Palestine in Pictures: September 2018

Palestinians march against Israel’s siege on Gaza during a demonstration

near Erez checkpoint, northern Gaza Strip, 4 September.
Mohammed ZaanounActiveStills
The Electronic Intifada 3 October 2018

Twenty-three Palestinians were killed

by Israeli forces and armed civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza
Strip during the month of September.

All but three of those fatalities occurred in Gaza, where Israeli forces shot and
killed seven Palestinians during mass protests on 28 September alone.
Two boys aged 11 and 14 were killed during that last Friday of September.
Children killed
Four additional children were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza during the
month.

One of those children, Naji Jamil Abu Assi, 16, was killed in an airstrike along
with Alaa Ziyad Abu Assi on 17 September. Israel claimed that the pair were
among a group attempting to cross the boundary fence. The human rights
group Al Mezan said that Israeli forces fired on a group of protesters and that
the youths were found dead the next day.

A fifth child, Suhaib Abu Kashif, 16, died on 15 September from his injuries
after being shot in the neck during protests the month before. “The bullet
severed his spinal cord paralyzing him so he could not breathe on his own,”
Defense for Children International Palestine stated.

Twelve patients have been paralyzed due to spinal cord injuries sustained
during the Great March of Return protests and two of them have died, a UN
spokesperson stated at the end of September.

More than 10,000 Palestinians have been injured and required hospitalization
during the protests, around half of them wounded by live fire. There have
been 77 cases of injuries requiring amputation, among them 14 children and
one woman, according to the UN spokesperson.

More than 150 Palestinians have been killed during the six months of mass
protests along Gaza’s eastern and northern perimeters. The slain include
more than 30 children, three persons with disabilities, three paramedics and
two journalists.
West Bank violence
In the West Bank, Muhammad al-Rimawi, 24, died after he was detained
during a raid on his home by Israeli forces. An autopsy suggested that he died
as a result of severe beating during his arrest, as alleged by his family, but this
was rejected by Israel.

Wael Abd al-Fattah al-Jaabari, 36, was shot and killed during what Israel
claimed was an attempted stabbing attack near the Kiryat Arba settlement on
3 September. No Israelis were injured.
Another Palestinian man, Muhammad Yusif Alayan, was killed during an
alleged stabbing in East Jerusalem on 18 September. No Israelis were injured
during that incident.

Israel is withholding the body of both men killed during the alleged stabbing
attempts along with the bodies of 15 others killed in previous alleged attacks.

Seven Israelis and seven Palestinian assailants and alleged assailants have
been killed in the context of alleged attacks since the beginning of the year.

An Israeli man of American origin died after he was stabbed by a 16-year-old

Palestinian at a shopping center in a Hebron-area settlement on 16
September. The Palestinian assailant was shot multiple times during the
incident but survived and was arrested by Israel.

Nine Israelis have been killed by Palestinians so far this year; around 235
Palestinians were killed by Israeli occupation forces and armed civilians
during the same period.
Humanitarian funding crisis
UNRWA, the UN agency which provides services to 5.4 million Palestine
refugees, announced at the end of September that it had raised $122 million to
overcome a budget shortfall of $186 million.

The agency was plunged into unprecedented crisis after the US, formerly its
largest donor, announced that it would cut $300 million in aid. A funding gap
of $64 million remains.

During the month of September the Trump administration in

Washington slashed more than $25 million in approved aid for six hospitals in
East Jerusalem providing care to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

The cuts are in addition to the $200 million more in bilateral aid to the West
Bank and Gaza frozen by the US in August.

Gaza’s two million residents endured power outages of up to 20 hours per day
amid a longstanding electricity crisis resulting from more than a decade of
Israeli siege, subsequent military assaults, and a bitter impasse between the
Hamas authorities in the Strip and the Palestinian Authority in the West
Bank.
“Gaza’s water and sanitation facilities have a near zero stock of emergency
fuel, while public hospitals currently have only enough fuel to maintain
essential services for a few more weeks, on average, with some facilities facing
even greater risks,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs stated in mid-September.
War crime imminent
On 23 September the Israeli occupation authorities gave official warning to
the residents of Khan al-Ahmar village in the West Bank that they must
demolish their own homes by 1 October or else state forces would do so.

Amnesty International stated that the forced demolition of the West Bank
village would be a “war crime.”

Meanwhile settler violence in the West Bank “has been on the rise since the
beginning of 2018,” according to UN OCHA, “with a weekly average of five
attacks resulting in injuries or property damage, compared with an average of
three in 2017 and two in 2016.”

The Action Group for Palestinians of Syria meanwhile stated that 18

Palestinians died in September in the context of the ongoing war in the
country. The majority were fighters in pro-government groups killed in battle
against Islamic State in the southern province of Sweida.
Israeli soldiers gather at the scene where a Palestinian was shot dead during
an alleged stabbing attempt near a checkpoint at the Kiryat Arba settlement
in the West Bank city of Hebron, 3 September.

Wisam HashlamounAPA images

Palestinians receive food aid at an UNRWA distribution center in Khan

Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on 4 September. The US said it had halted all
funding to the UN agency for Palestine refugees with State Department
spokesperson Heather Nauert calling it an “irredeemably flawed operation.”

Ashraf AmraAPA images

A bride and groom link arms as 80 couples take part in a mass wedding in the
West Bank city of Nablus on 6 September.

