Palestine In Pictures: January 2019

The new year in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip began as 2018 ended, with Israeli soldiers and settlers killing Palestinian men, women and children with impunity.

The Electronic Intifada: Nearly 300 Palestinians were killed by Israeli occupation forces last year, thanks to a “reckless open-fire policy” and a “profound disregard for the lives of Palestinians … broadly backed by senior policy makers in the military, the government and the judicial system,” as described by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.

A Palestinian protester is engulfed by tear gas during Great March of Return protests east of Gaza City on 4 January. Mohammed Zaanoun ActiveStills

“Given this sweeping support and the lack of accountability for these deaths, such incidents will continue,” B’Tselem warned at the close of 2018.
Eleven Palestinians were killed by soldiers and settlers during January, and an additional Palestinian died from his injuries after being shot during protests in Gaza the previous year.
Four of those killed in January were fatally injured during Great March of Return protests along Gaza’s eastern perimeter, including a child and an adult struck in the head with tear gas canisters.
Amal al-Taramasi, the first Palestinian fatality at the hands of Israel this year, became the third female to be shot and killed during the Great March of Return protests, which were launched on 30 March 2018. According to Al Mezan, a human rights group based in Gaza, 185 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces during the protests.
A fifth Palestinian in Gaza was killed by artillery fire when Israeli forces hit a Hamas observation post on 22 January.

Girl killed in West Bank

In the West Bank, two Palestinians, one of them a 16-year-old girl, were killed in what Israel claimed were attempted stabbing attacks. In both cases – one at Huwwara checkpoint near Nablus and the other near Jerusalem – no Israelis were injured.
Last year, Israeli forces and armed civilians killed 15 Palestinians who carried out or were alleged to have carried out attacks against Israelis in the West Bank.
Israeli settlers under the protection of the military shot and killed a Palestinian father in the central West Bank village of al-Mughayyir in late January. The village is frequently subjected to attacks from the residents of nearby settlements.
Also during January, Israeli forces shot and killed a 17-year-old boy near a highway used by settlers in the central West Bank. The teen was ambushed as he picnicked with friends, by Israeli soldiers who claimed the boy and his friends were suspected of throwing stones at cars traveling on the highway.
A fifth Palestinian was killed in the West Bank during the month when police in East Jerusalem opened fire at a vehicle suspected to be stolen after the driver reportedly did not obey an order to stop.

Egypt partly closes Rafah crossing

Also during the month, Egypt partially closed Rafah crossing – the sole point of exit and entry for most of Gaza’s more than two million residents – after the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank withdrew its personnel from the Palestinian side.
The crossing was open on 29 January for urgent departures from Gaza after three weeks during which Palestinians were allowed to enter Gaza from Egypt but not allowed into Egypt from Gaza.
More than 150 Palestinians were injured during confrontations with Israeli forces inside Ofer prison near Ramallah in January after raids in search of mobile phones and other banned items.
Israeli forces uprooted some 1,250 olive trees belonging to Palestinians in the Hebron area claiming that they were planted on “state land.”
An additional 1,000 trees in the West Bank were vandalized by Israeli settlers during the month.

The sun rises over Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, on New Years Day 2019.
Mahmoud Khattab APA images

Palestinians in the West Bank city of Ramallah watch the 2019 AFC Asian Cup Group B football match between Palestine and Syria on 6 January. The match ended in a 0-0 draw.
Ahmad Arouri APA images

An Israeli settler displays a photo of an injured Palestinian man after the latter was shot in what Israel claimed was an alleged stabbing attack at the entrance of Kiryat Arba settlement in the West Bank city of Hebron on 11 January.
Wisam Hashlamoun APA images

Protesters climb a fence along the Gaza-Israel boundary and hang Palestinian flags on it during Great March of Return protests east of Gaza City on 11 January. The Israeli army fatally injured a woman and a boy during the day’s demonstrations.
Mohammed Zaanoun ActiveStills

A Palestinian family sits among their belongings after Israeli occupation forces demolished their residential structures in Fasayil al-Wusta, a Bedouin community in the West Bank’s Jordan Valley, 16 January. The structures were demolished on the pretext that they were built without a permit, which are very rarely granted to Palestinians living in the 60 percent of the West Bank under full control of the Israeli military.
Ahmad Al-Bazz ActiveStills

