Ref: 102/2021

Date: 28 July 2021

Time: 10:00 GMT

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the murder of a citizen, who was shot by a gunman yesterday in Hebron, on grounds of a family revenge and the accompanied assaults, including burning shops and exchanging fire until late at night. As a result, many shops sustained material damage.

PCHR expresses its deep concern over the incident and stresses the importance of opening a serious investigation into the incident, publish the results and take all the necessary legal proceedings. 

According to information available at PCHR, at approximately 13:00 on Tuesday, 27 July 2021, a gunman opened fire at a Skoda Octavia taxi driven by Basel Fakhri Saleem al-Ja’bari (40), from al-Rama Suburb in Hebron, when he was at al-Madares intersection in central Hebron. As a result, al-Ja’bari was shot with several bullets all over his body, so the taxi veered off and hit a shop wall. Afterwards, a medical crew arrived at the scene and announced al-Jabari dead. Also, the police arrived at the scene and al-Ja’bari body was taken to al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron. Less than half an hour, one of Hebron’s families assumed responsibility for the crime, under the pretext that al-Ja’bari killed one of their family members in 2006 and then traveled abroad, and he returned only few months ago.

Afterwards, a number of citizens stormed and burnt several shops belonging to the family of the perpetrator, including an ice-cream shop and furniture stores. Meanwhile, heavy shooting was heard in several areas in the city and continued until late at night, causing damage to residential houses and shops. Large forces from the Palestinian security services were deployed in the city to control the situation, while Jebrin al-Bakri, Hebron’s Governor, issued a decision to close all the facilities and impose a curfew starting from 22:00 until a further notice.

Loay Izreiqat, spokesperson of the Palestinian Police, said that the Public Prosecution has initiated the investigation and search procedures and ordered to keep the dead body in custody in order to refer it to the Forensic Medicine Institute for autopsy and identifying the death cause.

PCHR condemns this crime and is deeply concerned over the ongoing occurrence of incidents of proliferation of weapons, and condemns the use of firearms in personal and family disputes, which jeopardizes the right to life, rule of law and Palestinian civil peace. PCHR calls upon the Palestinian Authority to take all the serious measures to put an end to the state of proliferation of weapons in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, including promptly imposing the rule of law, in order to maintain civil peace in light of the lately spiking homicides.