Protection of Civilians Report | 2-15 May 2023

Highlights from the reporting period

• Details of the 9-13 May escalation of hostilities in Gaza and Israel are available in OCHA’s Flash Updates. In the Gaza Strip, the United Nations has initially verified the killing of 33 Palestinians and one additional fatality is still under verification. Out of the verified fatalities, at least twelve were civilians, including four girls, two boys, four women and two men. According to Israeli and Palestinian sources, at least three of the total Palestinian fatalities were killed by rockets falling short. According to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza, 190 Palestinians were injured within the coastal enclave, including 64 children and 38 women. In Israel, one Israeli woman and one Palestinian worker from Gaza were killed in rocket fire and at least 40 physical injuries were reported by Israeli medical sources.
• A Palestinian man from Jenin died on 2 May in an Israeli prison after a hunger strike that lasted nearly three months. As of the end of the reporting period, the Israeli authorities are withholding his body, along with those of another 132 Palestinians. Some of the bodies have been withheld since 2016, according to a human rights organization. Following his death, between 2 and 3 May, Palestinian armed groups in Gaza fired rockets and other projectiles towards Israel, resulting in up to 11 Israelis and three foreigners being injured, according to medical sources, and causing damage to property.  Israeli forces carried out airstrikes and shelling, reportedly targeting military assets in Gaza. One Palestinian man was killed as a result of the Israeli airstrikes, and five others were injured, reportedly due to shrapnel from a rocket that fell short. Additionally, civilian property was reportedly damaged; this included several houses, a school and electric and water lines. 
• Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians and injured 236 others during three operations involving undercover forces and exchanges of fire with Palestinians. On 4 May, undercover Israeli forces raided the Old City of Nablus, where they surrounded and fired explosive projectiles at a residential building, killing three Palestinians, destroying one home, and causing damage to three other houses. According to the Israeli military, among the fatalities were Palestinians suspected of killing three Israeli settlers, including a child, on 7 April. The operation lasted for about three hours, during which 156 Palestinians were injured, including four with live ammunition. During the operation, dozens of school children and staff from the nearby school had to be evacuated. More than 50 pupils received medical treatment after inhaling teargas fired by Israeli forces. According to medical sources, Israeli forces limited the movement of ambulances in the area during the operation. On 6 May, undercover Israeli forces conducted another operation in Tulkarm Refugee Camp, where they surrounded a house and exchanged fire with Palestinians. Two Palestinians were killed, both of whom, according to the Israeli military, participated in the exchange of fire with Israeli forces and had previously shot and injured an Israeli settler. Two Palestinians were injured, and two others were arrested, including one of those injured. On 13 May, undercover Israeli forces, using a Palestinian bus, raided Balata refugee camp (Nablus), surrounded a building and exchanged fire with Palestinians. Two Palestinians were killed by live ammunition fired by Israeli forces. While according to the Israeli military, both of them were armed, eyewitnesses and human rights organizations indicate that they were neither armed nor involved in any exchange of fire. During the same operation, another 78 Palestinians were injured; including three with live ammunition.
• Israeli forces killed another four Palestinians during another three operations of Israeli forces, some of which reportedly involved exchanges of fire with Palestinians. On 10 May, Israeli forces raided Qabatiya (Jenin), where they shot and killed two Palestinians who, according to the Israeli military, had shot at them. A Palestinian bystander was injured and died of his wounds the next day. During the operation, Palestinians threw stones and explosive devices at the Israeli forces, and a separate exchange of fire reportedly took place. On 11 May, Israeli forces raided Nur Shams refugee camp (Tulkarm), where they reportedly exchanged fire with Palestinians, injuring two Palestinians. During the same incident, an elderly Palestinian bystander was shot and killed by Israeli forces while passing the area. According to Israeli forces, one Israeli soldier was injured.   On 15 May, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man in Askar refugee camp (Nablus) in an incident where Israeli forces fired live ammunition and teargas canisters at Palestinians who threw stones and firecrackers at them. Forces had entered the camp to take the measurements of the family home of a Palestinian man accused of killing two Israeli settlers, reportedly in preparation for the punitive demolition of the house. A Palestinian child was injured with live ammunition. Since the beginning of 2023 until the 15 May, Israeli forces killed 108 Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, more than double the death toll of 51 in the same period in 2022.