Cabbage is sold at a market during a windy and rainy day in the West Bank city of Nablus, 16 January.
Shadi Jarar’ah APA images

A wounded demonstrator is evacuated during Great March of Return protests east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on 11 January.
Ashraf Amra APA images

Mourners carry the body of Palestinian Abd al-Raouf Salha, 14, during his funeral in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip, on 14 January. The child succumbed to his wounds days after being shot in the head with a tear gas canister during Great March of Return protests.
Mahmoud Ajjour APA images

A Palestinian walks down a street near the Old City of Hebron’s Ibrahimi mosque in the West Bank during a winter storm, 17 January.
Wisam Hashlamoun APA images

Construction work is seen at the Israeli settlement of Avnei Hefetz, near the West Bank town of Tulkarem, 18 January. All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, which forbids an occupying power such as Israel from transferring its civilian population to the territory it occupies.
Ahmad Al-Bazz APA images

A Palestinian man speaks to Israeli occupation forces in front of the home of a teen accused of stabbing and killing an American settler in the West Bank last September, after the home was partially demolished by Israeli soldiers in the village of Yatta, southern West Bank, 18 January.
Wisam Hashlamoun APA images

Palestinians evacuate an injured protester during Great March of Return demonstrations east of Gaza City on 18 January.
Mohammed Zaanoun ActiveStills

A Palestinian baby receives medical care at al-Rantisi hospital in Gaza City on 19 January. Gaza’s health ministry warned that health services would be interrupted due to depletion of fuel stocks used to power hospital generators during Gaza’s regular power outages.
Ashraf Amra APA images

Etihad al-Shujaiya team (green uniform) and Shabab Khan Younis compete at Gaza City’s Palestine Stadium on 20 January.
Mahmoud Ajjour APA images

A Palestinian laborer works at a frozen food factory in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, on 22 January. Potatoes have been washed, peeled and cut and are being checked for bruising and rot before being packaged.
Ashraf Amra APA images

An explosion is seen during an Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip, on 22 January. An Israeli tank fired into Gaza, killing a Hamas fighter, in what the army said was retaliation for the wounding of a soldier by fire from Gaza.
Dawoud Abo Alkas APA images

A Palestinian vehicle drives on a newly opened road with an eight-meter-high wall segregating Palestinian traffic from a major Israeli roadway, al-Zaayyim village, West Bank, 23 January.
Ahmad Al-Bazz ActiveStills

Palestinian, Israeli and international activists block a newly opened road segregating Palestinian and Israeli motorists with an eight-meter-high wall, 23 January. Palestinians and human rights groups say this is part of Israel’s Greater Jerusalem plan, which includes the expansion of the Maaleh Adumim settlement into the highly contested E1 area, the annexation of the suburban Jerusalem settlements, and is directly connected to attempts at displacing local Bedouin communities.
Haidi Motola ActiveStills

Israeli soldiers detain a Palestinian camera operator during confrontations with Palestinian protesters in the village of Tuqu near the West Bank city of Bethlehem, 25 January.
Wisam Hashlamoun APA images

A Palestinian child waves his national flag towards an Israeli military jeep during Great March of Return protests east of Gaza City on 25 January.
Mohammed Zaanoun ActiveStills

Relatives of Ihab Abed, 24, shot with a live bullet to the chest by Israeli troops during Great March of Return protests, mourn during his funeral in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on 26 January.
Ashraf Amra APA images

Supporters of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a leftist faction, rally in support of the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in front of the Gaza City offices of UNSCO on 28 January. US President Donald Trump took the extraordinary step of recognizing Juan Guaido as the interim president in Venezuela.
Ashraf Amra APA images

A sparrow perches on a branch in the West Bank city of Nablus on 28 January.
Shadi Jarar’ah APA images

Rami Hamdallah, de facto prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, offers condolences to the family of Hamdan al-Arda, a businessman killed by Israeli forces in December, after Israel transferred his remains, West Bank city of Ramallah, 29 January.
Prime Minister’s office APA images

Palestinians wait for permission to enter Egypt via Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip on 29 January after it had been closed by Egypt for three weeks.
Ashraf Amra APA images

 

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