Ref: 94/2023
Date: 11 September 2023
Time: 08:00 GMT

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns the Israeli Occupation Forces’ (IOF) use of excessive force that killed a Palestinian child 2 days ago in Hebron, south of the West Bank, after IOF opened fire at him despite posing no danger or threat to Israeli soldiers’ lives.

According to information collected by PCHR’s fieldworker and eyewitnesses’ testimonies, at around 20:25 on Saturday, 09 September 2023, one of the Israeli soldiers stationed at a military watchtower established at the northwestern entrance to Al-‘Arroub refugee camp, north of Hebron, opened fire at 3 children who were behind cement cubes, 20 meters away from where the soldiers were stationed. As a result, Milad Monther Wajeeh al-Ra’ie (15) was injured with a live bullet in the lower back and ran several meters away until the rest of the children and other young men carried him 80 meters into the camp’s alleys toward the southeastern side of the camp. Al-Ra’ie was taken in a civilian car to Beit Fajjar village in southern Bethlehem, where he was admitted to a medical center and then referred via an ambulance to al-Yamama Hospital in the city, due to his serious condition. At approximately 21:50, doctors pronounced him dead, succumbing to internal bleeding. It turned out that al-Ra’ie sustained live bullet and shrapnel injuries 10 centimeters above the pelvis, causing laceration in his internal organs. IOF claimed that the soldiers opened fire after being thrown with stones and a Molotov Cocktail; however, PCHR’s fieldworker emphasized after inspecting the scene and where the child got injured that there was no threat to the lives of the soldiers who were stationed in a fortified area surrounded with cement cubes; therefore, there was no justification to use lethal force.

PCHR indicates that IOF’s policy of unjustified killings has escalated due to the impunity and protection given to Israeli soldiers by Israel’s top military and political echelons. PCHR reiterates its call on the international community to take immediate action to stop the Israeli crimes and double standard when applying international law and particularly urges the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to take serious action in the situation of Palestine. PCHR demands the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention fulfill 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 Convention, i.e., to hold accountable persons accused of committing grave breaches of the Convention.