As tension escalated in the Palestinian occupied lands, the number of Palestinian killed in an attack on Gaza have reached 22, and dozens were wounded in attacks carried out throughout of the weekend according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. Over 200 Palestinians, including women and children, have been killed by Israeli gunfire, air strikes and tanks targeting civilians since the beginning of the demonstrations of the “Great March of Return,”.
Palestinians who are facing inhuman oppressions under the Israeli occupation are coming out every Friday in rallies since March 2018 as part of the “Great March of Return,” to resist the decades-long occupation of Israel and its airstrikes.
Gaza Strip with its around 2 million inhabitants has been under full Israeli siege for 12 years. The blockade has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived inhabitants of many basic commodities due to Israeli closure of all commercial crossing with the Gaza Strip, and ban imposed even on fishermen setting off from Gaza’s shore, leaving no option for the Palestinian except resistance.
Israel’s decades-long plan to eradicate Palestinians from their home land is continuing hand to hand to these military escalations, taking the advantage of unprecedented full support from the US administration and indifference of the international community over the suffering of Palestinians. Confiscation of land and expulsion of Palestinians from their villages for building settlements has become an endless story of Israeli occupation since 1948.
What is happening in East Jerusalem of grabbing lands under different pretexts is extremely traumatic, destroys livelihoods, and separates families from their communities and series of threats to Palestinians existence in their home land.
According reports, more Palestinians were displaced in East Jerusalem in the first four months of 2019 than in all of 2018, 193 compared to 176. Some 57 percent (63 out of 111) were demolished in April, bringing the total number of demolitions in the West Bank to 214 in 2019.
These developments and aggressions on Palestinian properties has made the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian Territories Jamie McGoldrick to alert the international community and calls for an immediate halt to the Israeli authorities destruction of Palestinian-owned property in East Jerusalem. According to McGoldrick “Demolitions in East Jerusalem have increased at a staggering pace over the last month, leaving tens of Palestinians displaced and others who have lost their livelihoods overnight,” said McGoldrick. “This must stop.”
“The implementation of the discriminatory Israeli zoning and planning regime cannot be invoked by Israel to justify any violation of international law.” said James Heenan, Head of OHCHR in the occupied Palestinian territory. The two-state solution dream has became more distant than ever after since the re-election of Netanyahu and Trump’s recognition Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the US Embassy to the city.
