The attack against Jenin was the most blatant crime carried out by the occupation during the month of July due to the scale of the aggression and the occupation of the camp for more than 48 hours, during which 12 Palestinians, including four children, were martyred. This is the highest number of martyrs in all Palestinian governorates for that month, reaching 27 male and female martyrs in the entire Palestinian territories. What is notable when calculating the average age of the martyrs is that they have an average age of approximately 23 years, which clearly shows that the occupation is targeting youth and children. In addition to the four children who were martyred in Jenin camp, a 14-year-old child, Fares Abu Hasna, was also martyred during the occupation’s storming of the city of Tulkarm. In this context, it is important to point the relevance of these daily incursions into Palestinian towns, as the occupation forces usually carry out the incursions in the late hours of the night, dropping tear gas bombs and stun grenades after besieging residents’ homes, with the aim of carrying out arrest operations. The total number of arrests during that month amounted to 344 detainees.

On the legislative front, a series of racist laws targeting both Palestinian communities that live under Israeli “civil” law, - namely in East Jerusalem-, and in the 1948 territories, were noticeable during that month. In the 1948 territories, the laws aimed to exclude them from the public sphere and prevent them from residing in as many Jewish towns as possible. This follows the expansion of the “Admission Committees” law, which allows the exclusion of the Palestinians from the space and their confinement within the Arab towns that experience a very high population density. The State does not allow their expansion due to their discriminatory land policy. This comes in addition to a series of laws that touch upon the Palestinian identity through targeting schools, education, and teachers in East Jerusalem, criminalizing political action and categorizing it as “terrorism” - which authorizes various state institutions to take arbitrary steps against educational staff and institutions. The attack on schools comes in line with other draft laws referred to in the previous report and submitted by coalition members of the Knesset. They aim to increase security oversight, specifically the oversight of the Internal Security Service “Shin Bet” over teachers and the content taught in Palestinian schools in eastern Jerusalem and within the 1948 territories, a matter which places Palestinian schools under a systematic attack.

In the area of settlement, several settler attacks on Palestinians have been monitored daily. All of them fall under the practice of expelling Palestinians from open spaces in the West Bank and cramming them into Areas A, on the way to annexing Areas C after expelling them therefrom, without even a political declaration. Within one month, two Palestinian Bedouin communities were displaced, one of them in Ramallah and the other in the Hebron mountains. In both areas, as well as in the Negev, it is possible to observe how Israeli violence is integrated, - such as the denial of electricity and water by the State-, with the daily attacks of settlers. Also, as in previous reports, controlling the archaeological site and the surroundings of the town of Sebastia can be observed. Following legislation, budgets were allocated during this month with the aim of controlling the site and expelling the Palestinians from it, after it had been open to everyone. As for the second important dimension in the field of settlement, it is the start of legislation for settlement outposts established by “Hilltop Youth” in the 1948 territories. Here the issue of the town of Eilabun in the Galilee emerges, which was developed under the government settlement plan in the Negev and the Galilee, alongside the ongoing settlement in the West Bank.

As far as the attack on religious sanctities is concerned, it appears that there is a plan to target the “St. Elias” monastery and church in the city of Haifa. After several individual raids carried out by extremist Jews on the church claiming the presence of a tomb of a Jewish prophet, buses began arriving during the reporting month, pinpointing to an organized campaign. As for the targeting of Al-Aqsa Mosque, although it did not stop due to the continuous daily raids, it also witnessed during the month raids led by senior officials in the government coalition, including the storming of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, accompanied by thousands of settlers, on the so-called “Destruction of the Temple” anniversary.

Special coverage: The Aggression against Jenin

On Monday, July 3, at dawn, the occupation forces stormed the Jenin refugee camp and the city of Jenin, carrying out an aggression involving more than 1,000 ground unit soldiers, fighter planes, and drones. The occupation forces opened the aggression with an air strike targeting a site in the camp. This attack continued for more than 48 hours, during which the occupation forces completely isolated the camp from its surroundings and invaded it. The army also took control of the homes of Palestinian citizens and turned them into sniper centers for soldiers, in addition to bulldozing roads using military bulldozers and destroying infrastructure.

