Ref: 15/2023
Date: 12 February 2023
Time: 09:30 GMT
Yesterday evening, a Palestinian civilian was killed by an Israeli settler after the latter directly opened fire at him. The Palestinian civilian along with Qarawatt Bani Hassan villager, west of Salfit, northern West Bank, were confronting an attack by a group of settlers in the village. This is the fourth Palestinian killed by settlers since the beginning of the year.
According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR’s) investigations and eyewitnesses’ testimonies, at approximately 16:30, on Saturday, 11 February 2023, ‘Ateya Rebhi ‘Asi and his brother were doing the construction works in a building in Al-Raf area, north of Qarawat Bani Hassan village, where there are about 80 inhabited houses. Suddenly, 30 settlers from “Hava Yair” settlement outpost, north of the village, went up to the second floor of the building and tried to attack ‘Ateya and his brother. Meanwhile, more settlers arrived below the building and started shouting in the area as they were armed with rifles and pistols. ‘Attia’s brother quickly sent a message to the Qarawat Bani Hassan villagers’ group on WhatsApp saying that “the settlers are attacking us”. Ten minutes later, a group of villagers, including young men and boys, arrived, ran towards the settlers, and threw stones at them, who first opened fire in the air. Moments later, one of the young men approached the settler leading the group to talk with him, but the settlers detained him. Although he tried to release himself, but the settlers began to shoot directly at the villagers, and clashes escalated. Meanwhile, Mithqal Suleyman Rayan (27) approached the settlers with a large stone and threw it at them from a distance of 5 meters, so one of the settlers directly shot him in the head. Rayan was then taken by a civilian car to Salfit Hospital, where he was immediately pronounced dead.
PCHR condemns the willful and systematic killing of the Palestinians, as well as giving settlers a free hand to commit war crimes deep inside the Palestinian Authority -controlled areas under the Israeli Occupation Forces’ protection. PCHR reiterates its call upon the international community to take immediate action to end the Israeli occupation’s crimes and protect the Palestinian civilians, urging the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to activate his role and the role of the International Commission of Inquiry to prosecute those responsible for such crimes.