Aviv Levi

Aviv LevyJuly 20, 2018: Aviv Levi, 20, a Staff Sergeant with the Israeli Army, was killed by sniper fire from Gaza. He was the first soldier to be killed by Palestinian fire since Israel’s offensive and major deadly assault in Gaza in 2014.

It is believed that the Levi was shot with a “Steyr HS .50” long range sniper rifle, since the bullet penetrated his military vest and killed him.

Senior Israeli Military officials said that they do not believe Hamas was behind the death of Aviv, who was shot with sniper fire from Gaza, and added that the person who shot the soldier acted without Hamas’s approval.

Israel believes that Hamas did not approve the shooting of the soldier, and had no knowledge of the attack, especially since senior political leaders of the movement, including its Political Bureau Chief Ismael Haniyya, were present in the protest areas.

It said that senior political leaders of the movement would not put themselves at such risk by being exposed near the firing zone if they had any knowledge about the use of live fire by the Palestinians.

They believe that the attack was carried out by a party that is not loyal to Hamas, and does not follow its directives.

It is worth mentioning that Israeli soldiers killed, on the same day, four Palestinians and injured 120 others, including 50 who were rushed to hospitals in the coastal region.

The army also dropped dozens of missiles into Palestinian areas in several parts of the coastal region, before an indirect ceasefire understanding was reached.

On Thursday, July 19, 2018, an Israeli army drone dropped a missile at Palestinians, east of Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, killing one, identified as Abdul-Karim Radwan, 22, and wounding three others.

The bombing came just hours after Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman stated that he was planning to launch a large-scale war in Gaza similar to the one in 2014, in which 2200 people were killed. In his statement, he said the ‘Palestinian people will pay the price’ for the continued non-violent protests at the border, which have been going on for 100 days.

Fawzi Barhoum, the spokesperson of Hamas in Gaza, said that Israel has chosen the path of war and offensive on Gaza and its people, by murdering unarmed protesters, and added that these killings have raised the bar of retaliation.

“Israel will be held accountable for its crimes; our resistance has the moral and legal duties to protect its people, despite the dire consequences of its retaliation,” Barhoum said, “Shelling will be met my shelling – the resistance is ready, and capable of retaliation and of fighting for the liberation of its people, for breaking the siege and continuing the struggle for independence.”

In announcing the death of the soldier, the Israeli military issued a statement that, “Hamas will be held accountable for this incident as well as the series of the terror activities it has been executing over the past months. Hamas has chosen to escalate the security situation and will bear the responsibility for its actions.”

The reference to ‘terror activities’ appears to be a reference to the three months of non-violent protests that Palestinians have engaged in at the Gaza-Israel border fence. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, in the period between March 30th and July 17th, 2018, Israeli forces killed 142 Palestinian non-violent demonstrators, and wounded 16,496.

7901 of the wounded were treated in field trauma stabilization units, while 8695 of the wounded were transferred to several hospitals. 17 of the slain Palestinians are children. 68 of the wounded had limbs amputated. Israeli army fire also caused damage to 58 Palestinian ambulances in several parts of the Gaza Strip.

During this period, Palestinian demonstrators have gathered each Friday at the border fence between Gaza and Israel for the ‘Great March of Return’, in which they are demanding a lifting of the decade of sanctions against Gaza, the opening of the border, and the right of return for Palestinian refugees to homes they were forcibly removed from in 1948 during the creation of the state of Israel.

Since the March of Return protests began on March 30th, the Israeli army killed 146 Palestinian protesters, including 17 children, two medics and two journalists. One Israeli soldier was killed in the same time period, in the West Bank, not Gaza, when a stone slab fell on his head from atop a building.

Aviv was from Petah Tikva, in central Israel. Source: IMEMC

Ronen Lubarsky

May 26, 2018: Ronen Lubarsky, 20, was an Israeli soldier who was severely injured Thursday morning while invading a Palestinian refugee camp, when Palestinians dropped a stone slab on his head from the roof of a third-story building. On Saturday, Ronen died of his wounds.

