Israel (Palestinian)

Dia’ Hamarsha

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Dia HamarshaMarch 30, 2022: Dia’ Hamarsha, 27, was shot and killed by an Israeli police officer after allegedly shooting to death five Israelis in a suburb of Tel Aviv. This was the third attack in three days, and Israel declared the highest level of alert in light of the developments.

Israeli sources identified the Israelis killed as Yaakov Shalom, 36, Avishai Yhezkel, 29, from Bnei Brak, officer Amir Khouri, 32, from Nazareth.

The remaining two are Ukraine Nationals whose names are yet to be officially released. Only referred to, so far, as Shasha and Dima, two workers from Ukraine who were eating outdoors.

An Israeli police spokesperson said the Palestinian young man carried the fatal shootings out in two areas in Bnei Brak, east of Tel Aviv, and added that one of the Israelis killed in the attack was an officer who tried to stop the attack.

The spokesperson added that the four other Israeli civilians were shot dead by the Palestinian.

Israeli daily Haaretz said footage from the scene shows the Palestinian armed with an assault rifle before entering a convenience store and shooting one young man who fled to a nearby building.

“The shooter then aimed his rifle at another person riding on a bike but missed and opened fire at a passing car. The car stopped after the initial fire, at which point the assailant came closer to it and fired through the window at the driver, who was killed,” Haaretz added.

Haaretz quoted the Israeli police stating that the Palestinian was shot dead by an officer, identified as Amir Khoury, 32.

The Palestinian who carried the shooting out was identified as Dia’ Hamarsha, 27, from Ya’bad town, west of the northern West Bank city of Jenin. In 2013, he was detained by Israel and spent six months in prison.

The police initiated massive searches in the area and detained a Palestinian construction worker who had no work permit but apparently had nothing to do with the shooting.

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz held a meeting with the Army Chief of Staff and the head of the Shin Bet security service, the head of military intelligence, and the head of military operations to assess the situation.

Haaretz said the Israeli Security Cabinet plans to hold a meeting to discuss the fatal attack and assess the situation.

Israeli Ynet News stated that Magen David Adom paramedics said they found the corpses of the Palestinian and one Israeli in Hertzl Street in Bnei Barak.

It added that another Israeli was found dead inside his car, and two Israelis were shot dead on Bialik Street in the predominantly ultra-Orthodox city.

Amir Khouri
Amir Khouri

The Ynet stated that another Israeli was seriously injured after suffering multiple gunshot wounds to his body and was rushed to Beilinson Hospital in critical condition.”

Hours after the fatal shooting, dozens of Israeli military vehicles were deployed around Ya’bad town, before isolating the entire area.

In Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank, illegal Israeli colonizers attacked and caused damage to dozens of Palestinian cars and closed many roads in several parts of the city and its surrounding areas.

Avishai Yehezkel

The colonizers also attacked and caused damage to many Palestinian cars near Ramallah, in the central West Bank, Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nablus in the northern part of the occupied territory.

One Palestinian, Zaki Abdul-Rahim Oleiwi, 41, was also injured after several colonizers attacked him near Shavei Shomron illegal colony, built on Palestinian lands northwest of Nablus.

The Palestinian, from Sebastia town near Nablus, suffered a fracture in the army and several bruises before he was rushed to Rafidia hospital in Nablus.

Yaakov Shalom
Yaakov Shalom

In occupied Jerusalem, an Israeli colonizer rammed a Palestinian with his car at the al-Ezariyah junction, while many colonizers hurled stones at Palestinians and their cars in the at-Tour town and several other areas, causing damage.

The Palestinian, Fadi Damiri from Silwan town, was rushed to a hospital in Jerusalem.

Israeli soldiers also abducted a young Palestinian man in the Bab al-Amoud area, in Jerusalem.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the shooting and stated that the ongoing killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians would only lead to further deterioration and expressed his support for all efforts that would lead to achieving stability and avoiding escalation, especially due to the upcoming Jewish, Christian, and Islamic holidays.

