The Public Relations and Media Unit in the Jerusalem Governorate said on Monday that 19 citizens were killed in the governorate during the first quarter of this year, while during the same period the Israeli forces arrested hundreds of citizens and carried out dozens of demolition and bulldozing operations, in addition to thousands of settlers storming Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Deaths and detained bodies

The governorate said, in a report covering the first quarter of this year, that 19 Palestinians died in the Jerusalem Governorate, including: 4 from outside the governorate, and 8 children, the youngest of whom was a girl who was not more than 4 years old.

The report added that during the first quarter of 2024, the Israeli forces executed: Muhammad Abu Eid (32 years old), his wife Doha Abu Eid (26 years old), the child Ruqaya Abu Dahuk (3 years old), the child Suleiman Kanaan (17 years old), and the child Janan. Abu Sneina in the Gaza Strip, the child Wadih Owaisat (14 years old), Muhammad Khadour (19 years old), the child Muhammad Abu Sneina (16 years old), Fadi Jamjoum (40 years old), Muhammad Manasra (31 years old), and the child Mustafa Abu Shalbak (16 years old). years), the child Rami Hamdan Al-Halhouli (13 years old), the young man Zaid Ward Shukri Khalifa (23 years old), and the child Abdullah Maamoun Hassan Assaf (16 years old). From outside the governorate, 4 martyrs rose on the land of Jerusalem, they are: Muhammad Zawahra (26 years old). ), Ahmed Al-Wahsh (31 years old), Nizar Hasasneh (34 years old), the child Mustafa Talib (15 years old), and the freed prisoner deported to the Gaza Strip, Zakaria Najib.

According to the report, until the end of the first quarter of 2024, the Israeli authorities are still detaining the bodies of 40 Jerusalemite in their refrigerators and cemeteries.

Settler attacks

The report reported an increase in attacks by Jewish settlers and extremists on Palestinians in general and on the people of Jerusalem Governorate in particular. During the first quarter of this year, Jerusalem Governorate monitored about 34 attacks by settlers, including 5 attacks of physical abuse.

Injuries

During the first quarter of this year, the Jerusalem Governorate also monitored injuries resulting from the Israeli use of excessive force against Jerusalemites, as it monitored 42 injuries as a result of live and rubber-coated metal bullets and severe beatings, in addition to cases of gas suffocation.

Crimes against Al-Aqsa Mosque

The governorate said in its report that, in a clear and clear violation of the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the settlers’ incursions continued during the first quarter of the year 2024, as 9,894 colonists and 6,246 stormed the mosque under the name of “tourism” through the fait accompli imposed by the Israeli authorities, called the morning and evening periods, with strict police protection. During which they performed Talmudic prayers and rituals, and wore costumes as they stormed the mosque on the days of the so-called “Purim” holiday.

During the period covered by the report, the Israeli authorities continued their strict siege of Al-Aqsa Mosque, which they imposed since the seventh of last October, by restricting the entry of Muslim worshipers into it, as the Israeli forces are stationed all the time at the doors of the mosque, placing iron barriers, stopping arrivals and trying to obstruct their entry to it, and preventing this in many cases, especially during prayer times.

In conjunction with this ban and restrictions on Muslims entering Al-Aqsa, the colonists’ incursions into it through the Mughariba Gate continue.

The Israeli forces also restricted worshipers during Fridays, and continued to impose restrictions on freedom of worship and the entry of worshipers to Al-Aqsa. They erected barriers at the doors of the mosque and at the entrances and roads of the Old City and the neighborhoods close to it. They assaulted worshipers on more than one occasion by beating, pushing, and arresting them, despite the occupation’s attempts. Prayers were prohibited, but citizens performed prayers at the nearest point they were able to reach.

During the first quarter of this year, the Israeli authorities imposed restrictions on the number of participants allowed in “the funeral - accompanying the body, carrying it, and praying over it” inside Al-Aqsa - as the number of people allowed to enter was limited to a maximum of 10 people.

As the month of Ramadan approached, the Israeli authorities attempted to continue the siege of the mosque and impose restrictions on the worshipers, by specifying the ages of the worshipers who could enter it from Jerusalem and within the 1948 territories. However, these attempts failed, and no restrictions were imposed on the worshipers from Jerusalem and within the 1948 territories. 1948, but the occupation deprived worshipers from the rest of the West Bank of access to Al-Aqsa Mosque except through restrictions, including age, as the age was set for men over 55 years old and women over 50 years old, and issuing special permits for prayer that expire at five o’clock in the evening, after which the worshiper is forced to leave Jerusalem before performing the Maghrib prayer, Isha prayer, and Tarawih prayer.

During the month of Ramadan, the Israeli forces stormed Al-Qibli Mosque more than once and expelled those in seclusion from it, especially in the days preceding and coinciding with the so-called “Purim” holiday.

Crimes against Christians

According to the report, violations by the Israeli authorities and attacks by colonialists against Christian holy sites and Christians in occupied Jerusalem continued, and during the first quarter of the year 2024, a number of attacks on Christian places and sanctities were monitored.

On February 3, colonialists attacked a German monk, the cleric Father Nicodemus Schnabel, the head of the Benedictine monks in the Holy Land, and attacked him by spitting and insulting Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, while he was walking in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem.

During March, Israel prevented thousands of Christians this year from arriving in Jerusalem to celebrate Easter according to the Western calendar, Palm Sunday, the Via Dolorosa, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and participation in religious rituals, as Israel refused to issue entry permits to Jerusalem for Palestinian Christians from Residents of the West Bank, except in limited numbers and under restrictive conditions.

