Ref: 51/2014
Date: 16 May 2014
Time: 11:30 GMT

In excessive use of force, on Thursday, 15 May 2014, Israeli forces killed two Palestinian children and wounded 8 civilians, including a child who was in a serious condition, near “’Ofer” Prison, west of Ramallah. The two children were killed while participating in a demonstration organized in commemoration of the 66th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (the uprooting of the Palestinian people from their lands in 1948) in front of the aforementioned prison.

According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and eyewitnesses’ accounts, on Thursday morning, 15 May 2014, dozens of Palestinian civilians and students from Ramallah and al-Bireh gathered in the vicinity of Ofer Prison, west of Ramallah, to organize a demonstration commemorating the 66th anniversary of Nakba. The demonstrators headed towards the prison’s gate, so Israeli forces closed it and large numbers of them were deployed in the vicinity of the prison. The demonstrators set fire to rubber tires and threw stones and empty bottles at the Israeli soldiers who immediately fired live ammunition, rubber-coated metal bullets, tear gas canisters and sound bombs at them. As a result, two children were killed and 8 civilians, including a child, were wounded. Of those wounded was Mohammed ‘Abdullah ‘Azzah (14) who sustained a serious bullet wound to the back.
The two children who were killed killed were identified as:

1. Nadim Ahmed Nowarah (17), a student at the Evangelical School in Ramallah, from South Mazra’a village, northwest of Ramallah, hit by a bullet to the chest; he was transferred by the medical crews to Palestine Governmental Medical Complex in the city, where he underwent a surgery, but doctors’ efforts failed to save his life.
2. Mohammed Mahmoud ‘Odah Abu Thaher (17), a student from Abu Shkhaidem village, northwest of Ramallah, hit by a bullet to the heart. The killed was a student at the village school.

PCHR strongly condemns this latest crime, which further proves the use of excessive force by Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians in disregard for their lives.

PCHR calls upon the international community to take immediate and effective action to stop Israeli crimes and reiterates its call for the High Contracting Parties to the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention 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.