Protection of Civilians Report | 2-15 August 2022

Latest Development (outside the reporting period)

• On 18 and 19 August, two Palestinian men were shot and killed in two separate incidents in Nablus city and Tubas. Both incidents will be addressed in the next reporting period.

• On 18 August, Israeli forces raided and closed the offices of seven Palestinian civil society non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the West Bank. In 2021, the Government of Israel had designated these organizations as “terrorist organizations” and/or “unlawful”. See the statement by UN agencies and the Association of International Development Agencies here.

Highlights from the reporting period

• Details of the 5-7 August escalation of hostilities in Gaza and Israel are available in Flash Update #1 and #2. During the escalation, 49 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip, of whom at least 22 were civilians, including 17 children and four women, according to OHCHR; 360 others were injured, including 151 children, 58 women, according to the local Ministry of Health. According to the Israeli authorities, a total of 70 Israelis were injured. Magen David Adom reported that 47 Israelis were evacuated by the organization to hospitals. Three people were injured from shrapnel, 31 people were injured while running to shelters, and 13 from shock.
• On 2 August, Israeli forces shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian boy, claimed by Islamic Jihad (PIJ) to be an affiliate, and injured two in a raid on Jenin refugee camp where they arrested two Palestinian men, including a senior PIJ operative. Over the course of the operation, an exchange of fire with armed Palestinians was reported, and Israeli forces shot live ammunition at residents who threw stones and Molotov cocktails. Later that day, the Israeli authorities imposed a complete closure on their border with Gaza, preventing the movement of people and essential commodities in and out, citing security concerns. On 5 August, Israeli forces conducted a targeted airstrike, killing a senior PIJ operative in Gaza. Israeli airstrikes and the indiscriminate rocket fire into Israel by armed Palestinian groups ensued and continued until a ceasefire came into effect at 23:30 on 7 August. 
• Three Palestinians, including a 16-year-old boy, were shot, and killed, and 89 others were injured, including 76 with live ammunition, by Israeli forces during a military operation in Nablus. On 9 August, Israeli forces raided the Old City of Nablus, surrounding and firing explosive projectiles at a residential building where two men (24 and 27 years old) had barricaded themselves. The men were killed, and two homes were destroyed and another was damaged, resulting in the displacement of two people, and affecting five others. The operation lasted for more than three hours, during which confrontations took place between Palestinian residents and Israeli forces in other locations in Nablus city; these resulted in the injury of 89 Palestinians, including 76 injuries by live ammunition. One of those injured by live ammunition, a 16-year-old boy, succumbed to his wounds in a Nablus hospital later that day. 
• Another 16-year-old Palestinian boy was killed and 110 injured, 14 by live ammunition, when Israeli forces shot live ammunition and Palestinians threw stones during demonstrations across the West Bank to protest the military operation in Nablus. On 9 August, Palestinians threw stones near a military checkpoint in Hebron city and Israeli forces fired live ammunition at them, killing a 16-year-old boy. According to eyewitnesses, the boy was far away from the checkpoint and was therefore unlikely to have posed any threat. This brings to 20 the total number of Palestinian children killed in the West Bank since the beginning of 2022, 18 of whom were killed by Israeli forces, compared with 17 children killed during the whole of 2021. On 11 August,  the UN Human Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet expressed alarm at the high number of Palestinian children killed and injured in the occupied Palestinian territory so far this year. 
• A Palestinian man was shot and killed, and four others were injured with live ammunition by Israeli forces in search-and-arrest operations across the West Bank. On 16 August, a 21-year-old Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli Border Police at his home in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Kafr 'Aqab. Israeli forces raided the house and shot the man in the head from close range, in front of his family, as he was standing inside the house. According to Israeli media citing Israeli forces, the man was shot while attempting to stab police officers, a version of the events rejected by the man’s family. His body has been withheld by the Israeli authorities. The UN Special Coordinator has called for an investigation regarding the disputed circumstances of the killing. During the reporting period, Israeli forces conducted a total of 141 search-and-arrest operations and arrested 204 Palestinians in the West Bank. The Hebron governorate accounted for the highest portion of operations (44) and arrests (70). During three of these operations, Palestinians threw stones and Israeli forces employed live ammunition, and sound grenades, resulting in five Palestinian injuries, including four by live ammunition.