Both the Israeli Prime Minister and Defense Minister Yoav Galant announced that this operation was not the last, and that the occupation forces would return to operate in Jenin. As for the main motive for the operation, it was, according to Israeli expressions, for the so-called “preservation of the freedom of movement” of the Israeli army inside the Jenin camp, which is essentially a crime committed daily against the Palestinian people, as the occupation forces storm Palestinian towns, cities and neighborhoods on a daily basis, throwing gas bombs and carrying out wide arrest operations.

• 12 martyrs were martyred as a result of the aggression, including four children.
• The occupation forces bulldozed the infrastructure inside the camp, damaging 3.9 kilometers of roads due to bulldozing. In addition, around 460 housing units in the camp were damaged, either due to the army’s occupation, or by bulldozers and air strikes. Nine kilometers of water and sewage pipes were also damaged, leaving 100 families outside the health system, and leading to a complete water outage for more than 3 days.
• 4 UNRWA schools were destroyed, and the roads to the schools were severely damaged.
• More than 500 families were displaced during the operation. A recurrent scene during the aggression meant hundreds fleeing towards schools or hospitals, with the aim of taking refuge from the oppressive occupation, which forced them to leave their homes. The members of these families amount to 3,500 Palestinians, according to the United Nations Office, while according to other sources, their number is no less than 4,000 Palestinians.
• During the aggression, the occupation forces arrested more than 300 Palestinians, some of whom were interrogated on the ground and released, others were later released, while some were still detained.

Settlement and Land Control

• Settlers established 7 settlement outposts within 10 days between late June and early July. On the first of the month, settlers built a new outpost on the lands of Al-Mughayir, northeast of Ramallah, and placed 100 heads of cows there. A tent was erected on the road reaching about 20 thousand dunums of lands from the villages of Al-Mughayir and Kafr Malik and extending to the Valley area.

In this context, the outpost in Al-Mughayir is the seventh, after settlers established six settlement outposts during the last weeks of June. The first is on the old Al-Laban Road, Al-Laban Sinjil, near the “Maale Levona” settlement. The second is on Umm Safa lands near the main street adjacent to the “Ateret” and “Halmish” settlements. The third is located east of the village of Mikhmas, near the Baqa’a community. The fourth is on the Al-Mu’arrajat Road, west of Jericho. The fifth was established east of the town of Tuqu in Bethlehem. The sixth is on the lands of Deir Istiya, west of Salfit.

• In early July, the Israeli government legalized an informal settlement outpost that had been established by a group of “Hilltop Youth” on the lands of the village of Eilboun in the Galilee and called it the “Ramat Erbil” settlement. "Hilltop Youth" groups settled on the lands of the village of Eilabun about 16 years ago. The Israeli government previously refused to recognize the settlement. With the formation of the new government, the "Otzma Yehudit" party, led by Ben-Gvir, took the initiative to legalize it, which is what actually happened after the government announced its intention to settle 500 Jewish families as part of the settlement plan in the Galilee. Taking into account the law recently approved by the Knesset, which grants “large” towns of  up to 700 families, the power to form admission committees (see section on Laws & Bills), the settlement will be exclusively for Jews, while the residents of the Palestinian town of Eilabun will be prevented from living there, due to the ideological background of the settlers and the laws that aim to exclude Arabs from the space.
• After the government legalized the outpost, hundreds of settlers, led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, came to celebrate and began the extensive settlement process. Ben-Gvir pointed out that the establishment of this settlement comes within the framework of the government’s plan to settle in the Negev and Galilee. In this context, it is important to note that the settlement is located only 3 kilometers north of the village of Eilabun, which would besiege the village and prevent its expansion, even though some of the lands on which the settlement is built are privately owned by Palestinians from Eilabun.
• The Beersheba Magistrate Court ruled that the residents of the Bedouin village of Ras al-Gharaba, located east of Dimona, should be displaced to create a Jewish neighborhood that includes 11,000 housing units on an area of 10,000 dunams. The court gave the villagers until March 2024 to leave and pay 117,000 shekels in fines for court costs. The municipality of Dimona filed a lawsuit against the village's 550 residents, who are required to integrate into the new neighborhood within a rural community suitable for their rural lifestyle.
• On July 11, 2023, the occupation forces stormed the home of the “Sab Laban” family in Aqabat Al-Khalidiya in the Old City of Jerusalem, evacuated the house of its residents, and arrested those in solidarity with the family. Settlers stormed the house and settled there. On July 24, 2023, the settlers removed the furniture from the Sab Laban family’s home, completing the settlement process in the house.