The incident took place at the al-Am’ari refugee camp near Ramallah, in the central part of the West Bank.

After his death, Israeli authorities quickly mobilized to put together a patriotic funeral that same evening. Hundreds of people attended, including Ronen’s brother, who gave a eulogy in which he said, “Wild animals were waiting for you on the rooftops. I pray to God that our leaders, who I love, will do something about it.” By ‘wild animals’, he was referring to Palestinians.

The funeral was a military service, which took place on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem on Saturday night.

Ronen was a member of the ‘Duvdevan unit’ of the Israeli army, known for its extrajudicial assassinations of Palestinian suspects.

The head of the unit praised Ronen during the service, saying that he had “participated in a great number of operations to capture terrorists”

After the stone slab fell on Ronen Thursday morning, he was rushed to the hospital, where he remained in critical condition until his death on Saturday.

The refugee camp that he was invading, along with other members of his unit, was put under a 24-hour curfew in the days following his injury, with no one allowed to leave or enter. But Israeli soldiers have until now been unable to identify or apprehend the suspects who, they claim, pushed the stone slab off the roof onto Ronen.

Ronen was from Rehovot. Source: IMEMC

Adiel Coleman

Adiel ColemanMarch 18, 2018: Adiel Coleman, 32, was stabbed in the chest in Jerusalem’s Old City and succumbed to his wounds later the same day.

The Palestinian accused of the attack, 28-year-old Abdul-Rahman Bani Fadel, was fatally shot by Israeli police in the immediate aftermath of the stabbing.

Adiel Coleman worked as a security guard in the Old City of Jerusalem, but lived in the Israeli settlement Kochav Hashachar.

He was a father of four children. The Palestinian who was killed at the scene, Abdul-Rahman Fadel, was also a father. He lived with his wife and two children in the West Bank village of Aqraba.

The incident took place on Haggay St., near the entrance to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Initial reports from Israel’s Channel 10 television stated that Turkish identity papers were found on the body of the alleged assailant. But the Israeli military later changed that report, saying that Fadel, a Palestinian from the West Bank, was the attacker in the stabbing.

An Israeli police spokesman confirmed the attack, near the Western Wall, and said the assailant was “neutralized”.

Israeli police blocked all gates leading to the Old City of Jerusalem, along with roads and streets adjacent to the historic walls of Jerusalem, and blocked Qalandia and Jaba’a military checkpoints in the aftermath of the alleged attack, amid high tension and heavy deployment of troops near Jerusalem’s walls and inside the Old City of Jerusalem.

Adiel was from the settlement of Kochav Hashachar settlement, in the central part of the West Bank. Source: IMEMC

Netanel Kahalani

March 16, 2018: Netanel Kahalani, 20, was killed when an automobile collided with him and another soldier who were standing at a military roadblock in Barta’a village in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

In addition to Sergeant Kahalani, Lieutenant Ziv Daus, 21 was also killed in the collision.

Israeli Ynet News said Daus was a company commander of army’s “search and rescue” brigade, while Kahalani was a driver in the Menashe Brigade.

The soldiers were killed near Barta’a military roadblock, close to Jenin in northern West Bank, when a Palestinian driver, identified as Ala’ Rateb Qabha, 26, crashed into the roadblock.

Ala’ suffered light-to-moderate wounds, in addition to wounding two other soldiers.

The Israeli army claimed that the fatal incident was a deliberate attack targeting the soldiers at the military roadblock, and raided the family home of the Palestinian driver, before violently searching the property and interrogating the family.

But the family of Ala’ denied that claim, saying that the young man was not politically involved in any way, and the collision was a car accident, not an attack.

The day after the fatal vehicular collision, the army announced it plans to recommend that the Israeli government split the village of Barta’a in two, and determined a series of collective punishment measures, including constant invasions, and isolating the village.

