Ref: 84/2013
Date: 21 August 2013
Time: 10:10 GMT

Two Palestinian children were wounded when Israeli forces positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel fired at a number of children who were in the east of the northern Gaza Strip town of Jabalya, nearly 300 meters away from the border. The children did not pose any threat to the Israeli forces.

According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), at approximately 16:00 on Tuesday, 20 August 2013, 7 children were having a picnic on an agricultural lane in the east of Jabalya nearly 500 meters away from the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel. At approximately 18:45, as children got as close as to 300 meters from the border, Israeli forces positioned at the border fired at them. As a result, 2 children were wounded:

1. Lu’ai Tal’at al-Mabhouh, 17, wounded in the left foot and the right thigh; and
2. Hassan Suhail Abu ‘Eita, 16, wounded in the left thigh.

Immediately, the children ran away up to 500 meters from the border and hid behind a hill, but Israeli forces continued to fire at the area. The two children were evacuated later to Kamal Edwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, where their wounds were described as moderate.

It should be noted that Israeli forces often target Palestinian civilians in the Israeli-imposed “buffer zone” in the east and north of the Gaza Strip. For instance, on 10 August 2013, Israeli forces positioned at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east of al-Boreij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip shot dead Hussein ‘Abdul Hadi Khalil ‘AwadAllah, 34, from al-Nusaairat refugee camp. The victim was hit by a live bullet that entered the right shoulder and settled in the abdomen. On 11 August 2013, Hamada Sameer Jnaid, 21, from Gaza City, was wounded by a live bullet to the left leg, while he was working on an agricultural area nearly 400 meters away from the border.

PCHR is deeply concerned for continued crimes committed by Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians and their property in restricted areas, and:

1. Calls upon the international community to intervene in order to stop Israeli crimes, and reiterates its call for the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their obligation under Article 1 to respect and ensure respect for the Convention under all circumstances, and their obligation under Article 146 to search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed, grave breaches of the Convention, and to prosecute such persons.
2. Calls for ensuring free and secure access of civilians to their houses, lands and property, and protecting their right to life and personal security and their right to work.