Politicians and Government Decisions

• The policy of the light finger on the trigger: Channel 12 revealed that Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir approved instructions allowing settlers to easily pull the trigger. The instructions prevent the confiscation of the weapons of settlers who shoot at Palestinians under the pretext of attacks (against a nationalist background).
• Finance Minister and Minister in the Defense Ministry Bezalel Smotrich began preparing a plan that would allow Israel to demolish homes and facilities in Areas A and Areas B, under the pretext of “Israeli national security.” This plan, which the minister admitted he was also working on, is considered a shift in Israeli policy in the field of demolition and control of Palestinian constructions, as this policy was limited to Area C. In accordance with the “Oslo Accords”, Israel do not have the authority to interfere in construction within areas (A) and (B). Therefore, this shift is considered an additional step beyond the Oslo Accords on the way to ending the “political solution” stage and heading towards settling the conflict that the government in general, -and Smotrich in particular-, seeks.
• The plan was discussed in the Knesset “Security and Foreign Affairs” Committee, and Smotrich said during the deliberations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was aware of it. Although the title of the hearing was construction in the West Bank, Haaretz newspaper revealed that the discussion focused on Areas A and B. If the plan is passed in the mini-ministerial council, Israel will have the ability to reduce the Palestinian presence and limit it further to within Area A, in the framework of Israeli continuous push to control open areas.
• On July 17, the Israeli government decided to allocate an amount of 120 million shekels for the so-called “development and preservation of heritage and archaeological sites” in the West Bank. According to the government decision, which was part of the coalition agreements with the “Otzma Yehudit” party led by Itamar Ben-Gvir, the government will allocate an amount of 32 million shekels to invest in Sebastia, a targeted site in the Nablus area. The report covered in its previous issues the Israeli steps targeting it, including converting the archaeological site, which was open to everyone, into a closed “park” that the ministers stormed, alongside the settler crowd who expelled the Palestinian residents from the archaeological area after assaulting them. This is in addition to an amount of 20 million shekels to develop an archaeological site from the Hasmonean Kingdom period at the entrances to the Palestinian Jericho Governorate, and the equivalent of 45 million shekels for what is called “attracting visitors.” This Israeli policy aims to push the Palestinians out of these areas, by converting them into military barracks to secure settlers' incursions and attacks.

Laws and Bills

• 12 members of the ruling coalition submitted a draft amendment to the “Compulsory Education Law”, allowing the removal of funding from educational institutions that follow the Palestinian educational curriculum. The law aims to restrict Palestinian schools in East Jerusalem, by divesting funding from Arab schools that teach the Palestinian curriculum in the city and do not teach the Israeli curriculum. The law considers the Palestinian curriculum to contain “terrorist” content as it includes a narrative different from that of Israel and the Israeli Ministry of Education regarding the conflict. The law authorizes the Israeli Minister of Education to strip funding and confiscate the funds of these schools.

Here, it is important to point out that this law is consistent with the clear Israeli attack on the identity of Palestinians in Jerusalem. The law was passed in preliminary reading and is now being discussed in the relevant committees and the Knesset General Assembly, in preparation for voting and approval in final reading.