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and several members of his cabinet, vowed to demolish the home of the Palestinian driver, while the Israeli Internal Security claimed that “all indications, and the interrogation of the driver, points towards a nationally motivated attack,” a term used to refer to incidents directly related to the ongoing Israeli military occupation of Palestine.

Israel’s illegal policies of collective punishment, including demolishing the homes of Palestinians accused of killing Israelis, or wounding them, and even those accused of carrying out attacks, such as shootings and hurling Molotov cocktails at the military or colonialist settlers, has been widely implemented since Israel occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 1967.

The Israeli Committee against House Demolitions (ICAHD) has reported that Israeli demolished 351 homes and structures, and displaced 528 Palestinians in the year 2017, and added that the number of demolished structures in the occupied West Bank since 1967 is 78,743.

Netanel was from Elyakim Moshav, in the Megiddo Regional Council, in the northern part of Israel. Source: IMEMC

Ziv Daus

ZivMarch 16, 2018: Ziv Daus, 21, was killed when an automobile collided with him and another soldier who were standing at a military roadblock in Barta’a village in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

In addition to Lieutenant Daus, Sergeant Netanel Kahalani, 20, was also killed in the collision.

Israeli Ynet News said Daus was a company commander of army’s “search and rescue” brigade, while Kahalani was a driver in the Menashe Brigade.

The soldiers were killed near Barta’a military roadblock, close to Jenin in northern West Bank, when a Palestinian driver, identified as Ala’ Rateb Qabha, 26, crashed into the roadblock.

Ala’ suffered light-to-moderate wounds, in addition to wounding two other soldiers.

The Israeli army claimed that the fatal incident was a deliberate attack targeting the soldiers at the military roadblock, and raided the family home of the Palestinian driver, before violently searching the property and interrogating the family.

But the family of Ala’ denied that claim, saying that the young man was not politically involved in any way, and the collision was a car accident, not an attack.

The day after the fatal vehicular collision, the army announced it plans to recommend that the Israeli government split the village of Barta’a in two, and determined a series of collective punishment measures, including constant invasions, and isolating the village.

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and several members of his cabinet, vowed to demolish the home of the Palestinian driver, while the Israeli Internal Security claimed that “all indications, and the interrogation of the driver, points towards a nationally motivated attack,” a term used to refer to incidents directly related to the ongoing Israeli military occupation of Palestine.

Israel’s illegal policies of collective punishment, including demolishing the homes of Palestinians accused of killing Israelis, or wounding them, and even those accused of carrying out attacks, such as shootings and hurling Molotov cocktails at the military or colonialist settlers, has been widely implemented since Israel occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 1967.

The Israeli Committee against House Demolitions (ICAHD) has reported that Israeli demolished 351 homes and structures, and displaced 528 Palestinians in the year 2017, and added that the number of demolished structures in the occupied West Bank since 1967 is 78,743.

Ziv was from Azur town near Tel Aviv. Source: IMEMC

Itamar Ben Gal

February 05, 2018: Itamar Ben Gal, 29, was killed in a stabbing attack outside an entrance to ‘Ariel’ settlement in the central part of the West Bank.

According to Israeli sources, surveillance video shows the assailant getting off of a shared taxi near the entrance to Ariel, the largest Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

The assailant then allegedly approached Ben Gal, who was standing at a hitchhiking post for Israeli settlers, and stabbed him several times before fleeing.

Following the killing of the Israeli settler, Israeli forces carried out a wide-scale search campaign in several villages and towns located to the north of Salfit, blocked roads and declared these areas to be closed military zones, according to local sources.

Ben Gal taught at two religious Jewish seminaries, both of them located in Israeli settlements: one in Givat Smuel, and the other in Har Bracha settlement, according to the Israeli daily Haaretz.

