October 2024 in the city of Jerusalem
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center - Jerusalem issued its monthly report for October 2024, in which it monitored violations in the city of Jerusalem.
Violations in Al-Aqsa Mosque escalated during the month of October, and arrest campaigns, demolitions, raids, shootings, and settler attacks continued.
Martyrs and detention of bodies
The occupation forces continued their policy of shooting under the pretext of "carrying out operations or participating in confrontations." During last October, the forces shot a young man and a boy in Jerusalem, namely:
• 7/10/2024, the child Hatem Sami Ghaith, 13 years old, from the town of Silwan, died after being shot in the abdomen during the forces' storming of Qalandia refugee camp north of Jerusalem.
• 27/10/2024, Sami Yehya Al-Amoud, 40 years old, from Shu’fat refugee camp, was shot on the road between "Anata and Hizma" northeast of Jerusalem, under the pretext of "carrying out a run-over operation against soldiers," and his body was detained.
The occupation authorities continue to detain the bodies of martyrs in refrigerators or the cemetery numbers:
1. Martyr Mesbah Abu Sbeih; since October 2016
2. Martyr Fadi Al-Qunbar; since January 2017
3. Martyr Aziz Aweisat; since May 2018
4. Martyr Shaher Abu Khadija; since May 2021
5. Martyr Zuhdi Al-Taweel; since May 2021
6. Martyr Fadi Abu Shkheidem; since November 2021
7. Martyr Karim Jamal Al-Qawasmi; since March 2022
8. Martyr Uday Al-Tamimi; since October 2022
9. Martyr Amer Halabiya; since November 2022
10. Martyr Khairy Alqam; since January 2023
11. Martyr Hussein Qaraqe; since February 2023
12. Martyr Ishaq Al-Ajlouni; since June 2023
13. Martyr Khaled Al-Za’anin; since August 2023
14. Martyr Ali Al-Abbasi; since October 2023
15. Martyr Abdel Rahman Faraj; since October 2023
16. Martyr Khaled Al-Muhtaseb; since October 2023
17. Martyr Adam Abulhawa; since October 2023
18. Martyr Mohammad Omar Al-Farroukh (minor); since November 2023
19. Martyr Murad Nimer; since November 2023
20. Martyr Ibrahim Nimer; since November 2023
21. Martyr Ahmad Alayan; since December 2023
22. Martyr Wadi’ Alayan; since February 2024
23. Martyr Fadi Jamjoum; since February 2024
24. Martyr Nour Nizar Shihabi, since May 2024
25. Mohammad Ghaleb Shihab, since July 2024
26. Shadi Shiha; since August 2024
27. Sami Al-Amoud; since October 2024
A difficult month for Al-Aqsa Mosque
Last October witnessed the largest incursions into the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, as the month coincided with the longest season of Jewish holidays, starting with the "Jewish New Year", then the "Yom Kippur" holiday, followed by the "Sukkot" week, and ending with the "Joy of the Torah" holiday, in addition to a dangerous precedent that occurred when two settlers stormed Al-Aqsa on Friday, and blew the trumpet in its courtyards.
The incursions into the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque are carried out, through the Dung Gate - whose keys have been controlled by the occupation authorities since the occupation of Jerusalem - on a daily basis, except for Fridays and Saturdays of each week, during two incursions periods "morning 11:30-7:00 / afternoon 2:45-1:30", and the number of settlers storming Al-Aqsa increases during the period of holidays and various Jewish occasions, and it has become a season for large incursions and performing private, collective and public rituals on every holiday.
During the month of October, more than 10,130 settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque
The Information Center explained that the incursions were extensive during the Jewish holidays in October, and the days with the highest number of incursions were as follows:
• 1050 settlers "Hebrew New Year" on the 2nd and 3rd of October
• 334 settlers "Yom Kippur" on the 10th of October
• 5977 settlers "Sukkot" from the 17th to the 23rd of October
• 334 settlers "Joy of the Torah" on the 24th of October
The total number of intruders into Al-Aqsa during the holidays was 7695 settlers.
During the raids on Al-Aqsa, especially during the holidays, the settlers performed public, individual and collective prayers such as dancing, singing and prostrating themselves, in addition to blowing the trumpet and offering plant offerings "for the Sukkot holiday", raising the Israeli flag, and blessing "weddings and puberty".
During the holidays, the occupation authorities imposed restrictions on the entry of worshipers to Al-Aqsa, by preventing young men and boys "during the raids" and demanding that they return after 3 pm, in addition to confiscating the IDs of those allowed to enter and subjecting them to inspection.
