JERUSALEM, Saturday, August 3, 2024 (WAFA) – Three Palestinians predawn Saturday sustained injuries from Israeli army gunfire in the Issawiya neighbourhood of the occupied city of Jerusalem, according to eyewitnesses.
They said that a large Israeli occupation force stormed the neighborhood, while firing rubber-coated bullets tear gas canisters, concussion grenades and spraying skunk water at residents along with their houses and vehicles, triggering violent confrontations.
They confirmed that there were a number of casualties from Israeli army gunfire, and they were evacuated to the Islamic Makasid Hospital in Jerusalem.
For the residents of Issawiyeh, a Palestinian village of some 20,000, Israeli army vehicles have become an everyday reality on the neighborhood streets, while army drones fly above – surveilling each move of the neighborhood’s residents.
Nestled in the hills of East Jerusalem, the village is plagued by poor infrastructure, residents are constantly harassed by the Israeli occupation forces and anyone, including children, run the risk of arbitrary arrest.
Hostile armed soldiers searchlights pierce residents’ homes as Israeli soldiers conduct raids in the dead of night, breaking into homes and arresting residents.
While Israeli authorities claim occupation forces’ raids into the neighborhood are intended to maintain “law and order”, residents and human rights groups vigorously reiterate that the raids themselves seem intended to provoke confrontations and have created an atmosphere of terror, with parents afraid to let their children play outside.
Rights groups have long pointed out that Israel’s discriminatory policies in East Jerusalem – which include routine home demolitions, discriminatory allocation of building permits, and the forceful expulsions of Palestinians from their homes for the benefit of Israeli colonial settlements – are aimed at driving out Palestinians from the city.
With over 70 percent of Palestinian families in occupied East Jerusalem living below the poverty line, if life becomes too expensive, they have little choice but to move to congested Jerusalem neighborhoods on the other side of Israel’s separation wall or into the West Bank.
After Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, Palestinians were not given Israeli citizenship, but were instead issued permanent residency permits, which can be revoked by Israel for a variety of reasons, including insufficient loyalty to the State of Israel.
K.F.
