Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories

The legacy of Israel’s 50-year occupation of the Palestinian territories has been systematic human rights violations on a mass scale. One of its most devastating consequences is the impact of Israel’s discriminatory policies on Palestinians’ access to adequate supplies of clean and safe water.

Soon after Israel occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, in June 1967, the Israeli military authorities consolidated complete power over all water resources and water-related infrastructure in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). 50 years on, Israel continues to control and restrict Palestinian access to water in the OPT to a level which neither meets their needs nor constitutes a fair distribution of shared water resources.

by Jim Joyce

Two years ago Israel’s military forces for fifty days wreaked destruction on the Gaza Strip, killing close to 1,500 civilians, more than a third of them children (6 Israeli civilians were killed by rockets fired by the Palestinians.) 

Two years later no independent (of those ordering, implementing or advising on the war) investigations of these war crimes have been undertaken by the government of Israel.  Some of these attacks clearly targeted civilians, a violation of international humanitarian law.  No credible investigations have been done by the Palestinians of their rocket attacks, with some dozen of them having ranges beyond the arc of territory just north of Gaza.

This was the third such war in the past ten years.  Each has been more devastating than the previous to the lives and infrastructure of the Palestinians in Gaza.  No one has been held accountable for the death of civilians those times either.

Amnesty International, connecting the dots — reports of war crimes and no investigations — fears that the Israeli government has granted its soldiers  impunity to continue killing Palestinian civilians. 

by Jim Joyce, AICS(ES) Israel, Occupied Territories, Palestine Coordinator

Hassan Safadi, a Palestinian journalist and Media Coordinator for Addameer, a prisoners’ rights organization, was detained returning from Jordan at the Karameh bridge crossing into the Occupied Palestinian Territory on 01 May by Israeli authorities. 

He was taken to the Moscobiyyah Police Detention Center in Jerusalem and interrogated.  This interrogation continued after he was transferred to Kitziot Prison in the Negev southern Israel.  He told his lawyer he was subjected to sleep deprivation and tied into stress positions during those interrogation sessions.  Such treatment violates the prohibition under international law of torture and other ill-treatment.  For a period between 12 and 22 May he was denied access to his lawyer.

His sister reported that IDF personnel came to their home and took away any papers “that had Hasan’s name.”  They also carried away books that were inscribed with his name.

On 8 July 2014, Israel launched a military offensive against the Gaza Strip for the third time in less than six years. "WE COULDN’T HEAR THE KIDS, THEIR VOICES HAD COMPLETELY GONE. THAT’S WHEN I REALIZED THEY WERE ALL DEAD." - Khalil Abed Hassan Ammar, who lost three of his four children in an Israeli attack on their Gaza City home on 20 July 2014.

Over 50 days, both Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes and other serious breaches of international law. To date, neither side has held anyone to account.

During the war, Israeli forces fired tens of thousands of artillery and tank shells into densely populated residential areas, and launched air strikes on homes across the Gaza Strip, killing families inside in many cases. They struck schools sheltering civilians and attacked hospitals and medical workers, including ambulance staff trying to evacuate the dead and wounded.

By Tarek Chatila, Montreal-area activist and writer for Amnesty Canada’s Isr/OT/PA co-group

In March, Amnesty International released its report entitled ‘Unlawful and deadly: Rocket and mortar attacks by Palestinian armed groups during the 2014 Gaza/Israel conflict.’ Coming just two weeks before Palestine’s accession to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), it is part of the ‘Nowhere to run for life, safety, justice’ campaign which demands accountability for human rights violations carried out by all parties during Israel’s operation in Gaza, codenamed ‘Protective Edge.’

By Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General

Nearly three months have passed since the latest conflict came to an end, but the piles of rubble and empty shells of family homes in Gaza serve as painful reminders of the death and destruction that resulted from Israel’s latest military operation there in July and August this year.

Mohammad Akram al-Hallaq’s three grandchildren were watching cartoons in the television room when the three missiles struck on 20 July. The walls collapsed in an avalanche of rubble, crumbling into piles of dust and rocks above and below them. None of the children survived. Eight people, all civilians, including four children from another family living in the building were also killed.