• Member of the Knesset and Deputy Speaker of the Knesset from the Likud Party, Nissim Faturi, submitted a draft amendment to the Basic Law of the Knesset, which would strip the Supreme Court of the power to interfere with the decisions of the Central Elections Committee. Thus, it gives the Elections Committee formed by the coalition parties, in which the coalition has a majority, the power to make the final decision regarding who will run, and who will not run, for the elections. Usually, the Central Elections Committee disqualifies Palestinian parties, who in turn can appeal the Elections Commission’s decision to the Supreme Court. However, if the law is amended and the decision of the Central Elections Commission becomes the final decision, all Arab parties will be at risk of being disqualified, due to the presence of Zionist ideological dominance over the Knesset on the one hand, and on the other hand, due to hostility to everything Palestinian and to the Palestinian identity.
• The Knesset General Assembly approved, in preliminary reading, two draft laws aiming to increase security oversight of Palestinian schools and teachers in the 1948 territories, as well as in East Jerusalem. This step comes with the aim of increasing the oversight of the Internal Security Service (Shin Bet) on the content and ideological backgrounds of teachers, and what is called, in Israel, “terrorism”, according to the Israeli understanding of “terrorism.” The law compels the Ministry of Education to examine the so-called “security background” of any Palestinian woman or male candidate for the position of teacher. Granting a teaching license requires that a candidate does not have a “security past or connection to carrying out a terrorist act,” which is a very broad definition that allows for broad security and intelligence oversight of Palestinian education, targeting Palestinian identity and belonging, and a narrative that contradicts the Israeli “security” narrative.

The draft law that was approved does not stop at banning candidates for teaching positions, but rather facilitates the process of dismissing any teacher against whom an indictment has been filed, even if it does not lead to conviction, on the grounds that he/she is “not suitable to work in the education field.”

As for the other draft law submitted by a member of the Knesset from the Otzma Yehudit party, Zvi Vogel, it stipulates the formation of a committee that includes five members appointed by the Minister of Education, including representatives from the education system, the police, the Shin Bet, and the local government. The law was approved by a majority of 45, with only 23 opposing Knesset members. The law goes beyond examining the “security background” or having an indictment filed against the candidates; it authorizes the committee to dismiss any teacher on the grounds of “expressing support for the armed struggle of an enemy state, a terrorist organization, a terrorist act, or belonging to a terrorist organization.” All this, of course, within the framework of the Israeli security interpretation of “terrorism”.

• The Knesset General Assembly approved in first reading on July 17 an amendment to the “Local Government” Law, allowing the transfer of funds from tax revenues and other Israeli industrial zones that are not affiliated with specific municipalities, for the benefit of settlements in the West Bank. Previously, this money was distributed only to the towns adjacent to the industrial zone within the Green Line. As for the new amended law, it allows the Minister of Interior to sign orders allowing the transfer of these funds to settlements in the West Bank and local government institutions there.

This law is an additional step in the series of annexation laws enacted by the government, which are characterized by two things: first, the transfer of powers in the West Bank to the various “civilian” ministries, and not to the military governor and the Minister of Security; Secondly, erasing the differences between the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the Israeli towns within the Green Line.

• On July 19, the Knesset General Assembly approved, in preliminary reading, a draft law allowing the expulsion of every university student in Israeli higher education institutions who expresses a political position “supportive of terrorism”, according to the text of the law, and in accordance with Israel’s definition of terrorism, which means any supporter of Palestinian resistance. In addition, the law allows the expulsion of every student who raises an “enemy” flag - and what is called, in Israel, the “flag of the Palestinian Authority” was mentioned. What is meant here is the Palestinian flag, which the Israeli authorities are trying to deny as the flag of the Palestinian people, as a way to denying the existence of the Palestinian people and considering it as the flag of the "Palestinian Authority". The law also requires the dismantling of so-called “political cells” - meaning the student arms of the political parties active in the 1948 territories.

The law received the support of 51 MPs from the coalition blocs and was opposed by 33 deputies from the opposition blocs.

