From Human Rights Watch, Feb. 1:

Jordan: Stop Withdrawing Nationality from Palestinian-Origin Citizens
Authorities Arbitrarily Withdraw Nationality From More Than 2,700; Hundreds of Thousands at Risk
Jordan should stop withdrawing nationality arbitrarily from Jordanians of Palestinian origin, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Authorities stripped more than 2,700 of these Jordanians of their nationality between 2004 and 2008, and the practice continued in 2009, Human Rights Watch said.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay rebuked both Israel and the Palestinians for failing to carry out independent investigations into human rights abuses in Gaza last winter, as demanded by the Goldstone Report. In a report to be delivered this week to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, she says that neither the Israeli army's "criminal or command investigations are adequate.... All of the command investigations, special and ordinary, appear to rely predominantly if not exclusively on information provided by those potentially implicated in the violations. They do not appear to meet the standards required for practical independence."

Palestinians staged angry protests in Jerusalem March 16 as part of a "day of rage" declared by Hamas, clashing with police and setting fire to tires and garbage bins. Police in riot gear fired back with rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas. Some 60 Palestinians and 14 police officers were reported injured, and at least 30 protesters were arrested.

Several dozen Palestinian women clashed with Israeli troops on the outskirts of Jerusalem on March 13. The confrontation erupted at the Qalandiya crossing between the West Bank and the contested city. The women chanted "Jerusalem is Arab, our eternal capital," briefly planted a Palestinian flag on one of the crossing's metal gates, and attempted to push through it. Israeli troops finally dispersed the women with tear gas. At one point, a firebomb hit a military jeep and soldiers rushed to extinguish the fire. (AP, March 13)

Egyptian border guards shot and seriously wounded an Ethiopian migrant trying to cross illegally into Israel on March 12, and arrested seven others. Authorities said that border guards had seen the Ethiopian man trying to sneak across the border at dawn, and that they shot him in the abdomen after he disobeyed orders to stop.

The Israeli military has charged two soldiers with endangering the life of a Palestinian boy during Israel's Gaza Strip offensive last winter. The army said the soldiers, who had been searching a building, instructed the nine-year-old to open bags they suspected were booby-trapped. This practice, banned by the Israeli military, is known as using someone as a "human shield," and is widely considered a war crime. The soldiers, both staff sergeants, were charged with "engaging in unauthorized conduct in a way that endangered life and health." The bags the boy was forced to open turned out to be harmless.

Israeli warplanes opened fire on the southern Gaza Strip early March 12, striking two targets near the Egyptian border. There were no immediate reports of injury in the attack, which an Israeli military spokesman said targeted sites in Rafah and Khan Younis. De facto authorities in Gaza told the independent Ma'an News Agency that the strikes targeted a smuggling tunnel along the Rafah border and a warehouse used to store oxygen tanks in Khan Younis. The Israeli military spokesman told Ma'an that the Rafah tunnel was used for smuggling weapons and the Khan Younis warehouse was actually a bomb-making lab. The attacks came after a projectile was fired at southern Israel, causing damage, the official said, adding, "We will not accept the firing of rockets at Israel and will response harshly to any attempts to disrupt the calm." A similar strike targeted tunnels near Rafah on March 3. (Ma'an News Agency, March 12)

Israel imposed a full closure of the occupied West Bank for 48 hours on March 12. The decision means those Palestinians with permits will generally not be permitted to access Jerusalem over the weekend. Defense Minister Ehud Barak made the move amid reports about possible new protests by Palestinians around Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque after Friday prayers. Some street clashes were reported around the Old City, and hundreds of men under the age of 50 were prevented from entering al-Aqsa mosque for Friday prayers. Authorities have deployed additional forces at al-Aqsa mosque and the Temple Mount. (AlJazeera, Ma'an News Agency, March 12)