Ref: 75/2023
Date: 07 June 2023
Time: 20:00 GMT
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns the Israeli Occupation Forces’ (IOF) ongoing escalation in the West Bank that killed 3 Palestinians, including a civilian, in two separate incidents in Nablus and Ramallah. These crimes amount to extrajudicial killings came amid an unprecedented escalation by IOF and persistent threats of widescale aggression on the West Bank upon a decision from Israel’s top military and political echelons.
According to information collected by PCHR about the killing of a Palestinian civilian in Ramallah, at approximately 16:00 on Friday, 07 July 2023, clashes broke out between Palestinians and IOF in Umm Safa village, northwest of Ramallah; during which, IOF fired live ammunition at the protestors. As a result, ‘Abed al-Jawad Hamdan Saleh (24) was shot with a live bullet in his chest while he was about 200 meters away from where IOF were stationed. The young men carried him on their shoulders ten meters away before evacuating him in a civilian car and then by an ambulance to the Istishari Hospital in Ramallah, where he was pronounced dead at 17:00, succumbing to his serious injury.
Information collected by PCHR’s staff emphasizes that IOF opened fire at Saleh who posed no danger or threat to the soldiers’ lives, as the protestors were only throwing stones at IOF while that latter opened fire with intent to kill.
An eyewitness said to PCHR’s fieldworker that a group of Palestinians gathered in the area to confront Israeli settlers who gathered in the same area to conduct attacks on the village. Afterwards, IOF intervened to disperse the Palestinians and then clashes broke out between them. The eyewitness also said that before the clashes started, IOF had closed the village’s entrances and deployed snipers on the rooftops of high buildings in the area right before a protest organized against the establishment of a settlement outpost near the village’s southern entrance and to condemn settlers’ attacks on the village. As a result, IOF deployed in the area.
According to PCHR’s information on the killing of two members of Palestinian armed groups in Nablus, at around 08:10 on Friday, IOF, backed by military vehicles, moved into Nablus’s Old City, where they raided several houses and turned them into military barracks for the snipers. IOF cordoned a building of 2 floors; one is used as Maqboul family council where two Palestinian armed groups members namely Khairy Mohammed Shaheen (34) and Hamza Moayad Mohammed Maqboul (32) were inside. IOF ordered Shaheen and Maqboul via loudspeakers to surrender, but an exchange of fire broke out between them and lasted for several minutes before IOF raided the building. After their withdrawal, the ambulance crews recovered the bodies of the two members, and it turned out that they were killed by several live bullets fired mainly to the head and the upper part of the body.
PCHR calls for a serious and independent investigation into the circumstances of the killing of the two mentioned Palestinians as eyewitnesses’ accounts have emphasized that IOF opened fire at them after they ran out of ammunition. According to the eyewitnesses, one of them tried to escape but he was shot in the head and killed, while the other was called out by IOF through a loudspeaker, and was ready to surrender, and when IOF asked him to step forward, they opened fire at him and killed him.
During their incursion, separate clashes erupted in the area amid IOF’s shooting that injured 3 Palestinian, according to the Ministry of Health (MOH).
PCHR warns of further deterioration in thesituation in the West Bank and reiterates its call on the international community to take an immediate action to stop the Israeli crimes and double standard when applying the international law. PCHR urges in particular the ICC Prosecutor to take serious action in the situation of Palestine.
PCHR demands the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention fulfil their obligations as per Common Article 1 of the Convention, “undertake to respect and to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances,” and their obligations under Article 146 of the same Conventions, i.e., to hold accountable persons accused of committing grave breaches of the Convention.