Ref: 160/2014
Date: 06 December 2014
Time: 12:15 GMT
In new excessive use of force, Israeli forces wounded 2 Palestinian civilians on Friday afternoon, 5 December 2014, near the border fence with Israel, east of Jabalya in the north of the Gaza Strip.
According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), at approximately 02:00 on Friday afternoon, 05 December 2014, a number of young men headed to the eastern cemetery area adjacent to the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, east of Jabalya town in the north of the Gaza Strip. After a while, they approached for a distance of 100 meters from the border fence and threw stones at Israeli forces stationed along the border. Israeli forces immediately opened fire in response. As a result, 2 of young men sustained bullet wounds. An ambulance of the PRCS arrived and transported them to Kamal Odwan Hospital in Beit Lahia. The wounded were:
Thus, the number of civilians wounded in the border area in the Gaza Strip following the latest Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip has mounted to 14, including 4 children, while one civilian was killed last month.
PCHR is deeply concerned over these crimes, which further prove the use of excessive force by Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians, in disregard for the civilians’ lives .Therefore, PCHR calls upon the international community to take immediate and effective actions 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.
