Viewpoint - October 16, 2014

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Diaries: Live from Palestine
The Month in Pictures: September 2014
The Electronic Intifada

Families in the occupied Gaza Strip suffered further tragedy during the month of September after two migrant
boats smuggling hundreds of passengers, the majority of
them Palestinians from Gaza, were deliberately sunk off
the coast of Malta. Only about a dozen survived.

"Reports indicate that most of those who drowned, or [are]
still missing were young people, but there were also whole
families," the United Nations Office of the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) states.

The ongoing economic siege and repeated military assaults
have compelled hundreds of young Palestinians in Gaza to
pursue a better future by paying thousands of dollars to
human traffickers to escape to Egypt via tunnels and then
to Europe by sea, says OCHA.

Palestinian refugees from Syria - more than half a million
of whom are directly affected by the conflict there - as
well as Lebanon have been among the victims of previous
migrant boat disasters in recent years.

Gaza Strip

The Gaza ceasefire reached on 26 August after 51 days of
catastrophic violence was maintained during September
despite Israel's failure to lift the siege. Israeli naval
forces fired on Palestinian fishing boats and farmers.
Two mortars were fired from Gaza towards Israel, causing
no casualties or damage, and Hamas forces reportedly
arrested those responsible, according to OCHA.

Three Palestinians in Gaza were killed and two injured
after unexploded ordnance (UXO) from the summer war
detonated after the victims had loaded it into their
vehicle and were driving in the area of Shujaiya east
of Gaza City on 19 September, OCHA reports.

"As of late August, around 7,000 UXOs were estimated to
be present in areas affected by the conflict, threatening
the lives of both civilians and humanitarian workers,"
OCHA adds. "Operations to clear UXOs however, have been
affected as a result of limited capacity and restrictions
on the entry of equipment to the Gaza Strip."

Tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza remain displaced
from the summer assault. As of 29 September, according to
OCHA, there were more than 57,000 displaced persons
sheltering in 18 schools administered by UNRWA, the UN
agency for Palestine refugees. A further 40,000 to 50,000
Palestinians remain with host families.

The Rafah crossing with Egypt - the sole exit and entry
point for the vast majority of the 1.8 million Palestinians
in Gaza - remained partly open to a limited number of
travelers, says OCHA.

Only two truckloads of exports exited Gaza through the
Kerem Shalom commercial crossing as of 29 September,
reports OCHA, the first trucks of exports since June.

West Bank

Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces
killed two Palestinian men suspected of carrying out the
abduction and slaying of three Israeli youths near
Bethlehem in June. More than forty Palestinians have been
killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank so far this
year; fourteen were killed in the equivalent period in
2013, according to OCHA.

Israeli forces shot 22-year-old Issa al-Qatari in the
chest in al-Amari refugee camp near Ramallah on 9
September, killing him. Earlier in the month
sixteen-year-old Muhammad Sinokrot died of injuries after
he was shot in the head by Israeli border police in the
Wadi al-Joz neighborhood of East Jerusalem.

Several incidents of violence were reported within or
next to schools in the West Bank at the onset of the new
academic year.

Three children were injured when Israeli forces fired
rubber-coated steel bullets toward the Dar al-Aytam
school in the Old City of Jerusalem on 24 September and
on multiple occasions Israeli forces fired tear gas
canisters at students as they left the al-Khadr secondary
school in Bethlehem, OCHA reports.

A Tulkarem secondary school evacuated 350 students on 24
September after Israeli forces fired tear gas canisters
nearby; several such incidents were reported at the Zeita
boys school during September.

Settlers attack children

In the northern West Bank city of Nablus on 3 September,
an armed Israeli settler chased Palestinian children and
subsequently entered a high school where the youths had
sought refuge, OCHA states.

"According to the school headmaster, the settler
identified himself as a security guard of the settlement
Eli and claimed that he was verbally insulted by one of
the students. Shortly after, Israeli forces raided the
school and evacuated around 450 teachers and students.
This and another two schools in the area have been
repeatedly raided by Israeli forces following various
allegations by settlers," according to OCHA.

Israeli settlers attempted to kidnap an eleven-year-old
Palestinian child in East Jerusalem last month in the
fifth such incident in the city since June, excluding
the kidnapping and murder of sixteen-year-old Muhammad
Abu Khudair on 2 July.

Israeli settlers sprayed chemicals into the faces of
two children, aged ten and twelve, near the Ibrahimi
mosque in Hebron on 13 September, OCHA reports. A
seven-year-old boy was hospitalized after being run
over by a settler in the same area the following day;
five similar incidents were reported in Hebron addition
to eleven throughout the West Bank since the beginning
of the year, according to OCHA.

On 2 October, Israeli forces completely destroyed a
dairy and farm in Hebron for lack of Israeli-issued
building permits, OCHA states. The factory was raided
earlier this summer and nearly $1 million worth of
equipment was confiscated.

Owned by the Islamic Charitable Society, the dairy
generates the majority of funds supporting several
orphanages and schools; approximately 3,500 orphans
are expected to be affected by the demolition, in
addition to the factory's twenty employees, according
to OCHA.

Check out the pictures and original article here:
http://electronicintifada.net/content/month-pictures-september-2014/13920

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