June 20, 2023
PCHR Condemns Killing of Two Palestinians; One Succumbed to his Injury, by Israeli Occupation Forces Fire in West Bank
PCHR Condemns Killing of Two Palestinians; One Succumbed to his Injury, by Israeli Occupation Forces Fire in West Bank

 Ref: 69/2023

Date: 20 June 2023

Time: 10:00 GMT

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns Israeli Occupation Forces’ (IOF) escalating attacks that killed two Palestinian civilians; one during clashes that erupted in Bethlehem last evening and the other succumbed to a serious injury he sustained during IOF’s widescale incursion into Jenin city and its refugee camp. This raises death toll to 7, including 5 civilians, amongst them a child, within less than 24 hours.

According to information collected by PCHR’s fieldworker and eyewitnesses’ testimonies, at approximately 22:30 on Monday, 19 June 2023, dozens of Palestinian young men and boys gathered along the main street in al-Matyana area near the eastern entrance to Husan village, west of Bethlehem, and threw stones at the military vehicles travelling on the settlement road adjacent to the village. Minutes later, IOF moved into the area and fired live and rubber-coated bullets and teargas canisters at the protestors. Afterwards, violent clashes broke out in the area, during which, protestors threw stones and Molotov Cocktails at an Israeli military vehicle. Suddenly, Israeli undercover special forces in a white civilian car raided the area and opened fire from the car at the protestors from a close range. As a result, Zakaria Mohammed Zakaria Za’oul (20), from Husan village, was shot with a bullet in the back of his head and then evacuated by young men in critical condition to the village clinic. Afterwards, he was referred in a civilian car to the Yamamah Hospital in al-Khader village in Bethlehem, where he was shortly pronounced dead, succumbing to his injury. Following his death, violent clashes broke out in the camp, during which, IOF heavily fired live ammunition. As a result, 2 Palestinians were injured; one with a live bullet in his neck while the other with a live bullet in his abdomen. The clashes extended to nearby neighborhoods, where IOF arrested a Palestinian who has not been identified yet.

Today in the morning, medical sources at Rafidia Hospital in Nablus announced the death of Amjad ‘Aref al-Ja’as (48), succumbing to bullet injury he sustained during IOF’s widescale offensive on Jenin city and its refugee camp yesterday that killed at the time 5 Palestinians, including 3 civilians, amongst them a child, and injured 91 others, 23 of them in critical condition.

PCHR warns of further deterioration in the situation in the West Bank, especially with the Israeli government’s threats to launch a widescale military operation that may alarmingly inflict more civilian casualties. PCHR reiterates its call on the international community to take an immediate action to stop the Israeli crimes and double standard when applying the international law and urges in particular the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to take serious action in the situation of Palestine.

PCHR 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.