Amid the Jewish holiday season, Palestinians across the occupied territory pay the price, as settlers increase their attacks and the military and police restrict Palestinian access to holy places.
Key Developments (September 30 – October 3)
Amid the Jewish holiday season, Palestinians across the occupied territory pay the price as settlers increase their attacks and the military and police restrict Palestinian access to holy places. From mid-September through the first week of October, Palestinians have witnessed an increase in attacks and violations of their freedom of movement and right to worship, as Jewish Israelis celebrate a number of religious holidays. The Jewish holiday season typically means more closures and restrictions for Palestinians, as Israel shuts down major checkpoints between the West Bank and Israel, as well as Muslim holy sites in the West Bank and Jerusalem, in order to facilitate Jewish access to those sites. Over the weekend, as Jews began celebrating Sukkot, Israeli police forced Palestinian shopkeepers to close down their businesses in Jerusalem’s Old City and restricted Palestinian access in the area in order to facilitate large numbers of Jewish worshipers to perform rituals in the Old City and at the gates of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Israeli police also facilitated large numbers of Jewish settlers into the compound, sparking anger and confrontations from Palestinian worshipers. On Monday, October 2, Israeli police broke into the Qibli prayer hall, the main prayer area of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and arrested and assaulted Muslim worshipers inside while hundreds of Jewish worshipers were simultaneously escorted onto the site. Outside the gates of the mosque, Israeli border police were filmed brutalizing and detaining a group of Palestinian women in a video that was widely circulated on social media. Over the weekend, the Israeli military also closed the Ibrahimi Mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron to Muslim worshipers and tightened restrictions around the holy site in order to facilitate the entry of Jewish worshipers into the Mosque. Local media reported that Israeli forces also closed down Palestinian shops in the Old City of Hebron, and assaulted a number of locals as settlers paraded through the streets as part of religious celebrations/ Israeli forces also closed off entrances to the northern West Bank town of Sebastia, and restricted Palestinian access to a local archaeological site in order to allow Israeli settlers to perform religious rituals and visits at the site.
A young Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli forces on Friday, September 29, after allegedly throwing a Molotov. The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed the killing of Mohammed Rummaneh, saying he was shot in the town of al-Bireh in the Ramallah district of the West Bank. The Israeli army said in a statement that Rummaneh was shot along with another unidentified Palestinian after allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail towards an Israeli military post. Al Jazeera reported that Rummaneh, whose age remained unknown, was a resident of the Ramallah-area al-Amari refugee camp. Israeli forces detained both Rummaneh and the second injured Palestinian after they were shot. Over the weekend, a number of Palestinians were injured by Israeli fire in separate incidents across the West Bank. On Sunday, a 16-year-old Palestinian was reportedly injured by Israeli forces during confrontations in the town of Azzun, which borders a main road used by Israeli settlers, making it the frequent site of confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli forces, who deploy heavily in the area to ensure the protection of the settlers. In the Nablus-area town of Burqa, at least two people, including one minor, were injured with live ammunition, and dozens of others suffered from tear gas inhalation during confrontations that broke out in the village after Israeli forces arbitrarily closed a number of roads in the village. Burqa has witnessed an increase in soldier and settler violence since the re-establishment of an illegal outpost on the village’s land earlier this year. Between Monday and Tuesday, one Palestinian was shot by Israeli forces near the Aqbat Jaber refugee camp in Jericho, a 15-year-old boy from Hebron’s al-Fawwar refugee camp was shot by Israeli forces and subsequently detained, and in the Nablus-area towns of Beita and Jalud, several Palestinians were injured with rubber-coated steel bullets, and dozens of others suffered from tear-gas inhalation during separate confrontations that erupted in both towns.
Israeli settlers carried out a number of attacks on Palestinians and their property over the weekend, including an assault on Palestinians in the Bethlehem area that left several people injured. On Saturday September 30th, Israeli settlers set up a roadblock on the outskirts of the village of Tuqu, preventing Palestinians from accessing their land. According to local media, when a group of Palestinians approached the roadblock, the settlers attacked the Palestinians, physically assaulting them and spraying them with pepper spray. In the southern West Bank area of Yatta, in the Hebron district, Israeli settlers reportedly destroyed an agricultural pen belonging to a Palestinian farmer. Settler attacks were also reported in the Nablus-area villages of Qusra and Jalud. Israeli settler violence against Palestinians has been on the rise in recent years, with 2022 seeing record number of settler violence. According to UN documentation, as of mid-September, close to 800 settler attacks on Palestinians and their property were reported in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Important Figures:
- An estimated 244 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since the start of the year
- Israel is currently imprisoning 5,200 Palestinian political prisoners, including 170 child prisoners
- Israel has carried out more than 2,600 search and arrest raids in the occupied Palestinian territory in 2023
Source: MONDOWEISS PALESTINE BUREAU
