2020 in the State of Palestine

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See also:	Timeline of Palestinian history

Events in the year 2020 in State of Palestine.

Incumbents

State of Palestine (UN observer non-member State)

• President (PLO): Mahmoud Abbas
• Prime Minister: Mohammad Shtayyeh

Gaza Strip (Hamas administration unrecognized by the United Nations)

• Prime Minister (Hamas): Yahya Sinwar

Events

For incidents of violence, see List of violent incidents in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, 2020.

March

• 5 March – In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Palestinian government announces a complete ban on the entry of foreign tourists and declares a state of emergency in the West Bank. Schools, universities, mosques and churches are closed for one month.[1]

• 21 March – The first two cases of COVID-19 in Gaza City, Gaza, are diagnosed.[2]

May

• 22 May – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announces that security coordination with Israel has been halted, in response to Benjamin Netanyahu's controversial plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.[3]

June

• June 3 – The IDF demolishes eleven Palestinian homes in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, due to the lack of proper building permits. In a separate incident, eight homes in the Ein Hajla Bedouin community east of Jericho are demolished by the IDF.[4][5]

• June 18 – Local sporting events, such as equestrianism, resume in the Gaza Strip. With soccer, competitions will be played to empty audiences starting the next day.[6]

July

• July 23 – Israeli authorities releases Hamas co-founder Hassan Yousef who has been held in administrative detention since April 2, 2019.[7]
• July 30
  • Israeli soldiers arrest Mahmoud Nawajaa, the General Coordinator of the Palestinian BDS National Committee, in his home near Ramallah.[8][9]
  • The Israeli military hands out 36 demolition orders for all standing structures in the village of Farasin, west of Jenin, in the norhtern West Bank. If the demolitions are carried out, they would displace 200 Palestinians according to local sources.[10]

August

• August 4 – The Israeli Magistrate Court in Jerusalem orders Adnan Ghaith, the governor for Quds Governorate, to be released. He was arrested by Israeli authorities on July 19 on suspicion of "planning an act of terrorism".[11]
• August 5
  • Israeli bulldozers raze tracts of land in Dura, southwest of Hebron. Local sources suspect that it may have been done to make way for expansion of the nearby Israeli Negohot settlement.[12]
  • In Israel's Huwara jail, 30 Palestinians begin a hunger strike in protest against maltreatment and neglect by the Israel Prison Service.[13]
  • Israeli soldiers demolish three homes in Silwan in East Jerusalem, while in Beit Hanina, a Palestinian was forced to demolish his home. According to Israeli authorities, the structures lacked building permits.[14]
  • The Israeli Central Court rules that 11,500 dunams (11.5 km^2) in Al-Sawahreh south-east of Jerusalem belongs to the families Al-Araj and Khalayleh. The families had been embroiled in a legal battle with a suspected forger since 2008.[15]

• August 6
  • The World Bank grants Palestine $30 million in aid to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.[16]
  • Palestine reports that a 15-year-old Palestinian boy held in Shikma Prison in Ashkelon, Israel, has tested positive for COVID-19. The boy was arrested on July 23 in his home in Al Jalazoun refugee camp, north of Ramallah.[17]

