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Today Israel demolished a primary school in Masafer Yatta that had 23 pupils and three teachers.
This is part of a state effort to drive Palestinians out of the area by making their lives unbearable.
Expelling residents is a war crime.
It is prohibited by International Humanitarian Law (and basic moral principles) to shoot people who yielded and carry a white flag, regardless whether they’re combatants or not, regardless of their nationality and religion.
One Israeli hostage was waving a makeshift white flag and another called for help in Hebrew when they were shot dead by Israeli soldiers in Gaza - who mistook them fighters - according to the Israeli military official who briefed journalists. They were also reportedly shirtless.
The Jewish Supremacist regime carried out a pogrom in the villages around Nablus yesterday. This isn't “loss of control”. This is exactly what Israeli control looks like. The settlers carry out the attack, the military secures it, the politicians back it. It’s a synergy. >
1/5 The 2.2 million people of Gaza are going hungry. This is not a byproduct of war but a direct result of Israel’s declared policy, which denies them food. Gazans now depend entirely on supplies from outside, as they can no longer produce almost any food themselves.
30 Human rights and civil society NGOs in Israel release statement urging the international community to act on unprecedented levels of state-backed settler violence in the West Bank >
This morning, B’Tselem’s field researcher in Jenin documented the exact locations in which the Palestinian gunman depicted in a video distributed by the Israeli army, fired, as well as the exact location in which Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed.
Today the schoolchildren in a-Safai had to study outdoors. Two weeks ago the Israeli military demolished their school and yesterday confiscated the tents that were used as temporary classrooms.
Video: Majdi Awad, a 65-year-old father from Tul Karem, was shot to death this morning. Awad is the 132th Palestinian killed by Israel in the West Bank since October 7th.
Settlers set the fire, but settler's violence is just one component of Israeli policy aimed at expelling communities from Masfar Yatta - state violence. Palestinians know that no one will come to their rescue, the army and police refuse to protect them.
Terrorist settlers set fire to a house in Masafer Yatta, destroyed power lines, and attacked and smashed a house in which an elderly woman and her daughter lived.
This is not settler violence! This is the policy of the State of Israel to force us to leave and steal our land
A group of young Palestinians is out at a coffee shop on a Friday afternoon. Seconds later, the place is empty, its tables and glass storefront shattered. >
Israeli soldiers took away 10-year-old Adam’s bike and threw it in the garbage. His mother, Ghadir Jaber, told B’Tselem field researcher Manal al-Ja’bari yesterday:
“Adam didn’t want to go to school today because he was afraid soldiers would detain him." >
Fullah Maluh’s name should have made headlines. But in Israel, when soldiers kill a 14-year-old girl on the autism spectrum – in the deadliest of the last 18 years for Palestinian children and teens in the West Bank – it’s not even news.
The only way to implement the orders issued today by the International Court of Justice in the Hague is through an immediate ceasefire. It is impossible to protect civilian life as long as the fighting continues. >>
This is Ragheb Samhan, an intellectually disabled 13-year-old. Soldiers assaulted him, tied his hands, blindfolded him and took him, alone, and without informing anyone. After about two hours, they released him at the entrance to his village, handcuffed and blindfolded. >
“We know what a pogrom is, Jews have been on the receiving end of pogroms for too many years. After Sunday night there are hundreds of settlers that know what it’s like to be on the side that committed that atrocity.”
Today, we greeted US President Biden with billboards in Ramallah and Bethlehem. In order to change reality, we must first recognize it, and work for a future of human rights, justice and equality.
This is 16-year-old Nader Rayan. Israeli Border Police officers shot and killed him at the Balata Refugee Camp. He was shot at least 11 times, in all parts of his body: head, chest, pelvis, limbs, buttocks and back. >
Until this week, about 250 people lived in Khirbet Zanutah in the South Hebron Hills – a community of 27 families, including about 100 minors. Not anymore. >
We deeply mourn Vivian Silver, a peace and human rights activist and former member of B’Tselem’s board, who was killed in the Hamas attack on her Kibbutz on October 7, 2023.
No. A million people in northern Gaza are not guilty. They have no where else to go. This is not what fighting Hamas looks like. This is revenge. And innocent people are being hurt.
