15 nov 2019
The Ministry of Education in Gaza has announced that 6 school students were killed and 15 schools were damaged in the latest Israeli aggression on Gaza.
The ministry said in a press statement that the martyrs are: Ismail Abdulal, Mohammed Atyya, Amir Ayyad, Muhannad al-Sawarka, Muath al-Sawarka and Wasim al-Sawarka.
It added that 15 schools were partially damaged by nearby airstrikes in different Gaza Strip areas.
The ministry pointed out that hundreds of school students have suffered from panic and trauma as a result of the shelling that targeted homes and civilians.
It called for international human rights organizations to assume their responsibilities toward the Palestinian civilians in Gaza and for holding the Israeli occupation leaders responsible before international courts for their crimes against humanity.
The ministry said in a press statement that the martyrs are: Ismail Abdulal, Mohammed Atyya, Amir Ayyad, Muhannad al-Sawarka, Muath al-Sawarka and Wasim al-Sawarka.
It added that 15 schools were partially damaged by nearby airstrikes in different Gaza Strip areas.
The ministry pointed out that hundreds of school students have suffered from panic and trauma as a result of the shelling that targeted homes and civilians.
It called for international human rights organizations to assume their responsibilities toward the Palestinian civilians in Gaza and for holding the Israeli occupation leaders responsible before international courts for their crimes against humanity.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riyad Malki, Wednesday, called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to hold Israel accountable for its latest attacks on the blockaded Gaza Strip, The Palestinian News and Info Agency (WAFA) reported.
Speaking at the 12th annual International Forum MEDays, running in the Moroccan town of Tangier, Malki emphasized the need for the international community to hold the Israeli forces accountable for the repercussions of the latest escalation against the Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, and to bring it to justice at the ICC.
The Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the Israeli army killing of eight members of the Abu Malhous family, including women and children, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip Thursday morning. An airstrike at the Abu Malhous house destroyed the house, and killed the entire family.
Malki said the conference coincides with the latest Israeli aggression against the besieged Gaza Strip, which resulted so far in three days of aggression in the death of 34 people and more than 113 wounded, mostly women and children.
The Foreign Minister pointed out that the silence and inaction of the international community against the Israeli escalation in Gaza, makes it indirectly responsible for its repercussions.
He called on the international community to provide protection for the Palestinian people and to ensure their right in establishing their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Speaking at the 12th annual International Forum MEDays, running in the Moroccan town of Tangier, Malki emphasized the need for the international community to hold the Israeli forces accountable for the repercussions of the latest escalation against the Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, and to bring it to justice at the ICC.
The Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the Israeli army killing of eight members of the Abu Malhous family, including women and children, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip Thursday morning. An airstrike at the Abu Malhous house destroyed the house, and killed the entire family.
Malki said the conference coincides with the latest Israeli aggression against the besieged Gaza Strip, which resulted so far in three days of aggression in the death of 34 people and more than 113 wounded, mostly women and children.
The Foreign Minister pointed out that the silence and inaction of the international community against the Israeli escalation in Gaza, makes it indirectly responsible for its repercussions.
He called on the international community to provide protection for the Palestinian people and to ensure their right in establishing their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.
14 nov 2019
In the latest Israeli war crimes, on Thursday, 14 November 2019, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed 8 members of one family, including 2 women and 5 children, and wounded 13 others, including 11 children, after bombing their houses in Dier al-Balah City in the central Gaza Strip. This attack occurred before the declaration of ceasefire and after two bloody days of military escalation.
According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), at approximately 00:25, IOF warplanes launched 4 missiles at 2 tin-plate houses belonging to Rasmi Salem ‘Ouda al-Sawarkah (45) and his brother Mohammed (40) in al-Berkah area in Deir al-Balah. As a result, both houses were destroyed while both families were inside.
Rasmi, his wife and 3 of their children were killed; Mohammed was critically wounded but his wife and 2 of his children were killed. Moreover, 13 others were injured, including 11 children. Ten minutes later, an ambulance arrived at the area while the neighborhood residents gathered and started searching for the residents under the rubble. Six dead bodies and 13 wounded were recovered. The wounded were transferred to al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah.
At approximately 07:00, the area residents recovered the dead bodies of 2 children from under the rubble. IOF officially announced later that they targeted al-Sawarkah claiming that he was the head of the rockets division at al-Quds Brigades in the central Gaza Strip. The killed civilians were identified as:
This crime took place within the 2-day Israeli military aggression against the Gaza Strip which caused many civilian causalities as IOF warplanes launched dozens of airstrikes on civilian targets and Palestinian armed groups’ sites, some located within densely populated areas. This reflects the highest degree of Israeli recklessness with Palestinian civilians’ lives. Up to the release of this document, IOF killed 33 Palestinians; 14 of them were civilians, including 3 women and 8 children. Furthermore, 46 Palestinian civilians, including 16 children and 6 women, were injured. Additionally, seven residential buildings as well as civilian objects and properties were destroyed.
