Weapon Proliferation in the oPt: Two Brothers Killed in Hebron, Man Wounded in Gaza All in Revenge Attacks
15 May 2022
Field Update
Two brothers were killed yesterday in Hebron after gunmen shot them; and a Palestinian man was wounded in Gaza the day before. These incidents are indicative of the state of weapon proliferation and assault on the rule of law in the occupied Palestinian territory.
PCHR investigated the murder of the two brothers in Hebron, and according to the medical sources at Al Ahly Hospital, brothers Akram (62) and Mohammed (42) A. O. al-Shawabka died at 14:40 on Saturday, 14 May 2022, after succumbing to wounds caused by gunfire throughout their bodies.
PCHR data showed that two men holding guns in a white SUV stopped the al-Shawabke brothers in the southern neighborhood in Hebron City, just as they arrived in the city from Tulkarm. The brothers were en route to a condolence house when the gunmen stepped down from the SUV, opened heavy fire at them, and fled the scene. Ambulances arrived at the site and transported the wounded to the hospital. One was pronounced dead immediately after arrival, and the other died in a short while.
Palestinian Police Spokesperson, Colonel Loay Izriqat, announced that the police commenced investigations.
PCHR fieldworker documented that there is a 17-year-old family dispute between al-Shawabka family and another family in Hebron that has collected the lives of 7 persons to date. Al-Shawabka family was transferred to Tulkarm due to this family dispute.
With regard to the Gaza case, PCHR investigations revealed that at approximately 12:40 on Friday, 13 May 2022, a gunman in a plate-less vehicle opened fire at retired intelligence colonel Sami Mohammed Abu-Nahel, in Abu-Haseria area, western Gaza City. Abu-Nahel sustained a bullet injury in his right hand.
Later, a family announced that one of their members opened fire against Abu-Nahel for allegedly taking part in a Palestinian Intelligence operation that resulted in the killing of another member of their family, affiliated with the Islamic Jihad, in 1996.
To date, family disputes and proliferation of weapons collected the lives of 18 people in 2022, including 2 children and a woman; 8 were killed in Hebron alone. Also, 12 persons, including two women, were injured in similar attacks.
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 also demands serious steps towards ending the state of weapons proliferation, and to impose the rule of law, for the sake of civil peace, particularly under the light of recurrent murder crimes in the oPt.