Life’s routine under the Israeli apartheid regime, Hebron: soldiers detained Salwa Sidr, a 13-year-old, on charges of possessing a knife. They threatened to handcuff her, took her in for questioning and only released her after she admitted to peeling a cucumber on her doorstep.
This is 'Issam Da'ur, a doctor at the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza, with his two children. His son, Fadel, was killed in an Israeli airstrike. 'Issam told us:
"I can’t feel anything or express emotions any more. The tears have frozen in my eyes." >
On Friday, after midnight, settlers vandalized a Palestinian coffee shop off Route 60, near the village of a-Sawiya. Police summoned by the owner arrested him and confiscated footage from his security camera.
Zein Jaber, 10-years-old, is hospitalized after being hit by a large stone thrown by settlers at the car he was riding in along with his family Thursday evening, near the settlement of Beit El. A Molotov cocktail, which miraculously didn’t catch fire, was also hurdled at them. >
For eight long years, Du’aa and Jalal unsuccessfully tried to have children. Du’aa underwent multiple miscarriages and many expensive, painful treatments. Until finally, in 2020, their firstborn daughter, Fatimah, pictured here on a family outing to the Gaza beach, >
Muhammad a-Tamimi (2021-2023) succumbed today to the wounds he sustained on Thursday evening, when an Israeli soldier shot him and his father. He is the 150th Palestinian killed by Israel since the beginning of 2023.
Israeli soldiers have been shooting at Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza since this morning. At least 10 Palestinians have been killed, including a minor, at least 1,000 wounded. Shooting at unarmed demonstrators is illegal & any command allowing such action is manifestly illegal
Along with 46 other civil society organizations, we are proud to stand in solidarity with our Palestinian colleagues facing the draconian measures of the Israeli regime
New channels have already closed the case, but only an independent investigation by a reliable, impartial, international actor can bring accountability. The ICC is the right institution for job, and the international community has the power and the responsibility to demand it.
B'Tselem sends its deepest condolences to our dear friend, Khaled al-'Azayzeh, for the loss of 26 members of his family who were killed when their home in the Gaza Strip was bombed on October 12, 2023.
While you were eagerly following the US elections, Israel has demolished an entire community’s residential compound, leaving 74 people, 41 of them minors, homeless.
When Mohammed Tamimi was 15, a soldier shot him in the head with a rubber coated metal bullet while he was demonstrating in his village, a-Nabi Saleh. Shortly thereafter, his cousin, ‘Ahed Tamimi, famously slapped an Israeli soldier standing at her doorstep. >
B’Tselem calls for ceasefire in Gaza Strip. Continuing the war will entail more human rights violations and more war crimes, and the fighting must therefore be stopped immediately to prevent further harm to civilians. Full press release:
This is 15-year-old Nazmi Abu Karsh, a high-school student from the Gaza Strip. When he was 12 his mother passed away. On August 7, 2022, he visited her grave and was killed there, along with three friends and a toddler, when the Israeli military fired a missile at them. >
This attack from last Friday was just one of many recent settler attacks in the town of Huwarah. In many of the attacks, soldiers serve as bodyguards for the attackers. In some, they even take part themselves.
Settler violence is state violence.
Our dear colleague, B'Tselem Field Researcher in the Gaza Strip, Olfat al-Kurd, who had lost 16 of her relatives to an Israeli air strike recently, told us:
"I’ve already lost more than 16 relatives in this war - uncles and cousins. I’m in shock and can’t even cry. >
Waael Muqbal (62) at the hospital after around 10 settlers barged into his and his wife Samiha's (53) home, severely beat him, pepper-sprayed her in the face, and upturned the whole place. A pogrom.
The case has been closed, journalist Yuval Abraham published yesterday. >
The Israeli military is confiscating tents which were used as a temporary school for the children of Khirbet a-Safai al-Foqa in Masafer Yatta, after it demolished their school about two weeks ago.
Taha Mahamid, 15, was fatally shot by Israeli forces in clashes that erupted when they entered Nur Shams R.C. His father, who was also shot when he tried to reach Taha and help him, is seen in the final seconds of the video getting up and fleeing. >
The Pogrom in Huwarah was not an isolated incident, but an extreme example of what the routine of state violence carried out by settlers is like all year around.
