UN: Israeli forces killed 8 Palestinians in two weeks, demolished 29 buildings

A new report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says Israeli forces have killed eight Palestinians and injured 140 others, including 20 children, in the occupied Palestinian territories in a span of two weeks.

The latest data was released in the bi-weekly Protection of Civilians report on Saturday. It covered the period between February 22 and March 9, Palestine’s official Wafa news agency reported.

According to the report, a 23-year-old Palestinian man who was shot by Israeli forces near the West Bank village of Burqa, north of Nablus, on March 2, succumbed to his wounds a week later.

On March 1, a 19-year-old Palestinian was shot and killed near the town of Beit Fajjar, south of Bethlehem, the report said. Two others were killed by Israeli forces in the Jenin refugee camp on the same day.

The UN report said a 15-year-old Palestinian boy was shot in the village of Abu Dis in East al-Quds on March 6, while two Palestinians of 19 and 22 years of age were shot and killed in the Old City of al-Quds after they allegedly stabbed and injured three Israeli policemen. A 13-year-old boy was also shot and killed near the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, on February 22.

The report said virtually half of the injuries occurred during protests against Israeli settlements as well as in solidarity with Palestinian families at risk of forced eviction in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East al-Quds.  

Israeli forces attack Palestinian protesters in West Bank

Israeli forces have suppressed several protests staged by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank to condemn the Tel Aviv regime’s policies.

Sheikh Jarrah has been the scene of frequent crackdowns by Israeli forces on the Palestinians protesting against the threatened expulsion of dozens of Palestinian families from their homes in favor of Israeli settler groups.

Since Israel seized East al-Quds in a 1967 war, Israeli settler organizations have claimed ownership of land in Sheikh Jarrah and have filed multiple lawsuits to evict Palestinians from the area.

Furthermore, the report said Israeli forces also demolished 29 Palestinian-owned buildings, two of them punitively, displacing 62 people, including 28 children.

Israeli forces have carried out 82 search-and-arrest operations and arrested 183 Palestinians during the said two-week period. Israeli settlers have also injured two Palestinians and damaged Palestinian property in 20 instances in the mentioned time period.

Israel routinely demolishes Palestinian houses in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds, claiming that the structures have been built without permits, which are almost impossible to obtain. Israeli authorities also sometimes order Palestinian owners to demolish their own houses.

The Tel Aviv regime plans to force Palestinian families from different neighborhoods in East al-Quds in an attempt to replace them with settlers.

Nearly 700,000 Israelis live in settlements built since the 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds. The UN Security Council has in several resolutions condemned Tel Aviv’s settlement projects on the occupied Palestinian land.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent state with East al-Quds as its capital.

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