Abbas also warned that illegal Israeli colonizers in the West Bank would likely escalate their ongoing violations and attacks against the Palestinians.

“Comprehensive and just peace is the shortest and fastest way to achieve security and stability for the Palestinians and the Israelis,” he added.

Dia’ was from Ya’bad town, west of the northern West Bank city of Jenin. Source: IMEMC

Mohammad Ghaleb Abu al-Kian

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Mohammad Abu al-KianMarch 24, 2022: Mohammad Ghaleb Abu al-Kian, 34, was shot and killed by a bystander after he killed four Israelis in Beersheba, in southern Israel.

According to Israeli media, al-Kian was driving a car, and ran over Rabbi Moshe Kravitsky, who was riding a bicycle.

He then allegedly drove to a gas station, where he exited the vehicle and stabbed Laura Yitzhak.

Following that stabbing, he drove to a nearby shopping center, exited the car, and stabbed Yehezkel and Yahbas. A bus driver then shot and killed al-Kian.

The four Israelis killed were buried on Wednesday, following Jewish tradition to bury the body soon after death.

They were identified as Doris Yahbas, 49, Laura Yitzhak, 43, Menach Yehezkel Menuchin, 67, and Moshe Kravitsky, 50.

Just days before this attack, Journalist Israel Harel wrote a piece in the Israeli daily Ha’aretz praising the Israeli government’s decision to further displace the Bedouin population in the Negev.

Harel wrote, “In the first stage, 20,000 apartments will be built, as well as an industrial zone for advanced technology. In addition to finding a solution to the dire housing shortage among the ultra-Orthodox community, the city, in the specific site on which it will be constructed, will assist, in this initiative’s secondary objective, to halt, even if only in part, the process through which the Negev is being taken over by the Bedouin community, a process which in recent years has taken on alarming proportions.”

The Israeli Hadash party condemned the attack and said, “the way of violence is not the way of the Arab public in general and the Negev in particular and is not part of the just struggle of the Negev Arabs against the dispossession and oppression,” the Jerusalem Post said.

“We already hear the instigators intend to use the tragedy to ignite a racist fire and lead to violence against Arab citizens. They must not be allowed to exploit the murder of innocent people to lead to more violence,” added the party.

It is worth mentioning that Abu al-Kiyan, a Bedouin man from Hura town, was previously imprisoned by Israel, and a security source told Haaretz the assailant was a known ISIS supporter.

Several Palestinian Authority officials denounced the attack in letters to Israeli counterparts.

The Israeli police and Internal Security arrested two members of Mohammad’s family under the suspicion that they “knew about the attack, but failed to stop it, however, the allegations could not be substantiated.

According to the Negev News Arab website, the Abu al-Kian family strongly denounce the attack and said Mohammad does not represent the family and its beliefs and sent its condolences to the victims and their families.

The Arabs48 news website has reported that “The High Arab Steering Committee in the Negev” also denounced the attack and said it does not represent the Arab residents of the Negev.

It added that the attack also tries to paint the Arabs in the Negev as guilty and racist, and said: “Despite the long history of racism, discrimination and incitement against us, and despite what we have recently been facing, including attacks by Israeli militias targeting our very own existence, we continue to believe in the civil struggle within the law until achieving out full and equal rights for everybody in the Negev.”

The Committee expressed its condolences to the families, wished a full recovery to the wounded, and warned of the increasing incitement by Israeli fanatics against the Bedouins in the Negev.

“We all need to act responsibly, and we warn that incitement is just going to bring more suffering against the Arabs in general, and the Bedouins in particular,” the Committee said, “There are some in Israel, especially the extreme right wing, who are using this tragedy for political gains and are inciting against us and our existence.”

Mohammad was from the Negev, in southern Israel. Source: IMEMC

Sanad Salem al-Harbad

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Sanad SalemMarch 15, 2022: Sanad Salem al-Harbad, 27, was shot and killed by undercover Israeli police in the Bedouin city of Rahat, in the Negev.

