JERUSALEM, July 3, 2010 (WAFA)- Following the delivery of a limited shipment of industrial fuel on June 30, the Gaza power plant resumed operation. The plant was completely shut down for the previous four days due to a lack of fuel, UNOCHA said.
In its weekly Protection of Civilians Report, OCHA said that Violent clashes took place this week between Israeli military forces, Israeli settlers and their security guards and Palestinian residents of the Silwan neighborhood in East Jerusalem on 26 and 27 June. At least 36 Palestinians were injured, half of them children. The Israeli media reported ten policemen and settler security guards also injured. The majority of Palestinian injuries were caused by tear gas canisters and rubber-metal coated bullets. One 17 year-old Palestinian boy lost his eye. Although the situation had calmed by 28 June, tension in the neighborhood prevails. The confrontations were triggered by an attempt by Israeli settlers to return to the “House of Honey” settlement, which they abandoned a month ago. Other recent developments in the area added to local tensions; the Local Planning and Building Committee of Jerusalem recently approved an urban plan for the Al Bustan quarter in Silwan that entails the demolition of dozens of Palestinian homes in the neighborhood; Israeli settlers have also threatened to evict four families (35 people, including 15 children) from their homes, which the settlers claim rights to.
It added that Four additional Palestinians were injured this week by Israeli forces in the course of various demonstrations. During two demonstrations against construction of the Barrier in Bil’in village and the expansion of the Hallamish settlement in Ramallah area, three Palestinians, including a 13 year-old boy, were wounded. In the former protest, three dunums of land planted with olive trees were partially burnt as a result of tear gas canisters fired by Israeli forces. One Palestinian was injured in another demonstration against settler violence in ‘Iraq Burin village (Nablus). During a weekly demonstration protesting the continued closure of the main street in the Old City of Hebron for Palestinian traffic, Israeli forces physically assaulted a number of protestors but no injuries were reported. In the same area, Israeli forces continue to close the gates leading to a number of internal roads, forcing four families to make a one kilometre detour to reach their houses.
Another three Palestinians were injured this week when physically assaulted at flying checkpoints in the Qalqiliya area (two) and the Old City of Hebron (one).
Overall this week, Israeli forces injured at least 43 Palestinians compared to six wounded last week. In 2010, seven Palestinians and two members of the Israeli security forces have been killed and another 737 Palestinians and 101 Israeli soldiers and policemen were injured in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
This week, Israeli forces killed three Palestinians, including two civilians, and injured four other Palestinian civilians. Since the beginning of 2010, 34 Palestinians (including eleven civilians), three Israeli soldiers and one foreign national have been killed in the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel. Another 128 Palestinians (including 111 civilians) and five Israeli soldiers have been injured.
This week’s fatalities occurred as a result of air strikes. In one incident on 25 June, the Israeli Air Force targeted tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border, killing two Palestinians workers and injuring another inside the tunnels. On 28 June, an Israeli aircraft targeted a group of Palestinian armed faction members, killing one of them, after the armed men reportedly opened fire at Israeli troops patrolling the Gaza-Israel border. In 2010, 18 Palestinians have been killed and 81 others injured in Israeli airstrikes.
The three other injuries were sustained near the border areas in the context of Israeli restrictions on Palestinian access. In one incident, a Palestinian boy (aged 16) was wounded when Israeli forces opened fire at a group of Palestinians collecting scrap metal. In another incident, Israeli forces opened fire at a demonstration organized by the “Popular Committee against the Buffer Zone”, wounding two Palestinian protestors.
Such demonstrations are conducted on a weekly basis. On at least two occasions, Israeli forces opened warning fire towards Palestinian farmers working in this area, forcing them off their land. Israeli tanks and bulldozers also launched a number of incursions a few hundred metres inside Gaza and withdrew after conducting land leveling operations. Similar access restrictions apply to fishing areas beyond three nautical miles from the shore; this week Israeli naval vessels opened “warning” fire towards Palestinian fishing boats on one occasion; no casualties were reported.
