Misuse of Firearms in the oPt: Palestinian Killed in Hebron

Field Update

10 May 2022

At Dawn on Tuesday, 10 May 2022, a Palestinian male succumbed to his bullet wounds he sustained during a family dispute in Hebron, where firearms were used.  This is the second person killed in the same city and circumstances within only 24 hours.

According to PCHR investigations, at around 23:00 on Monday, 09 May 2022, a dispute renewed between Abu ‘Ayyash and Ikhlayel families in Safa area , northwestern Beit Ummar village in Hebron.  Exchange of fire occurred, wounding Bashar Mohammed Bader Abu ‘Ayyash (28) with several bullets in the abdomen and chest when he was in the area.  Abu ‘Ayyash was taken to al-Mezan Hospital in Hebron, where he stayed in the Intensive Care Unit until his death was declared at dawn.  Afterwards, members of the deceased’s family set fire to many houses belonging to Ikhlayel family, and a Palestinian security force arrived at the area to control the dispute and open an investigation into the incident.

It should be noted that another member of the same family was killed last week in a similar dispute and for the same reasons.

Since the beginning of 2022, family disputes and misuse of weapons resulted in the killing of 16 Palestinians, including 2 children and a woman, and injury of 12 others, including 2 women.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights expresses its concern towards the continued incidents of weapon proliferation and denounces the use of firearms in family and personal disputes, a matter that poses a real threat to life and civil peace in Palestine.

PCHR calls upon the authorities to take serious action to end the state of weapon proliferation and impose the rule of law to maintain civil peace in light of the ongoing crimes that recently killed many Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory.