Two Palestinians killed, Settlers’ Violence Up in West Bank last week, says UN report

ERUSALEM, August 6, 2011 (WAFA) – Two Palestinians were killed in the West Bank last week during an Israeli army raid at Qalandia refugee camp, north of Jerusalem, according to a report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian Territory (OCHA) published Saturday.

Jewish settlers attacks against Palestinian agricultural property continued during the week, said the Protection of Civilians weekly report covering the period between July 27 and August 2.

“In four separate incidents, Israeli settlers reportedly set fire to agricultural land belonging to the villages of Turmus ‘Ayya in the Ramallah governorate and Burin, Awarta and Jalud in the Nablus governorate, damaging around 400 olive and almond trees,” it said.

In Burin, the Palestinian fire brigade was attacked by settlers while it was attempting to extinguish the fire. Some 4,000 trees belonging to Palestinians have been uprooted, burned or otherwise vandalized by settlers since the beginning of the year.

Additionally, in two separate incidents in the Hebron governorate, settlers from the settlement outpost of Havat Ma’on attacked and injured five international activists, who were escorting children from Tuwani village to a summer camp in a nearby village, and assisting Palestinian shepherds to access land in the vicinity of Ma’on settlement.

Israeli forces conducted a total of 84 search and arrest operations during the week in the West Bank,, slightly below the weekly average since the beginning of the year (over 100), said OCHA.

Of the eight Palestinians killed since the beginning of the year by Israeli forces, three were killed during search-and-arrest operations, it said.

Also this week, 36 Palestinian injuries were sustained during weekly demonstrations organized against a number of Israeli measures, including the construction of the barrier and the continued access restrictions.

The Gaza Strip witnessed several Israeli air strikes and shooting of people getting close to the fence separating the Strip from Israel during the week between July 27 and August 2, it said.

OCHA said the week before was relatively quiet in the Gaza Strip.

“The calm witnessed in Gaza during the previous reporting period was disrupted this week by Israeli forces gunfire, air strikes and rocket firing by Palestinian armed factions, which resulted in the injury of a Palestinian farmer inside Gaza and an Israeli woman in southern Israel,” said the report.

“Israeli restrictions on Palestinian access up to 1,500 meters from the fence separating Israel and the Gaza Strip by firing ‘warning’ shots continue, resulting in the injury of a Palestinian farmer while he was working his land a few hundred meters from the fence on 30 July.”

Israel also opened fire at fishermen trying to go beyond the three nautical miles off the Gaza shores Israel allows fishing in, said OCHA.

WAFA