The slain young father of three children, identified as Sanad Salem al-Harbad, 27, was shot by undercover Israeli police during search and arrest operations.

The police alleged that shots were fired at them but failed to provide proof that the young man was involved in the alleged shooting. No officers were injured.

Palestine TV published a statement by the ‘Supreme Steering Committee’ holding the occupation responsible for the killing of the young father of three.

“The Negev is facing a campaign of systematic incitement and distortion from the trumpets of the authority and its media to demonize it and prevent solidarity with it and allow the authoritarian institutions to carry out their crimes, the most recent of which was the execution of the field martyr Sanad Salem Al-Harbad, who was on his way from his home to his place of work.” – The Supreme Steering Committee

The statement added that al-Harbad;

“Was shot by an undercover unit disguised as a Bedouin in an old Toyota jeep, leaving the injured person bleeding and preventing ambulances from entering for an hour is a crime in itself.” – The Supreme Steering Committee

The Times of Israel claimed that the slain young man was not a suspect in the shooting.

Contrary to Police allegation, further investigation revealed that the undercover officer shot Sanad with a round in the upper back and one in the lower extremities.

Israeli daily Haaretz said the Police Investigation Unit (Mahash) revealed that the officer who killed Sanad claimed that he felt his life was in danger and that he shot the Palestinian after he pointed his gun at him from a distance of about six meters.

However, the Mahash investigation revealed that Sanad had his back turned to the officer who shot him.

The officer shot Sanad in the lower extremities and then delivered the fatal shot to his upper back after falling to the ground.

The Arabs48 News Website said the undercover officers took Sanad, who was injured but still alive, to the police station where he succumbed to his wounds.

The officer will likely be subject to further interrogation; Haaretz said Mahash has decided to suspend the officer for a week and take his weapon.

The Mahash investigation also revealed that two people approached the officer and exchanged fire with him before they managed to escape unharmed.

It is worth mentioning that Israel Omer Bar-Lev, the Israeli Minister of Public Security, expressed his support to the officer who killed Sanad, while the Israeli Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai claimed the killing of Sanad is connected to the killing of Nader Haitham Rayyan, 17, in Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus, and the killing of Ala’ Mohammad Shaham, 22, in Qalandia refugee camp, north of occupied Jerusalem, are connected.

The Mayor of Rahat, Fayez Abu Sheiban, denounced the killing of the young man and told the Kan public broadcaster “I hope it does not lead to riots. Residents told me that the young man who was killed was a passerby and was not connected to the shooting.”

Talking to the Palestinian TV Abu Sheiban said the fact that Israel sends undercover forces to kill a Palestinian citizen of Israel, even if they had planned to abduct him, shows that Israel’s leadership and the police have two sets of laws applied to Israelis and Palestinian citizens of Israel.

“We are the natives, the indigenous of this land, we didn’t come here as settlers, or immigrated from various parts of the world,” Abu Sheiban stated, “If the police wanted to arrest someone they can come and arrest him instead of sending undercover soldiers to kill him.”

Sanad, a married father of five children, was from Rahat, in the Negev in southern Israel. Source: IMEMC

Mohammad Mahmoud Kiwan

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May 19, 2021: Mohammad Mahmoud Kiwan, 17, died from serious wounds he suffered when Israeli police officers shot him on May 12th, in the Palestinian town of Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel.

Mohammad participated in a peaceful protest with other Palestinian youths against the Israeli evictions of many families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, in occupied Jerusalem.

During the protest Mohammad was shot with a live round in the head by police, his family reported.

The family added that Mohammad was admitted to Rambam hospital in Haifa city and remained in a coma until his health deteriorated last night, the teen was pronounced dead by doctors on Wednesday morning. Source: IMEMC

‘Alaa Mohammed al-Bahri

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May 19, 2021: Firas ‘Alaa Mohammed al-Bahri, 20, died from serious wounds he suffered when fired missiles at a Palestinian residential tower in northern Gaza Strip.

Medical sources in Gaza said ‘Alaa suffered profoundly serious wound, on 13 May 2021, near residential tower number 19, in al-Nada Towers area, in ‘Izbet Beit Hanoun.

On that day, the tenth day of the offensive in Gaza, Israeli missiles and shells killed eight Palestinians, including a woman and a child, and injured 76 Palestinians, including nine women and eleven children.

The deaths brough the number of Palestinains killed by Israeli missiles and shells to 221, including sixty-two children and thirty-six women, while the number of wounded arrived to 1034, including 310 children and 217 women.

The Israeli and carried out dozens of intense air, land, and sea strikes, targeting houses and civilian facilities. As a result, the communications network was cut off, and the internet services were affected in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Telecommunications Company announced that one of the main lines of the fiber-optic internet service connecting the central and southern Gaza Strip’s governorates with Gaza City was targeted today in the dawn, isolating Gaza from the outside world, noting that it was a standby line for the services provided by the Palestine Cellular Communications Company “Jawwal.”

Firas was from Beit Hanoun, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. Source: Al-Mezan Center For Human Rights, The Palestinian Center For Human Rights

 

 

Nadeen Awad

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May 12, 2021: Nadeen Awad, 16, was killed along with her father Khalil Awad, 52, in front of their home in the Palestinian village of Dahmash in central Israel, about 20 kilometers from Tel Aviv, in the early morning of May 12.

The two were killed by a Palestinian resistance rocket, but Nadeen and Khalil Awad, were themselves Palestinian – with Israeli citizenship. But their town, Dahmash near Lod, being a mainly Palestinian village, was never provided bomb shelters like the Jewish Israeli towns were provided by the government. In fact, their village, Dhamas, was not recognized by Israeli authorities, and so lacks basic services and is under threat of demolition by the Israeli government. One of their relatives, Ismail Arafat, lives there as well and has been part of leading the struggle for recognition of the village.

The rocket attack that killed them occurred after the al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas armed wing, said in a statement on the evening of May 11 that they had “directed the largest rocket barrage toward Tel Aviv and its surrounding areas, with 130 rockets, in response to the enemy’s targeting of civilian buildings.”

In the midst of a deadly night in Gaza in which Israeli bombardment killed at least 34 Palestinians in a single night of bombing, Palestinian resistance fighters retaliated in the early morning hours with the launch of rockets toward Israel, killing six Israelis.

The rockets were fired in the early morning hours on Wednesday, as Gaza’s hospitals were besieged with hundreds of wounded Palestinians, many of them children, who suffered traumatic and severe injuries from the numerous Israeli missile strikes into crowded Palestinian neighborhoods throughout Gaza on Monday and Tuesday.

In addition to bombing Palestinian neighborhoods for two straight days, the Israeli military called up 5,000 reservists and had them stationed at the border with Gaza to threaten the Gaza Strip with a possible ground invasion.

The Palestinian resistance responded to this violent aggression with rocket fire directed toward Tel Aviv. This marks the longest-range rockets that have been fired by the Palestinian resistance to date. Other rockets fired in the past have reached as far as the coastal Israeli city of Ashkelon (formerly the Palestinian town of Azkalan), but had not had the range or capacity to reach the Israeli capital Tel Aviv (built on the former Palestinian town of Yaffa) before.

Israelis in the cities of Sderot, Holon and Ashkelon rushed to shelters and many stayed there overnight to try to avoid the impact of Palestinian resistance rocket fire.

Israeli media reported that at 8:45 A.M. on Wednesday, Israeli forces intercepted a drone crossing from Gaza into Israel.

The Israeli news agency Ha’aretz quoted Ismail Arafat as saying, “We have nowhere to go. We don’t have a bomb shelter here for everyone. For the Thai [migrant] workers they built shelters, but we were not allowed because we are not humans. Nadine and Khalil were in the middle of breakfast before fasting [for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan]. It seems that he opened the door and that’s how he was hit.”

Nadeen was from the Palestinian village of Dahmash in central Israel. IMEMC

Bashar Zubeidat

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January 11th, 2021: Bashar Zubeidat, 19, died Monday from wounds sustained the previous Friday, when he was shot by Israeli police with multiple live rounds.