• Israeli forces killed another two Palestinians, a man and a woman, in separate incidents at Israeli military checkpoints. On 13 May, Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man at a checkpoint on the Green Line, near the entrance to Barta’a (Jenin). According to the Israeli military, the man tried to stab an Israeli soldier; no Israeli injuries were reported. On 4 May, Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian woman, who stabbed an Israeli soldier stationed at a checkpoint in the town of Huwwara (Nablus). One Israeli soldier was injured. Since the beginning of the year, 12 Palestinians have been shot and killed by Israeli forces while attacking or allegedly trying to attack Israeli forces in the West Bank.
• A total of 688 Palestinians, including at least 72 children, were injured by Israeli forces across the West Bank; 54 of them were shot with live ammunition. Of the injuries, 516 were reported during nine search-and-arrest and other operations carried out by Israeli forces, including the 240 Palestinian injuries reported in the abovementioned operations. In two incidents, Israeli forces injured nine Palestinians (all were treated for teargas inhalation), following the entry of Israeli settlers, whom Israeli forces accompanied, to a spring in the Palestinian community of Qaryut (Nablus) and following stone throwing by Israeli settlers at Palestinian vehicles at the entrance of Deir Sharaf (Nablus). Another 145 Palestinians were injured near Beit Dajan and Beita (both in Nablus), Kafr Qaddum (Qalqilya), Shufa (Tulkarm), Al 'Arrub Refugee Camp (Hebron) and in Bethlehem city in demonstrations against access restrictions, settlement expansion, and the death of the Palestinian prisoner. Another six Palestinians, including two children, were injured as Palestinians threw stones at Israeli forces stationed at a newly erected checkpoint at the entrance of Al Mughayyir (Ramallah) and Deir Sharaf (Nablus) villages; the Israeli forces used live ammunition and rubber bullets. In other incidents, Israeli forces shot and injured two Palestinians who were trying to reach their worksites in Israel via informal openings in the Barrier, near Habla (Qalqilya). Ten additional injuries were reported during a confiscation incident in Jubbet adh Dhib (Bethlehem) and a punitive demolition in Haris (Salfit) (see more details below). Overall, 587 Palestinians were treated for teargas inhalation, 54 were shot with live ammunition, 39 were injured with rubber bullets, three sustained shrapnel injuries and five were physically assaulted. 
• Israeli settlers injured five Palestinians, including three with live ammunition, and people known or believed to be settlers damaged Palestinian property in another 28 instances across the West Bank. This is in addition to the injury of nine Palestinians by Israeli forces in the two abovementioned incidents involving settlers in Qaryut and Deir Sharaf (both in Nablus). On 8 May, Israeli settlers, reportedly from Esh Kodesh settlement, physically assaulted and injured a Palestinian farmer while he was working in his land in Jalud (Nablus). On 10 May, a group of Israeli settlers, some armed, shot and injured with live ammunition two Palestinians and physically assaulted and injured a Palestinian child in Deir Dibwan (Ramallah). On 12 May, Palestinians confronted and threw stones at settlers who were grazing their livestock on Palestinian-owned and cultivated land in Silwad (Ramallah), near the Israeli settlement of Ofra. One Palestinian man was injured with live ammunition and another one was physically assaulted and injured. According to community sources, during the reporting period, more than 870 trees and saplings were vandalized on Palestinian land near Israeli settlements, including where Palestinian access to the land requires approval from the Israeli military; such damages were reported in 13 incidents across the West Bank. In another ten incidents in Ein Samiya, Rammun, Silwad, Deir Dibwan and Al Mazra’a al Qibliya (all in Ramallah), Biddya (Salfit), Jalud (Nablus), Maghayir al Abeed (Hebron) settlers broke into houses and farmlands; damaging crops, two residential and agricultural structures, and causing damage to livestock, according to eyewitnesses and local community sources. In the remaining eleven incidents reported across the West Bank, Israeli settlers threw stones, and vandalized 11 Palestinian vehicles. 
• Two Israeli settlers, including one woman, were injured in four separate incidents across the West Bank. In one incident, a Palestinian shot at a vehicle near Shufa (Tulkarm) on 2 May. In two other incidents people known or believed to be Palestinians threw stones at Israeli vehicles travelling on West Bank roads, causing damage to two Israeli vehicles. Additionally, in a separate incident, Palestinians set fire to a settler vehicle in Husan (Bethlehem). Overall, at least four Israeli-plated vehicles were damaged, according to Israeli sources.
