General

The Month in Pictures: October 2015

by The Electronic Intifada
6 November 2015


Yahya
Hassan mourns while holding the body of his daughter, Rahaf, during a
funeral for the toddler and her pregnant mother Nour in al-Nuseirat
refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, on 11 October. Nour and Rahaf Hassan
were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting their home in the
al-Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City.
Ashraf Amra
APA images

Escalated levels of unchecked violence,
provoked by Israeli assaults and incursions at the al-Aqsa mosque
compound in Jerusalem, reached a dangerous tipping point during the
month of October. 


Israeli forces cracked down on fierce protests by youths fed up with military occupation and an ineffectual Palestinian leadership.

Nearly 70 Palestinians were slain by Israeli forces and settlers and
9 Israelis were killed by Palestinians during the month, according to
the United Nations monitoring group OCHA.


More than two dozen Palestinians, including a 13-year-old bystander, were killed during protests in October. The majority were killed during demonstrations in the Gaza Strip.

More than 7,000 Palestinians suffered injuries requiring medical
treatment during that same period. More than half of them were injured
after inhaling tear gas fired by Israeli forces during daily protests in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.


A quarter of those injured were hit with rubber-coated steel bullets, and more than 1,000 were shot with live ammunition.

Shoot-to-kill policy


Forty Palestinians, including 10 children, were shot dead during alleged attacks on Israelis.

But videos of many of the incidents — including the 3 October slaying
of 19-year-old Jerusalemite Fadi Alloun while he was being chased by a
mob calling for his death — show that Palestinians were killed when they
posed no immediate danger.


Human rights groups have slammed Israel for executing Palestinians as part of a shoot-to-kill policy encouraged by its top leadership.

The United Nations Deputy Secretary-General stated
before the Security Council that “a number of incidents, many caught on
video and widely disseminated, call into question the degree of
response, including the apparent disproportionate use of lethal force as
a first resort.”


An Eritrean asylum-seeker died
after he was shot by a security guard in southern Israel and then
beaten by a mob who mistakenly thought he was involved in the fatal
shooting of an Israeli soldier at a bus station.


But most of the extrajudicial executions occurred in Hebron and
Jerusalem, where hostile Jewish settlers, protected and abetted by the
Israeli army, live in close proximity to Palestinians.


As of 2 November, Israel was still withholding the bodies of 22 Palestinians killed in alleged attacks. Palestinians have demonstrated in large numbers calling for the return of the bodies so that bereaved families can bury them.

Killed in their home


A pregnant woman and her 3-year-old daughter were killed
in an Israeli airstrike targeting their home in the Gaza Strip,
bringing the total number of Palestinians killed there last month to 18.


In addition to the 70 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in October,
30-year-old Fadi al-Darbi died in Israeli custody after suffering a
stroke and not receiving proper medical treatment from prison
authorities.


A Palestinian man had a heart attack and died a day after being assaulted by Israeli forces. Five other Palestinians, including an infant, died after inhaling tear gas fired by the army, or after delays caused by Israeli movement restrictions while trying to access emergency medical care.

State of emergency


OCHA reported that the Palestine Red Crescent Society
declared a state of emergency on 4 October following 14 attacks by
Israeli forces and settlers against its ambulances and staff in the 72
hours prior.


“The following day, a number of Palestinian schools in the Jerusalem area canceled classes citing safety concerns,” OCHA added.

Israeli forces repeatedly raided
East Jerusalem’s only emergency care hospital and fired tear gas and
rubber-coated metal bullets inside the facility when staff held a
peaceful sit-in protesting the interference with their treatment of
patients. A hospital in the West Bank city of Nablus was also raided by Israeli agents disguised as civilians, who abducted a patient from his bed.


Nearly 1,200 Palestinians were arrested in the occupied West Bank in October, and Israel is also taking repressive measures against Palestinian citizens of the state, charging them with incitement.

