Palestine in Pictures: November 2017

A Palestinian girl walks among her family’s livestock in Ein al-Hilweh, an agrarian community in the northern Jordan Valley of the occupied West Bank, on 16 November. Around 300 people, and their 5,000 animals, from the communities of Ein al-Hilweh and nearby Umm Jamal are threatened with forced displacement by Israel after a military order was posted on 9 November, commanding all inhabitants to evacuate the area.

Keren Manor ActiveStills

One Palestinian civilian and an Israeli soldier were killed during the month of November.

Mahmoud Ahmad Zaal Odeh, 48, died after he was shot by an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank village of Qusra on 30 November.

Israel reportedly questioned two Israeli men on suspicions of negligent manslaughter before releasing them from custody. The men were leading a group of children on a hike when the shooting, which left another Palestinian injured, occurred.

Israel’s defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said that the Israeli man had acted in “self-defense,” claiming that a group of Palestinians had attempted to “lynch” the children.

“My thanks and recognition to the armed escort who saved the hikers from a clear and present danger to their lives,” he added.

Qusra residents, however, told media that Odeh was working his land when he was shot.

The Israeli military took Odeh’s body to Tel Aviv for autopsy without his family’s knowledge or permission, according to the rights group Adalah.

Stabbing death

Later that same day, an Israeli soldier, 19-year-old Ron Isaac Kokia, was stabbed to death at a bus station in the southern Israeli town of Arad. Israel was treating the killing as a suspected “terror attack” and had not arrested anyone in the case as of 1 December.

Seventy-two Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire so far this year. Fourteen Israelis, most of them soldiers, were killed by Palestinians during the same period.

Earlier in the month, an Israeli woman died of injuries sustained in an explosion at a bus stop in Jerusalem in 2011 when she was 14 years old. Hodaya Asulin never regained consciousness after the attack, which also killed a British woman.

On 5 November, Israel recovered and has since withheld the bodies of five of the 12 Palestinian fighters killed during the detonation of an underground Gaza tunnel on 30 October.

A 17-year-old Palestinian was critically wounded by Israeli forces after allegedly ramming his car into a group of Israeli civilians and attempting to stab soldiers in the southern West Bank on 17 November. Two Israelis were reportedly injured during the incident.

Gaza still closed

Hamas authorities in Gaza handed over control of the territory’s crossings to the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority forces on 1 November as part of a national reconciliation agreement signed by the embittered Palestinian factions in Cairo in October.

Rafah crossing, the only point of exit and entry for the vast majority of Gaza’s two million residents, remained closed for most of the month, despite its opening being the cornerstone of any successful reconciliation effort. The crossing has been closed since late October 2014, with only sporadic exceptions.

Rafah crossing was exceptionally opened by Egypt for three days from 18-20 November, allowing nearly 4,000 Palestinians to cross in both directions.

The Action Group for Palestinians of Syria recorded nine Palestine refugee deaths, most of them fighters killed in battle, as a result of the ongoing conflict in the country during the month of November.

Three Palestinians from Yarmouk camp, besieged by both government and opposition forces, were reported to have died from lack of medical care.

Salih Fathi Ahmad Salih, from Khan Danoun refugee camp, was reported to have been beaten to death after he was detained by Syrian security forces at a checkpoint in the refugee camp.

Palestinians hang a poster of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at Gaza’s southern Rafah crossing on 1 November after Hamas handed over control of the crossing to the Palestinian Authority, a first step of a preliminary Palestinian reconciliation agreement signed by Fatah and Hamas representatives last month.

Yasser Qudih APA images

Thousands march in the streets of London to protest the Balfour declaration on its 100th anniversary while Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, visits the United Kingdom to commemorate the event, 4 November.

Ahmad Al-Bazz ActiveStills

A Palestinian man works in Gaza’s first pineapple nursery in the southern town of Khan Younis on 8 November.

Mohammed Asad APA images

Supporters of the Fatah party take part in a Gaza City rally to mark the 13th anniversary of the death of Yasser Arafat, 11 November.

Atia Darwish APA images

Israeli settlers walk towards a Jewish religious site under the guard of the army during an annual pilgrimage in the West Bank town of Hebron, 11 November.

Wisam Hashlamoun APA images

An injured Palestinian boy lies on the ground after an Israeli soldier hit him as settlers made pilgrimage to religious site in the West Bank city of Hebron on 11 November.

Wisam Hashlamoun APA images

Palestinian pharmacists stand between empty shelves at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City as stocks of medicines depleted across the territory, 16 November.

Mohammed Asad APA images

Palestinians wait for travel permits to cross into Egypt after Rafah crossing was opened under Palestinian Authority control for the first time since 2007 on 19 November.

Mohammed Asad APA images

Palestinian students protest at the Rafah crossing with Egypt to demand that they be allowed to travel to complete their study programs outside Gaza on 20 November.

Ashraf Amra APA images

Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour is seen in a court room with her family and supporters, before a hearing in the northern city of Nazareth, 20 November. Tatour was arrested in 2015 for a poem she published on social media, spent three months in jail and since then has been under house arrest. Her trial is still ongoing.

Oren Ziv ActiveStills

Residents of a building in Gaza City known as the Italian Tower protest on 23 November to demand its reconstruction more than three years after it was destroyed during Israel’s 51-day assault in the summer of 2014.

Atia Darwish APA images

Police disperse Ultra Orthodox Jews who blocked a main road in West Jerusalem during a protest of the imprisonment of community members detained by the military for refusing their conscription orders, 26 November.

A Palestinian man donates blood at a mourning tent erected in Gaza City after an attack on a mosque in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula that killed more than 300 worshippers and injured dozens, 26 November.

Ashraf Amra APA images

Palestinians inspect a destroyed workshop after it was demolished by Israeli army bulldozers in the West Bank city of Hebron on 27 November.

Wisam Hashlamoun APA images

Palestinians participate in an exhibition of national products in Gaza City, 28 November.

Ashraf Amra APA images

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