On the Agenda

Every day and every night, soldiers may enter Palestinian homes. Such invasions of private space have long been an integral part of security forces’ operations in the West Bank. Palestinians know that soldiers may enter their homes at will, invade their bedrooms, wake their children and rummage through their belongings. For most of us, the home is a safe space. This is not so for Palestinians. Control, humiliation, and oppression penetrate their homes. In the coming days, we will present cases that occurred throughout November and October 2020. Read the first of them, in the village of Kobar, Ramallah district.

On Monday morning, 17 December 2020, Border Police and Special Patrol Unit forces entered Qalandiya Refugee Camp. About 10 officers entered one of the camp’s homes, attacking a 15-year-old, locking his family members in rooms, violently searching the house, and leaving as they arrested two sons. During clashes that broke out in the camp, police snipers opened wanton fire, injuring five. In this case, as in hundreds of others, no one will be held accountable for the violence meted against the family or the shooting.

Yesterday, Israel demolished the Palestinian community of Khirbet Humsah for the fourth time, following twice last week and once in November 2020. These actions – carried out in the midst of a humanitarian crisis caused by the pandemic — are part of Israel’s efforts to forcibly transfer the community on spurious pretexts of “military training” and “law enforcement.”

In November 2020, Israeli Border Police officers shot and injured two Palestinians who were protesting the establishment of a settlement outpost near the Bedouin community of Ras a-Tin. ‘Abdallah Abu Rahma (55) was hit in the shoulder by a sponge round at close range; Y.B. (19) was hit in the leg by a live sniper fire. In both cases, the shooting was unlawful, immoral and unjustified, in keeping with Israel's open-fire policy in the Occupied Territories that conveys utter disregard for the lives and wellbeing of Palestinians.

Yesterday, another massive demolition at Khirbet Humsah; today, troops began extensive training among homes and fields of Masafer Yatta residents

For three weeks, four soldiers abused the residents of Silwad, a town northwest of Ramallah, on a daily basis. They set up checkpoints, searched cars coming and going, swore at residents and assaulted them. The soldiers roamed the town firing stun grenades and tear gas canisters and damaging vehicles. In one case, they shot and wounded a teenager. Their commanders did not intervene to stop the abuse. Years of experience show no one will be held accountable for this conduct, which serves the occupation regime and allows it to continue.

Since the death of 16-year-old Israeli settler Ahuvia Sandak on 21 Dec. 2020, B’Tselem has documented a spike in settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank: 49 until 24 Jan. 2021. Yet settler violence against Palestinians has long been a routine part of the occupation. These acts are fully backed by the state, which sends forces to protect the assailants and holds no one accountable after the fact. That is precisely what a Jewish supremacist regime looks like.

In November 2020, B’Tselem documented two incidents in which Israeli security forces injured Palestinian minors by firing crowd control weapons: Bashar Hamad (15) lost an eye during a police raid on Qalandia R.C. and Yusef Taha (17) was hit in the head during a protest in Kafr Qadum. Such wanton use of crown control weapons, which causes grave injuries, is unjustified and unlawful. Yet it has long been routine, and its dire consequences are not exceptional but the direct result of a lenient open-fire policy.