• August 7
  • The Palestinian Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission releases its report for the first half of 2020. The report claims that Israeli authorities had demolished 313 homes and issued 129 eviction notices in Palestinian. It also reports that there were 419 attacks made by Jewish settlers which injured 78 Palestinians, and damaged 1,100 dunums of land and 78 vehicles.[18]
  • Amnesty International calls for Israeli authorities to immediately release human rights defender and General Coordinator of the BDS movement Mahmoud Nawajaa, who they label as a prisoner of conscience.[9]
• August 10
  • According to local sources, Israeli forces demolished a home and well in Farasin, west of Jenin, and a home in Beit Iskaria, south of Bethlehem.[19][20]
  • Two Palestinians, Ibrahim Sabia and Khaled Abu-Taa, tears down their own homes in Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem as they were built without a permit. By demolishing the homes themselves they avoid paying the fee that Israel charges for carrying out demolitions.[21]
• August 11
  • Israeli forces tears down two residential tents in Masafer Yatta in the southern West Bank, displacing at least 10 persons according to local activist Fouad al-Imour.[22]
  • Israeli forces tears down a three-apartment building belonging to the Tahhan family in Silwan in East Jerusalem built without a permit. According to members of the family, they had applied several times for a permit but were denied one. Over 25 persons were displaced.[21]
  • Egypt opens the Rafah Border Crossing for the first time in five months. Only Palestinians holding foreign passports, foreign residency permits or having emergency medical needs are allowed to cross. The crossing is due to stay open for three days. People returning to Gaza are required to stay for three weeks in a dedicated quarantine facility due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[23]
• August 13
  • Several Palestinian organizations slams the United Arab Emirates in response to it signing a peace agreement with Israel. Hamas calls it "a treacherous stab in the back of the Palestinian people,"[24] and Hanan Ashrawi of the PLO Executive Committe states that Israel "got rewarded for not declaring openly what it has been doing to Palestine illegally and persistently since the beginning of the occupation." The UAE "has come out in the open on its secret dealings/normalization with Israel," she says. "Please don’t do us a favor. We are nobody’s fig leaf!" The Palestinian Authority recalls its ambassador to the UAE.[25]
• August 16
  • Israel bans Jerusalem's governor Adnan Ghaith from entering the West Bank for six months.[26]

References

1. "Palestinian premier, with emergency powers, shuts down country for one month over corona". web.archive.org. 2020-04-29. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
2. "معلومات تفصيلية حول مصابي فايروس كورونا في فلسطين". corona.ps. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
3. "Palestinian president cuts security ties with Israel after years of warnings".
4. "The Israeli Occupation demolishes 11 houses and facilities in Masafer Yatta / Hebron governorate".
5. "Israel demolishes 16 Palestinian homes in West Bank".
6. "Gaza horse riders compete again as coronavirus curbs eased". Reuters. 2020-06-19. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
7. "Israel frees Hamas leader in West Bank after 16 months in administrative detention". PressTV. July 23, 2020.
8. "#FreeMahmoud: Israeli occupation forces arrest BDS coordinator Mahmoud Nawajaa during night raid". 30 July 2020.
9. "ISRAEL/OPT: RELEASE HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER MAHMOUD NAWAJAA" (PDF). Amnesty. August 7, 2020.
10. "Israel to make 200 Palestinians homeless in West Bank".
11. "Israeli court orders release of Palestinian Authority's Jerusalem governor, intelligence chief with condition".
12. "Israel razes large tract of land southwest of Hebron".
13. "Palestinian detainees in Huwara jail start hunger strike".
14. "Israeli Army Demolishes Three Homes, Hairdressing Salon, In Silwan".
15. "Palestine lawyers thwart major land ownership forgery in East Jerusalem". Middle East Monitor. Aug 7, 2020. Retrieved Aug 11, 2020.
16. "Coronavirus: World Bank to grant $30M to Palestine".
17. "Palestinian child detainee tests positive for COVID-19 in Israeli prison".
18. "Report: Israel demolished 313 Palestine homes in West Bank, East Jerusalem in 2020". August 7, 2020.
19. "Israeli forces demolish brick house, water well in north of West Bank". WAFA News Agency. August 10, 2020.
20. "Israel demolishes a Palestinian-owned house in Bethlehem-district village". WAFA News Agency. August 10, 2020.
21. "Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem displaced following Israeli-ordered demolitions". WAFA Agency. Retrieved Aug 11, 2020.
22. "Residential tents demolished, orders issued against barns in south of West Bank". WAFA Agency. Retrieved Aug 11, 2020.
23. "In Pictures: Egypt-Gaza Rafah border crossing opens for 3 days". Al Jazeera. Aug 12, 2020. Retrieved Aug 12, 2020.
24. "Hamas on UAE-Israel deal: Treacherous stab in back of Palestinians". Middle East Monitor. Aug 13, 2020. Retrieved Aug 13, 2020.
25. Toameh, Khaled Abu (Aug 13, 2020). "Palestinians fume over Israel-UAE deal". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved Aug 13, 2020.
26. "Israel bans governor of Jerusalem from entering West Bank for six months". WAFA Agency. Retrieved Aug 16, 2020.