• In total, 369 Palestinians, including at least 42 children were injured by Israeli forces across the West Bank, representing a 180 per cent increase compared with the previous reporting period. Most of the injuries (162) were recorded near Beit Dajan (Nablus), and Kafr Qaddum (Qalqilya) in anti-settlement protests. And another (110) injuries were reported near Beit El checkpoint (Ramallah), at the entrance of Jericho city, at Huwwara checkpoint (Nablus) and at the entrances to Tulkarm, Hebron and Bethlehem cities in demonstrations protesting the military operation in Nablus. Another 95 Palestinians were injured during a military operation and three search-and-arrest operation (see above). Two additional injuries were reported during a demolition in Silwan in East Jerusalem. Of the 369 Palestinians injured, approximately 25 per cent were from live ammunition. This reflects a 20 percentage points above the proportion of live ammunition injuries reported between January and July 2022. Firearms should be used as a last resort, only where there is an imminent threat to life or of serious injury. The high number of deaths and serious injuries caused by live ammunition/firearms – as described above – raises concern about the possible use of excessive force that may have led to unlawful killings and injuries.
• The Israeli authorities demolished, confiscated, or forced people to demolish 50 Palestinian-owned structures in East Jerusalem and Area C of the West Bank, citing the lack of Israeli-issued building permits; twelve of the structures were donor-funded humanitarian assistance projects. As a result, 55 people, including 28 children, were displaced, and the livelihoods of approximately 220 others were affected. Forty-two of the structures were in Area C, including 13 demolished in two Bedouin communities (Abu Shusheh and Az Za’ayyem) in Area C of the Jerusalem governorate. One of which is located in an area planned for a major expansion of the Ma’ale Adumim settlement (the ‘E1’ Plan) and are at risk of forcible transfer due to a ‘relocation’ plan advanced by the Israeli authorities. Eight other structures were demolished in East Jerusalem, including three structures destroyed by their owners to avoid paying fines. 
• On 8 August, Israeli forces raided Rummana (Jenin) village, in Area B, and demolished on punitive grounds two multistory homes of families whose members are indicted of killing three people and injuring three others in Israel in May 2022. The displaced families comprise 13 people, including four children, in three households. Since the beginning of 2022, ten homes were demolished on punitive grounds, compared with three in all of 2021 and six in 2020. Punitive demolitions are a form of collective punishment and as such are illegal under international law as they target the families of perpetrators or alleged perpetrators.
• Two donor-funded schools are at risk of demolition in southern Hebron and Ramallah. On 3 August, the Israeli civil administration issued a final demolition order against two rooms that are part of a school in Mantiqat Shi’b al Butum, south of Hebron. The school was built in 2015 through a donor-funded project and serves children from a large number of communities. In another incident on 10 August, an Israeli court ordered the immediate demolition of a donor-funded school in the herding community of Ein Samiya, northeast of Ramallah, affecting about 17 students. The school is now at imminent threat of demolition. The demolition of the school jeopardizes the students’ right to education.
• Israeli settlers injured three Palestinians, and people known or believed to be Israeli settlers damaged Palestinian property, in 15 instances. In two incidents near Khashem ad Daraj (Hebron) and Huwwara (Nablus), two Palestinians, including a 16-year-old boy, were injured when Israeli settlers attacked them with stones and physically assaulted them, also causing damage to three vehicles. Near the entrance of Izbat At Tabib (Qalqilya), one Palestinian man was injured when a settler vehicle drove into a group of Palestinians during an anti-settlement protest. In five separate incidents, about 500 Palestinian-owned trees were uprooted or vandalized near Israeli settlements next to Qaryut (Nablus), Al Khadr (Bethlehem) and Al Mu’arrajat Centre (Ramallah) and Al Jwaya (Hebron). In three incidents near Huwwara and Urif (both in Nablus) and in the H2 area of Hebron city, four Palestinian-owned cars were vandalized and reported stone-throwing damaged two Palestinian homes. Seven incidents in Nablus, Ramallah, Salfit, Bethlehem and Tubas resulted in damage to cultivated crops, livestock, agricultural equipment, a water network and water reservoir. 
• Eight Israelis were injured by a Palestinian man who opened fired at an Israeli bus and a private vehicle near the Old City of Jerusalem on 14 August. Following the attack, Israeli forces conducted search operations in the nearby neighborhood of Silwan, and the suspect later turned himself in to Israeli police. In another 15 incidents, people known or believed to be Palestinians injured nine Israeli settlers and damaged fifteen Israeli vehicles in stone-throwing incidents at vehicles traveling on West Bank roads near Hebron, Nablus and Ramallah governorates, according to Israeli sources.
• On 9 August, following the ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli authorities removed all restrictions imposed on the crossings with Gaza since 2 August, allowing movement of authorized people and commodities, including fuel. On 8 August, the Gaza Power Plant, which had to shut down on 6 August (12:00 pm) due to lack of fuel, causing rolling power cuts of up to 20 hours a day, resumed operations, enabling power supply for about 11 hours per day.