Ben Gal was transferred to hospital, with critical injuries in his upper extremities, where he succumbed to his wounds shortly after.

The Israeli daily, Haaretz, reported that Abdul-Hakim’s mother is from Haifa, while his father is from Nablus, in the northern West Bank.

In the aftermath of the fatal stabbing, dozens of Israeli paramilitary settlers gathered along roads in the area around Salfit, and the entrances to the villages of Hares and Kifl Hares, and attacked passing Palestinian cars with stones.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement following the death of the settler, saying that Israeli military forces “are in pursuit of the murderers. We will exact our judgment.”

The Hamas party also issued a statement, saying the attack is a direct response to Donald Trump’s unilateral declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel — a declaration that effectively denies the existence of over a million Palestinians who live in Jerusalem.

Itamar was from Har Bracha settlement, in the northern part of the West Bank. Source: IMEMC

Raziel Shevach

January 9, 2018: Raziel Shevach, 35, an Israeli settler, was shot and killed Tuesday while driving near a colonial outpost, near Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank.

The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Dr. Guy Elad, a doctor at the Meir Medical Center, told their reporter that the victim “arrived at the hospital without a pulse, with no breath and no life signals.

“He was rushed to the trauma room, where advanced resuscitation actions were performed and unfortunately despite our efforts his death was determined.”

The gunman or gunmen who fired the fatal shots fled the scene, and Israeli forces have locked down all nearby Palestinian villages and towns, preventing Palestinian civilians from going anywhere outside their homes.

The soldiers are also conducting house-to-house searches in the town of Jit, which is the town whose land was illegally annexed by Israel, to construct the Israeli settler-only road, and the colonialist outpost of Havat Gilad.

In addition, the Israeli military has closed the entrances to the city of Nablus, and are preventing all entry and exit from the city. The closure wreaked havoc on the evening commute for students and workers, many of whom were forced to remain in their workplaces or schools overnight after being prevented from returning home.

Shevach, who lived in Havat Gilad, was driving on Route 60, which is a major Israeli highway constructed on Palestinian land in the West Bank, when he was shot at by a passing vehicle. Palestinians are forbidden from driving on Route 60 without first obtaining hard-to-get Israeli permits.

Even with permits, Palestinian drivers are frequently subjected to stops and seizures of their vehicles and licenses by Israeli police and soldiers when they drive on Route 60 and other colonial Israeli byways.

Abu Obeida, the spokesperson of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said the “Nablus shooting is the first retaliation with live fire, and comes to remind the enemy, and those who support it, that what is coming is much bigger – what you fear is yet to come, the West Bank will remain a dagger in your abdomen.”

Following the fatal shooting, the Israeli army imposed a strict siege on all villages and towns in the Nablus governorate, and invaded many villages, including Sorra, Iraq-Burin, and all southern areas, including New Nablus, al-Makhfiyya, before initiating extensive searches and confiscated surveillance tapes and equipment.

The army deployed a large number of soldiers in Nablus, in addition to calling for more military units to operate in the governorate, in preparation for a massive invasion and military operations.

Israeli media outlets said that the military received orders for carrying out a large-scale military operation, inside many villages and towns, in Nablus.

Meanwhile, dozens of colonist settlers closed Yitzhar road, while dozens more gathers at the Huwwara military roadblock, south of Nablus, before throwing rocks at dozens of Palestinian cars.

Palestinian medical sources said a young man from ‘Awarta village, suffered various cuts and bruises after being attacked by Israeli settlers.

It is worth mentioning that the Israeli army have killed 32 Palestinians, including two children, since early October 2017. Shevach is the first Israeli casualty since then.

Raziel was from Gilad, an Israeli outpost near Nablus in the northern part of the West Bank. Source: IMEMC.

Mohammad Sami al-Dahdouh

December 24, 2017: Mohammad Sami Hashem al-Dahdouh, 18, succumbed to wounds he sustained on 08 December 2017 at a protest in Gaza, according to medical sources at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City .