PCHR condemns the Israeli crimes, stressing that these crimes are new evidence that Palestinian civilians always pay the price for Israeli attacks and military escalations.
Furthermore, PCHR stresses that the continued IOF attacks at densely populated areas and the use of weapons based in a manner of collective punishment are in violation of the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention and amount to war crimes.
PCHR reiterates its call upon the High Contracting Parties to the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their obligations under Article 1 to respect and ensure respect for the Convention in all circumstances, and their obligations under Article 146 to prosecute persons alleged to commit grave breaches of the Convention. These grave breaches constitute war crimes under Article 147 of the same Convention and Protocol (I) Additional to the Geneva Conventions on the guarantee of Palestinian civilians’ right to protection in the occupied territory.
According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), at approximately 00:25, IOF warplanes launched 4 missiles at 2 tin-plate houses belonging to Rasmi Salem ‘Ouda al-Sawarkah (45) and his brother Mohammed (40) in al-Berkah area in Deir al-Balah. As a result, both houses were destroyed while both families were inside.
Rasmi, his wife and 3 of their children were killed; Mohammed was critically wounded but his wife and 2 of his children were killed. Moreover, 13 others were injured, including 11 children. Ten minutes later, an ambulance arrived at the area while the neighborhood residents gathered and started searching for the residents under the rubble. Six dead bodies and 13 wounded were recovered. The wounded were transferred to al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah.
At approximately 07:00, the area residents recovered the dead bodies of 2 children from under the rubble. IOF officially announced later that they targeted al-Sawarkah claiming that he was the head of the rockets division at al-Quds Brigades in the central Gaza Strip. The killed civilians were identified as:
- Rasmi Salem ‘Ouda al-Sawarkah (45);
- Mariam Salem Nasser al-Sawarkah (33);
- Yusra Mohammed ‘Awad al-Sawarkah (39);
- Wasim Mohammed Salem al-Sawarkah (13);
- Mohanned Rasmi Salem al-Sawarkah (12);
- Mo’ath Mohammed Salem al-Sawarkah (7);
- Feras Rasmi Salem al-Sawarkah (2); and
- Salem Rasmi Salem al-Sawarkah (3).
This crime took place within the 2-day Israeli military aggression against the Gaza Strip which caused many civilian causalities as IOF warplanes launched dozens of airstrikes on civilian targets and Palestinian armed groups’ sites, some located within densely populated areas. This reflects the highest degree of Israeli recklessness with Palestinian civilians’ lives. Up to the release of this document, IOF killed 33 Palestinians; 14 of them were civilians, including 3 women and 8 children. Furthermore, 46 Palestinian civilians, including 16 children and 6 women, were injured. Additionally, seven residential buildings as well as civilian objects and properties were destroyed.
PCHR condemns the Israeli crimes, stressing that these crimes are new evidence that Palestinian civilians always pay the price for Israeli attacks and military escalations.
Furthermore, PCHR stresses that the continued IOF attacks at densely populated areas and the use of weapons based in a manner of collective punishment are in violation of the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention and amount to war crimes.
PCHR reiterates its call upon the High Contracting Parties to the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their obligations under Article 1 to respect and ensure respect for the Convention in all circumstances, and their obligations under Article 146 to prosecute persons alleged to commit grave breaches of the Convention. These grave breaches constitute war crimes under Article 147 of the same Convention and Protocol (I) Additional to the Geneva Conventions on the guarantee of Palestinian civilians’ right to protection in the occupied territory.
13 nov 2019
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, Tzipi Livni
One of the anomalies of political Zionism is that, while it was founded as a response to murderous pogroms against European and Russian Jews as a means to rescue them from such treatment by having a safe haven to go to, the founding fathers of the State of Israel and their successors have had no qualms about inflicting terrible suffering and hardship on others in order to achieve their aims.
The stated aim of making sure that the ultimate pogrom called the Holocaust, for example, will “never again” befall the Jews, has meant that “again and again” is the rule with regards to Israel’s violations against the Palestinians and anyone else deemed to be an enemy.
In the establishment of a state specifically for people of a particular race, there are those who would argue that Zionism is a racist ideology.
This argument ensured that, in November 1975, UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 determined that Zionism is “a form of racism and racial discrimination”, although under US pressure imposed by President George H W Bush, this was revoked in 1991. Nevertheless, the notion of “God’s chosen people” treating those perceived to be lesser mortals, Arab Palestinians, so abominably day after day for more than 70 years remains government policy in Israel. That is the reality.