Every year, our Christian people are accustomed to celebrating in the heart of the city of Jerusalem, where they gather from all the governorates of the country, with the exception of the Palestinian Christians in the Gaza Strip, who are prevented by the occupation authorities from reaching Jerusalem on all Christian holidays, despite the symbolism and importance of the city.

Targeting national and Islamic figures

The report said that under the far-right government led by colonialists, the occupation authorities continue their attempts to impose sovereignty over Jerusalem and its sanctities with the aim of imposing a new reality, and continue their racist policy against the national symbols of Jerusalem, led by the Governor of Jerusalem, Adnan Ghaith, upon whom the occupation imposes an open-ended house arrest decision. His home since August 4, 2022, without specifying a time period for the decision.

On January 14, the Israeli intelligence handed Governor Ghaith a decision with the intention of the occupation government to renew its previous decision to deport him from the West Bank. On February 4, the occupation authorities renewed to Governor Ghaith the decision to prevent him from entering the West Bank for the fifth year in a row, after he was summoned for investigation.

The Israeli forces also continued to target a number of national and Islamic figures during the first quarter of the year 2024, including: Secretary of the Fatah movement in occupied Jerusalem, Shadi Al-Mutawar, Sheikh Ikrimah Sabri, preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque and head of the Islamic Authority in Jerusalem, Sheikh Al-Maqdisi Youssef Makharza, and Al-Asir. Al-Maqdisi Majid Al-Jubeh.

Arrests

During the first quarter of 2024, the Jerusalem Governorate recorded 461 arrests in all areas of the governorate, including 34 children and 26 women.

Decisions of the Israeli courts

The report stated that the Israeli courts imposed unfair decisions against detainees, ranging from issuing actual prison sentences and home detention, in addition to deportation decisions and heavy financial fines. Among them were those against whom the Israeli court issued travel ban decisions, in addition to extending the detention of a large number of detainees for long months. And perhaps for years, without clear charges being brought against them.

The report monitored the racist Israeli courts issuing 77 actual prison sentences against Jerusalemite prisoners, including 58 administrative detention sentences, “that is, without clearly specifying charges against them.”

Among the highest sentences issued by the Israeli authorities during the first quarter was the sentence issued against prisoner Muhammad Halawa, with an actual imprisonment of 78 months (6 years) and a fine of 2,000 shekels.

The report said that home detention has become a sword hanging over the necks of Jerusalemites, which is represented by the imposition of rulings by the Israeli court requiring a person to stay for specific periods inside the house in a forced manner, which has turned the homes of Jerusalemites into their prisons. It restricts the convict and his sponsors, and creates a state of permanent tension and pressure from Psychologically and socially, 16 house arrest decisions issued by the Israeli authorities were monitored during the first quarter of 2024.

The Israeli authorities also continued to take decisions as a means to suppress the Palestinian presence in Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Old City, Bab al-Amud, and other targeted neighborhoods, as they issued 39 deportation decisions, 24 of which were deportation from Al-Aqsa Mosque during the first quarter of this year.

The Israeli authorities also issued a number of travel ban decisions under security pretexts, and during the month of January, the renewal of the travel ban decision against Jerusalemite Hanadi Al-Halawani was monitored.

During February, one travel ban was issued against Khadija Khweis, a Jerusalemite, and during March, the occupation forces extended the travel ban against Khweis until next August 18, and extended her deportation from the West Bank until next September 19, after she was summoned for investigation.

Demolition and bulldozing operations

The Israeli authorities have also adopted a policy of demolishing citizens' homes in occupied Jerusalem, which comes in the context of punitive measures, forced displacement, ethnic cleansing of citizens, and the Judaization and "Israelization" of the occupied city, which the occupation authorities justify by establishing it without a license, despite the scarcity of granting approval for the necessary licenses to build Homes of Jerusalemites.

During the first quarter of 2024, the number of demolition operations in the Jerusalem Governorate reached 68 demolition operations, including 25 forced self-demolition operations, 35 demolition operations carried out by Israeli mechanisms, in addition to 8 bulldozing operations.

During the first quarter of this year, the Israeli authorities delivered a number of demolition notices in various parts of Jerusalem Governorate, the most recent of which was during the month of March, when the Israeli municipality was notified of the demolition of the Silwan Sports Club in occupied Jerusalem.

The Israeli forces also delivered demolition notices to a number of shops and commercial establishments in the town of Hizma in occupied Jerusalem.

Violations against Jerusalem institutions

The report said that Israel continues the policy of closing institutions operating in Jerusalem, and suppressing activities that prove the presence and steadfastness of Al-Maqdisi in the occupied city.

The most prominent of these attacks during the first quarter of 2024 are targeting educational institutions and Jerusalemite students, fighting the Palestinian curriculum, attacking religious places and obliterating their landmarks, directing incitement and hate speech, incitement against international institutions in Jerusalem (UNRWA), violations against cultural institutions, and attacks against journalists. .

Settlement projects

In the context of its relentless and insanely accelerating endeavor to impose a new reality on the occupied city of Jerusalem and Judaize it through the implementation of dangerous settlement projects, and during the first quarter of the year 2024, the Israeli authorities approved 11 new settlement projects, in addition to beginning the implementation of more than 6 approved projects. Earlier, it also completed work on a project during the month of March 2024, which is converting Palestinian land in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem into a vehicle parking lot for settlers.