October 2022…Shooting…hundreds of arrests and deportations…dangerous violations in Al-Aqsa Mosque
The occupation authorities, with their various institutions, and the “alleged temple” groups escalated the attacks and violations in the city of Jerusalem, during the month of October, which were monitored by the Wadi Hilweh Information Center - Jerusalem, in its monthly report.
Shooting and detention of bodies, serious violations in Al-Aqsa, hundreds of arrests and deportations, nonstop settlers' attacks, and the escalation of demolitions during the last week of October, in the monthly report of the Wadi Hilweh Information Center.
Shooting…Bodies continue to be detained
On 19/10/2022 Uday Al-Tamimi, 22 years old, was killed during an armed clash at the entrance to the settlement of "Ma'ale Adomim", east of Jerusalem. Martyr Al-Tamimi had carried out a shooting at the checkpoint of Shu’fat refugee camp on October 8th, and was pursued and wanted until he carried out a second shooting and was martyred.
On 22/10/2022, the police shot the 16-year-old boy, Mohammad Rajab Abu Qteish, injuring him in the lung, inside the “Sheikh Jarrah Stadiums” in the city of Jerusalem. The police claimed (that the boy carried out a stabbing attack against a settler near the "French Hill settlement" and was shot while trying to escape in Sheikh Jarrah Stadium).The boy was transferred directly to Hadassah Issawiya Hospital in a difficult condition, and the next day, after his health improved, he was transferred to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, and after 5 days he was transferred to prison, and was interrogated several times while he was under treatment in the hospital. His hands and feet were tied to a treatment bed.
On 8/10/2022, the occupation forces shot at a vehicle while it was traveling on the Gethsemane Street “the road between Ras Al-Amoud and Lions Gate” in Jerusalem. The police were talking about a ramming attack in the area, and despite that the two young men turned themselves in to the police to clarify what happened with them, but the forces stormed their homes in the Ras al-Amoud neighborhood, assaulted family members and confiscated the vehicle. One of the young men was released after hours and the driver after several days.
The occupation authorities continue to detain the bodies of nine Jerusalemite martyrs in refrigerators: the body of the martyr Mesbah Abu Sbeih (since October 2016), the body of the martyr Fadi al-Qunbar (since January 2017), the body of the martyr Aziz Aweisat (since May 2018), and the two martyrs Shaher Abu Khadija and Zuhdi al-Tawil (since May 2021), the martyr Fadi Abu Shkheidem (since November 2021), the martyr Karim Jamal al-Qawasmi (since March 2022), the body of martyr Mohammad Abu Jom’a (since September 2022), and the body of martyr Uday Al-Tamimi (since October 2022).
Shu’fat refugee camp and Anata…Siege and abuse
The occupation authorities turned the Shu’fat refugee camp and the town of Anata into a prison for a period of 6 consecutive days, "from the evening of the eighth until the thirteenth of October", by imposing a strict siege on the area in which more than 120,000 Palestinians live, and the forces closed the two main entrances, "the camp checkpoint/ Anata entrance" completely, and isolated them from their surroundings by preventing the locals from leaving or entering, including patients, students, workers, and employees. Food supply started to run out of commercial stores, and garbage piled up in the streets of the camp and Anata because garbage trucks were prevented from entering and cleaning.
The forces also carried out daily and round-the-clock incursions into Shu’fat refugee camp and Anata, and raided homes and buildings, turned some roofs into observation points, and snipers were stationed on them. A special unit of explosives experts made holes in the family’s house and threatened to blow it up. Arrests of family members were carried out from the first moment of the operation at the camp’s checkpoint which included the parents, brothers, relatives and friends of Uday Al-Tamimi.
The occupation authorities retracted the closure and siege of Shu’fat refugee camp and Anata, after civil disobedience was declared in the area “on 11/10/22, which included strikes in schools, shops, and workers.” In support of the camp and Anata, the city of Jerusalem with its towns and neighborhoods was fully committed to the civil disobedience and participated in the strike, and clashes broke out in multiple areas in the city.
Al-Aqsa Mosque ... temporal division and serious violations
The "alleged temple groups" escalated the targeting of Al-Aqsa Mosque, during the month of October, to celebrate the holidays "Yom Kippur and the week of Sukkot." Thousands of settlers carried out the incursions, while preventing Muslims from entering and praying in Al-Aqsa from dawn until noon.
