Palestine in Pictures: December 2018

Relatives of Palestinian boy Ahmad Abu Abid, 4, mourn during the child’s
funeral in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on 12 December. The child
succumbed to injuries sustained days earlier after he was hit by shrapnel fired
by Israeli soldiers during Great March of Return protests.
Ashraf AmraAPA images

2 January 2018
Israeli occupation forces killed 14 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip in December.
It was the first month since the launch of the Great March of Return in
March that more Palestinians were killed in the West Bank than the Gaza
Strip.
Some 300 Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers throughout
the year. Fourteen Israelis were killed by Palestinians during the same period,
including two soldiers shot dead in the West Bank during December.
Additionally, a baby died days after his premature birth following the critical
shooting of his Israeli mother near a West Bank settlement in December.
Salah Barghouti, a 29-year-old Palestinian, was alleged by Israel to have shot
the woman whose baby died, along with her husband and five others who
were moderately injured.
Forced disappearance
The Palestinian rights group Al-Haq made an urgent appeal to the UN
Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances concerning
Barghouti’s case.
According to Al-Haq’s documentation, including witness testimony, Barghouti
was apprehended alive on 12 December. Several hours after his
disappearance, Israeli media reported that Barghouti had been killed by
Yamam, a special unit of Israel’s Border Police.
The inconsistencies in Israel’s narrative concerning Barghouti, Al-Haq states,
“reveal that t
Palestinians harvest strawberries at a farm in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza
Strip, on 1 December.
Ashraf AmraAPA imageshere has been an attempt to conceal the
circumstances in which [Barghouti] was arrested, detained and possibly
killed, while they fail to disclose his current whereabouts.”
The day after Barghouti’s disappearance, Israeli forces killed Ashraf Naawla,
23, after a two-month manhunt. Naawla was suspected of shooting and killing
two Israelis at a West Bank settlement industrial plant in early October.
Disabled man shot from behind
Also during December, Israeli forces shot Muhammad Habali, a 22-year-old
Palestinian with cognitive and physical disabilities, in the head from behind at
a distance of 80 meters during a raid on the city of Tulkarm.
“The lethal shooting was not preceded by a warning, was not justified and
constitutes a violation of the law,” the Israeli rights group
B’Tselem stated after its own investigation contradicted Israel’s claims that
Habali was killed during a “violent disturbance of the peace.”
Omar Hassan al-Awawdeh, 27, was killed after he drove through a checkpoint
without stopping and allegedly accelerated towards a Border Police
combatant.
An investigation by the Israeli daily Haaretz found that al-Awawdeh was
likely trying to evade being fined by Israeli forces for burning plastic when he
was killed.
Also in the West Bank, 25-year-old Majd Jamal Mteir was killed after
allegedly stabbing and lightly wounding two police officers in Jerusalem on 13
December.
That same day, Hamdan al-Arda, 58, was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers in
the town of al-Bireh, adjacent to Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian
Authority in the West Bank. Israel claimed that al-Arda was killed as he
attempted to attack soldiers with his car but doubt was soon cast on that
narrative.
Teenagers killed
On 14 December, 18-year-old Mahmoud Nakhla was shot in the back by a
soldier during a raid in Jalazone refugee camp, near Ramallah. Soldiers
prevented Palestinian medics from providing treatment to the wounded teen,
who died on the way to hospital.
And on 20 December, soldiers shot and killed Qasim Muhammad Ali al-
Abbasi, 17, at a checkpoint near Ramallah, claiming they opened fire on a car
that ran through a roadblock.
Surviving passengers in the car said that the group was attempting to reach
the city Nablus when they realized they had accidentally turned onto a road
leading to an Israeli settlement. When they tried to return to the main road,
they came under heavy fire.
Two children were among six Palestinians killed in Gaza during December, all
fatally wounded during Great March of Return protests, and among 56
Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces throughout the year.
Great March of Return fatalities
Ahmad Yasir Sabri Abid, 4 years old, was the youngest fatality yet during the
Great March of Return after he was hit by shrapnel during protests on 7
December and died four days later.
Muhammad al-Jahjouh, 16, was shot in the neck and killed during Great
March of Return protests along Gaza’s eastern perimeter on 21 December.
That same day, Israeli forces shot in the head and killed Maher Atiyya
Muhammad Yassin, a 40-year-old man with physical disabilities resulting
from polio, while Abd al-Aziz Abu Sharia, 28, died after being shot in the
stomach. Ayman Munir Muhammad Shubeir, 18, died on 22 December after
being shot in the stomach during protests the previous day.
Karam Muhammad Fayyad, 28, was shot in the head and killed during
demonstrations on 28 December.
Fayyad, who had mental illness, according to the rights group Al Mezan, is
among eight persons with disability killed during the Great March of Return
protests, including one child.
Also among the Great March of Return fatalities, totaling 180 since 30 March,
were 35 children, a woman, two journalists and three paramedics, according
to Al Mezan.
More than 7,400 Palestinians have been wounded by live fire during the
protests. Some 29,000Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza were wounded
by Israeli forces during the year – the highest total since the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) began collecting data in 2005.
Increase in settler violence, Gaza food insecurity
The UN monitoring group also documented a sharp uptick in Israeli settler
attacks against Palestinians and their property during 2018, with a nearly 70
percent increase in incidents over the previous year, resulting in the death of a
woman and the injury of 115 other Palestinians.
“Palestinian property vandalized by settlers includes some 7,900 trees and
about 540 vehicles,” OCHA stated.
“There were at least 181 incidents where Palestinians killed or injured settlers
and other Israeli civilians in the West Bank or damaged Israeli property, a 28
percent decline compared with the previous year,” OCHA added. “However,
the number of Israelis killed in these incidents in 2018 (seven), increased
compared to 2017 (four).”
The rate of food insecurity increased in Gaza to 68 percent of the population,
up from 59 percent in 2014. The food insecurity rate in Gaza, under Israeli
air, sea and land blockade since 2007, was nearly six times that in the West
Bank, where the rate has fallen since 2014.
The World Food Programme is slashing food aid to Palestinians in 2019 due
to a shortage of funds, affecting 27,000 people in the West Bank and 165,000
people in Gaza. The US government slashed half a billion dollars in foreign
aid to Palestinians, including refugees in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, during
2018.
Eight Palestinians in Syria were recorded during the month of December as
having died as a result of the ongoing war in the country.
Five residents of Yarmouk refugee camp, including two sets of brothers, were
recorded as having died in Syrian government detention.
Three other Palestinians in Syria died in battle alongside government forces
during the month.
Nearly 4,000 Palestinians in Syria have died as a result of the war since
2011, according to the Action Group for Palestinians in Syria. More than 560
of those fatalities are Palestinians who died in Syrian government prison and
detention centers, and some 200 who have died as a result of the siege on
Yarmouk camp.

