Ramallah, December 4 (RHC)-- A report issued by the Palestine Liberation Organization, the PLO, shows that there has been an escalation of Israel’s aerial aggression against the besieged Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers’ attacks against Palestinians across the occupied territories, demolitions of Palestinians’ properties in the West Bank, and abductions. 

According to a report by the International Relations Department of the PLO cited by the Palestinian Ma'an news agency, a total of 24 Palestinians were killed and 232 others sustained wounds during attacks by Israeli troops in the month of November.  The report added that 21 Palestinians lost their lives in the blockaded sliver and the rest had been killed in the occupied West Bank. 

The report further said that the Israeli troopers shot dead seven Palestinians during a military attack in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, while another eight lost their lives during three-day-long airstrikes conducted by Israeli fighter jets in the impoverished enclave.  It added that the remaining six Palestinian succumbed to their wounds received during protest rallies along a border fence, which separates Gaza from the occupied territories, where most of the injuries were sustained either from live ammunition or tear-gas inhalation. 

The PLO report went on to say that three more Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli troops during alleged stabbing or car-ramming attacks against Israeli soldiers in the West Bank.  The report continued that Israeli army nabbed more than 260 Palestinians last month, mostly minors, adding that Adnan Ghaith, the Palestinian governor of Jerusalem, and many activists of the Palestinian Fatah movement had been among those abducted. 

Elsewhere in the report, the International Relations Department in the PLO said that Israeli authorities had also demolished dozens of Palestinian buildings, including 16 shops and a four-story building with 12 apartments in Shufat refugee camp in East Jerusalem.  It added that Israeli authorities also demolished several other buildings and Palestinian-owned structures in different neighborhoods of East Jerusalem as well as in Area C of the West Bank. 

Furthermore, Israeli settlers uprooted and cut down a number of trees in the West Bank, mainly olive ones, which are a main source of livelihood for Palestinians, in November.  The Israeli military also ordered Palestinian farmers to uproot at least 260 olive trees in the village of Bardala, in the northern Jordan Valley, and seized 500 palm trees in Ariha (Jericho). 

Tensions have been running high near the Gaza fence since March 30, which marked the start of a series of protests -- dubbed “The Great March of Return” -- demanding the right to return for those driven out of their homeland.