JERUSALEM, January 8, 2011 (WAFA)- During the week, two Palestinian civilians died and five others were injured during, or following clashes with Israeli forces. In 2010, Israeli forces killed 15 Palestinians and injured 1,148 others, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) weekly report (December 2010 – 4 January 2011) said.
The majority of injuries in 2010 (over 80 percent) took place during clashes in East Jerusalem or in weekly demonstrations in other West Bank areas. This represents an increase of 20 percent, compared to 2009. Also, in the course of 2010, two members of the Israeli forces were killed and 124 injured in the Israeli‐Palestinian conflict‐related violence.
This week, on January 1, a 35‐year‐old woman from Bil'in village (Ramallah) died in a medical center where she had received treatment following tear gas inhalation during the weekly anti‐Barrier protest in the village the previous day. Eyewitnesses indicated that the woman had not taken part in clashes that had erupted between some demonstrators and Israeli forces, but was watching the events from a distance.
According to the medical report issued by the center, which treated the woman, 'the main cause of death apparently was cardio pulmonary arrest triggered by respiratory failure, caused by gas inhalation.' The Israeli military has opened an investigation into the case. One of the woman's brothers was killed after he was hit by a tear gas canister in a similar protest in April 2009; another brother was shot in the feet and injured by an Israeli soldier while he was in custody, handcuffed and blindfolded, following a demonstration in Ni'lin village in July 2008.
Weekly demonstrations in Bil'in have been ongoing since 2005, protesting the isolation of over half of the village's historical lands by the Barrier; in addition to the two fatalities mentioned above, a total of 795 Palestinians were injured by Israeli forces during these protests. In September 2007, the Israeli High Court of Justice partially accepted a petition submitted by the Bil'in village council and ordered the state to reroute the Barrier in order to reduce its harm to the residents. More than three years after this ruling, rerouting works are still ongoing.
In another grave incident on 2 January, Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man at Al Hamra checkpoint, controlling access to the northern Jordan Valley. According to the Israeli media, citing military sources, while the man was unarmed, he approached the checkpoint holding a broken bottle; Palestinian eyewitnesses indicated that the man was carrying a bottle of soft drink. The Israeli military has opened an investigation into the case.
Also this week, two women were injured during search and arrest operations, in the Bethlehem and Hebron governorates, that evolved into clashes with Israeli forces. Overall, Israeli forces conducted over 70 search and arrest operations in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), down from a weekly average of 90 such operations since the beginning of 2010.