As for the most serious violation recorded in Al-Aqsa during the month of October, it was on the fourth of the month before the call to prayer on Friday afternoon, when two settlers "in religious clothing" (tallit) stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque, through the Al-Qattaneen Gate - one of the gates of Al-Aqsa located on its western side", and walked towards the square between the Al-Qibli and Al-Marwani prayer halls, on the southern side of Al-Aqsa, and during their walk they prayed then blew the trumpet and prostrated themselves on the ground.
On the other hand, a group of settlers placed a red hat bearing the slogan of Republican candidate Donald Trump's campaign for the US presidency, "Make America Great Again," in front of the Dome of the Rock during the raid.
Restrictions on the entry of worshipers to Al-Aqsa continued on Fridays (Friday dawn and Friday Noon prayers), by placing iron barriers and barricades at the gates of Al-Aqsa and the Old City, stopping those coming to it and preventing hundreds from entering "randomly, and according to the mood of the officers, and dozens of cases of assault and pushing on worshipers were recorded during their arrival to Al-Aqsa, while those who were prevented performed prayers in the streets and at the gates of the Old City and Al-Aqsa.
In early October, the occupation police took restrictive measures in Al-Aqsa under the pretext of implementing "instructions of the Home Front / state of emergency in war / security conditions", and the police closed "Lions, King Faisal, Al-Ghawanmeh, Al-Hadid, Al-Qattaneen" gates, while leaving the gates of "Hutta, Al-Majles, and Al-Silsileh" open for worshipers to enter.
The police also announced that the number of worshipers would be limited, and would not exceed 600 worshipers, and that prayers would only be in covered mosques, and that prayers would not be allowed in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa, and entry to Al-Aqsa for the “Maghreb and Ishaa” prayers was prohibited, and the situation continued until midnight, due to the "security situation".
"UNRWA" banned
Last October, the Knesset plenum approved the law banning the activities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) inside Israel, in addition to a law banning contact with it.
92 Knesset members supported the bill banning UNRWA and its activities, while only 10 members opposed it; while 87 Knesset members supported the bill banning contacts with UNRWA, and 9 members opposed it.
During the war on the Gaza Strip, the campaign of incitement against UNRWA escalated, and voices rose to close it and stop its funding. The occupation authorities claimed that a number of the agency's employees were involved in the "Al-Aqsa Flood" operation. During that, settlers organized demonstrations in front of its headquarters in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem, and demanded its immediate closure and the expulsion of employees from it "on the pretext that it is a terrorist organization." The headquarters was also attacked by setting fire twice, in addition to threatening employees with weapons and deliberately vandalizing its property, and obstructing employees from reaching their workplaces.
At the beginning of October, the so-called "Israel Land Authority" decided to confiscate the lands of the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in occupied Jerusalem, and to establish a settlement project that includes 1,440 housing units.
The occupation authorities had demanded that UNRWA evacuate its headquarters in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood last May on the pretext of "using the land without the approval of the Israel Land Authority." The Israeli authorities also decided to force the agency to pay 27 million shekels "in late rent for the years in which it used the property and consider it debts owed by the agency."
Iran's missiles in the skies of Jerusalem
On October 1st, Iran launched dozens of missiles towards the entire Palestinian territories, where dozens of interceptor missiles were seen and the sounds of explosions were heard in the skies of the city of Jerusalem. After the missiles ended, the forces stopped dozens of young men, checked their mobile phones, and assaulted many of them under the pretext of "filming the missiles and rejoicing during their launch."
Settler attacks
Settler attacks on Jerusalemites and their property continued. In the "Armon Hanatziv" settlement in the village of Jabal al-Mukabber, settlers pursued two Palestinian young men in late October, brandishing weapons at one of them, in addition to pursuing them in their vehicle and directing insults at them, while the police arrested one of the young men.
In the Ras al-Amoud neighborhood in the town of Silwan, settlers fired bullets "in the air" randomly in the neighborhood, while dozens of vehicles and pedestrians were present in the street. They also chased those present, beating and cursing them, and assaulted a young man with the butts of weapons they had in their possession. They also assaulted an elderly man, and closed the road to vehicles.
Settlers incited against Sheikh Ekrima Sabri - head of the Supreme Islamic Council and Imam and preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque - demanding that the Minister of Internal Security demolish his house in Al-Sowaneh under the pretext that it was an "illegal building".
Settlers also threw stones at the homes and vehicles of residents in the village of Umm Tuba (south of Jerusalem), and vandalized vehicles and motorcycles of Jerusalemites in the Old City.
During last October, settlers stormed lands in the Wadi al-Rababeh neighborhood in Silwan, and picked olive trees at a time when families are subjected to restrictions and harassment to harvest the annual crop, in addition to landowners being prevented from working on their lands by settlers and police.
