Ref: 16/2014
Date: 15 February 2014
Time: 10:00 GMT

On Thursday 13 February 2014, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian aggregate collector and wounded another, east of al-Zaitoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City. In an excessive use of force Israeli forces opened fire at a group of aggregate collectors. In a separate incident, Israeli forces wounded 16 civilians, including four children, when the soldiers opened fire at dozens of civilians organizing a demonstration on Friday, 14 February 2014, east of Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip.

According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Centre of Human Rights (PCHR), at approximately 14:30 on Thursday 13 February 2014, Israeli forces positioned at the eastern borders between the Gaza Strip and Israel opened fire at a group of Palestinian civilians, who were collecting aggregate near Malaka intersection, east of al-Zaitoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City. As a result, Ibrahim Suleiman Mansour (36), from al-Shuja’iya neighborhood, east of the city, sustained a bullet wound to the head while Rafiq Baker al-Herokli (21) sustained a bullet wound to the right leg. The two wounded were taken to Shifa hospital in Gaza City for medical treatment. Doctors failed to save the life of Mansour and he died few minutes after his arrival at the hospital. Al-Herokli’s wound was described as moderate. As a result of the Israeli illegal closure which causes high rates of unemployment, hundreds of Palestinian workers are forced to collect aggregate from the destroyed houses’ rubble which are then to be sold, treated and reused in construction works. Israeli soldiers often fire at these workers.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR around the other incident, at approximately 13:00 on Friday 14 February 2014, Israeli forces positioned along the border fence, east of al-Shuhada’ cemetery, east of Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, opened fire at a group of boys and young men who approached the fence in an attempt to throw stones at Israeli soldiers. As a result, 16 civilians, including four children, were wounded. Nine of whom, including a child and two brothers, were wounded by live ammunition; a civilian was wounded by a rubber-coated metal bullet and the six others were hit by gas canisters. The wounded were taken by PRCS ambulances to Martyr Kamal Odwan hospital in Beit Lahia. Wounds of nine of them were moderate, while wounds of the rest of them were minor.

(PCHR keeps the names of the wounded)

PCHR expresses deep concern for such crimes which reflect the continued use of excessive force by Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians in disregard for their lives. Therefore, PCHR calls upon the international community to take immediate and effective actions to put an end to such crimes and reiterates its call for the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 to fulfill their obligations under Article 1; i.e., to respect and to ensure respect for the Convention in all circumstances, and their obligation under Article 146 to prosecute persons alleged to commit grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention. These grave breaches constitute war crimes under Article 147 of the same Convention and Protocol (I) Additional to the Geneva Conventions.