Protection of Civilians Report | 14-27 February 2023

Latest Developments (outside the reporting period)

This section is based on initial information from different sources. Further confirmed details will be provided in the next report.

• On 1 March, a Palestinian succumbed to his wounds sustained the day before from Israeli forces gunfire during a search-and-arrest operation in Aqbat Jaber refugee camp (Jericho), where an exchange of fire with Palestinians had taken place. 
• On 2 March, Israeli forces conducted a search-and-arrest operation in Azzun village (Qalqilya), where they shot and killed a Palestinian child.

Highlights from the reporting period

• Daily violent incidents involving Palestinians, Israeli settlers and Israeli forces across the West Bank continued; 16 Palestinians, of which three children, and three Israelis were killed; and 1,089 Palestinians and five Israelis were injured. Between 1 January and 27 February 2023, 63 Palestinians and thirteen Israelis, in addition to one foreign national and an Israeli soldier were killed, and 2,001 Palestinians and at least 25 Israelis were injured in the oPt and Israel. 
• Israeli forces killed ten Palestinians and injured 453 others, including 103 with live ammunition, in an operation that involved exchange of fire with Palestinians in the Old City of Nablus. An additional Palestinian died because of exposure to teargas that caused the deterioration of a pre-existing medical condition, according to the MoH. This is the highest number of people killed in a single operation in the West Bank since OCHA started recording data in 2005. On 22 February, Israeli forces raided the Old City of Nablus city, where they surrounded a building and exchanged fire with Palestinians. According to the Israeli Military, the operation was to arrest Palestinians suspected of planning attacks against Israelis. During the operation, Israeli forces destroyed a building from which two Palestinian men refused to surrender, killing the men. Additionally, during the same operation, another four Palestinian men were shot and killed in exchanges of fire with Israeli forces. The operation triggered additional confrontations between Palestinian residents and Israeli forces, during which Israeli forces fired live ammunition, rubber bullets, and teargas canisters towards Palestinians who threw stones and Molotov cocktails at them. As a result, four Palestinians, including one 16-year-old child were shot and killed with live ammunition fired by Israeli forces and 453 others were injured, including 103 by live ammunition. Two Israeli soldiers were injured according to Israeli media. According to medical sources, Israeli forces prevented ambulances from accessing the area. Following the operation, Palestinians across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip held demonstrations during which seven Palestinians were injured. On 24 February, a Palestinian man died of wounds sustained the day before, when Israeli forces shot him with live ammunition during one of these demonstrations, in which Palestinians threw stones at forces in Al ‘Arrub refugee camp (Hebron). 
• During the reporting period another four Palestinians, including two children, were killed by Israeli forces or died of wounds sustained earlier. On 14 February, Israeli forces raided El Far’a refugee camp in Tubas, where they exchanged fire with Palestinians, killing a 17-year-old boy, who according to the Israeli military, had shot at them, an allegation disputed by eyewitness and human rights organizations. During the same incident, a 13-year-old boy was bitten and injured by an Israeli forces dog. On the same day, a Palestinian man succumbed to wounds sustained on 1 January 2021, when an Israeli soldier shot him in the neck in Ar Rakeez community of Masafer Yatta (Hebron), as he was trying to prevent the confiscation of an electricity generator. On 20 February, a 13-year-old Palestinian child succumbed to wounds sustained on 8 February 2023, when an Israeli soldier shot him with live ammunition during confrontations between Palestinians and the Israeli army following the entry of Israeli settlers to Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus city. The total number of Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank so far in 2023 now stands at twelve (12), compared with two in the equivalent period of 2022.On 23 February, another Palestinian man succumbed to wounds sustained on 12 February during a search-and-arrest operation that involved an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Palestinians in Jenin refugee camp. 