Bashar was a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship. In response to his murder, hundreds of Palestinians with Israeli citizenship took to the streets on Tuesday to protest his death, and several other recent deaths of Palestinians at the hands of Israeli police and security forces.

On Monday, doctors at Rambam Israeli Hospital in Haifa reported that Zubeidat, from Basmat Tab’oun village, near Haifa, died from his serious wounds he suffered, on Friday, January 8, 2021.

Mossawa Advocacy Center for Rights Of Arab Citizens of Israel said it contacted the Investigation Department of the Israeli Police to obtain information about the fatal shooting, and was informed of the allegation that the slain young man was sitting in the passenger seat of a car, and that the driver tried to drive away when the police ordered him to stop. The Center also reported that, during the chase, the police fired many sporadic rounds of live fire at the car, and injured Zubeidat, before detaining two others who were in the car.

The Israeli Police claim that a car rammed a police officer who tried to stop the vehicle in Haifa, before fleeing the scene, and added that the police later located the vehicle, but the driver tried to flee before the officers opened fire again at the car. The police told reporters that they were later informed that two persons were injured and were receiving treatment at Rambam hospital.

Video of the protests that followed this police killing:

Bashar was from Basmat Tab’oun village, near Haifa. Source: IMEMC

Daoud Tal’at Khatib

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Daoud KhatibSeptember 3, 2020: Daoud Tal’at Khatib, 45, died in Ofer Israeli prison, and added that the only information the Israeli authorities are giving so far indicates he died from a heart attack.

The Palestinian Prisoners Society issued a statement mourning the detainee, identified as Daoud Tal’at Khatib, 45, from Bethlehem, south of occupied Jerusalem in the West Bank, and added that the detainee was abducted by the soldiers in April 2002, and was sentenced to 18 years and eight months in prison. He was only a few months away from being released.

The PPS added that Israel is claiming he died from a heart attack, but without any further information, and added that the detainee, throughout the years of imprisonment, has faced numerous health complications, including a heart attack a few years ago, in addition to undergoing an open-heart surgery.

The one statement given by Israel alleged that the detainee “fainted while in his room in Ofer Prison, and that guards tried to revive him, but he passed away.”

The PPS added that Israel rejected various appeals for Daoud’s release on humanitarian grounds so that he can receive the needed treatment at specialized medical centers.

It is worth mentioning that both of his parents died while he was in prison. The deceased detainee was held at the Negev Desert Detention camp.

His death brings the number of detainees who died in Israeli prison since 1967 to 225, including dozens who were tortured to death and others who were shot while in prison.

The PPS called on international human rights groups and legal organizations to practice pressure on Israel to improve the continuously declining living conditions of the detainees, and to release all ailing prisoners, especially amidst the current coronavirus pandemic, and added that Israel’s prison system where the Palestinians are held lacks basic requirements as the prisons have chronic sanitization issues, bad air ventilation, in addition to awful smells, infestations of bugs and cockroaches among other things.

It added that Ofer Prison, where the detainee died, has recently witnesses a sharp increase in Covid-19 infections among the detainees.

Daoud was from Bethlehem, south of occupied Jerusalem in the West Bank. Source: IMEMC

Nour Jaber Barghouthi

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April 22, 2020: Nour Jaber Barghouthi, 23, died in the Negev Desert Detention Camp, after he fainted in the shower, and Israeli soldiers failed to provide him with any medical aid for more than thirty minutes.

The Palestinian Prisoners Society stated that the detainee, Nour Jaber Barghouthi, 23, was from ‘Aboud town, northwest of the central West Bank city of Ramallah, and added that he was abducted by the soldiers four years ago, and was sentenced to eight years in prison.

It stated that the detainee was showering in Section 25 of the Negev Detention camp when he collapsed and lost consciousness.

