On 16 July 2018, Al-Haq concluded its fourth annual summer school of international law. The summer, school brought together 26 international graduate students and professionals from different parts of the world to educate them about the human rights situation in Palestine through lectures and field visits and the nature of the conflict. Over the period of two weeks participants received theoretical and practical knowledge related to the conflict. Lectures that were delivered by professionals covered topics such as child detention, administrative detention of Palestinians, forcible transfer, the right of return, as well as the applicable laws in the. Field visits included tours to the Old City of Hebron, Aida Refugee Camp, the unrecognized villages in the Naqab, Jerusalem and a number of destroyed Palestinian villages within Israel proper such as Safouryeh.

Al-Haq attended the CEDAW Committee’s first review of the State of Palestine on 11 July 2018 and closely followed the questions addressed to the delegation of the State party by members of the Committee as well as the official replies given by the State. Following the review, Al-Haq submitted a follow-up report, which noted that a number of the responses by the delegation of the State of Palestine were general in scope and did not clearly address some of the Committee’s questions. The report also noted that some of the answers provided by the State of Palestine during the review were inaccurate. Accordingly, Al-Haq presented its follow-up report to the Committee ahead of the adoption of its Concluding Observations on the first periodic review of the State of Palestine.

Friday, 29 June 2018

Since 30 March 2018, the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) has been systematically targeting protected Palestinian civilians during peaceful demonstrations in the Gaza Strip.¹ On 29 June 2018, the IOF continued to use excessive force against peaceful demonstrators participating in the Great Return March for the 14th consecutive week, killing two Palestinians by live ammunition and injuring 124.

On June 1, 2018, at approximately 6:45 pm, Razan Al-Najjar, 21, a volunteer paramedic with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) was shot in the chest by a live bullet fired by the Israel Occupying Force. At the time, Razan was on duty providing medical aid to injured Palestinians, at a distance of about 100 meters from the barbed wire fence, east of Khuza’a, east of Khan Younis. Footage released by the Palestinian Health Ministry shows al-Najjar as part of a group of paramedics approaching the fence, clearly distinguishable wearing medics white coats, with their hands raised in the air.[1]