• Two Israeli settlers and one Palestinian man were killed in two separate incidents on the same day in Nablus. On 26 February, two Israeli brothers from Har Barcha settlement, were shot dead by a gunman, believed to be Palestinian, while they were travelling on Road 60 in Huwwara town (Nablus). Subsequently, Israeli forces launched a manhunt to find the perpetrator and imposed movement restrictions on the town and surrounding area (see below). Following the attack, Israeli settlers, reportedly from Yitzhar, Bracha, Kfar Tappuah settlements and other adjacent settlement outposts threw stones and physically assaulted people in Huwwara town and the nearby villages and set fire to Palestinian-owned property. One Palestinian man was shot and killed near his home in Za’tara village, and another one was injured, both with live ammunition fired by either Israeli settlers or Israeli forces. An additional nine Palestinians were injured by Israeli settlers, including one child and one woman, and extensive damage was caused to Palestinian property. At least 37 inhabited houses sustained damage, including some set on fire by Israeli settlers, resulting in the displacement of eight Palestinian households and the displacement of part of another five households. In addition, at least eight commercial structures, including six car-repair shops, were burnt, along with 55 Palestinian privately-owned vehicles and 1,200 scrapped vehicles. Additionally, settlers attacked a fire truck in Huwwara and prevented it from entering the town; the vehicle was damaged and one of the firefighters was injured. According to Israeli forces one soldier was injured after settlers physically assaulted and tried to run over him.
• An Israeli man, who also holds US citizenship, was shot dead by a gunman believed to be Palestinian in a drive-by shooting near Jericho on 27 February. The gunman continued driving and opened fire at two other vehicles, but no injuries were reported. Subsequently, Israeli forces launched a manhunt to find the perpetrator and imposed movement restrictions on Jericho city (see below). This brings to thirteen, in addition to a foreign national and a soldier, Israelis killed in the West Bank including East Jerusalem and Israel since the beginning of the year, compared with none in the equivalent period of 2022. 
• During the reporting period, 1,068 Palestinians, including at least 102 children, were injured by Israeli forces across the West Bank, of whom 119 were shot with live ammunition. In addition to the 453 Palestinians injured by Israeli forces in the operation in the Old City of Nablus on 22 February, another 39 injuries occurred during ten search-and-arrest operations and other operations carried out by Israeli forces across the West Bank. In another fifteen incidents in Bethlehem, Hebron, Nablus and Tubas, 451 Palestinians were injured by Israeli forces, the majority of whom were treated due to tear gas inhalation, following the entry of Israeli settlers, accompanied by Israeli forces, into these Palestinian communities. Ninety per cent of these injuries were reported between 26 and 27 February after the settler attack in Huwwara town. Another 125 of the total injuries were recorded in various demonstrations, including against the establishment of an Israeli outpost in Wadi as Seeq community (Ramallah), and against settlement expansion and settlement-related access restrictions in Beit Dajan and Beita (both in Nablus), and Kafr Qaddum (Qalqilya) and in other demonstrations against the Nablus operation that led to eleven Palestinian fatalities. Overall, 866 Palestinians were treated for teargas inhalation, 120 were shot with live ammunition, 19 were injured by rubber bullets, 55 with shrapnel, five were physically assaulted, two were hit by sound grenade canisters, and one was hit by teargas canisters.
• Another eight Palestinians, including two children were injured by Israeli settlers and people known or believed to be settlers damaged Palestinian property in another 39 instances across the West Bank. In addition to the Palestinians injured by Israeli forces and settlers in the abovementioned settler-related incidents. Between 14 – 25 February, Israeli settlers injured five Palestinians, including one child. Two of the injuries were with live ammunition fired by settlers. In another 24 other incidents in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Hebron, Jerusalem, and Nablus, more than 300 trees were vandalized on Palestinian lands, including lands near Israeli settlements and newly established Israeli settlement outposts, the tires of twenty-five (25) Palestinian-owned cars were punctured, graffiti was painted on the walls of three house, crops were set on fire in a farmland, stealing agricultural equipment, and damaging water tanks were reported by Israeli settlers, according to eyewitnesses and local community sources. Additionally, between 26 and 27 February, following the fatal shooting of two settlers, another 18 settler violence incidents were reported across the West Bank, in which Israeli settlers injured three additional Palestinians, including one woman, and threw stones, vandalizing 17 Palestinian vehicles and punctured the tires of another seven or set fire to Palestinian owned property near Tubas, Hebron, Ramallah and Salfit and Nablus.