Arrests
Arrests continued in the city of Jerusalem, and the Wadi Hilweh Information Center - Jerusalem monitored 1,619 arrests from the city of Jerusalem, including "26 boys" under the age of 18, 3 females, and 1,360 young men holding "West Bank IDs" under the pretext of entering Jerusalem illegally.
Among the detainees is the wounded boy Mohammad Abu Hashem, 16 years old, from the village of Issawiya, who was arrested after being shot at, which resulted in him being hit with two bullets, "a bullet in the back that settled next to the left lung, and a bullet in the foot." He spent several days in Hadassah Hospital before being transferred to Ramla Prison Hospital, and at the end of last month he was released on condition of house arrest.
A large-scale arrest campaign was carried out, targeting dozens of young men in the town of Anata, in addition to a campaign of arrests in the Shu’fat refugee camp and Kufor Aqab.
A session was also held for the Governor of Jerusalem, Adnan Ghaith, "to consider several charges against him," and was postponed until February 16, 2025.
Targeting "Prisoners of the Exchange Deal"
Late last October, the court in Haifa issued a ruling to imprison the freed Jerusalemite prisoner, Fadwa Hamada, for two years.
The court set November 17 as the date for implementing the sentence, but the lawyer requested that it be frozen in order to appeal the decision.
The prisoner Fadwa Hamada, a mother of five children, was arrested in 2017 and sentenced to 10 years in prison. She was released in the “second batch” of the prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas last November.
The forces also arrested the two brothers, Qassam and Dujana Attoun, from the village of Sur Baher, and released them after several days of detention and investigation.
A lawsuit was also filed against a freed female prisoner from Jerusalem, demanding that she, her family, and the Palestinian Authority pay a fine of "20 million shekels" as compensation to a settler, noting that the prisoner was released in the "exchange deal” last year.
During October, the targeting of prisoners, freed prisoners, and their families, including "prisoners who were released in the exchange deal", continued by storming their homes, searching them, and confiscating some contents "money or gold jewelry", in addition to issuing random violations against families, and withdrawing and canceling licenses for "vehicles and motorcycles".
The forces also stormed the home of the Jerusalemite martyr Ali Al-Abbasi in the Ein Al-Lozeh neighborhood, on the first anniversary of his martyrdom, and warned the family throughout the day against gathering inside or outside the house, and threatened to arrest family members, and the forces were stationed at the door of the house.
"The risk of land settlement" ... confiscation of large dunoms of land in the village of Umm Tuba
The occupation authorities carried out settlement works on lands in the village of Umm Tuba, south of Jerusalem, without informing the landowners, based on what is known as the "Israeli Land Settlement Law", where they registered about 63 dunoms of the village's lands in the name of the "Jewish National Fund", which threatens to evacuate about 30 homes in which 139 Jerusalemites live.
The settlement work was carried out after a resident, a "landowner", submitted a request to issue a building permit from the competent authorities, where he was surprised that the land he intended to build on was registered in the name of the "Jewish National Fund".
Two plots of land in Silwan... leaked to settlers
Settlers simultaneously seized two plots of land in the Al-Farouk and Wadi Hilweh neighborhoods in Silwan, after they were leaked by the owner. Immediately upon entering the two plots, the settlers installed cameras, iron fences, and barbed wire, in addition to changing the locks.
A "police" building a few steps away from Al-Aqsa Mosque
The occupation police announced their intention to build a "police headquarters" on Al-Wadi Street inside the Old City of Jerusalem, consisting of 3 floors, and the police demanded that the competent authorities issue the necessary permits to begin construction.
Demolition and Closure
Demolition and closure of facilities continued in the city of Jerusalem, and the Wadi Hilweh Information Center monitored the demolition and closure of 16 facilities, either completely or partially, including 4 facilities that were closed for a month under the pretext of “employing or housing workers from the West Bank” without residence permits, and 10 facilities were forcibly demolished by their owners.
The distribution of "demolition notices, decisions and summonses to follow up with the municipality" continued, while the occupation police prevented the holding of "Friday prayers" in the Silwan sit-in tent, as a result of the increasing demolition decisions that threaten homes in Jerusalem in general and Silwan in particular, as the forces stormed the place of prayer and prevented access to it and threatened the youth with suppression and arrest.
Non-stop deportations
Deportation decisions continued, and the Wadi Hilweh Information Center - Jerusalem monitored 20 deportation decisions "from the city of Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Old City of Jerusalem", and the deportations from Jerusalem targeted a number of freed prisoners.