The state targets anyone who gets in its way of occupying as much of historic Palestine as possible with as few Palestinians on the land as possible; “Greater Israel” is the desired result.
Killing Palestinians and other non-Jews is not usually an ethical decision, but one taken according to the benefits it provides for Israel. Scientists, community leaders, religious leaders or simply whoever stands in front of them can be and often is a target, regardless of race, religion, citizenship, gender or age.
Such murders are not the acts of rogue killers. They are endorsed by the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, which makes him a direct accomplice in all such crimes. In the case of Israel, therefore, terrorism is not an individual or non-state actor modus operandi; it has come to define the state itself.
Murderous “operations” have been endorsed by successive Prime Ministers of Israel, targeting not only Palestinians, but many other nationalities too.
Israel rarely acknowledges its responsibility for any of them, even when they fail to hit the target. Indeed, Israel has committed thousands of crimes over the years, including alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and mass murder.
Despite this, it has not been made to account; it acts with impunity, treating international laws and conventions with contempt, safe in the knowledge that its friends in the West have its back covered, especially the US and its veto at the UN Security Council. Britain is one country where the pro-Israel politicians changed the procedures for its law of universal jurisdiction in order to protect suspected Israeli war criminals from prosecution.
Former Foreign Minister had to cancel her visit to Britain because arrest warrants were prepared due to Israel’s crimes committed in the Gaza Strip. Upon hearing the news, Livni commented, “The free world must differentiate between real war criminals who must be brought to justice and those who fight terrorism against civilians, including the officers and soldiers of the [Israel Defence Forces].” The British government duly changed the law.
Helping such people to escape prosecution also makes those who protect them complicit in their crimes. Knowing that they can act with impunity emboldens Israeli politicians to go further with their illegal policies and practices.
The level of hypocrisy and double standards is remarkable in Israel. While the death penalty is no longer available to the courts, extrajudicial killings are more common there than almost every other country in the world. This is how Israel understands law and democracy, despite its claim to be “the only democracy in the Middle East.”
This psyche has been prevalent among Israeli leaders since before the state was founded on Palestinian land in 1948. Members and leaders of the Irgun and Stern Gang terrorist groups went on to become leading politicians in Israel, including prime ministers.
Just a few weeks ago, Ehud Barak — Israel’s Prime Minister from 1999 to 2001, and the most decorated soldier in the history of the state — declared with no shame that he ordered the killing of 300 Palestinians in a matter of 3 minutes. Ironically, this man was the leader of the Labour Party, which is usually regarded as a party of the left. That demonstrates how far to the right Israeli politics has shifted.
Barak, though, was no less inhumane than other Labour leaders. The late Shimon Peres, for example, is remembered in the Arab world not as a Nobel Peace laureate, but as the architect of a massacre of Lebanese civilians. On 18 April, 1996, 800 Lebanese civilians took refuge from Israel’s brutal “Operation Grapes of Wrath” in a UN peacekeepers’ compound in the village of Qana. Israeli troops fired artillery rounds into the compound deliberately, killing 106 people and injuring 116 more.
In his speech to the UN General Assembly on 29 September, Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad, the veteran Prime Minister of Malaysia, shed light on an ironic contradiction in human conduct and thinking: We all know, he said, that “wars encourage and legitimise killing.
Indeed, the killings are regarded as noble, and the killers are hailed as heroes. They get medals stuck to their chest and statues erected in their honour, have their names mentioned in history books. There is something wrong with our way of thinking, with our value system. Kill one man, it is murder; kill a million and you become a hero.”
This encapsulates Israel’s “targeted assassinations” policy; it is murder by any other name. Western complacency and Israeli belligerence make such killing permissible. There definitely is “something wrong with our way of thinking” when that is the reality of the world today.
One of the anomalies of political Zionism is that, while it was founded as a response to murderous pogroms against European and Russian Jews as a means to rescue them from such treatment by having a safe haven to go to, the founding fathers of the State of Israel and their successors have had no qualms about inflicting terrible suffering and hardship on others in order to achieve their aims.
The stated aim of making sure that the ultimate pogrom called the Holocaust, for example, will “never again” befall the Jews, has meant that “again and again” is the rule with regards to Israel’s violations against the Palestinians and anyone else deemed to be an enemy.
In the establishment of a state specifically for people of a particular race, there are those who would argue that Zionism is a racist ideology.
This argument ensured that, in November 1975, UN General Assembly Resolution 3379 determined that Zionism is “a form of racism and racial discrimination”, although under US pressure imposed by President George H W Bush, this was revoked in 1991. Nevertheless, the notion of “God’s chosen people” treating those perceived to be lesser mortals, Arab Palestinians, so abominably day after day for more than 70 years remains government policy in Israel. That is the reality.