Meanwhile, the Action Group for Palestinians of Syria reported that 26 Palestinians died in that country during October in circumstances related to the ongoing violence there.

Palestinians
commemorate the killing of 13 protesters by the Israeli police in
October 2000, in the city of Sakhnin in the north of present-day Israel,
on 1 October.


Omar Sameer
ActiveStills
Israeli
forces search the area of a shooting attack near the West Bank city of
Nablus on 1 October. Palestinian assailants shot and killed an Israeli
settler couple while they were travelling with their children on a road
connecting two settlements near the city.


Nedal Eshtayah
APA images
Palestinian
Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas greets supporters in the West Bank city
of Ramallah on 2 October upon his return from New York City, where he
attended a ceremony marking the raising of the Palestinian flag at the
United Nations headquarters.


Shadi Hatem
APA images
A
Palestinian boy looks at a car which residents said was set on fire by
Jewish settlers in Beitillu village west of Ramallah on 2 October.


Shadi Hatem
APA images
Settlers
are guarded by Israeli soldiers on 3 October after the settlers set
fire to Palestinian agricultural fields in the Nablus-area village of
Burin in a reprisal attack following the killing of two Israelis in the
northern West Bank earlier in the week.


Nedal Eshtayah
APA images
Palestinian youth run from Israeli occupation forces during clashes in the Shuafat neighbourhood of East Jerusalem on 5 October.

Faiz Abu Rmeleh
ActiveStills
Palestinian
youths clash with Israeli forces at the main entrance of the West Bank
city of Bethlehem on 6 October following the funeral of 13-year-old
Abdulrahman Shadi Obeidallah. The boy was shot dead by Israeli forces
the previous day as he and a friend were standing more than 200 feet
away from confrontations between youths and the army near Aida refugee
camp.


Muhannad Saleem
ActiveStills
An
Israeli jeep burns during a raid on the West Bank city of Nablus on 6
October. The Israeli government announced the day prior that it had
arrested a Hamas cell in the city for the 1 October slaying of a couple
from a nearby Jewish settlement.


Nedal Eshtayah
APA images
Palestinian
youth set up barricades in Surda, the Ramallah-area hometown of
Muhannad Halabi, who killed two Israelis in the Old City of Jerusalem,
as Israeli forces surrounded his family’s house on 6 October. Halabi,
19, was shot dead by police during the 3 October attack.


Muhannad Saleem
APA images
An
Israeli Border Police officer is injured as Palestinian stone-throwers
confront occupation forces near Beit El settlement on the outskirts of
the West Bank city of Ramallah on 7 October.


Muhannad Saleem
ActiveStills
Undercover
Israeli agents disguised as Palestinian protesters are seen along
with uniformed Israeli soldiers during clashes outside the Jewish
settlement of Beit El, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, on 7
October.


Shadi Hatem
APA images
A Palestinian woman inspects her home in the West Bank city of Nablus after it was raided by Israeli forces on 8 October.

Nedal Eshtayah
APA images
Palestinian
protesters throw stones at Israeli forces during confrontations at the
Huwwara checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus on 9 October.


Nedal Eshtayah
APA images
Palestinians pray outside Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday, 9 October, after Israel prohibited access to the area.

Mahfouz Abu Turk
APA images
The
body of a Palestinian teen is seen on the street near the Old City of
Jerusalem on 10 October. The teen, later identified as 16-year-old Ishaq
Badran from the Jerusalem neighborhood of Kafr Aqab, was shot and
killed by the Israeli police after allegedly carrying out stabbing
attack in the area.


Anne Paq
ActiveStills
Palestinian
protesters carry an injured comrade during confrontations with Israeli
forces near the fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip, east of Gaza
City, on 11 October.


Ashraf Amra
APA images
Thousands
march in Jalazone refugee camp on the outskirts of Ramallah on 12
October during the funeral of 14-year-old Ahmad Sharaka, who was shot
dead by Israeli soldiers while protesting near the Beit El settlement
the previous day.