The PPS held Israel fully responsible for the death of the detainee and denounced its deadly neglect of basic, internationally guaranteed rights of the detainees in direct violation of all related International laws, and the Fourth Geneva Convention.

On his part, the head of the Palestinian Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees Committee, Qadri Abu Bakr, said that Israel continues to abuse the detainees, violate their basic rights, in addition to its constant use of torture during interrogation, and the continuous invasions and violent searches of the detainees’ rooms.

Abu Bakr added that the detainees are also denied professional medical attention in Israeli prisons, especially those suffering from cancer, diabetes, kidney failure, and other serious health conditions.

Barghouthi’s death brings the number of Palestinian detainees who died in Israeli prisons since the year 1967 after Israel occupied the rest of Palestine, including East Jerusalem, to 273.

Israel is also still holding the remains of five deceased detainees, identified as Anis Doula, who died of medical neglect in the year 1980, Aziz Oweisat, 53, who died on May 20, 2018, at an Israeli hospital from serious complications after he was assaulted by several Israeli soldiers in the prison, Fares Baroud, 51, who died on February 6, 2019, of medical neglect in an Israeli prison, Nassar Taqatqa, 31, who died after having been tortured in an Israeli prison on July 16, 2019, and Bassam Sayeh, 47, who died on September 8, 2019, in an Israeli prison, due to medical neglect.

It is worth mentioning that 73 of the detainees who died in Israeli prisons since 1967 were tortured to death, 67 died after not receiving the needed medical treatment, 75 were shot to death after being captured, and seven were killed by Israeli army fire while in prison.

Nour was from ‘Aboud town, northwest of the central West Bank city of Ramallah. Source: IMEMC 

Bassam al-Sayyeh

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September 8th, 2019: Bassam al-Sayyeh, 47, died in an Israeli prison, due to medical negligence, according to the Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees Commission.

Al-Sayyeh, 47, was detained on August 10, 2015, he was diagnosed with bone cancer in 2011 and blood cancer in 2013.

The commission held the Israeli government fully responsible for the racist crimes committed against Palestinians, including the physical and psychological torture and medical negligence of prisoners, among other violations, calling for an investigation into these crimes.

His wife, a former political prisoner, identified as Mona Hayes, said that she has been barred from visiting him for the last two years.

She added that he started suffering from various serious health conditions four years ago and never received specialized medical care, and over the past year, Bassam suffered serious health issues, and was hospitalized in Israel hospitals, then to Ramla hospital.

His latest setback resulted in clinical death due to renal failure and Kidney failure, due to the lack of adequate and profession medical treatment.

The Palestine News Network (PNN) has reported that the detainee also”received chemotherapy by incompetent physicians and lost his life due to pulmonary edema, cirrhosis and cardiac failure.”

His lawyer tried to get Israeli courts to release him so that he can receive specialized medical care in Palestine or abroad, but all appeals were denied.

Former political prisoner, Khader Adnan from Arraba near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, who held extended hunger strike while in Israeli prisons and faced near death conditions, said the death of Sayeh requires real solidarity and action to expose the Israeli crimes against the detainees, and the seriously escalating violations, and warned that without such an action, this death will not be the last.

The death of al-Sayyeh brings the number of Palestinian prisoners who died in Israeli jails since 1967 to 221 prisoners.

At least 700 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails suffer from serious health conditions, 160 of whom are in need of urgent medical follow-up.

Palestinians have accused the Israeli authorities of failing to provide proper medical treatment, or of delaying treatment to ill prisoners, causing a deterioration in their health.

According to Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights organization, “in regard to adequate medical attention and treatment, Article 91 [of the Fourth Geneva Convention] emphasizes that “every place of internment shall have an adequate infirmary…” and that “Internees may not be prevented from presenting themselves to the medical authority for examination.”

In addition to this article, Article 92 asserts that “Medical inspections of internees shall be made at least once a month…”. It is evident that the withholding of treatment, or access to a medical professional, is a violation of these specific provisions, and therefore a violation of international humanitarian law.”

Bassam was from the northern West Bank district of Nablus. Source: IMEMC