February 2020…Two Martyrs in Jerusalem…A boy and a woman critically injured…continuing to execute arrests and demolitions…expulsions from Al-Aqsa Mosque
Wadi Hilweh Information Center issued its monthly report for the month of February 2020, during which it monitored Israeli violations in the city of Jerusalem.
The center said that the occupation authorities, with their various institutions, continued violations in the city of Jerusalem.
Two Martyrs in Jerusalem
In February, two Palestinianswere martyred at Lions Gate - one of the gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque - under the pretext of carrying out or attempting to carry out a shooting and stabbing attack.
On 6/2/2020, the Palestinian Shadi Al-Banna, 45, was martyred during a shooting at Lions Gate. He is from the city of Haifa, and the occupation authorities handed over his body several days after he was killed.
On 22/2/2020, Maher Za’atra, 33, was martyred after being shot by the Israeli occupation forces in the area of Lions Gate, on the pretext of trying to carry out a stabbing attack.
The Center stated that the occupation authorities continue to detain the bodies of four Jerusalem Martyrs in refrigerators, they are: Martyr Mesbah Abu Sbeih (since October 2016), Martyr Fadi Qunbar (since January 2017), Martyr Aziz Aweisat (since May 2018), and Martyr Maher Za’atra.
Injuries
In the middle of last February, the occupation soldiers targeted the child, Malek Wael Issa, 8 years old, with a rubber bullet, which led to the loss of his left eye, a fractured skull, bleeding in the brain, and the loss of fluid surrounding the tissues.
The child Malek was returning to his house after the end of his school day accompanied by his sisters, and after purchasing candy from one of the groceries near the bus station where he got off, the Israeli soldiers who fired rubber bullets were present despite the crowded street.
On February 22nd, Mrs. Anisa Abulhawa, 43, was wounded by a bullet in the thigh, as she came out of Lions Gate, while the soldiers chased a young man who they claimed was carrying a knife, and he was shot.
Abulhawa explained that she tried to take shelter in the nearby wall while seeing the soldiers running towards one of the young men, and during that a member of the forces who was wearing civilian uniform and a police hat pointed his weapon towards the young man who was only 10-15 meters away from her, and shot him in the upper part of his body, and then another bullet was fired directly at her by the soldiers stationed at Lions Gate. The bullet hit her thigh and penetrated it, then the soldiers randomly opened fire in the area. While trying to hide again, one of the soldiers kicked her bag and phone, but one of the young men working inside a grocery store intervened and explained to the soldiers that she had nothing to do with it.
Al-Aqsa Mosque
Hundreds of settlers carried out their daily incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque, which take place on a daily basis, except for Fridays and Saturdays every week, during two sessions; morning and afternoon, through Dung Gate, which has been controlled by the occupation authorities since the occupation of the city of Jerusalem.
The occupation authorities continued to impose restrictions on the worshipers during the Dawn prayers on Fridays since last month. Worshippers answered calls to hold mass Dawn prayers on Fridays at Al-Aqsa Mosque to reject the violations of the occupation authorities and its settlers in Al-Aqsa and against the worshipers.
The occupation forces assaulted and pushed the worshipers who are expelled from Al-Aqsa Mosque on February 7thand 14th, before and after the Dawn prayers in Al-Mujahideen road between Hutta and Lions gates, while municipal staff issued fines to worshipers for eating cakes or distributing coffee, and they also confiscated coffee and nuts from them.
The occupation police stationed at the gates of Al-Aqsa also imposed restrictions on the worshipers entering Al-Aqsa to perform the Dawn prayer, by preventing them from entering (men and women) for no reason, and holding their ID cards at the gates and checking bags.
During the past month, the occupation forces stormed Al-Aqsa after the Friday Noon prayers on 14/2 and seized a banner placed in its courtyards against the “deal of the century”.
The officers and occupation forces also stormed Al-Aqsa after the Friday Noon prayers on 21/2 and carried out arrests from its courtyards and gates, and raided the chapel of Bab Al-Rahma and confiscated banners placed on its gates and destroyed balloons. They also confiscated a banner from its roof, on the first anniversary of its reopening after it was closed for 16 years.
The occupation authorities continued to issue expulsion and deportation orders from Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City of Jerusalem, and orders to ban entry to West Bank cities and travel ban. The center monitored the issuance of 36 orders last month, including preventing the governor of Jerusalem Adnan Gheith from entering the West Bank for a period of 6 months and preventing him from communicating with Jerusalemiteofficials and activists, and expelling the president of the Islamic Cemetery Committee, Mustafa Abu Zahra, and the secretary of Fatah Movement in Jerusalem, Shadi Mattour, from Al-Aqsa Mosque, as well as other activists and worshipers.
Confiscating money, jewelry, and a car from the prisoners and their families
At the beginning of February, the Israeli occupation forces stormed 9 houses of Jerusalemite prisoners in the villages and neighborhoods of the city, and confiscated cash, money and vehicles from the freed prisoners and prisoners in the occupation prisons, under the pretext that they received money from "hostile entities", in reference to their salaries received from the Palestinian Authority.
Wadi Hilweh Information Center stated that the Israeli army minister, Naftali Bennett, issued a decision to cut the salaries of 9 Jerusalemite prisoners, on the pretext of "receiving monthly salaries from the Palestinian Authority, which encourages them to terrorism and carry out attacks", in the wake of monitoring prisoners' accounts led by the so-called "National Commission for an Economic War against Terrorism" in the Ministry of Security, the “Shabak”, the police, the prison authority, and the "Authority to Prevent Money Laundering" and other entities "as stated in Bennett’s resolution."
The center monitored the storming of the homes of captive Mohammad Hamad from Shu’fat;captives Wissam Kastiro and his brother Noor Kastiroin Beit Hanina, the captive KhalilJayyousi in al-Tur, the captive Malik Salman in Beit Safafa, the captive Amir Farroukh in Silwan, and the released prisoners Majdi Abbasi, Naji Odeh and Basil Abu Tayeh in Silwan, and Ihab Bkeirat in the village of Sur Baher.
Last month, the occupation intelligence prevented the holding of a festival against the deal of the century, as it stormed the festival headquarters, "Paradise Club” in Shu’fat refugee camp, took out the people present, handed them the prevention order and summoned some of them for investigation.
Arrests
The occupation authorities continued executing arrests in the city of Jerusalem, and the center monitored 156 cases of arrest, including two children under the age of 12 - less than the age of responsibility, 45 minors, and 6 women.
The most arrests took place in the village of Issawiya (55), followed by Silwan (32), in addition to 45 arrests from Al-Aqsa, kits streets and the Old City of Jerusalem.
Among the detainees was Sanad Al-Torman, from Al-Tur village. The occupation authorities claim that he carried out a run-over attack against a group of soldiers in West Jerusalem.
Demolition
The occupation municipality continued to demolish homes in the city of Jerusalem, under the pretext of "not licensing", at a time when it imposes impossible conditions and large sums on money to start the licensing procedures that may extend for many years.
The Information Center monitored the demolition of 16 facilities in the city of Jerusalem, 11 of which were self-demolished by their owners.
The demolition was mainly concentrated in Silwan and Jabal Al-Mukabber.
