In August 2008, the GOC Home Front Command proclaimed his intention to demolish the two intermediate floors of the building where the family of the assailant in the attack at the "Merkaz Harav" Yeshiva in March 2008 resides. Some three months later, after its objection to the demolition had been denied, HaMoked petitioned the High Court of Justice (HCJ) against this decision. The petition argue...

On March 16, 2008, some 10 days after AA carried out an attack at the "Merkaz Harav" Yeshiva in Jerusalem, killing eight Israeli civilians, his brother and sister received terse notifications by the Head of the Population Administration Office that their family unification applications for their spouses, were denied, due to their kinship with the assailant. Both siblings are permanent residents...

HA is an Israeli resident who lives in the Israeli town of Rehovot and is married to a Rafah Palestinian. The couple lived together in Gaza from September 2005 until May 2006. Thereupon HA returned to live and work in Israel to provide for the family. His wife and young child remained in Gaza, and each month HA visited them, until January 2007. Since then, all his requests to enter Gaza have be...

FA, a permanent resident in Jerusalem married RA, who lives in Gaza, in 1990. At the time, travel between Israel and the Gaza Strip was free, and did not require permits. After Israel toughened regulations for travel to Gaza, FA received permits issued under the "divided families" procedure, set to formalize the entry to Gaza of Israeli residents and citizens married to Gaza Palestinians. All a...

In June 2007, WA, who lives at her parents' home in the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza, signed a marriage contract with her chosen partner, who lives in Al 'Eizariya in the Bethlehem district. At the time, violence was raging in the Gaza Strip, leading Israel to close all Gaza-Israel crossing points. In consideration, WA waited for some eight weeks before appealing to the Palestinian Civilian Co...

In September 2002, both the husband and the father of RA, a resident of Bethlehem, were removed by Israel to the Gaza Strip, at the termination of the incident where wanted Palestinians had barricaded themselves in the Church of the Nativity. A year later, RA moved with her infant daughter to live with her husband in Gaza. In September 2006, RA left Gaza with her two children to visit the famil...

In 2001, MA, a resident of Hebron, married NA, a resident of Gaza. Given the severe restrictions on the relocation of Palestinians from Gaza to the West Bank, imposed by the military since 2000, the couple remained in Gaza, and had their two children there. MA refrained from visiting his family in Hebron for seven years, fearing that otherwise Israel would prevent his return to his wife and chi...

In the predawn hours of May 27, 2008, soldiers raided a residential neighborhood in Qalqiliya. They rounded up the men outside their homes and gathered their identification cards. Anyone born Gaza or registered in a Gaza address was arrested. On the following day those registered in a West Bank address, were released, but two, MA and YA, both family men were designated for deportation to Gaza. ...

MB, born in Jericho, has been living in Beit Hanina with her husband, a Jerusalem resident, since their marriage in 1997. In 2007, her husband applied for family unification on her behalf, and she later began receiving renewable stay permits as per procedure. In September 2008, two days before the stay permit expired, the couple received notice from the East Jerusalem branch of the Population, ...

In 1996, following the Interim Agreement, the Palestinian Authority began to enter  the children of residents of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) who are under the age of 16 in the population registry. Israel required the child's presence in the OPT upon registration. In October 2000, Israel stopped issuing visitor permits to the OPT, including those sought for the purpose of child re...

ND, a Jerusalem resident, is a former prisoner who was last arrested in 1994. His father was arrested in 1993, and then sentenced to life. Over the years, ND visited his father, imprisoned in Israel, without difficulties. In early December 2008, his father was transferred to the Gilboa prison and ND was denied entry to the prison for the first time, for being "a former prisoner". HaMoked reques...

In April 2002, during operation Defensive Shield, AD was arrested by soldiers at Al Manara square in Ramallah. The soldiers blindfolded and handcuffed him and led him to a nearby building, where they beat him and threatened him with a cocked weapon. The soldiers continued to beat him later, when he was transported by bus to the Ofer detention camp. Upon his arrival at the Ofer camp, AD was put ...

On July 25, 2008, Hamas forces raided the Tel al-Hawa quarter in Gaza City, in pursuit of eight local Fatah members. At the end of a battle that lasted all night, and during which their homes were set on fire, the eight men managed to escape and went into hiding in the home of acquaintances. Three days later, fearing they would be found, they were forced to leave the house where they had been h...

SZ, born in 1978, was abandoned by his parents at a tender age. His father, an Israeli resident, did not register him in the Israeli population registry, and abandoned him without settling his status. SZ spent his childhood moving between the homes of relatives in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). In 1994, a Jerusalem Sharia court order appointed SZ's brother as his legal g...

MH is an East Jerusalem resident who lives with her husband and five children in the Jabal al-Mukabber neighborhood of Jerusalem. All five children were born in the city. The father registered his children in the Palestinian population registry, except for the eldest daughter, who was registered in the Israeli population registry. In August 2001, MH applied to the East Jerusalem Population Admi...

AH, a Jordanian citizen, is married to RH who is an Israeli resident. The couple and their four children live in the village of Sur Bahir. In 1998, the Interior Ministry accepted the family unification application for AH and gave her the status of temporary residency in Israel. A year later, the family moved to their new home in Wadi Hummus, the south east section of Sur Bahir, some 250 meters ...

On July 15, 1991, military forces arrived at MA's home in the village of 'Ein Qiniya in the Ramallah area. MA was not at home at the time. Despite her absence, the soldiers broke in, instructed a few village youths to remove some of the household items outside, and proceeded to demolish it to the ground without presenting a demolition order. HaMoked contacted the military legal advisor on MA's ...

On April 17, 1989, RA, a thirteen-year-old resident of the Duheisha refugee camp in the Bethlehem area, went with a friend to look for her brother. When the girls noticed they were getting close to the scene of a clash between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians, they began to retreat. The soldiers opened fire in their direction. RA was hit at the back of her neck and died instantly. Her friend w...

In February 1994, the B. family was travelling by car from Jerusalem towards Ramallah. They were stopped at a military checkpoint, near the Alon military base. The soldiers on duty inspected the passengers, and allowed them to drive on. When they were about 500 meters from the checkpoint, shots were fired at their car from the roadside. They stopped the car immediately, but a second round was f...

In early April 2002, large military forces invaded the refugee camp in the city of Jenin. During the campaign, concentrated in densely populated areas, the military leveled a substantial area of the refugee camp to the ground, using, among other means, bulldozers and helicopter missiles. Under military procedure, at least 30 minutes before bulldozers start operating in a built-up area, local re...