UN OCHA Protection of Civilians Weekly Report, May 5-11, 2015

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance has published its Protection of Civilians weekly report covering the period between May 5 – 11, 2015. To view the complete version of the report, including a series of charts with the main indicators, please click here.

Highlights:

• 31 Palestinians, including seven children were injured by Israeli forces across the oPt. The majority (23) occurred during various West Bank clashes, including the weekly protests against the longstanding closure of one of the main entrances to Kafr Qaddum (Qalqiliya); search and arrest operations in Ramallah, Qalqiliya and Tubas; and an infrastructure demolition in Hebron. Another eight Palestinians, including five fishermen, two farmers and a child, were shot and injured in the Access Restricted Areas (ARA) at land and sea in the Gaza Strip; on at least 18 occasions during the week Israeli forces opened fire at civilians in the ARA.
• Ten Palestinian workers were reportedly asphyxiated while working in a tunnel used to smuggle commercial goods into Gaza. Following Egyptian measures adopted in mid-2013, only a handful of such tunnels have reportedly continued to operate.
• One Palestinian 11-years-old girl was injured when tampering with an unexploded ordnance (UXO) southeast Gaza city. Since the cease-fire of August 2014, eleven Palestinians, including one child, were killed in UXO incidents, and another 48, including 22 children, were injured.
• Israeli forces conducted 102 search and arrest operations and arrested 97 Palestinians in the West Bank, with the Hebron governorate accounting for the highest proportion of operations (30), while the highest number of arrests (26) was recorded in Ramallah. In addition, 100 ad-hoc ‘flying’ checkpoints were erected by Israeli forces along West Bank roads, mainly in the Jerusalem governorate.
• Israeli settlers took over a building comprising three separate apartments in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, in East Jerusalem, displacing three families. The settlers claim ownership over the properties.
• The Israeli authorities closed a Health Center in the Shu’fat neighborhood of East Jerusalem for one year, on grounds it was affiliated with the Palestinian Authority, which is prohibited by Israeli law from operating in East Jerusalem. The centre provided health services to 62 Palestinian schools in East Jerusalem and also functioned as a youth centre.
  In Area C, the Israeli authorities’ demolished eight Palestinian structures for lack of building permits, affecting at least 51 families in four communities. At least 3,000 meters of pipes were also confiscated on similar grounds; the pipes were used to rehabilitate two wells and a water network behind the Barrier in Habla village (Qalqiliya), as part of a donor-funded project.
• Four Palestinian attacks resulting in Israeli injuries or property damage were reported by Israeli media, including the injury of an Israeli man after an alleged stabbing attack near Khan al Ahmar junction (Jerusalem), and damage to two Israeli-owned vehicles and one Israeli-owned structure as a result of Palestinian opening of fire and stone-throwing.
• The Rafah crossing was closed in both directions by the Egyptian authorities during the week. The crossing has been continuously closed since 24 October 2014, following an attack in Sinai, except for 12 days, on which it was partially opened. This measure is affecting at least 30,000 people registered for crossing to the both sides.