Jeddah, 12 March 2024:
The blessed month of Ramadan began on 11 March 2024, this week amid worsening plight exemplified by serious shortage of food items inside the Strip, reaching famine level in the northern and central areas of the Strip. This is in addition to the restrictions imposed by Israel, the occupying power, on worshipers below the age of 40 from accessing the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque for Isha and Taraweeh prayers as well as the Friday prayers on 8 March 2024.
The tallies recorded by the OIC Observatory on Israel’s Crimes against Palestinians in the period from 5 to 11 March 2024 are as follows: 583 Palestinians martyred, most of them in the Gaza Strip. 5 were killed in the West Bank. Massacres against civilians totaled 61. In the same period, 864 were wounded while 182 were arrested in various towns and villages of the West Bank.
The cities of the Gaza Strip welcomed Ramadan amidst worsening food crisis resulting from the deliberate Israeli blockade and the continuous targeting of humanitarian caravans, and particularly from the crimes committed by the occupation forces in the north of the Strip that has become isolated from the world. This situation is getting worse with the frantic Israeli attempts to reoccupy Gaza permanently by isolating the eastern part of the city from its western part through the so-called Natsarim crossing.
In the West Bank, attacks by settlers on Palestinian towns and villages totaled 39, most of them concentrated on the villages of Hebron, Ramallah, Nablus, Tulkaram, Salfit, Betlehem and Jericho. Four (4) houses were demolished by the occupation authorities in Al-Quds, Jenin, Ramallah and Nablus, with an additional 3 in Jericho. The total number of Israeli violations in the period from 5 to 11 March 2024 is 2361, including the Israeli approval of the plan to build 3500 settlements in the Ma’ale Adumim, Erfat and Kedar Settlements in Al-Quds. Streets and farmlands were excavated in Betlehm and Tulkaram; settlement hubs were established in Toubas. Properties and commercial real estates were destroyed while cities were invaded, streets closed and gunshots fired.
A report prepared by the OIC Representative Office mentioned that Israeli violations in Al-Quds last February claimed 8 lives, with Israeli incursions into the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque totaling 3274. According to the report, the occupation forces arrested 251 Palestinians, including 10 children and 9 women, while the bodies of 40 Palestinian martyrs are held in the occupation mortuaries.