Yotam Ronen
ActiveStills
Emergency
responders stand near the body of Yeshayahu Krishevsky, who was killed
when a Alaa Abu Jamal, a Palestinian resident of the Jabal al-Mukabir
neighborhood of East Jerusalem, drove into a bus stop and began
attacking those he hit with a meat cleaver in West Jerusalem on 13
October. Abu Jamal was shot at the scene and later died of his injuries.


Oren Ziv
ActiveStills
The
parents of 18-year-old Mustafa al-Khatib hold photos of their son at
the family’s home in the Jabal al-Mukabir neighborhood of East Jerusalem
on 13 October. The youth was shot dead by Israeli police after
allegedly attempting to stab an officer, but Palestinian witnesses told
media that the youth had no knife.


Mahfouz Abu Turk
APA images
Palestinians
protest during a general strike in the town of Sakhnin in the north of
present-day Israel on 13 October. Palestinians called for a Day of Rage
following restrictions on the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem and
recent violent attacks on both Israelis and Palestinians.


Yotam Ronen
ActiveStills
Closed
shops at the market in the West Bank city of Nablus during a general
strike amid ongoing clashes surrounding access to Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa
mosque compound on 14 October. Israel began setting up dozens of
checkpoints and roadblocks in Palestinian areas of East Jerusalem
following a series of alleged attacks.


Nedal Eshtayah
APA images
Palestinian
protesters throw stones during confrontations with Israeli forces in
the West Bank city of Bethlehem on 14 October following the funeral of
28-year-old Mutaz Ibrahim Zawahreh, who was shot dead by Israeli forces
during clashes the day before.


Anne Paq
ActiveStills
Palestinians
run from tear gas fired by Israeli forces during a protest near Gaza’s
boundary with Israel, east of al-Bureij refugee camp, on 16 October.
Thousands of Palestinians marched towards the boundary in different
locations of the Gaza Strip following a call for “Day of Rage” protests.
Three Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces during the
demonstrations.


Ezz Zanoun
ActiveStills
A
wounded Palestinian protester is evacuated after he was shot by Israeli
troops during protests near the boundary with Israel in the central
Gaza Strip on 17 October.


Ashraf Amra
APA images
Palestinian farmers ride past Israeli settlers during the olive harvest in the West Bank city of Nablus on 19 October.

Nedal Eshtayah
APA images
Israelis
gather at the site where two Palestinians were shot by police after an
alleged stabbing attack in the city of Beit Shemesh, west of Jerusalem,
on 22 October.


Yotam Ronen
ActiveStills
A
Palestinian youth throws stones towards a skunk water cannon during
confrontations with Israeli forces near the Jewish settlement of Beit
El, north of the West Bank city of Ramallah, on 23 October.


Oren Ziv
ActiveStills
Lightning streaks the sky above Gaza City on 28 October.

Mohammed Talatene
APA images
Israeli
forces stand near the body of Farouk Sidr, shot dead after he allegedly
tried to stab a soldier at a Jewish settlement in the center of Hebron
on 29 October.


Yotam Ronen
ActiveStills
Palestinian protesters confront Israeli soldiers during a protest near Gaza’s boundary with Israel on 30 October.

Ezz Zanoun
ActiveStills
Palestinian
protesters prepare molotov cocktails during confrontations with Israeli
forces outside the Jewish settlement of Beit El, near the West Bank
city of Ramallah, on 30 October.


Shadi Hatem
APA images
Israeli
forces cordon off the area at the scene of an alleged stabbing attack
in Jerusalem on 30 October. Ahmad Qneibi, a Palestinian from the Kufr
Aqab neighborhood of the city, allegedly stabbed an Israeli before being
shot and severely wounded, police said, in the first such incident in
the city in two weeks.


Mahfouz Abu Turk
APA images
Palestinian women rally after Friday prayer at the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City on 30 October.

Mahfouz Abu Turk
APA images