Ref: 143/2022
Date: 04 November 2022
Time: 09:00 GMT
Yesterday in the evening, Two Palestinians, including a child, were killed and 3 others were wounded by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) fire during the latter’s incursion into Jenin refugee camp, northern West Bank. The child was killed after being directly shot in the chest during clashes with IOF, west of the refugee camp, while the other Palestinian was killed when an Israeli special force targeted him within the crimes of extrajudicial execution. These two crimes were preceded by the killing of a Palestinian in a direct shooting in occupied East Jerusalem yesterday at dawn. These crimes unequivocally prove IOF’s loose shooting standards against the Palestinians and commission of murder crimes that amount to extrajudicial executions upon Israeli top-level military and political orders.
According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR,) at around 13:30 on Thursday, 03 November 2022, an Israeli special force from “Yamam Unit” sneaked into central Jenin refugee camp, west of Jenin, using a white civilian minibus with a Palestinian registration plate. The force stationed near al-‘Odah Intersection in the center of the camp and cordoned off a butchery belonging to Mujahed Zidan al-Akhsh, where there were people slaughtering a bullock preparing for the wedding ceremony of Farouq Jamil Hasan Salamah (28), a Commander in al-Quds Brigades who was also at the butchery, only 2 days before his wedding. One of the Israeli special force members directly opened fire at the people inside the butchery, wounding a number of them, while Salamah was shot with several bullets in the chest, abdomen and head only 5 meters away from the butchery trying to run away. As a result, he was killed and taken a dead body to Dr. Khalil Suliman Hospital in Jenin. Before their withdrawal from the area, IOF arrested 5 Palestinians, including Salamah’s brother and 2 of those injured.
Following this operation, IOF’s military vehicles moved into the city from different entrances, backing up the special force in the refugee camp. IOF cordoned off Qassam Salamah’s house in the camp while violent clashes broke out near the cordoned house and stone-throwing erupted near Wad Burqin and Burqin village in the camp’s western outskirts. As a result, Mohammed Samer Mphammed Khalouf (14) was killed after being shot with a bullet in his left armpit that existed his chest during clashes on Burqin Street, west of the camp, and was dead upon arrival to Dr. Khalil Suliman Governmental Hospital in Jenin. Also, a 29-year-old Palestinian sustained a shrapnel injury in the foot.
PCHR reiterates its call upon the international community to take immediate action to end Israeli occupation’s crimes and double standards when it comes to international law and urges the ICC Prosecutor to act seriously with regard to the situation in Palestine. PCHR also demands the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention fulfil their obligations as per Common Article 1 of the Convention, “undertake to respect and to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances,” and their obligations under Article 146 of the same Conventions, i.e., to hold accountable persons accused of committing grave breaches of the Convention.