Successive groups of settlers, including Knesset members, rabbis and officials of “Temple groups and organizations” organized daily incursions into Al-Aqsa “except on Fridays and Saturdays” through the Dung Gate, whose keys have been controlled by the occupation authorities since the occupation of Jerusalem. These incursions were concentrated on October 4, 5, 9, and 17, during the celebrations of the above mentioned holidays.
During the celebrations of “Yom Kippur”, 1009 extremists stormed Al-Aqsa, while 5,064 extremists stormed Al-Aqsaduring the week of the Sukkot.
The settlers’ violations were not limited to storming Al-Aqsa only, but also performing collective public prayers during the storming of the mosque, in the squares and at the gates. The prayers were mainly held near the eastern region of the mosque, and settlers managed to bring vegetable offering into Al-Aqsa in two occasions; once on October 11th and the second on October 16th, and this was done under the protection of the occupation police.
As for Al-Aqsa’s squares and gates, the occupation authorities turned them into a military zone, by deploying special forces, intelligence and senior officers in the squares and escorting the intruders. As for the gates, iron barriers were erected and the police deployed in large numbers, and prevented those under the age of 50 from entering Al-Aqsa from dawn until three in the afternoon. Al-Aqsa courtyards seemed almost empty of worshipers due to these restrictions.
The worshipers also performed the dawn and noon prayers during the festive period at the thresholds of Al-Aqsa or the Old City, due to restrictions that prevented their access to the mosque.
During the aforementioned holiday period, the forces attacked those stationed at the gates of Al-Aqsa, by beating and arresting them, and the forces deliberately emptied the areas adjacent to "Al-Silsileh, Hutta, and Lions gates" of worshipers.
As for the gates of Al-Aqsa and the roads of the Old City, hundreds of settlers organized prayers and marches, carrying “vegetable offerings.” They also turned Al-Qattaneen Gate market / one of Al-Aqsa’s gates into a daily prayer place during the Sukkot week. Dozens of settlers also stormed Bab Al-Rahma cemetery during the holidays, which is near the Eastern Wall of Al-Aqsa, and they performed prayers and blew the trumpet.
On Yom Kippur, the occupation authorities isolated the streets of Jerusalem, its neighborhoods, and towns from each other, by placing concrete cubes, red tapes, and iron mounds at the entrances to towns and streets, and completely preventing traffic in some areas.
Hundreds of arrests
The occupation forces escalated their arrest campaigns in Jerusalem last October, and the Wadi Hilweh Information Center - Jerusalem monitored 339 arrests, including “12 children under the age of responsibility/less than 12 years old, 80 minors, and 24 females, including a minor girl.”
The center added that 17 of the detainees were minors, their ages ranged between 13-14 years.
The information center clarified that among the detainees, 6 school students were arrested while on their way to their schools or after the end of school hours while on their way home.
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center stated that the arrests doubled after the first week of October, and from the 8th to the 18th of October, 209 arrests were recorded in the city.
In its monitoring of the arrests, the center indicated that 49 arrests were carried out from Shu’fat refugee camp and the town of Anata, 116 arrests from Al-Aqsa Mosque and its gates and Jerusalem streets, 36 from Issawiya, 34 from Silwan, and 20 arrests from the villages of Jabal Al-Mukabber, Umm Tuba, and Sur Baher, in addition to separate arrests from all towns and neighborhoods of Jerusalem.
In October, the occupation forces arrested about 15 boys from the town of Beit Hanina, aged 14-15. During arrest and while being taken to interrogation centers, they were subjected to beatings and continuous threats. After harsh investigations, seven of the boys were charged with “rioting and damaging settlers’ vehicles.”
Last October, the occupation authorities transferred 3 Jerusalemites to administrative detention.
The center explained that during the month of October, the police formed a "special unit" at the Al-Maskobyeh Police Station to investigate detainees in Jerusalem, where they are transferred directly to this unit after arrest, and its work continued for about two weeks.
