During their incursion into Kafr ‘Aqab village, north of occupied East Jerusalem, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed two Palestinian civilians: a child and a young man, shortly after midnight on Friday. These killings resulted from the IOF’s excessive use of force and lenient shooting regulations.

According to information collected by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights’ (PCHR) staff, at around 23:30 on Thursday, 20 November 2025, the IOF moved into Kafr ‘Aqab village, north of occupied East Jerusalem, and deployed along Jerusalem–Ramallah Street. Israeli military vehicles were stationed near Sikal intersection, while a number of Israeli soldiers were positioned in front of the “Shish Shawarma” building, and an Israeli sniper climbed the building’s fourth floor.

At approximately 00:00, on Friday, the IOF heavily fired stun grenades under the pretext that one of the soldiers had been attacked with stones, sparking limited clashes in the area. About twenty minutes later, an Israeli sniper stationed in a nearby residential building opened fire at Sami Ibrahim Sami Mashayikh (16) while he was on the main street, approximately 50 meters away from the sniper’s position. The child was shot with a live bullet in the chest and was then transported by the village’s residents in a private vehicle to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah.

About twenty minutes after the first incident, the Israeli sniper reopened fire on other people in the same area, wounding one in the foot, while another, ‘Amr Khaled Ahmed al-Marbou‘ (18), was shot in the chest with a live bullet. ‘Amr was initially taken to the nearby Daa’ al-Shifa Medical Center before being transferred to the Palestine Medical Complex, where Sami Mashayikh and ‘Amr al-Marbou‘ were pronounced dead at around 01:00.

According to information collected by our staff, the child, the teenager, and the events in the village posed no danger or threat to the soldiers’ lives; therefore, there was no justification for the excessive use of force against Palestinian civilians.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns the unjustified killings committed by the IOF which come as part of a systematic Israeli policy to use lethal force against Palestinian civilians, in blatant violation of the principles of necessity and proportionality- the cornerstone of international humanitarian law.

Since the beginning of the year, the IOF have killed 213 Palestinians, including 40 children and 5 women, across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

PCHR calls on the international community to provide immediate protection for Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and to urgently act to end the IOF’s open-fire policy, which has become a daily practice in their treatment of Palestinians.

PCHR also calls for an end to the policy of impunity that encourages the recurrence of violations and for ensuring accountability of those responsible for these crimes before international justice. PCHR affirms that the ongoing international silence over these crimes constitutes indirect complicity that emboldens the Israeli occupation authorities to commit further crimes against Palestinian civilians.