Palestinians harvest strawberries at a farm in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza

Strip, on 1 December
Ashraf AmraAPA images

Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus march in solidarity with

Jerusalem on 2 December. The banner reads “Jerusalem is Arab and the
capital of the state of Palestine. Jerusalem is the key to war and the key to
peace.” Ahmad Al-BazzActiveStills
A Palestinian woman makes traditional taboun bread in Salem village, east of
the West Bank City of Nablus, on 3 December.
Shadi Jarar’ahAPA images

An injured protester is treated by paramedics during Great March of Return

protests east of al-Bureij, central Gaza, on 7
December.MahmoudKhattabAPA images
Imad al-Din al-Saftawi is greeted by family and friends upon his release in
Gaza City on 12 December after spending 18 years in Israeli prison.
Ashraf AmraAPA images

Israeli settlers block a road where two Israeli soldiers were killed an hour
earlier, near the Givat Assaf settlement in the occupied West Bank, on 13
December. Israeli settlers rioted across the West Bank after attacks by
Palestinians over the previous week.

Oren ZivActiveStills
Palestinians confront Israeli forces near the settlement of Beit El on 14
December during a military crackdown on the Ramallah area of the occupied
West Bank following the killing of two soldiers.
Ahmad ArouriAPA images

A woman shields her husband from Palestinian Authority security forces as

the latter violently disperse a demonstration in the West Bank city of Nablus
on 14 December.