Thread >>
B'Tselem: Revenge policy in motion; Israel committing war crimes in Gaza
On Saturday, hundreds of Palestinian militants entered Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing hundreds of civilians, soldiers and police officers, burning down homes and kidnapping more than 100 people. >
Israel is killing more, and more, and more civilians. More than 10,000 people in Gaza have been killed, over half of them women and children. There cannot be any justification for such a horrific death toll. >
“The scale and intensity of the attacks have escalated,” B'Tselem Spokesperson Dror Sadot told Al-Monitor. “What we’re seeing is the settlers are basically targeting community after community, attacking multiple times… under the cover of the Gaza war.”
What you see in this video is 32-years-old ‘Amid Raleb al-Ja’oub, rushing to help another Palestinian who was wounded by Israeli forces in Beita, then being shot himself by them in the back of the neck and collapsing to the ground. >
Together with other Israeli human rights and civil society organizations we sent yesterday a letter to
@POTUS
asking him to use his influence to change Israel's policy and prevent deterioration of the already catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.
Five children between the ages of 8-12 were detained about an hour ago by the Israeli army after gathering wild vegetables near the settlement Havat Maon
B'Tselem sends its deepest condolences to our dear friend, Olfat al-Kurd, our Field Researcher in Gaza, for the loss of 15 members of her family who were killed when Israel bombed their home in the Gaza Strip on October 11, 2023.
This is Muhammad al-Qanub (74) shortly after he was brutally attacked, a few meters away from his home, by dozens of settlers, some armed with clubs and axes. His family members who came to his aid were also attacked. His wife, Zuhour (67), and other family members were forced >
1/3 The residents of Gaza are starving due to the humanitarian crisis Israel has intentionally created in the Gaza Strip. Their attempts to access the scarce aid allowed in led, this morning, to the death of dozens of people after soldiers fired into the crowd. >>
Last night armed settlers entered the community of Khirbet a-Tuba (South Hebron Hills). They invaded one of the homes, trashed the family’s belongings, threatened the family and ordered its members to leave their home. >
As in numerous previous incidents, the Israeli army not only failed to protect Palestinians, it fired at Palestinian residents who rushed to protect their property. This is what apartheid looks like.
This is Jamil Nijem, a three-year-old from the Gaza Strip. He went with four teenagers to play in a cemetery near his home and was killed along with them, when the Israeli military fired a missile at them on 7 August 2022. >
יו"ר הרשות מטיח בישראל האשמות ללא בסיס מוצק.
על פי הנתונים שבידינו כרגע, יש סיכוי לא מבוטל שפלסטינים חמושים, שירו באופן פרוע, הם שהביאו למותה המצער של העיתונאית.
הפלסטינים אף תועדו אומרים "פגענו בחייל, הוא שכוב על האדמה". אף חייל לא נפגע, מה שמעלה את האפשרות כי הם ירו ופגעו >>
1/7
On Saturday, Hamas committed a shocking crime whose horrifying dimensions are slowly becoming clear. Hundreds of Palestinian militants entered Israeli territory and opened fire indiscriminately, killing hundreds of civilians and injuring thousands. >
Israeli soldiers stole gold jewelry from a Palestinian family in Hebron. “Check the soldier, she took it! The soldier took it, now, ask her,” pleaded Yusef Razem with another soldier, to no avail. >
These are Muhammad Hamayel (16) and Ahmad Bani Shamsah (15), two friends from the town of Beita in the West Bank. Both were shot to death less than a week apart when they participated in the weekly demonstrations against the establishment of the Evyatar outpost on Beita's land. >
B'Tselem told the BBC that it had documented "a concerted and organised effort by settlers to use the fact that the entire international and local attention is focused on Gaza and the north of Israel to try to seize land in the West Bank".
