Protection of Civilians Report | 21 September - 4 October 2021

Highlights from the reporting period

• Israeli forces shot and killed six Palestinians, including a boy, in incidents of exchange of fire in the West Bank. All but one of the Palestinians killed in these incidents were taking part in shooting. On 26 September, three Palestinians were killed in Beit ‘Anan village (Jerusalem) and two others (including a 16-year-old child) in Birqin village (Jenin), during exchanges of fire between Palestinians and Israeli forces. The incidents occurred in the context of Israeli search-and-arrest operations in the two villages. Seven Palestinians were injured in Beit ‘Anan and Birqin, and according to media reports, two Israeli soldiers were wounded by ‘friendly fire’ in the latter village. Also in Birqin on 30 September, a Palestinian was killed in an exchange of fire in another search-and-arrest operation. 
• Israeli forces shot and killed another three Palestinians, including a woman, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. On 24 September, a Palestinian protester was shot and killed during the ongoing protests in Beita village (Nablus) against the establishment of a settlement outpost. On 30 September, Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian woman, aged 30, alleging that she had tried to stab Israeli police officers, at one of the gates leading to the Al Aqsa Mosque/Temple Mount compound in the old city of Jerusalem; no Israeli injury was reported. One Palestinian in Gaza was shot and killed by Israeli forces on 30 September in the Deir al Balah area, while reportedly hunting birds near the Israeli fence around Gaza.
• Overall, Israeli forces injured 328 Palestinians across the West Bank. Of them, 217 were hit during protests against settlement activities in the Nablus governorate, near Beita (117), Beit Dajan (73) and Deir al Hatab (27). Another 59 Palestinians, as well as two Israeli soldiers, were injured when Israeli civilians accompanied by Israeli forces entered Nablus to pray at Joseph’s Tomb, during which Palestinians threw stones and home-made explosives, and Israeli forces shot teargas canisters and rubber bullets. Twenty other Palestinians were injured by Israeli forces in Umm Fagarah (see below). Overall, eight of the wounded Palestinians were shot with live ammunition, 47 were hit by rubber bullets, three were physically assaulted or hit by teargas canisters, and the rest were treated for teargas inhalation. In addition to those injured directly by Israeli forces, 15 Palestinians were reportedly injured while running away from Israeli forces or in circumstances that could not be verified.
• Twenty-nine Palestinians, including a young child, were injured by Israeli forces or settlers in Umm Fagarah (Hebron). On 28 September, Israeli settlers injured nine Palestinians in this Palestinian community, which is in an Israeli-declared ‘firing zone’. One of those injured, a three-year-old boy, was hit by a stone in his head while in his bed, and was taken to an Israeli hospital. The remaining 20 injured Palestinians were treated for inhaling teargas. Israeli settlers also killed five sheep and damaged ten homes, 14 vehicles and several solar panels and water tanks. During the incident, Palestinians threw stones and Israeli forces fired teargas canisters and arrested three Palestinians who were released later that night.  Israeli police have arrested six settlers in connection with the incident, two of whom remain in detention.
• Israeli forces carried out 70 search-and-arrest operations and arrested around 80 Palestinians across the West Bank. The most affected governorate was Ramallah. 
• On at least 16 occasions, Israeli forces opened warning fire near the perimeter fence and off the coast of Gaza, ostensibly to enforce access restrictions. No injuries were reported, but four Palestinians were arrested by the Israeli authorities reportedly while trying to infiltrate to Israel through the perimeter fence and from the sea. Israeli military bulldozers conducted two land-levelling operations inside Gaza, near the perimeter fence, in the Beit Lahiya and Deir al Balah areas. Also, Egyptian naval forces reportedly opened fire towards Palestinian fishing boats off the coast of Rafah, injuring a fisherman.
• During the reporting period, no demolitions were reported across the West Bank except for three structures demolished by their owner in East Jerusalem, to avoid paying fines.  One of the structures was an extension to a residence in the Sur Bahir neighbourhood, which displaced an elderly woman.
• Israeli settlers physically assaulted and injured eight Palestinians (in addition to the abovementioned nine in Umm Fagarah), and people known or believed to be settlers damaged or stole the harvest from over 180 olive trees. These included four farmers injured while working their land near As Seefer (Hebron), two shepherds near the community of Arab ar Rashayida (Bethlehem), and another farmer in Ein Yabrud (Ramallah) and an activist in Susiya (Hebron). According to eyewitnesses or landowners, settlers vandalized around 160 olive trees in Umm Fagarah (Hebron) and Burin (Nablus), and stole the olives from another 26 trees in Salfit. A number of attacks by settlers in the H2 area of Hebron were recorded, including breaking into a number of houses and stealing agricultural tools, surveillance cameras and water pumps, in addition to stealing olives.  
• People known or believed to be Palestinians threw stones at Israeli-plated vehicles in the Jerusalem governorate, injuring a settler. According to Israeli sources, stone throwing damaged 14 Israeli-plated cars throughout the West Bank.