Wisam HashlamounAPA images

A Palestinian protester throws back a tear gas canister shot by Israeli soldiers
during Great March of Return protests east of Gaza City on 14 December.
Mohammed ZaanounActiveStills

Relatives of Mahmoud Nakhla, 18, mourn during the teen’s funeral in

Jalazone refugee camp, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, on 15
December. Nakhla was shot dead by Israeli forces during a raid on the camp
the previous day.

Ahmad ArouriAPA images

A home belonging to the Abu Humaid family in al-Amari refugee camp near
the West Bank city of Ramallah after it was blown up by Israeli forces on 15
December. Israeli forces destroyed the home belonging to an elderly widow in
an act of collective punishment after her son was alleged to have pushed a
marble slab from the rooftop onto an Israeli soldier during a raid, causing
him fatal injury.
Mohamad TorokmanReuters

Fireworks are set off during a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in

Jerusalem’s Old City on 15 December.

Saeed QaqAPA images

Palestinian worshippers wait for the acting Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem to
lead mass at the Holy Family Church in Gaza City on 16 December.
Ashraf AmraAPA images

Hamas supporters in Gaza City mark the 31st anniversary of the founding of
the Islamist movement on 16 December.
Mahmoud KhattabAPA images
Palestinians hold a weekly sit-in in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners held
by Israel in front of the Red Cross offices in Gaza City on 17 December.
Ashraf AmraAPA images

A Palestinian man inspects the ruins of the destroyed home belonging to the
family of Ashraf Naalwa in Shweika, near the West Bank town of Tulkarm,
on 17 December. The demolition was carried out as a measure of collective
punishment after Naalwa allegedly killed two Israelis at a West Bank
industrial plant in October. Naalwa was killed by Israeli forces after a two-
month manhunt on 13 December.

Ahmad Al-BazzActiveStills
Photojournalist Mohammed Asad displays his camera that was damaged by
shrapnel while covering protests east of Gaza City on 21 December. The
camera was hit by shrapnel from the same bullet that killed 16-year-old
Muhammad al-Jahjouh.
Mohammad Abu El-SebahAPA images

A Palestinian girl does homework by candlelight at her family’s dwelling at

Nahr al-Bared encampment in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on 20
December.

Mahmoud KhattabAPA images

Mourners carry the body of Ayman Shubeir, 18, shot dead by Israeli forces
during Great March of Return protests, during his funeral in Deir al-Balah,
central Gaza Strip, on 22 December.
Mahmoud KhattabAPA images

A Blackstart perches on a branch in the West Bank town of Tubas on 23

December. The flycatcher is found in desert regions in North Africa, the
Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula.

Shadi Jarar’ahAPA images

Sheikh Sayah al-Turi, the head of al-Araqib village, walks into Maasiyahu
Prison, in the city of Ramle in central Israel, on 25 December to serve a 10-
month prison sentence after he was convicted of unlawfully entering and
trespassing on land where his village once stood. Al-Araqib, is not formally
recognized by the state and has been demolished more than 100 times in the
past several years.
Oren ZivActiveStills

\
Artist and calligrapher Hashem Kalloub, 59, at his Gaza City workshop on 26
December.

Mahmoud AjjourAPA images

Palestinians attend a ceremony marking the National Day of Martyrs
organized by Gaza’s Ministry of Interior and National Security to mark the
10th anniversary of the Israeli military assault on Gaza dubbed Operation
Cast Lead, on 27 December. Some 250 members of Gaza’s police force were
among the approximately 1,400 Palestinians killed during the three-week
offensive.
Ashraf AmraAPA images

Relatives of Elias Salih Yassin, 22, mourn during the young man’s funeral in
the West Bank town of Salfit on 29 December. Yassin was shot and fatally
wounded by Israeli forces while allegedly attempting to carry out a stabbing
attack in the West Bank on 15 October; Israel withheld his body until late
December.

Shadi Jarar’ahAPA images

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas speaks during a ceremony
marking the 54th anniversary of the Fatah party’s founding, in the West Bank
city of Ramallah, on 31 December.
Thaer GanaimAPA images

Palestinians enjoy the last hours of 2018 on the beach in Gaza City on 31
December.
Ashraf AmraAPA images

Posted by Thavam