Mohammad suffered a live bullet wound to the neck fired by Israeli soldiers who invaded eastern Gaza to attack the protests. He was near the border area in “Nahel Oz” area, east of al-Sheja’eyya neighbourhood, east of Gaza city. According to Ashraf al-Qidra of the Palestinian Health Ministry, “Mohammad al-Dahdouh died of his wounds on Sunday”.

Al-Sheja’eyya neighbourhood gained worldwide attention in 2014 when Israeli forces spent two nights, July 20 and 21st, dropping thousands of tons of bombs on the crowded residential neighborhood, causing hundreds of deaths, including whole families crushed under the rubble of their homes, huddled together as the bombing continued non-stop for 48 hours.

Mohammad was shot while he was participating in a protest against the U.S President Donald Trump’s Decree on December 6th to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the U.S. Embassy there.

Following the December 6th declaration, hundreds of protests sprung up in every part of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as around the world, with tens of thousands of people voicing their outrage at the Trump declaration that effectively denies Palestinians’ historic right to Jerusalem, a city they have inhabited for millennia and that is profoundly sacred to both Muslim and Christian Palestinians.

His death marks the fifteenth Palestinian to be killed by Israeli forces since the December 6th declaration. No Israelis have been killed or wounded in that time period. All of the Palestinians killed by Israeli forces were engaged in non-violent protests and marches challenging the U.S. decision. Mohammad was from al-Sheja’eyya neighbourhood, east of Gaza city.  Source: IMEMC

Ron Yitzhak Kukia

Ron Kukia

November 30, 2017: Ron Yitzhak Kukia, 19, was stabbed to death at a bus stop in the town of Arad in southern Israel. The two men charged with the murder were also charged with “terrorism,” under the assumption that the stabbing was politically motivated.

Two Palestinian Bedouin men charged with the attack were both members of the Abu Judeh family, from the Bedouin town of Kuseife, in southern Israel near the Israeli town of Arad where the stabbing took place.

Khaled Abu Judeh and his relative Zahi Abu Judeh were interrogated by Israeli police until “Khaled admitted to the stabbing.”

Israeli police said that during the interrogation, Khaled had told them that they had planned to kidnap the soldier, sedating him with anesthesia drugs, and then using him as a bargaining tool for the release of some of the 6,000 Palestinians prisoners held by Israel – many of whom are being held for years with no charges having been filed.

According to Israeli police, the two men had taken the soldier’s rifle after allegedly stabbing him, and the police found the rifle in the possession of one of the brothers.

The two had no criminal records, were not under suspicion of the Israeli intelligence service Shin Bet, and were not affiliated with any groups.

Following the November 30th stabbing, Israeli police have increased the number of checkpoints in the area, and have raided homes in Bedouin villages and towns in southern Israel.

On the same day that Kukia was killed, a Palestinian was shot dead by an Israeli settler from Migdalim who opened fire toward Palestinian teens who were allegedly throwing stones at the settlers who were trespassing on their land. Israeli soldiers arrived and also fired at the teens, and escorted the settlers, including the killer, away from the village. He was not charged with a crime. Ron was from Tel Aviv, in the western part of Israel. Source: IMEMC

Hodaya Nechama Asulin

November 22, 2017: Hodaya Nechama Asulin, 21, died of injuries sustained six years earlier, in 2011, in an explosion in Jerusalem.

Hodaya was a resident of Mevo Horon, an Israeli settlement of just over 2500 residents which is a Jewish religious commune constructed on illegally-seized Palestinian land.

She was injured on 23 Mar 2011 in Jerusalem when a bomb planted by a Palestinian went off while she was waiting at a bus stop near Binyanei Hauma (the International Convention Center) in Jerusalem. She was in a coma from the time of the explosion until she succumbed to her wounds. A British woman was also killed by the bomb.

Hodaya was from Mevo Horon.