Ref: 100/2022

Date: 10 August 2022

Time: 10:00 GMT

Yesterday evening, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed a Palestinian child and seriously wounded 7 other Palestinians, including 3 children, during clashes between Palestinian civilians and the IOF stationed at a military checkpoint at the entrance to Al-Shuhada street in Hebron, southern West Bank.

According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), at approximately 09:00 on Tuesday, 09 August, 2022, Palestinian young men shut down shops and set fire to rubber tires at the intersection of Wadi Al-Tuffah Street that leads to Bab Al-Zawiya area in Hebron, where the IOF establish a military checkpoint at the entrance to Al-Shuhada Street (Checkpoint 56), in protest against the killing of 3 civilians in Nablus. The Palestinians threw stones at the Checkpoint, while the IOF soldiers deployed in vicinity of the Checkpoint, Wadi Al-Tuffah Street, the entrance to Haddadin market, and on the neighboring buildings’ roofs, and fired live and rubber bullets, sound bombs and tear gas canisters at the protestors. As a result, 6 Palestinians were wounded, including 2 children, one of whom was dragged 200ms towards Checkpoint 56 and detained him wounded for half an hour before being handed over to the Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance. Clashes continued in the same area until the evening. At 15:40, Mo’amen Yassin Mohammad Joudeh Jaber (16) sustained a a live bullet wound in the upper left side of his chest and then taken by a private vehicle to a governmental hospital in Hebron, where he was given first aid. Javer was then referred to Al-Ahly Hospital, where he underwent surgery, but doctors failed to save his life and pronounced him dead at 17:00.

Following Jaber’s funeral, clashes broke out between the young men and the soldiers in Bab Al-Zawiya area, where the soldiers opened fire at the stone-throwers, injuring a 15-year-old child with bullet shrapnel in the right eye and causing eye laceration.

PCHR condemns this crime, which is added to a series of successive crimes against Palestinian civilians and reiterates its call upon the international community to take immediate action to end Israeli occupation’s crimes and double standards when it comes to application of international law and urges the Public Prosecution of the ICC to act seriously with regard to the situation in Palestine similar to its prompt action in Ukraine.

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 noting that these violations are considered war crimes in accordance with Article 147 of the Convention and in accordance with the Additional Protocol I of the Convention to guarantee the right of protection for Palestinian civilians in the occupied territory.