• On Tuesday, July 26, the Knesset General Assembly approved, in final reading, the legal amendment to expand the “Admissions Committees” law approved by the Knesset in 2011, granting Jewish towns in which there were up to 400 families, called “community towns,” the right to operate “admission committees” authorized to reject candidates wanting to live in the town due to the family’s “incompatibility with the cultural and ideological atmosphere in the town.” As for the new amendments to the law, they expand the number of towns that can form these committees, which primarily target the entry of Palestinians from the 1948 territories into Jewish towns and reinforce apartheid, by raising the maximum number of families to 700 homes, instead of 400. At that time, the number of those towns was 475, which in practice expands law enforcement and reinforces racial segregation.
• On Sunday, July 30, the Knesset General Assembly approved, in final reading, a draft law requiring that the penalty and fine be doubled for anyone who commits a “nationally motivated” rape crime. Upon its approval, sexual harassment was added to the charge. Despite the strict stance on rape and sexual harassment, treating it “for nationalistic motives” and doubling the punishment for this ground makes it a racist law, even though it is a heinous crime and a unanimous issue. The Israeli dealing with the term “national motives” means the Arabs. In addition, amending the law and adding “sexual harassment” opens the door to allegations and fabrication of charges.

Crimes and Violations

Daily Israeli incursions into Palestinian areas continue, usually involving arrests and the firing of bombs and tear gas. Although these incursions constitute a crime against the Palestinian communities, who do not feel safe, neither inside the home nor in city centers, Israel considers these incursions as its “right,” and even goes further and considers them a justification for a large-scale military operation. This actually happened during the aggression against Jenin, which the report expanded upon in a special section.

• On July 5, Israeli warplanes launched air strikes on various sites in the Gaza Strip and dropped three missiles on a site in the Ajlin area, southwest of Gaza City. The area was destroyed, a fire broke out, and a number of nearby homes and property of citizens were damaged by the bombing. In addition, at least four missiles were dropped on a site northwest of the town of Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip, causing destruction and devastation to the neighboring property of citizens. The occupation aircraft also bombed a site in the town of Beit Hanoun, north of the Gaza Strip.
• On July 16, the occupation forces closed all entrances to the Bethlehem Governorate. The occupation closed the container checkpoint that separates the central West Bank from its south, and its soldiers raided a number of shops, seized surveillance cameras, and fired bullets, tear gas canisters, and stun grenades.
• On July 23, dozens of extremist Jews attempted to storm the “Saint Elias” church and monastery in the “Stella Maris” area in the city of Haifa, claiming the presence of the tomb of “the Prophet Elisha,” which extremist groups, including the “La Familia” group, claim is located inside the church. This is not the first time that extremist Jewish groups have stormed the church. Before that, members of these groups stormed the church, harassed the nuns in the adjacent convent, and held a Torah prayer inside. This time, the extremist Jews, followers of Rabbi Berland, came on a bus, while they would arrive before to church as individuals, indicating the start of an organized movement targeting the church and the monastery in the city of Haifa.
• On July 24, 2023, the Israeli army stormed Nour Shams camp, east of Tulkarm, besieged the camp and closed its entrances. The occupation bulldozed and vandalized parts of the camp’s infrastructure, caused great damage to citizens’ property, destroyed a number of citizens’ vehicles, and injured 13 Palestinians after raiding the camp mosque and dozens of other homes, and preventing ambulances from entering the camp.
• On July 26, the occupation army and Civil Administration soldiers threw large quantities of cement into water springs in the Al-Hajra area, south of Hebron, with the aim of submerging them and preventing Palestinian families from using them. According to the testimonies of the Palestinian landowners, the spring water is used for agriculture and domestic use, and the plot of land on which the wells are located belongs to a Palestinian family. According to one of those affected by the closure of the wells, 8 Palestinian families, numbering no less than 50 people, make a living from agriculture that relies on well and spring water on a plot of land no less than 30 dunams. This policy aims to close natural resources to the Palestinians, with the aim of restricting them by controlling the distribution of water by Israeli water pumping companies.
• More than a thousand settlers stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque on July 27, on the occasion of the so-called “Destruction of the Temple” anniversary, led by Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir. In addition to Ben-Gvir's call on the Israelis to reach Al-Aqsa, considering it "the most relevant place, over which there should be sovereignty," he previously made a provocative tour of the neighborhoods of the Old City on the evening of July 26 amid heavy security. In addition to Ben-Gvir, Negev Minister Yitzhak Wasserlov, from the Otzma Yehudit party, also participated in the storming. In this context, it is important to point out that the occupation forces deployed in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque and prevented Palestinians from entering it for long hours.