Shadi Jarar’ahAPA images

Palestinians set fire to an effigy of US President Donald Trump during Great

March of Return protests along Gaza’s eastern perimeter, 7 September.

Mohammed ZaanounActiveStills
Palestinian women stand in front of the Gaza-Israel boundary fence during
the 24th consecutive Friday of the Great March of Return protests on 7
September. Two teenage boys, both under the age of 18, were fatally wounded
during the protests. Video shows that one of the teens, Ahmad Misbah Abu
Tuyour, was shot while his hands were up in the air.

Mohammed ZaanounActiveStills

Palestinians protest against Israel’s closure of a road for nearly 20 years in the
West Bank village of Khirbat Qalqas, south of Hebron, on 7 September.

Wisam HashlamounAPA images

Recent university graduates hold placards during a protest to demand their
rights outside the Ministry of Labor headquarters in Gaza City on 9
September. A World Bank report published in September stated that in Gaza,
“every second person living in poverty and the unemployment rate for its
overwhelmingly young population at over 70 percent.”

Ashraf AmraAPA images

Palestinians attend a grape harvest festival in Halhoul village, near the West
Bank city of Hebron, on 10 September. Hebron is renowned for its grape
production.

Shadi HatemAPA images

Palestinian women practice karate at a Gaza City club on 11 September.

Ashraf AmraAPA images

Palestinian boats sail towards the maritime boundary between Gaza and
Israel in protest against the decade-long Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip, 11
September.

ActiveStills
Israeli forces raid the village of Khan al Ahmar in the early hours of the
morning, and demolish several structures that were built by Palestinian
activists, in protest of the imminent risk of demolition over the entire village,
Khan al Ahmar, Jerusalem Periphery, September 13, 2018.
Oren ZivActiveStills

Israeli occupation forces detain a Palestinian protester during a

demonstration against the blocking of the road leading to the West Bank
village of Khan al-Ahmar, 14 September.
Wisam HashlamounAPA images

A nurse checks on a baby in an incubator at the neonatal intensive care unit of

Gaza City’s al-Shifa hospital as the health ministry and UN officials warned
that essential services in Gaza may soon shut down amid an acute phase of a
chronic electricity and fuel crisis, 16 September.
Mahmoud AjourAPA images

Palestinian children walk through a tunnel under Highway 1 on their way to

school in the village of Khan al-Ahmar on 17 September. The entire Bedouin
village, located in the periphery of Jerusalem, is under imminent threat of
demolition.
Oren ZivActiveStills

Employees of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, protest in Gaza

City against job cuts amid the agency’s unprecedented financial crisis, 19
September.
Dawoud Abo AlkasAPA images

Palestinian student Ola Marshoud is greeted by family and friends at al-

Jalameh military checkpoint, south of the West Bank city of Jenin, following
her release after seven months of Israeli imprisonment, 20 September.
Shadi Jarar’ahAPA images

Israeli and international activists protest on the Israeli side of the Gaza
border fence in solidarity with Palestinians during the weekly Great March of
Return demonstrations, 21 September.
Oren ZivActiveStills

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas meets Ehud Olmert in Paris on

21 September. Olmert was prime minister of Israel during the military
operation dubbed Operation Cast Lead, in which some 1,400 Palestinians
were killed during three weeks of intensive bombing on Gaza.
Thaer GanaimAPA images

A farmer harvests dates in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, on 23

September.
Ashraf AmraAPA images

A wounded protester is evacuated during mass protests along the Gaza-Israel

maritime boundary, north of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, on 24
September.
Ashraf AmraAPA images

Palestinians look on as Israeli occupation forces stand guard as religious Jews,

not seen in the photo, visit the tomb of Biblical figure Othniel ben Kenaz in
the West Bank city of Hebron on 25 September.
Wisam HashlamounAPA images

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas delivers a speech at the United

Nations in New York City during the world body’s General Assembly on 27
September.
Thaer GanaimAPA images

A Palestinian woman in the West Bank city of Hebron carries a poster of

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas during a rally on the occasion
of his speech at the UN General Assembly, 27 September.
Wisam HashlamounAPA images

Palestinians in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, protest against Palestinian

Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas following his speech at the United Nations
General Assembly, 27 September.
Ashraf AmraAPA images

The head of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, in tan shirt at center, participates
in mass protests in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on 29 September.
Earlier in the month Sinwar said that his faction and other resistance groups
in the territory would break the siege by any means necessary and within the
coming weeks.
Ashraf AmraAPA images

A Palestinian protester hurls stones towards Israeli occupation forces during

confrontations following a weekly demonstration against Israeli land
expropriation in the village of Kfar Qaddum, near the West Bank city of
Nablus, on 28 September.
Shadi Jarar’ahAPA images
The family of Muhammad Ali Muhammad Inshasi, 18, who was shot and
killed by Israeli soldiers in mass protests the previous day, mourn over his
body during his funeral in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, 29 September.
Ashraf AmraAPA images

Mourners carry the bodies of Muhammad Ashraf al-Awawdeh, 25, and

Muhammad Nayif Yusif al-Hawm, 14, both shot and killed by Israeli forces in
mass protests the previous day, during their funeral in Bureij refugee camp,
central Gaza Strip, 29 September.
Mahmoud KhattabAPA images

Posted by Thavam