A/HRC/40/39 fishermen (including 5 children) were detained, while 21 fishing boats were confiscated and 8 damaged. 28. There were also concerns of excessive use of force and interference with medical care during raids and arrest operations in Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank. On 22 February 2018, shortly after midnight, Israeli security forces raided the centre of Jericho during an arrest operation and clashed with local residents. Israeli security forces shot a Palestinian in the stomach with live ammunition as the man was charging towards the soldiers with a metal bar. As recorded by surveillance cameras, the soldiers kicked and beat the injured man with the butts of their guns as he lay bleeding. Left without medical assistance, he eventually died. Initially, the security forces informed his family he had died from tear-gas inhalation, but the Palestinian forensic doctor who attended the autopsy concluded he had died of haemorrhage. 29. On 3 February 2018, during a night-time search and arrest raid in Birqin, Israeli security forces entered, by force and without prior warning, a house in the village, and according to the 40-year-old owner of the house, released an unmuzzled dog, terrifying his wife and young children. The dog bit the owner in the arm and thigh for at least 10 minutes, with no effort by the soldiers to restrain the dog. A soldier punched the man in the nose, fracturing it. The man was arrested and released eight days later without charges. He had to undergo reconstructive skin surgery and now suffers from severe health complications, including gangrene. Detention, torture and ill-treatment, and violations of the right to a fair trial 30. Following the announcement by the President of the United States on Jerusalem and the demonstrations and clashes that followed, a spike in arrests of Palestinians was observed in the West Bank. Israeli security forces arrested 926 Palestinians in December 2017, and an average of 750 per month in January and February 2018. The number of arrests before and after this during the reporting period averaged around 450 per month.32 As at 31 October 2018, 5,426 Palestinians were being held in Israeli detention, including 43 women, 218 boys and 2 girls; 41 of the children were under the age of 16. This included 481 Palestinians, 33 including 4 children, held under administrative detention without charge or trial. In Gaza, 175 Palestinians, including 28 children, were arrested by Israeli security forces during the reporting period. As previously noted, this included 70 fishermen arrested at sea.34 Many of the cases raise concerns of arbitrary arrests.35 31. Certain cases have raised concerns of violations of due process and fair trial rights of such gravity as to give an arbitrary character to the deprivation of liberty, such as in the case of the Head of the Gaza World Vision office, Mohammad el Halabi, arrested in June 2016 and detained since then. 36 His lawyer was only allowed access to all previously undisclosed evidence one and a half years after the start of the trial and was only permitted to start examining defence witnesses 24 months into the trial, after the prosecution had heard witnesses for over a year and cross-examined the accused for six months. There were concerns that the prosecution might have unduly prolonged the proceedings, in contravention of the basic fair trial requirements outlined in article 9 (3) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In view of such shortcomings, it is of concern that Mr. El Halabi has now been detained for more than two and a half years without receiving a verdict in his case. 32. The use by Israel of administrative detention, including for children, continued. An illustrative example was the continued administrative detention of Palestinian parliamentarian Khalida Jarrar, who was arrested by Israeli security forces on 2 July 2017.37 Ms. Jarrar’s current detention order, based on secret evidence, was set to end in February 32 33 34 35 36 37 Information provided by the Palestinian Prisoners’ Commission and human rights organizations. See www.btselem.org/statistics/detainees_and_prisoners. Information provided by Al Mezan Center for Human Rights. A/HRC/37/42, paras. 10–14. Ibid., paras. 27–32. A/HRC/37/42, para. 55. 7