• The Israeli authorities demolished, confiscated, or forced people to demolish 42 structures in East Jerusalem and Area C of the West Bank, including 17 homes, citing the lack of Israeli-issued building permits, which are almost impossible to obtain. Nine of the structures were provided by donors as humanitarian assistance, including a school (more details below). As a result, 50 Palestinians, including 23 children, were displaced, and the livelihoods of more than 600 others were affected. More than half of the affected structures (26) were in Area C, including a donor funded school. The remaining 16 structures were demolished in East Jerusalem, including two residential structures demolished in Wadi Qaddum area of Silwan, resulting in the displacement of seven households comprising 39 people including 22 children. Another seven structures were destroyed by their owners to avoid the payment of fines to the Israeli authorities. Additionally (not counted above), in Area A of the West Bank, Israeli forces destroyed one residential structure and caused damage to three others during an Israeli force's operation carried out in the Old City of Nablus (see above). 
• A donor-funded school was demolished in southern Bethlehem. On 7 May, Israeli forces demolished an EU-funded Palestinian school serving at least 40 pupils from Jubbet Adh Dhib (Bethlehem) citing the lack of an Israeli-issued building permit and structural safety concerns. Fifty-seven schools across the West Bank are at risk of demolition. In a separate incident, on 10 May, the Israeli civil administration along with Israeli forces dismantled and confiscated two tents that were used as temporary classrooms for the pupils of the school of Jubbet adh Dhib. The tents were provided as humanitarian assistance in response to the demolition on 7 May. During the confiscation, confrontations erupted between Palestinian residents and Israeli forces, during which Palestinians threw stones and Israeli forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas canisters; as a result, eight Palestinians were injured; school equipment, including chairs and desks, were confiscated by Israeli forces.
• On 2 and 3 May, Israeli forces raided Hajja (Qalqilya) and Haris (Salfit) villages, in Area B of the West Bank, and demolished on punitive grounds two multiple-story homes of families whose members killed four Israelis and injured others. Three households, comprising 14 people, including eight children, were displaced. Nine others, including three children, were otherwise affected. During the demolition, Palestinians threw stones at the Israeli forces, who shot teargas canisters, injuring one Palestinian. Since the beginning of 2023, ten homes and one agricultural-related structure have been demolished on punitive grounds, compared with 14 structures in all of 2022 and three in 2021. 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.
• Closures across the West Bank continue to disrupt the access of thousands of Palestinians to livelihoods and services. In two separate incidents, on 2 May, the Israeli army erected earth mounds and concrete blocks and on 14 May installed a road gate at the entrances to Shufa village (Tulkarm), obstructing the movement of at least 1,400 Palestinians, reportedly in response to a shooting incident against Israeli settler vehicles, that led to the injury of one settler. On several occasions in the H2 area of Hebron city, a high number of ‘flying’ checkpoints continue to be reported mainly in the non-restricted area of the city. Overall, a total of 12 flying checkpoints were observed, up from a biweekly average of two since the beginning of 2023. Israeli forces intensified their security checks at these checkpoints, leading to long delays for people passing through (up to three hours in some cases). 
• In the non-restricted area of H2, Israeli authorities issued on 3 May a final eviction order against two multi-story structures, including a carpentry workshop, due to an ownership dispute. This eviction would affect the livelihood of one Palestinian household, comprising ten people, including eight children. Palestinians living in the H2 area are exposed to coercive Israeli policies and practices.
• In the Gaza Strip, in at least ten incidents (all reported before the escalation of hostilities), Israeli forces opened “warning fire” near Israel’s perimeter fence or off the coast, presumably to enforce access restrictions. No injuries or damage were reported. On one occasion, Israeli military bulldozers leveled lands inside Gaza, near the perimeter fence, in the middle area. During the escalation, for a total of six days, the local Palestinian authorities prohibited all fishing activities off the Gaza coast, citing security concerns.

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. In this reporting period, three Palestinians who were reportedly killed by Palestinian rockets, as well as at least five Palestinian injuries in similar circumstances, are counted separately. Additionally, one Palestinian man was killed and another one was injured in Israel by rockets fired by Palestinian armed groups.

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. In this reporting period, three foreign nationals who were injured by Palestinian rocket fire are counted separately.