Misuse of Weapons: 3 Palestinians, Including 2 Children, Killed in Armed Family Dispute in Hebron

 Field Update

Three Palestinians, including 2 children, were killed after being shot during a family dispute in central Yatta city in Hebron, southern West Bank.

According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), at approximately 19:00 on Friday, 22 April 2022, a family dispute, where firearms were used, took place between Abu Fanar and Hoshieh families in the center of Yatta city market in Hebron. The incident resulted in the injury of 3 Palestinians, including 2 children. All of them were then taken to Abu al-Hasan al-Qasem Hospital in the city. Upon their arrival to the hospital, medical sources announced that Nizar ‘Ayied Radi Jabareen (17), who was passing in the area by chance, and Belal Isma’il Mansi Hoshieh (39) were pronounced dead after both were shot with live bullets in the chest. The third wounded person was identified as 2-year-old Mahmoud Dirar Mahmoud Abu Fanar; he was injured with a live bullet in his mouth and transferred to al-Ahli Hospital in Hebron, where he underwent several surgeries and his condition was described as critical. Abu Fanar was pronounced dead at 01:00 on Tuesday, 26 April 2022. 

PCHR’s fieldworker said that the dispute between the two families was on grounds of an affinity.

Following the incident, Palestinian security forces were heavily deployed in Yatta city, as the two families’ houses were exposed to indiscriminate shooting by gunmen, but no causalities were reported. The police declared that they opened an investigation into the incident. 

PCHR expresses its concern over the recurrence of such incidents and denounces the use of firearms in personal and interfamily disputes; a matter which threatens the right to life, the rule of law, and civil peace.

PCHR demands concerned authorities take serious steps to end the state of weapons proliferation, and to impose the rule of law, in order to protect social and civil peace, particularly in light of the recent increase of murder crimes in the oPt.