Rights group accuses Israel of using violence against peaceful demonstrations

A report by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights published Friday said that the Israeli occupation forces continued their violations and “war crimes” in the Palestinian Territory during the period between July 21 and 27. The report said that apart from the continued closure that has been imposed on the Gaza Strip for the past five years, the Israeli forces keep implementing more collective punishment against local residents as part of a policy that defies all international and human rights laws. It said that “in the frame of its policy to use violence against peaceful demonstrations organized by Palestinian civilians, the Israeli forces used violence to disperse peaceful demonstrations in the West Bank carried out to protest settlements and the separation wall.” The center condemned the use of violence against the peaceful demonstrations and called on the international community “to act fast to force the Israeli government to stop its organized crime against the Palestinian civilians.” The report also added that “Area C in the West Bank, according to the Oslo agreement signed between the Israeli government and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), witnesses Israeli raids aimed at forcing its Palestinian inhabitants to leave them in favor of expanding settlement projects. The Israeli authorities, the settlers and with the protection of the Israeli government and its military forces, heightened their settlement activities and their violations of Palestinian land and property, which falls in the framework of the settlements’ expansion plan, and commit those acts under official International and Arab silence, which encourages the occupation authority to commit more violations and enhances its actions as a state which is above the law.” The report said a Palestinian civilian was injured while participating in a demonstration in Beit Ummar, south of Hebron, and a number of civilians suffered injuries which varied between fractures, bruises and chocking due to inhaling gas in the demonstration carried out against the wall and settlements in the West Bank. The Israeli occupation forces continued their raids, break-in and arrest actions against Palestinian civilians on daily basis in most of the West Bank. They carried out 24 raids and arrested nine civilians, among them two children, and handed 10 others notices to appear at the Israeli intelligence. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights accused Israel of “deliberately ill-treating Palestinian civilians, torturing them, and terrorizing them while raiding their homes, causing material damage to their contents and destruction to part of the premises.” It said the Israeli forces arrested three solidarity activists participating in a demonstration in Nabi Saleh, a village northwest of Ramallah, including an Israeli.