In a new report, Israeli human rights group B’Tselem detailed the harrowing tale of a Palestinian teenager who was kidnapped and tortured by a group of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank this summer. The youth was burned, beaten, and handed over to Israeli soldiers unconscious.
A photo of an armed Israeli soldier, surrounded by dozens of his fellow soldiers, standing on the back of a Palestinian man as he lie face down in the ground went viral on Palestinian social media this week.
The photo was taken in the midst of a brutal Israeli crackdown on activists as they attempted to escort a group of Palestinian farmers to their land in order to harvest their olive trees in the al-Ras area west of Salfit, in the northern occupied West Bank.
An Israeli court formally indicted this week the six recaptured Palestinian prisoners, who last month achieved a historic escape from a maximum security Israeli prison last month that shocked the world. On Monday, the Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission said that one of the prisoners, Mohammed Ardah, had began a hunger strike in protest of the “punitive measures against him and the harsh conditions of his solitary confinement.”
Palestinian human rights organizations are demanding that PayPal end its “discriminatory” policy that prevents Palestinians from the occupied territory from using its platform. In a letter to PayPal’s President and CEO, a coalition of Palestinian human rights groups and international partners, including Jewish Voice for Peace and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, called out the company for “contributing to human rights violations and discriminatory practices against Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
The final two prisoners who escaped Israel’s maximum security Gilboa prison earlier this month were recaptured over the weekend by Israeli forces, bringing an end to what Palestinians are now remembering as the “great tunnel escape.”
According to his lawyers, Zakaria Zubeidi sustained “extreme beating” on the left side of his face during his detention, and has been hospitalized for treatment, claims being denied by Israeli media.
For Palestinians the escape of six prisoners from an Israeli prison Monday has symbolized one of their greatest collective “wins” in a long time, as an estimated 20% of the Palestinian population, and 40% of the Palestinian male population, has been imprisoned by Israel at some point in their lives. Palestinians across the West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem, and Israel took to the streets to celebrate on Monday, with people passing out sweets to strangers on the street as they held photos of the escaped prisoners.
Anhar al-Deek was released on 40,000 NIS ($12,500) bail and ordered to house arrest, after appeals from Palestinian officials, human rights groups, and growing attention surrounding her case on social media.
17-year-old Ali Burqan was reportedly helping his neighbors demolish their own home, as per an Israeli court order, when a wall fell on him, killing him. Another teenager, 13-year-old Omar Abu al-Nil was killed in Gaza during protests on the border.
Hundreds of Palestinians gathered in the city center of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday in protest of the Palestinian Authority’s killing of popular activist and dissident Nizar Banat earlier this summer. The demonstration came on the heels of mass arrests by the PA of prominent Palestinian critics of Abbas’ regime. These arrests have caught the eyes of the international community, including some members of Congress.