Protesters march in al-Rakiz in the Masafer Yatta area, south of the West Bank city of Hebron, towards the Avigail settlement outpost on 8 January, one week after 24-year-old Harun Abu Aram was shot in the neck while attempting to stop Israeli soldiers from confiscating a neighbor’s generator. Abu Aram remains hospitalized in critical condition and is paralyzed as a result of his injury.
Keren Manor
ActiveStills
Israeli forces, including a private guard, shot and killed three Palestinians at settlement road junctions in the occupied West Bank during January.
In all three instances, Israel claimed that the slain Palestinians had been attempting to attack soldiers when they were killed. No Israelis were injured in any of the alleged knife attacks.
Mosab Shawer
APA images
On 15 January, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority leader unveiled plans for elections in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
Ostensibly called to renew the popular legitimacy of the main political factions, heal the Fatah-Hamas rift while countering Israeli accusations that Abbas does not speak for all Palestinians, the date of the decree had much to do with Joe Biden’s inauguration five days later.
The PA clearly hopes that the new US administration will relaunch peace efforts and revive the fortunes of a body that is running out of time.
Elections are also seen in some quarters as the best way to overcome a 14-year split between the main factions that many identify as one of the greatest weaknesses on the Palestinian political scene.
Mosab Shawer
APA images
The Israeli military cleared itself of wrongdoing in the shooting and grave injury of a Palestinian man in the southern West Bank last week, claiming soldiers acted in self-defense.
The perfunctory investigation closed less than a week later exemplifies the culture of impunity long decried by human rights organizations seeking war crimes investigations at the International Criminal Court.
The military claimed that the man who was shot, Harun Abu Aram, was “hit by a stray bullet fired when a Palestinian tried to seize a commander’s weapon,” as the Tel Aviv daily
Abu Aram, 24, is paralyzed from the neck down as a result of his injury.
Mosab Shawer
APA images
The new year is off to a deadly start in the occupied West Bank where Israeli soldiers reflexively use lethal force against Palestinians.
A Palestinian man was shot dead by soldiers at a settlement road junction near the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Tuesday. The military claimed that the slain man, identified as Ahed Abdulrahman Qawqas Ikhleil, 25, had thrown a knife at soldiers.
No one besides Ikhleil was injured during the incident, as in countless other alleged attacks on Israeli soldiers in which only the accused Palestinian assailant was injured, often fatally.
Israeli outlets published photos of a meat cleaver that was reportedly found at the scene where Ikhleil was killed.