Settler Attacks

• Following years of settler attacks and restrictions, 22 Palestinians from the Bedouin community, “Wadadi al-Tahta,” south of the Al-Khalal Mountains, left and moved away due to settler attacks and other harassment practices carried out by the state and its various arms. About two years ago, the settlers established a settlement outpost 500 meters away from Palestinian homes and used it as a base to carry out successive attacks on the community and the Abu Awad family who lives there. It consists of 5 families, with a total of 22 members, including 13 minors.

The community was under duress through two means: The first was the settlers’ attacks, which reached their peak two months before the date of the report, as two settlers attacked Saleh Abu Awad with pistols while he was herding his sheep, which prompted him to flee and leave the herd of livestock behind him. He sat far away to watch the settlers drive his flock of sheep far away from him. The second tool was state violence, refusing to supply them with water and electricity and preventing them from accessing natural resources.

• On July 10, the Bedouin community “Al Baqa’a” was displaced, east of Ramallah, after daily attacks by settlers who established a settlement outpost near the Bedouin community during the month of June. During these attacks they burned one of the tents belonging to the community, which is not far from the outpost. The settlement was only 50 meters away. The settlers connected it to water and electricity through another settlement, “Neve Erez”, close to them. They controlled the only road linking the community to the outside world, and the residents of the community were left with no choice but to leave, for fear of their lives.

The construction of the settlement outpost came during the settlers’ attack on the town of Turmus Ayya in June. At the time of the settlers’ attack on the town, another group of settlers went and established seven settlement outposts in different areas of the West Bank, all of them near Bedouin communities.

• On July 9, 2023, settlers carried out multiple actions, including storming, burning, polluting water, and demolishing a market. This is an indication that the criminal acts of settlers are numerous and are considerably increasing. The settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque and performed prayers at the Bab al-Rahma prayer hall. They also burned dozens of dunams of lands in the village of Al-Lubban Al-Sharqiya, south of Nablus, and polluted the drinking water of the Kaabna Arabs in the Al- Mu’arrajat Al-Fawqa area. They released their cows and destroyed agricultural crops in the same area and in the city of Hebron. They also demolished parts of the old market in the center of the city, which has been closed since 1983. They destroyed the agricultural crops of a citizen from Masafer Yatta.
• On July 29, an armed settler stormed the “Al-Mu’arrajat” community. During the raid, he toured the tents of the Palestinians residing in the community, in addition to storming the livestock farms belonging to the Palestinians. He then conducted searches in Palestinian homes and barns, claiming that his livestock had been stolen. The soldiers shouted, reprimanded and threatened the Palestinians, after they refused to allow the settler to search their tents.

In this context, it is important to point out that the settler himself established a settlement outpost about 10 kilometers from the Bedouin community.

• Settlers burned 4 vehicles and wrote racist slogans calling for revenge against the Arabs in the village of Abu Ghosh, west of Jerusalem. In Hebron, they uprooted dozens of trees and destroyed agricultural crops in the Al-Buira area, east of the city of Hebron. They set up tents, vandalized grapevines and wrote racist slogans. Their cows destroyed Palestinian crops, and they seized a water well. Then the settlers attacked citizens' vehicles with stones in the village of Huwara. A group of them stormed the village of Al-Auja in the Valley after terrorizing its Palestinian residents.

