178 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in 2015

JERUSALEM

At least 178 Palestinians were killed and 16,200 others were injured by Israeli forces in 2015, according to official figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

The ministry also said that a total of 143 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli soldiers and police in occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the blockaded Gaza Strip during the current uprising (Intifada).

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), for its part, said that a total of 539 Palestinians' homes were demolished by Israeli authorities and 742 Palestinians were forced to leave their homes.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, meanwhile, said that Israeli forces had detained about 6,830 Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem in 2015.

Among the detainees, 57 were women and 450 were minors, while 600 others were in "administrative detention", it added.

According to another report from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 85 percent of Palestinian land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is under Israeli control.

About 550,000 Israelis now live in more than 100 Jewish-only settlements built since Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967.

Israel has maintained a tight blockade on the Gaza Strip since 2007, when Palestinian resistance group Hamas took control of the territory -- a move which has ravaged the strip’s economy and shaved around 50 percent from its Gross Domestic Product.

Jerusalem

In 2015, a total of 14,064 Jewish settlers and soldiers stormed East Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a Palestinian NGO said.

"During 2015, at least 11,307 Jewish extremists and 2,757 Israeli soldiers and police officers forced their way into the Al-Aqsa compound," Jawad Siyam, head of the Wadi Hilweh Information Center, told Anadolu Agency.

Israeli soldiers entered the mosque itself two times on Sept. 15 and 16 and fired stun-grenades and gas bombs, burning several square meters of the mosque's building, infuriating Palestinians and Muslims.

Siyam added that the Israeli authorities last year banned 297 Palestinians -- including 126 women, 27 minors and 16 administrators -- from entering the holy site for periods ranging from 15 to 180 days.

The Israeli authorities, meanwhile, launched sweeping arrest campaigns against Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem.

"The Israeli army and police arrested 2,297 Palestinians from several East Jerusalem neighborhoods in 2015," Siyam said.

"Among the detainees were 219 women and 965 minors, 105 of whom were under 14 years old; most of them were later released," he added.

In 2015, Israel also continued to ban Palestinian Resistance icon Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic movement in Israel, from entering the Old City of Jerusalem.

A number of Muslim activists from the Islamic Movement in Israel were also banned from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Palestinians accuse Israel of waging an aggressive campaign to "Judaize" the city of Jerusalem with the aim of effacing its Arab and Islamic identity and ultimately driving out its Palestinian inhabitants.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the unified capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state -- a move never recognized by the international community.

Sacred to both Muslims and Jews, Jerusalem is home to Al-Aqsa Mosque, which for Muslims represents the world's third holiest site. Jews refer to the area as the "Temple Mount," claiming it was the site of two prominent Jewish temples in ancient times.

International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as "occupied territories," considering all Jewish settlement building on the land illegal.