27 Palestinian citizens were killed and 729 buildings and homes belonging to Palestinians were destroyed or removed by the Israeli occupation authority during 2020 a report released recently by a human rights group said.
Israeli security forces committed “heinous killings” throughout 2020 shooting dead at least 27 Palestinians across occupied Palestinian territories and in Israel according to Israeli rights group B’Tselem.
“Over the course of 2020 Israeli security forces killed 27 Palestinians seven of them minors: one in the Gaza Strip 23 in the West Bank [including east Jerusalem] and three inside Israel” B’Tselem said last Monday.
In at least 11 of the 16 killings investigated by B’Tselem in the occupied West Bank the Palestinians “posed no threat to the lives of the forces” or any other person at the time they were shot.
Some of the examples highlighted in the report included the killing of Iyad Hallaq a 32-year-old autistic Palestinian man who attended and worked at a school for people with special needs in the Old City of Occupied Jerusalem.
At the time Israeli officers said they suspected Hallaq was carrying a weapon and began chasing him when he panicked and began to run.
He was shot dead as he hid behind a dumpster just a few meters from his school.
“For years Israel has been implementing a reckless unlawful open-fire policy in the West Bank. This policy is fully backed by the government the military and the courts in utter indifference to the predictable lethal results” B’Tselem said.
In rare cases when Israeli soldiers are indicted for killing Palestinians the charges and sentences “do not reflect the gravity of the offenses” the group added.
Over the course of 2020 amid the spreading coronavirus pandemic Israeli authorities also destroyed at least 729 Palestinian buildings including homes and non-residential structures.
In 2020 the group said more Palestinians lost their homes in the West Bank and east Jerusalem than in every year since 2016.
“In total Israel demolished 273 homes in 2020 leaving 1006 Palestinians – 519 of them minors – homeless” B’Tselem said.
“In 2020 Israel also demolished 456 non-residential structures and infrastructure facilities. This includes humanitarian infrastructure such as water cisterns and pipes or power grids which are essential to maintaining health and sanitation particularly important at this time.”
The group said it documented 248 attacks carried out by illegal Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank last year.
The attacks ranged from physical assaults to targeting farmers or their properties which “could not take place without the sweeping support provided by the state.”
