Only 20 men attended the funeral of Ma’azouz Youssef’s grandfather as the rest were not allowed to pass through Israel’s West Bank barrier to the village, Youssef said. Azzun Atma is one of the few Palestinian villages on the barrier’s eastern or Israeli side. “Only those with IDs from the village can get in. My sister could not come today because she married a man from the town of Saniri, which is on her ID as her place of residence. She cannot even visit the place where she was born,” said Youssef, 33. In Azzun Atma, Israeli soldiers lock the gates at 10pm, confining the residents until the gates are unlocked at 6am. Read more about Trapped between the lines 

Jayyous’s farmers are used to surveying their land from their commanding hilltop village in the northern West Bank. But for many, gazing is now all they can do. Israel’s West Bank barrier has separated the village of Jayyous from 9,500 of its 13,600 dunums (a dunum is 1,000 square metres) of land, and the Israeli authorities have denied them permits to access it. “In the beginning, they gave permits to pass through gates in the barrier to 90 per cent of the people here, including children,” said Mustafa Samha, 27, a psychologist whose father has been barred from his land. “But after six months they began reducing the number of people they gave permits to.” Read more about For farmers, much of their land remains out of reach 

The young Palestinian women in the Jerusalem classroom become animated when the conversation turns to love. A few wear make-up and knee-length skirts, others wear the hijab - but all have something to say about how the wall that Israel calls its ‘security fence’ has diminished their chances of marriage. “I won’t marry a boy with a West Bank ID because we could not be together. He could not move to Jerusalem because the Israelis would not let him and I will not go to the West Bank because life is worse there,” said 18-year-old Elia Shami. The wall, which cuts through Jerusalem, has created a hierarchy of desirability based on the colour of the plastic Palestinian ID cards the youths carry, the girls told IRIN. Read more about Wall creates Palestinian cultural divide 

Israel began building an eight-metre high, 703km-long concrete barrier through the West Bank in the occupied Palestinian territories in 2002. To date, some 670km of it is completed. Israel says the wall is a security measure to protect Israeli citizens from terrorist attacks by Palestinian militants. When the barrier is completed, about 10 per cent of the West Bank will be inside Israel. In July 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague ruled that the barrier’s route, which weaves around the western border of the occupied territory, was illegal under international humanitarian and human rights law because it “gravely” infringes on a number of rights of Palestinians living in the West Bank. Read more about Palestinian homes abandoned in flight across Israel's wall 

Palestinian human rights activists have said that using citizens as human shields to protect the homes of suspected militants is wrong, but said Gazans are simply protecting each other and their houses because they believe no one else will. The comments came after the US-based watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement on Wednesday condemning Palestinian armed factions for encouraging civilians to gather in and around suspected militants’ homes targeted by the Israeli military. Jaber Oshaah of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza told IRIN that he agreed with HRW’s statement but could understand why this strategy was being used. Read more about Gazans want to protect homes, say rights activists 

With an alarming escalation of violence, the tragic events of November had once again highlighted the fact that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could not be resolved through force, the United Nations senior political official told the Security Council this morning. “We have seen another month of violence in the Middle East –- one that for the tragedy of Beit Hanoun will almost certainly be remembered as a dark hour in this very long conflict”, Ibrahim Gambari, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs said. The Security Council met this morning to consider the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question. Read more about Under-Secretary-General, briefing Security Council, describes 'alarming escalation of violence' between Israelis, Palestinians