Promoting respect for the civilian population

In Israel and the occupied and autonomous territories, the ICRC works towards ensuring the application of international humanitarian law (IHL), and in particular the Fourth Geneva Convention concerning the protection of civilians in times of armed conflict and occupation.

ICRC delegates follow up on people who have been caught up in incursions and military operations in the recent past, and on the resultant destruction of property. The delegates pay particular attention to the plight of farmers in areas adjacent to the security barrier, who still risk being shot at by Israeli Defense Forces while carrying out their daily activities.

In the West Bank, the ICRC made representations to the Israeli authorities about the consequences, in humanitarian terms, of the illegal routing of the West Bank barrier through the occupied territories. The ICRC is particularly concerned about problems Palestinian farmers face in reaching their land in the "seam zone" (the land located between the Green Line and the West Bank barrier), and the hardships faced by some isolated communities living there.

The ICRC also continued to monitor the humanitarian consequences stemming from the restrictions on movement imposed on Palestinian civilians by the Israeli Defense Forces.


Visits to detainees

In June, the ICRC visited 20 Israeli places of detention, including provisional detention centres, police stations and prisons as well as interrogation centres, which are visited on a weekly basis.

ICRC delegates visited prisons, police stations and other detention facilities managed by the Palestinian authorities in Ramallah, Jericho, Hebron, Bethlehem, Jenin, Tulkarem and the Gaza Strip.

The aim of the visits is to monitor inmates’ conditions of detention and the manner in which they are treated. The ICRC also facilitates family visits and contacts between the families and their detained relatives.

Contact between detainees and their families

The ICRC's family visit programme was set up in 1967 to allow families living in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza and the occupied Golan to visit relatives held in Israeli places of detention. Detainees depend on these visits not only for psychological support but also for material assistance, such as clothes and blankets. In June, more than 13,600 people travelled to Israel, where they visited some 6,000 relatives in 27 places of detention.

In Gaza, the family visit programme remains suspended following a decision by the Israeli authorities over a year ago. As a result, the families of some 900 detainees have no contact with them.

Exchanging Red Cross messages is another way for families to remain in touch with their detained relatives. In June 2,400 Red Cross messages were collected and delivered by the ICRC from and to detainees and their families. The ICRC also made several hundred phone calls to family members to inform them of the whereabouts and welfare of their detained relatives.

Relief for families whose houses have been destroyed

In the West Bank and Gaza the ICRC provided food and other essential items to 20 families whose houses were totally or partially destroyed by the Israeli Defense Forces.

Hebron assistance programme

In the closed-off area of the old city of Hebron, the ICRC distributed over 2,500 food parcels and over 8,500 kg of wheat flour to 1,290 families worst-hit by street closures.

Emergency assistance

In the West Bank and Gaza, the organization provided emergency assistance in the form of food parcels, hygiene parcels and tarpaulins to more than 200 needy families.

Cash-for-work programme and livelihood support

The ICRC paid for 3,260 days of work on various projects in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including the rehabilitation of local infrastructure such as markets, agricultural roads and irrigation systems.

The organization runs a micro-economic programme which enables 30 households to develop new ways of generating income despite restrictions on movement imposed by closures, settlements or the West Bank barrier. The programme includes the supply of tools and equipment to people involved in various activities in the sealed-off area of Hebron District.

Health

The ICRC continued to monitor the health-care system, paying particular attention to the critical situation of hospitals in Gaza in light of the fuel shortage.

The ICRC provided over 18 tonnes of medical supplies to 18 general hospitals run by the health ministry in Gaza and the West Bank.

Following its assessment of medical equipment and spare parts in government-run hospitals in Gaza and the West Bank, the ICRC began distributing basic hospital equipment in the West Bank to help improve medical facilities.

In the West Bank and Gaza, the ICRC made presentations for the staff of two hospitals as part of a campaign to raise public awareness of the need to safeguard medical personnel and health facilities.

Water and habitat

In the West Bank, ICRC 10 water projects, including the construction of a well, a pumping station, two main lines and six reservoirs are under way. The completed projects will serve 83,000 people.

In the Gaza Strip, the ICRC worked on the construction of a permanent pumping station and an additional settling lagoon for sewage evacuation and partial water treatment in Khan Younis, which will benefit around 150,000 people. It also repaired and supplied, as needed, vital electromechanical components (boiler, softener, generators, cooling and air-conditioning systems) of hospitals in Gaza. In Rafah, having assessed the possibility of constructing a waste water treatment plant, the ICRC began preparations to launch the project, which is set to benefit 150,000 people.

Volunteers from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Hebron worked with the ICRC in assessing the impact of food assistance supplied to vulnerable Palestinians living in the sealed-off part of the city.

The Qatari Red Crescent Society, in cooperation with the ICRC and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, sponsored the week-long mission of an orthopaedic surgeon to Gaza. Part of the ICRC’s contribution was the shipment of specialist orthopaedic equipment from Qatar and to Gaza. The mission performed 18 joint-replacement surgical interventions.

The ICRC sponsored the participation of Magen David Adom’s (MDA) in a week-long course on emergency response, organized in Albania in cooperation with the Albanian Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The MDA also participated in a Balkan search and rescue training event hosted by the Hellenic Red Cross, and a regional disaster-response team training event held in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

MDA volunteers attended the annual Solferino march in Italy, organized in commemoration of the founding of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

It is the responsibility of all those involved in armed conflict to respect international humanitarian law. The ICRC supports their efforts by raising awareness about IHL and about its own role and activities.

The ICRC and the Minerva Center for Human Rights at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem co-organized a conference on international humanitarian law. The organization also gave lectures on customary law to specialized audiences at the university.

In June, the ICRC gave a presentation to senior Israeli Defense Force personnel and border guards on the basic tenets of humanitarian law. Other sessions on ICRC activities and basic IHL were delivered to religious leaders, students, journalists, village councils, NGOs, medical staff, security forces and Palestine Red Crescent Society staff and volunteers in the West Bank and Gaza.

As part of a campaign to safeguard medical personnel and health facilities, ceremonies were held in Gaza City and Ramallah to award winners of a story and photo competition on the safety of medical personnel, which was open to everyone.