The display of Jewish supremacy in Jerusalem today, with the full backing of the State and security forces, is not the act of a handful of extremists but rather, an expression of the reality for millions of Palestinians living under Israel’s apartheid regime >
Our field researcher in the Gaza Strip, Olfat al-Kurd, has lost 16 of her family members in an Israeli airstrike. Yesterday, she sent us this video showing where she and her family find shelter these days, and an improvised refugee camp in the southern part of the Strip. >
Khaled al-Bahtini has applied over and over for a permit to leave Gaza for medical treatment in East Jerusalem. Over and over, in a kind of sadistic ritual, Israel has replied via text message one day before the scheduled appointment that his request is denied. >
The catastrophe in Gaza is worsening unimaginably by the minute. For 80 days, Israel has prevented the entry of vital supplies – fuel, food, water and medicine – into Gaza. It is intentionally leaving people starved and without water. >
B'Tselem in response to the military's announcement on the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh:
It's not an investigation, it's whitewash; it was no mistake, it's policy. >
THREAD. The horrifying killing of Ghadah Sabatin, a 44-year-old widow and mother of six, who was unarmed and posed no threat to anyone, is not exceptional. To the contrary: the choice to use lethal force with no justification is not simply a case of misjudgment on part of >
These are Muhammad Salah (13) and ‘Ammar Abu ‘Afifah (18). Both were shot and killed by Israeli soldiers in the Bethlehem area within a week.
Although they were killed in two separate incidents and under different circumstances, they are both victims of the same wanton >
Omar Jbarah, 24 ,father of two toddlers. When settlers and the army entered his town and carried out a pogrom, he helped rescue elderly residents whose homes settlers had set on fire while they were still inside. Later, police officers shot him in the chest and killed him. >
Yesterday morning, the residents of Um Safa discovered that settlers had smashed the windows of six cars in the village, punctured their tires and stolen two license plates, as well as stealing the keys to two other cars.
About 15 million people live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, half of them Jews and the other half Palestinians. Half are allowed to fully participate in the upcoming elections, which will shape the government and our lives in the coming years. >
This is ‘Abd al-Karim al-Ja’bari, a 64-year-old and father of 12. A masked settler violently assaulted him while he was working on his land, breaking his left hand and badly wounding his head. Later that day, settlers pelted his home with stones. And again, the next day. >
“Muhammad was still very scared. He told me that when they detained him, the policewoman had told him in Arabic that they follow all the children in al-‘Esawiyah, even when at home. Muhammad now feels under surveillance all the time, even when he’s asleep.” >
Targeting civilians must be stopped. There is no reason in the world, certainly not vengeance, that could justify bringing about more grief and suffering. Return the captives now. Prevent a humanitarian catastrophe. Stop the war.
"Soldier Who Killed Palestinian Toddler Muhammad Tamimi Will Not Face Disciplinary Action"
"Israeli Soldiers Who Bound, Gagged 80-year-old Palestinian American Before He Died Won't Be Charged"
These two news stories, published yesterday in Haaretz, are an important reminder:
Hamed and Muhammad Nijem, two high-school students from the Gaza Strip, were cousins and close friends, as these photos show. They were killed along with two other friends and their 3-year-old cousin when the Israeli military fired a missile that hit a cemetery near their home. >
“Nothing happens by accident,” said another source. “When a 3-year-old girl is killed in a home in Gaza, it’s because someone in the army decided it wasn’t a big deal for her to be killed."
An important investigative report by Yuval Avraham:
Today Israel demolished a primary school in Masafer Yatta that had 23 pupils and three teachers.
This is part of a state effort to drive Palestinians out of the area by making their lives unbearable.
Expelling residents is a war crime.
“He came towards me holding a gun.I was afraid he was going to attack me and called my dad. While I was on the phone with him, the settler came closer and punched me hard in the nose, and then slapped me hard on the face several times. I felt dizzy and my nose started to bleed.”>
5/5 Changing this policy is not just a moral obligation. Allowing food into Gaza is not an act of kindness but a positive obligation under IHL. Refusing to comply with this duty constitutes a war crime.
Read B'tselem's full paper:
Three settler attacks already this weekend (initial information): yesterday evening settlers attacked a Palestinian family while in their car near Beita. The settlers smashed the car windows and sprayed pepper spray into the car. A baby was also in the car.
This is what the face of 15-year-old Majd Rweidi looked like after Israeli police officers and ISA agents violently dragged him out of bed and beat him. “I couldn’t believe it was my son. His facial features had completely changed,” his father later recounted. >
The father is currently hospitalized. During the forces' incursion into the camp, 13 residents, some of them armed, were killed, including six minors. Ten of the casualties were killed by missile shrapnel. A Border Police officer was killed in the clashes.
A bold security operation: Yesterday morning, a settler, soldiers, Border police officers and police all took part in the confiscation of a tractor from a Palestinian farmer in the northers Jordan Valley. >