Nabi Samwil is a small Palestinian village located in the West Bank, which has been targeted since 1967 by Israeli officials. Although not included in the expanded municipal boundaries of Jerusalem, it was seen as an area of strategic importance given its proximity to the city. In 1971, near the start of the occupation, Israel demolished the homes of residents, constituting a direct forcible transfer, and in the decades following, continued to implement a variety of policies and practices to create an environment ripe for the indirect forcible transfer of residents.

For ten weeks, Palestinians have protested as part of the Great Return March, demanding an end to the closure of the Gaza Strip, amounting to unlawful collective punishment, and the realisation of Palestinian refugees’ right of return, as mandated by international law. On Friday, 1 June 2018, for the tenth consecutive week, the Israeli occupying forces violently suppressed peaceful assemblies along the Gaza fence, killing woman volunteer paramedic Razan Ashraf Abd Al-Qader Al-Najjar, 21, and injuring 100 protesters, amongst them 33 by live ammunition. Altogether 13 children were injured in addition to a number of paramedics and journalists.

Since the start of the Great Return March over nine weeks ago, the Israeli occupying forces have killed 129 Palestinians, including 96 in protests, and injured thousands of others, of which a number are in critical condition. Amongst those killed in protests, seven Palestinians have died of injuries sustained by Israeli fire on 14 May 2018 and 15 May 2018, when Palestinians marked 70 years since the Nakba and seven decades of ongoing refugeehood and displacement. The seven Palestinians who died from injuries are:

As part of its unlawful closure and blockade on the Gaza Strip, Israel intercepted Gaza’s Freedom boat, which left at 12:25 on Tuesday, 29 May 2018, heading towards Cyprus with 17 Palestinians on board, including patients and injured Palestinians from Gaza’s Great Return March, in a peaceful attempt to lift the unlawful 11-year Israeli closure, and to facilitate travel for medical treatment outside of Gaza. The Israeli occupying forces’ navy intercepted the Freedom boat around 4:00 pm at some 14 nautical miles off Gaza’s shore, with four Israeli warships encircling it for almost an hour, reportedly firing warning shots, before intercepting and capturing the boat.