New crimes against the Palestinians as the Ramadan begins
As the holy month of Muslims, Ramadan, begins, Israeli occupiers continue their harassment and genocidal crimes towards the Palestinians. Already earlier this year, 84 have been killed, and the number is rising: on Thursday, 25-year old Amir Abu Khadijeh was killed in Tulkarem by Israeli soldiers. They shot him in the head. He was one of the founders of the Tulkarem Brigade, which wages armed resistance against the occupiers in the West Bank. Large crowds took to the streets to protest the killing. On Saturday, two Israeli soldiers were wounded in a shooting in Huwara, which was claimed by the PLFP, as retaliation to the occupiers, who have recently committed many atrocities against the Palestinians in Huwara. The week before, two settlers were shot by Palestinians in the city.
The Ramadan began on Thursday, and the Israeli forces continue harassing the Palestinians, of which many are celebrating the most important holiday of their year. On Saturday, Israeli forces entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem with the ridiculous excuse of the concern that some of the people at the Mosque were going to “violate public order”.
Near Bethlehem, Israeli soldiers invaded many Palestinian towns, and faced resistance, to which they answered with rubber coated steel bullets and tear gas, injuring many of the protesters. They also abducted a young man in Jerusalem, and invaded areas. This was also met with protests from the Palestinians.
On Saturday, Israeli forces attacked Palestinian fishermen in the al-Sudaniyya area, Northwest of Gaza. They brutalized the fishermen, shooting at them and blasting their boats with water cannons. This type of harassment is daily in the area: the Israeli forces destroy the fishers’ nets, arrest them, take their boats, and shoot at them.
On Sunday, another Palestinian, 22-year-old Omar Sawaed, was shot in the occupied town of Kafr Yasif by Israeli forces. Also on Sunday, a home of a Palestinian family was set on fire by Israeli settlers in Sinjil, near Ramallah.
Organizations The Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association and al-Haq, which gives legal support and advocates for human rights, report that Palestinian prisoners are systematically tortured in Israeli prisons, and they are kept in horrible conditions without proper hygiene. The torture is covered up and not addressed by the military courts of Israel, even if there is clear evidence. At least 7,000 Palestinians are kept in Israeli prisons. Israel also uses ”administrative detainment” – which means repeated arrests of Palestinians, even children, without any evidence or ever pressing charges against them. One of those who are facing administrative detainment is activist Khader Adnan. He was arrested on February 5th and the police vandalized his home. He is kept in confinement without trial, and as a protest, he started a hunger strike immediately, which still he continues. He has been arrested 12 times during the last 20 years for his activism against the occupation and has spent 8 years in total in prison. Prisoners are not granted the rights defined by the Geneva convention, which is the international bourgeois law regarding the treatment of prisoners of war and those who are imprisoned due to an armed conflict.