Storming Al-Iman schools and terrorizing students
On October 26, crews from the "Israeli Ministry of Education" stormed 3 branches of Al-Iman Schools in Beit Hanina, Jerusalem, to "examine the books taught to schoolchildren."
The inspection teams distributed their crews to the three main branches of Al-Iman schools simultaneously, which are “Al-Iman School for Boys A”, Al-Iman School for Boys “B”, and Al-Iman School for Girls, where more than 1,400 students are enrolled from the first to eighth grades. The crews stormed classrooms and checked books, threated administrative staff with arrest and bringing the police.
This intrusion comes, 3 months after the Ministry of Education in the occupation government withdrew the license of 6 schools in the city of Jerusalem, for a year, under the pretext of “incitement in textbooks against the occupation state and army.” The decision included the Ibrahimiya School in Al-Sowaneh, and Al-Iman Schools with all its branches are in Beit Hanina, and the ministry demanded the teachingof the books of the “reprinted Palestinian curriculum under the supervision of Israeli education,” which is the distorted curriculum, in order to renew the license for the next academic year.
Settlers' attacks
The settlers continued their attacks on Jerusalemites and their properties in the city of Jerusalem.
On October 13th, dozens of settlers attacked the Jerusalemite Mohammad Zahran, 53 years old, while he was standing in front of his house in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and inspecting his vehicle, whose windows were smashed and vandalized by settlers. He was surprised when settlers attacked him, hit him on the head with a sharp tool, and pushed him, which led to him having fractures in the skull and a head wound with 13 stitches, in addition to various bruises.
On the same day, Alaa al-Kiswani sustained a broken hand, after being attacked by settlers.
At the end of last October, settlers assaulted Adnan Sarri, injuring him with skull fractures.
On the evening of October 13th, the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood witnessed major attacks by settlers, led by extremist Knesset member Itamar Ben Gavir, during his storming of the neighborhood, brandishing his weapon and threatening to shoot and encouraging that. Dozens of settlers carried out attacks with stones and sticks against the locals of the neighborhood and their property, while the police carried out multiple arrests of boys and young men from the neighborhood, and also fired bombs and rubber bullets and sprayed waste water in the area.
The windows of many homes and vehicles in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood were shattered.
This was not the first or last attack by settlers against Sheikh Jarrah. During the month of October, attacks were repeated by storming the Al-Sumoud Building, Sheikh Jarrah Mosque and shops, and throwing stones at them.
On October 12, settlers vandalized vehicle tires and smashed the windows of a bus transporting students in the Al-Sowaneh neighborhood in Jerusalem. On the same day, settlers stormed the yards of the residents' homes in the neighborhood, knowing that the area is only a few meters away from the "Beit Orot" settlement.
The settlers also carried out various attacks on vehicles while they were passing through Street No. 1 in Jerusalem, and at the entrance to the village of Umm Tuba, south of the city.
On Wad Qaddoum Street in Silwan, on October 9, a settler fired indiscriminately while driving his vehicle.
Demolition and displacement
The pace of self-demolition escalated in Jerusalem last October, as the municipality forces Jerusalemites to demolish their homes themselves, or else they will have to pay fines and demolition fees to the municipality’s staff and accompanying forces.
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center - Jerusalem monitored 9 self-demolitions in the city “houses/house foundations” during the month of October, in Jabal Al-Mukabber, Sur Baher, Shu’fat, Salah al-Din Street, the Old City of Jerusalem, al-Tur, and Wadi al-Joz, including the closure of a house and since it could not be demolished.
Suppression
The occupation forces suppressed the Palestinians in the streets of Jerusalem on October 8, with arrests, bombs, rubber bullets, and sewage water.
The occupation forces also suppressed the Palestinians in Wadi al-Rababehneighborhood in Silwan, while they were on their lands picking olives, by beating, arresting and bombs, while settlers stole the fruits from the trees.
Deportation decisions
The occupation authorities escalated the issuance of deportation and expulsion decisions “from Al-Aqsa, the Old City, and Jerusalem”, especially on the eve and during the Jewish holidays, and the Wadi Hilweh Information Center monitored 59 decisions, including 17 expulsion decisions from the Old City, 38 decisions of expulsion from Al-Aqsa, and 4 decisions of deportation from Jerusalem.
