Protection of Civilians Report | 8-21 August 2023

Latest Developments (after the reporting period)

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

• On 22 August, Israeli forces shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian child during a search-and-arrest operation in Az Zababida (Jenin).

Highlights from the reporting period

• Israeli forces killed six Palestinians, including one child, during Israeli force operations across the West Bank, some of which involved exchanges of fire with Palestinians. On 10 August, an Israeli undercover unit raided Nablus city, where an exchange of fire with Palestinians ensued, killing a 23-year-old Palestinian man. On 11 August, Israeli forces raided the Tulkarm Refugee Camp and shot and killed a 25-year-old Palestinian. At least three others were also injured, including two by live ammunition. According to a human rights organization, the man killed was not involved in the exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Palestinians. On 15 August, Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinians including one 16-year-old child, during a search-and-arrest operation in Aqabet Jaber Camp Refugee Camp (Jericho). An exchange of fire was reported between Israeli forces and Palestinians, who also threw stones. One Palestinian man was arrested. On 17 August, an Israeli undercover unit raided a residential building in Jenin city, and killed a Palestinian, who according to the Israeli military, had shot at them. Exchange of fire was reported during the withdrawal of Israeli forces. Two injuries were reported, including a bystander woman who was shot with live ammunition; two arrests were reported among Palestinians and a member of the Israeli forces was injured by an improvised explosive device. On 19 August, a 20-year-old Palestinian succumbed to his wounds after he was shot by Israeli forces during an Israeli forces operation in Balata Refugee Camp (Nablus) on 16 August. During the operation, an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Palestinians took place and Israeli forces damaged a number of buildings. Five other Palestinians were injured, including a child. The number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank and Israel by Israeli forces so far in 2023 (172) has surpassed the total number killed in all of 2022 (155), which already saw the highest fatalities in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 2005.
• Three Israelis were killed in two shooting attacks in Nablus and Hebron. On 19 August, an Israeli father and son from Ashdod (Israel) were shot and killed in Huwwara (Nablus) by a man, believed to be a Palestinian, who fled the scene. Israeli forces arrested the owner and two workers of the car wash facility where the killing took place. On 21 August, Palestinians shot and killed an Israeli woman and injured another Israeli settler in a drive-by shooting attack along road 60 south of Hebron city. The perpetrators fled the scene. On 22 August, Israeli forces arrested two Palestinian men in Hebron city suspected of carrying out the shooting attack and took measurements of their family homes the day after, reportedly in preparation for their punitive demolition. Following both incidents, Israeli forces launched manhunts, closing off nearby checkpoints and entrances of towns (see below). In an additional incident, on 20 August, Palestinians threw stones at an Israeli plated vehicle near Turmusa’yya village (Ramallah) injuring an Israeli settler and then setting fire to his vehicle. This brings to 29 the number of Israelis killed by Palestinians or in Palestinian attacks so far in 2023 in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel, in addition to a foreign national, compared with a total of six fatalities in the equivalent period of 2022.
• During the reporting period, 559 Palestinians, including at least 148 children, were injured by Israeli forces across the West Bank, including 21 people by live ammunition. Most injuries (192) were reported during a punitive demolition that lasted for more than six hours in Askar Refugee Camp (Nablus), during which Israeli forces used live ammunition, rubber-coated metal bullets, and tear gas canisters, and Palestinians threw stones. Another 195 injuries occurred during eleven search-and-arrest and other operations carried out by Israeli forces across the West Bank, including two reported in Beita village (Nablus) as part of a large manhunt for suspects of the 19 August shooting in Huwwara. During one of these operations, Israeli forces shot and injured six Palestinians with live ammunition, including one Palestinian man who was shot in the back of the head while he was attempting to help another wounded person. According to Israeli authorities an investigation into this shooting has been opened. In two additional incidents, Israeli forces injured 100 Palestinians following the entry of Israeli settlers, accompanied by Israeli forces, into Qaryut village (Nablus) and Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus city. Another 69 injuries were reported in demonstrations against settlement expansion in Beit Dajan (Nablus) and access restrictions caused by the settlement in Kafr Qaddum (Qalqilya). Two additional Palestinian injuries, including one child and a man with mental disability occurred when Palestinians threw stones at Israeli forces positioned at a military checkpoint at the entrance of Qalqilya city, during which Israeli forces shot live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas canisters. The remaining injury was reported in East Jerusalem, after Israeli forces shot and injured a 14-year-old Palestinian child in the head with live ammunition. According to Israeli forces, the child threw a Molotov cocktail; this allegation is disputed by local community sources. Overall, 505 Palestinians were treated for teargas inhalation, 21 were shot with live ammunition, 14 were injured by rubber bullets, 14 by shrapnel, three by teargas canisters, and two were physically assaulted. Since the beginning of the year a total of 705 Palestinians have been injured with live ammunition by Israeli forces in the West Bank, almost double the number in the equivalent period in 2022 (411). 