• One Israeli woman was injured, and her vehicle sustain damage, after Palestinians reportedly shot at her vehicle near Nablus. In five other instances, two Israeli settlers were injured, and damage was caused to at least five Israeli-plated vehicles after people known or believed to be Palestinians reportedly threw stones at Israeli vehicles travelling on West Bank roads. 
• The Israeli authorities demolished, confiscated, or forced people to demolish 66 structures in East Jerusalem and Area C of the West Bank, including 18 residential structures, citing the lack of Israeli-issued building permits, which are almost impossible to obtain. Twenty-two (22) of the structures were provided by donors as humanitarian assistance. As a result, 60 Palestinians, including 29 children, were displaced, and the livelihoods of more than 200 others were affected. Forty-nine (49) of the structures were in Area C, including sixteen (all donor-funded) demolished in a single incident in Lifjim community in Nablus, resulting in the displacement of three households, comprising 17 people, including ten children. Another 17 structures were demolished in East Jerusalem, including eight destroyed by their owners, to avoid the payment of fines to the Israeli authorities.  February 2023 accounted for the highest number of demolished structures in East Jerusalem in a single month since April 2019; with a total of 36 structures demolished, compared to a monthly average of eleven demolished in 2022.
• On 16 February, the Israeli authorities demolished with explosives the fourth-floor apartment of a multiple-story residential building in Area C of Hebron city on punitive grounds, displacing one household, comprising four people, including three children. The apartment belongs to the family of the man who shot and killed an Israeli settler on 29 October 2022 in Hebron. Since the beginning of 2023, six homes and one agricultural related structure were demolished on punitive grounds, compared with eleven homes and three other structures in all of 2022, three in all of 2021 and seven in 2020. Punitive demolitions are a form of collective punishment and as such are illegal under international law as they target the families of a perpetrator, or alleged perpetrator. 
• Israeli forces restricted the movement of Palestinians in several locations across the West Bank, disrupting the access of thousands to livelihoods and services. On 26 February, following the fatal shooting of two Israeli settlers, the Israeli army imposed a closure on Huwwara town (Nablus) and closed nearby checkpoints, and sealed off the entrance of Beita village (Nablus) with concrete blocks, obstructing the movement of more than 19,000 Palestinians. On 27 February, the Israeli army deployed flying checkpoints at all the entrances/exits of Jericho city, including concrete blocks, obstructing the movement of at least 50,000 Palestinians, following the fatal shooting of an Israeli near Jericho earlier the same day. In two separate incidents, on 17 and 24 February, Israeli forces restricted the movement of more than 10,000 Palestinians by closing the road gates at the entrances of Azzun (Qalqilya) and An Nabi Salih villages (Ramallah) for four and three hours, respectively.
• In the Gaza Strip, on at least 33 occasions, Israeli forces opened warning fire near Israel’s perimeter fence or off the coast, presumably to enforce access restrictions; four fishermen were arrested and one fishing boat was confiscated, with no injuries or damage reported. Separately, four Palestinian children were arrested by Israeli forces while trying to enter Israel through the perimeter fence. Additionally, on 26 February, demonstrations took place along Israel’s perimeter fence with Gaza, against the Nablus operation that led to eleven Palestinian fatalities (see above). Palestinians burned tires and threw stones and other objects towards the fence and Israeli forces stationed on the other side of the fence shot live ammunition, rubber bullets and teargas canisters, injuring four Palestinians, including one child.
• Also in the Gaza Strip, on 23 February, Palestinian armed groups fired six rockets and other projectiles towards southern Israel; five rockets were intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome system, and one fell in an open area in Israel. Israeli forces launched airstrikes reportedly targeting military sites belonging to armed groups in Gaza Strip. No injuries were reported.

Footnotes

1 Palestinians killed or injured by people who are not members of Israeli forces, e.g., by Israeli civilians or with Palestinian rockets falling short, as well as those whose immediate cause of death or the perpetrator’s identity remain disputed, unclear, or unknown, are counted separately. During this reporting period, one additional Palestinian man is counted separately as he was killed in a settler attack by either Israeli settlers or Israeli forces.

2 Israeli casualties in these charts include people who were injured while running to shelters during Palestinian rocket attacks. Foreign nationals killed in Palestinian attacks and people whose immediate cause of death or the perpetrator’s identity remain disputed, unclear, or unknown, are counted separately.