With the Israeli army killing 13 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank between 25 July and 10 August, including three children, the number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank and Israel by Israeli occupation forces so far this year reached 167 and surpasses the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in all of 2022, which amounted to 155, already the highest fatalities in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 2005, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territory in its bi-weekly Protection of Civilians report.
In addition to the Israeli army killings, an Israeli settler shot and killed a Palestinian man and injured two others during a settler attack in Burqa village, near Ramallah, on 4 August, which raises the number of Palestinians killed by settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since the beginning of 2023 until 7 August to seven, said OCHA.
It said that 276 Palestinians, including at least 60 children, were injured by Israeli forces across the West Bank, including nine people by live ammunition, between July 25 and August 7, and that since the beginning of the year a total of 683 Palestinians were injured with live ammunition by Israeli forces in the West Bank, which is more than double the equivalent period in 2022, which amounted to 307.
At the same time, six Palestinians, including one child, were injured by Israeli settlers, who also damaged Palestinian property in another 14 instances across the West Bank.
In the first six months of 2023, the UN recorded 591 settler-related incidents resulting in Palestinian casualties, property damage, or both. This is a 39 percent increase in the monthly average when compared with 2022, during which the highest number of settler-related incidents since the UN began recording such data in 2006 was reported.
OCHA said that the Israeli occupation authorities demolished, confiscated, or forced people to demolish 56 structures in East Jerusalem and Area C of the West Bank, including six homes, citing the lack of Israeli-issued building permits, which are almost impossible to obtain. As a result, 23 Palestinians, including 12 children, were displaced, and the livelihoods of more than 3,500 others were affected.
Six of the affected structures were provided by donors in response to a previous demolition in al-Zaayyem Bedouin community in the Jerusalem governorate, during which a total of 35 structures were demolished in a single incident.
Fifty-three of the affected structures were demolished in Area C, including the infrastructure of a public park serving the community of al Mughayyir in the Ramallah governorate. The remaining three structures were demolished in East Jerusalem, resulting in the displacement of four households, comprising 16 people, including seven children. All of the demolished structures in East Jerusalem were destroyed by their owners to avoid the payment of fines to the Israeli authorities.
