jerusalem-area town, injuring two girls and a teacher and forcing the suspension of class for the rest of the day.

On 28 September, which marked the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, dozens of masked settlers under the guard of Israeli soldiers carried out a “pogrom” against Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills, according to B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group.

The attacking settlers “invaded Palestinian homes, smashed windows, and caused massive damage to equipment, including many vehicles,” B’Tselem added. They also attacked a 3-year-old Palestinian boy who was reportedly hospitalized with a fractured skull.

The raid on the Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills has been “described as the worst incident in years,” according to Breaking the Silence, a group of former Israeli soldiers who expose the violence of the occupation.

Meanwhile, nearly 400 people died​​ from COVID-19 in the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem) and Gaza during September as the occupied territories experienced another wave of infections.

The number of confirmed cases decreased during the month and around a quarter of the Palestinian population of those territories is now fully vaccinated.

Palestinian fishers display their catch at a Gaza City market after Israel expanded the permitted fishing zone to 15 nautical miles off of Gaza’s coast, 2 September.

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Anhar al-Deek sits with her husband at their home in the West Bank city of Ramallah on 3 September. An Israeli military court ordered the transfer of al-Deek to house arrest, sparing her from delivering a baby while shackled and imprisoned.

Hamza Shalash WAFA

Palestinians in Nablus, a city in the northern West Bank, hold a vigil in solidarity with ill Palestinians held by Israel on 4 September. Israeli prison authorities have “adopted a policy of deliberate medical neglect against prisoners and detainees” according to the human rights group Addameer.

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Palestinians prepare incendiary balloons to be released into Israel near Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip, on 4 September.

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Palestinians work on a fishing boat in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on 5 September. The fishing boat, measuring 21 meters long and 6 meters wide, is the largest in besieged Gaza and is being made with simple tools and equipment.

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Israeli soldiers detain Palestinians who work in Israel before allowing them to cross through a hole in the fence along the West Bank city of Jenin on 6 September after six Palestinians escaped from a maximum-security Israeli prison.

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Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron rally in support of political prisoners following the escape of six Palestinians from a maximum-security Israeli prison, 8 September.

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Palestinian demonstrators burn tires during confrontations with Israeli forces following a rally in support of political prisoners at the Huwara checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus, 8 September.

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Palestinians at Baqa’a refugee camp, north of Amman, Jordan, rally in solidarity with Palestinians held in Israeli prisons on 10 September.

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Palestinians in Haifa stand in solidarity with Palestinians held by Israel on 10 September.

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Palestinians in Jerusalem rally in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners held by Israel on 10 September. Palestinian political prisoners faced a wave of reprisals by Israeli authorities following the escape of six prisoners from Gilboa prison on 6 September.

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The mother of Muhammad Arda, who was rearrested following his escape from Gilboa prison, sits in their family home in the West Bank city of Jenin on 11 September.

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Palestinians rally in Gaza City on the 28th anniversary of the Oslo accords signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel, 13 September.

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A fireball rises after an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on 13 September.

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Palestinians in Gaza City protest against the US conditioning the provision of services by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, 14 September. A framework of cooperation states that “The US will not make any contributions to UNRWA except on the condition that UNRWA takes all feasible measures to ensure that no part of the US contribution is used to assist any refugee receiving military training.”

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Yahya Zubeidi, brother of escaped Palestinian prisoner Zakaria Zubeidi, sits by a poster depicting his brother at their home in the West Bank city of Jenin on 15 September after the latter’s rearrest by Israeli authorities.

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Ahmad Qawasmeh, a Palestinian child who has cancer, at his family’s home in the West Bank city of Hebron on 16 September after his father was arrested by Israeli forces. An image showing Hijazi Qawasmeh bidding farewell to his ill son as heavily-armed Israeli soldiers raided his home went viral on social media.

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A Palestinian farmer harvests dates from a palm tree in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, 19 September.

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Four Palestinian prisoners who escaped and were recaptured — Zakaria Zubeidi, Mahmoud Arda, Yacoub Qaderi and Muhammad al-Arda — are seen in a Nazareth court hearing held via video conference on 19 September.

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Palestinians protest in front of the Gaza City offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross in solidarity with six prisoners who were rearrested following their escape from Gilboa prison, 20 September.

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A Palestinian patient infected COVID-19 receives medical care at European Gaza Hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on 20 September.

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A Palestinian who now resides in the US brings his campaign to exercise Palestinian refugees’ right to return to the weekly protest in Beita village in the northern West Bank on 24 September.

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Israeli occupation forces argue with Palestinians from the village of Susiya during confrontations with Jewish settlers as a group of the European Union representatives visit Area C — the more than 60 percent of the West Bank under full Israeli military control — on 24 September.

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Palestinian workers remove rubble from Gaza City’s al-Jawhara tower, which housed media offices and was destroyed in Israeli strikes during the recent 11-day conflict in May.

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Palestinian lawmaker Khalida Jarrar visits the grave of her daughter Suha at a cemetery in the West Bank city of Ramallah on 26 September. Newly released from prison, Jarrar was prevented from attending Suha’s funeral after her unexpected death two months earlier.

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Israeli police escort Jews visiting the al-Aqsa mosque on the seventh day of Sukkot, the Feast of the Tabernacles, in Jerusalem on 27 September.

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Palestinian workers prepare olives at an oil processing workshop in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on 28 September 28. The 2021 olive harvest season has been an exceptionally poor one in terms of yield.

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Palestinian students walk to school after Israeli soldiers prevented them from crossing the main road in the village of al-Lubban al-Sharqiyah near the West Bank city of Nablus on 29 September. Soldiers barred students from walking along the Nablus-Ramallah road, forcing them to go through rough terrain to reach their school.

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A family member mourns over the body of Alaa Zayud, killed during a firefight with raiding Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Jenin, at a hospital morgue on 30 September.

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