Ref: 27/2015
On Tuesday 02 June 2015, security Services in the Gaza Strip killed
Yunis Sa’id al-Hunnar while attempting to arrest him from his house in Shaikh
Redwan neighborhood in Gaza City. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights
(PCHR) is gravely concerned over this incident, and calls upon the Attorney General
to investigate it, find out why security services opened fire, verify that
security services exhausted all the necessary measures before using live
ammunition that resulted in the killing of al-Hunnar and publish the results of
the investigation.
According to the al-Hunnar’s wife, "at approximately 09:00 on
Tuesday, 02 June 2015, a large number of armed persons in black, some of whom
were masked, raided the house and opened fire. They then kept me in a room for
about an hour, during which they searched the house and seized books and
papers. When I went out of the room, I was surprised to see a pool of blood by
the apartment’s door. I then learnt that my husband was killed and they took his
body".
The Information Office of the Ministry of Interior in Gaza issued a
brief statement on the incident. It stated: "This morning, an outlaw died
of wounds he sustained when security services attempted to arrest him, but he opened
fire first and refused to surrender. He also booby-trapped the house, as security services
found explosive belts and devices, RBJs and other weapons in the house."
In this context, PCHR stresses the following:
· Security
services should use firearms as the last resort if there is a suspect posing insurmountable imminent danger on security
services, and the use of force should be proportional to the potential damage and aims to only prevent such damage without exceeding the self-defense
limits;
· The
Attorney General’s investigations and judiciary’s decisions are the only
reference to prove to what extent security services were committed to the
standards of using firearms and the right to self-defense.
PCHR is gravely concerned over the incident, and:
1. Calls
upon the Attorney General to investigate the incident and publish the results
of the investigation; and
2. Calls
upon the security services in Gaza to strictly comply with the self-defense
limits when using firearms in conformity with the international standards.