The Martyrs and the Wounded

• The number of martyrs during the month of July reached 27 male and female martyrs. Their average age was 23 years, which indicates that the occupation is targeting the younger generation in Palestine. Regarding the breakdown of martyrs by governorates, the highest percentage (12 martyrs) was in Jenin during the attack, 8 martyrs in Nablus, and 5 in Ramallah. A martyr also fell in Hebron, in addition to the child martyr Faris Sharhabeel Abu Hasna, 14 years old.
• On July 25, the occupation forces opened fire on three young Palestinians near the Tur Gate in the Mount Gerizim area, near the city of Nablus, which led to their martyrdom. They were: Nour Al-Arda (32 years old), Muntaser Salama (33 years old), and Saad Al-Kharaz (43 years old). The occupation forces claimed that the three opened fire on a group of soldiers.
• On July 27, the child Faris Sharhabeel Abu Hasna (14 years old), from the city of Qalqilya, was martyred after the occupation soldiers fired live bullets into his head during their raid on the city. With the martyrdom of Abu Hasna, the number of child martyrs since the beginning of 2023 rises to 37 children - approximately 20% of the number of martyrs since the beginning of 2023.

Arrests and Detainees Cases

• A number of prisoner institutions monitored the number of arrests during the first half of the year 2023. The results were as follows: “The total number of arrests reached 3,866. Jerusalem topped the highest percentage in terms of the number of detainees, as the number of arrests in Jerusalem reached about 1,800, while the number of arrests of children out of the general total reached 568 children, registering an increase compared to the same reporting period last year. The number of female detainees reached 72, while the number of administrative detention orders was 1,608. The highest percentage of arrests was in the month of April, as it reached 1,001 arrests”.
• On July 11, 2023, the occupation court in Jerusalem ended the home detention imposed on Jerusalemite journalist Lama Ghosheh and condemned her to 9 months of community work, 6 months suspended for 3 years, in addition to paying a fine of 4,500 shekels.
• On July 24, the occupation forces arrested four fishermen from Gaza City and wounded another. The occupation navy seized the fishermen’s boats. The outcome of monitoring and documentation operations conducted by Al Mezan Center indicates that “since the beginning of the year 2023 and until the issuance of this report, the occupation forces have committed 180 violations against Palestinian fishermen at sea, during which they arrested 19 fishermen, injured 11 other fishermen, and seized six fishing boats”. These forces also continue to prohibit the entry of equipment necessary for the continuation of the marine fishing profession in the Gaza Strip, as part of the strict siege imposed on the Strip.
• The Prison Service administration practices a policy of punitive medical negligence towards Jerusalem-born prisoner Hossam Matar, 48 years old, who has been detained since 2007 and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Matar was subjected to a harsh interrogation for 50 days in Al-Maskobiyya. He has three slipped discs in his back, high blood pressure, and an irregular heartbeat. He suffers from hyperlipidemia, and constantly complains of dizziness, which leads to pain in the head and eyes. The occupation demolished Matar’s house in the town of Jabal Mukaber in January 2023. The house consists of two apartments for him and his brother. Six people live there, including children and women.
• The number of child prisoners is more than 170 minors, including 48 minors inside the youth section of Damon Prison. They suffer as a result of harsh conditions, which “include all aspects of life and livelihood, such as lack of food and poor quality of food, lack of hygiene, the spread of insects, and detention in rooms without proper ventilation and lighting, high heat, medical neglect, lack of health care, cut off from the outside world, deprivation of family visits, in addition to verbal abuse, beating, isolation, and intimidating children through storming the areas in a frightening and terrifying manner.”
• In the last week of July, Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir issued an amendment to the Administrative Prisoner Release Law, abolishing the early release of Palestinian prisoners from occupation prisons. This means that administratively sentenced prisoners cannot be released before the end of their sentence. This is due to overcrowding in prisons.
• 24 prisoners in the occupation prisons suffer from cancer. The most serious case is that of prisoner Walid Daqqa.
• The occupation is holding the bodies of 11 Palestinian prisoners who were martyred inside Israeli prisons. “They are Anis Dawla, detained since 1980, Aziz Owaisat, detained since 2018, Fares Baroud, Nassar Taqataqa, and Bassam Al-Sayeh, detained since 2019, Saadi Al-Gharabli and Kamal Abu Waar, detained since 2020, Sami Al-Amour, detained since 2021, Daoud Al-Zubaidi and Nasser Abu Hamid, detained since 2022, and last, Khader Adnan, detained since May 2, 2023.”