• Four Palestinian were injured by Israeli settlers; and people known or believed to be settlers damaged Palestinian property in another 19 instances across the West Bank. This is in addition to the Palestinian casualties by Israeli forces in the abovementioned settler-related incidents in Nablus. On 21 August, a Palestinian man was injured, and his vehicle sustained damage when Israeli settlers threw stones near Halhul village (Hebron). On the same day, three Palestinians were injured, and their vehicles sustained damage when Israeli settlers threw stones near Beit El DCO checkpoint at the entrance of Ramallah. According to community sources, more than 40 trees and saplings were vandalized during the reporting period on Palestinian land near Israeli settlements, in two incidents, in Kafr ad Dik (Salfit) and Al Khadr (Bethlehem). Ten incidents in Kisan (Bethlehem), Rujeib, Khirbet Tana, and Burin (all in Nablus), Al Jwaya (Hebron), Farkha (Salfit) and Al Farisiya-Nab'a al Ghazal (Tubas), included settlers entering communities and causing damage to an agricultural structure, cultivated crops, stone walls, water networks and water tanks, in addition to injuring livestock. In another six incidents, Israeli settlers threw stones and vandalized six Palestinian vehicles.
• The Israeli authorities demolished a donor-funded school in Ramallah governorate. On 17 August, Israeli authorities demolished a donor-funded school serving students from the displaced herding community of Ein Samiya (Ramallah). The school served 17 children, aged between six and 12, from the Ein Samiya community. In early May, members of the community, comprising 132 people, including 68 children, moved to areas whey they reportedly felt safer, citing settler violence as the primary reason for leaving. Since 2010, the Israeli authorities have carried out 41 demolition / confiscations against 22 schools in Area C of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, citing the lack of building permits. 
• In addition to the above school, the Israeli authorities demolished, confiscated, or forced people to demolish an additional 33 structures in East Jerusalem and Area C of the West Bank, including ten homes, citing the lack of Israeli-issued building permits, which are almost impossible to obtain. As a result, 22 Palestinians, including ten children, were displaced, and the livelihoods of more than 100 others were affected. Three of the affected structures were provided by donors in response to a previous demolition in Isteih community (Jericho) and Humsa Al Farsheh community (Nablus). Twenty-nine (29) of the affected structures were demolished in Area C, including four structures demolished in Ein Shibli (Nablus) located in an Israeli-declared nature reserve, where Palestinian construction is prohibited. Another two structures were demolished in Humsa Al Farsheh community (Nablus) located in an area closed for military training purposes (“firing zone”), where Palestinian construction in prohibited. This designation applies to some 18 percent of West Bank territory, primarily in the Jordan Valley. Four other structures were demolished in East Jerusalem, resulting in the displacement of two households, comprising nine people, including three children. Two of the demolished structures in East Jerusalem were destroyed by their owners to avoid the payment of fines to the Israeli authorities. 
• On 8 August, Israeli forces raided Askar Refugee camp (Nablus), in Area B, and demolished on punitive grounds the home of a family member accused of killing two Israeli settlers in February 2023. A female-headed household comprising four people, including a child, was displaced. During the demolition that lasted for more than six hours, a total of 197 Palestinians were injured, including 75 children by Israeli forces; see details above. Since the beginning of 2023, 16 homes and one agricultural 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.
• Israeli forces restricted the movement of Palestinians in various locations across the West Bank, disrupting the access of thousands of Palestinians to livelihoods and services. Following the shooting attacks, where three Israelis were killed, Israeli forces launched a manhunt, including frequent nightly search and arrest operations and deployed flying checkpoints at all the entrances/exits of Nablus and Hebron cities and surrounding villages, obstructing the movement of Palestinians for at least three days. The entrance to Yanun village (Nablus) was kept strictly closed for a total of five days, with nearly no one allowed out. Exceptions have included students and teachers, but they have faced significant delays. The military allowed access to residents twice, through coordination, for limited times, to markets for essential medicines, food and fodder.  On 9 August, the Israeli forces installed three new road gates in Al Marba’a area on the road leading to Tell, Burin, and Madama villages (all in Nablus), and placed concrete blocks at the entrance of Burin and Madama, restricting the movement of more than 11,000 Palestinians. Since 14 August Israeli forces have been closing two road gates along road 60 in Hebron city for around four hours daily, restricting the access of Palestinians to Hebron city. 
• In the Gaza Strip, in at least eight incidents, Israeli forces opened “warning fire” near Israel’s perimeter fence or off the coast. During these incidents two fishermen, including one child were injured and arrested by Israeli naval forces, and their boat and related equipment’s were confiscated. An additional four fishermen were also arrested during these incidents.
• Also in the Gaza Strip, on 21 August, Palestinians demonstrated along Israel’s perimeter fence marking the 54th anniversary of burning Al-Aqsa Mosque. Palestinians burnt tires and threw stones and explosive devices towards the Israeli fence. Israeli forces shot live ammunition, rubber bullets and teargas canisters, injuring 19 Palestinians, including 12 children.

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, one Palestinian killed by an Israeli settler is counted separately.

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.