The state targets anyone who gets in its way of occupying as much of historic Palestine as possible with as few Palestinians on the land as possible; “Greater Israel” is the desired result.
Killing Palestinians and other non-Jews is not usually an ethical decision, but one taken according to the benefits it provides for Israel. Scientists, community leaders, religious leaders or simply whoever stands in front of them can be and often is a target, regardless of race, religion, citizenship, gender or age.
Such murders are not the acts of rogue killers. They are endorsed by the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, which makes him a direct accomplice in all such crimes. In the case of Israel, therefore, terrorism is not an individual or non-state actor modus operandi; it has come to define the state itself.
Murderous “operations” have been endorsed by successive Prime Ministers of Israel, targeting not only Palestinians, but many other nationalities too.
Israel rarely acknowledges its responsibility for any of them, even when they fail to hit the target. Indeed, Israel has committed thousands of crimes over the years, including alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and mass murder.
Despite this, it has not been made to account; it acts with impunity, treating international laws and conventions with contempt, safe in the knowledge that its friends in the West have its back covered, especially the US and its veto at the UN Security Council. Britain is one country where the pro-Israel politicians changed the procedures for its law of universal jurisdiction in order to protect suspected Israeli war criminals from prosecution.
Former Foreign Minister had to cancel her visit to Britain because arrest warrants were prepared due to Israel’s crimes committed in the Gaza Strip. Upon hearing the news, Livni commented, “The free world must differentiate between real war criminals who must be brought to justice and those who fight terrorism against civilians, including the officers and soldiers of the [Israel Defence Forces].” The British government duly changed the law.
Helping such people to escape prosecution also makes those who protect them complicit in their crimes. Knowing that they can act with impunity emboldens Israeli politicians to go further with their illegal policies and practices.
The level of hypocrisy and double standards is remarkable in Israel. While the death penalty is no longer available to the courts, extrajudicial killings are more common there than almost every other country in the world. This is how Israel understands law and democracy, despite its claim to be “the only democracy in the Middle East.”
This psyche has been prevalent among Israeli leaders since before the state was founded on Palestinian land in 1948. Members and leaders of the Irgun and Stern Gang terrorist groups went on to become leading politicians in Israel, including prime ministers.
Just a few weeks ago, Ehud Barak — Israel’s Prime Minister from 1999 to 2001, and the most decorated soldier in the history of the state — declared with no shame that he ordered the killing of 300 Palestinians in a matter of 3 minutes. Ironically, this man was the leader of the Labour Party, which is usually regarded as a party of the left. That demonstrates how far to the right Israeli politics has shifted.
Barak, though, was no less inhumane than other Labour leaders. The late Shimon Peres, for example, is remembered in the Arab world not as a Nobel Peace laureate, but as the architect of a massacre of Lebanese civilians. On 18 April, 1996, 800 Lebanese civilians took refuge from Israel’s brutal “Operation Grapes of Wrath” in a UN peacekeepers’ compound in the village of Qana. Israeli troops fired artillery rounds into the compound deliberately, killing 106 people and injuring 116 more.
In his speech to the UN General Assembly on 29 September, Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad, the veteran Prime Minister of Malaysia, shed light on an ironic contradiction in human conduct and thinking: We all know, he said, that “wars encourage and legitimise killing.
Indeed, the killings are regarded as noble, and the killers are hailed as heroes. They get medals stuck to their chest and statues erected in their honour, have their names mentioned in history books. There is something wrong with our way of thinking, with our value system. Kill one man, it is murder; kill a million and you become a hero.”
This encapsulates Israel’s “targeted assassinations” policy; it is murder by any other name. Western complacency and Israeli belligerence make such killing permissible. There definitely is “something wrong with our way of thinking” when that is the reality of the world today.
12 nov 2019
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Israel resumes its extrajudicial execution policy against Palestinians, as Israeli warplanes carried out a targeted attack against a senior leader of Palestinian resistance groups at dawn on Tuesday, 12 November 2019. As a result, the targeted Palestinian was killed along with his wife, while 7 others sustained injuries including 4 of the victims’ children in the attack on their house in al-Shuja’ya neighborhood in Eastern Gaza.
This attack reflects a decision by the highest Israeli military and political offices.According to PCHR investigation, at approximately 04:00 on Tuesday, IOF warplanes fired a missile at Bahaa’ Salim Hassan Abulatta’s house (42), member of the al-Quds Brigades’ military bureau which is the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, and he was in charge of its northern Gaza Strip activity. Abulatta and his wife, Asmaa’ Mohammed Hassan Abulatta (38), were killed during the targeted airstrike on their apartment, on the second floor of a residential building, resulting in complete destruction. |
The victims’ bodies were extracted from the rubble at the UNRWA school across the street from their apartment due to the extreme intensity of the explosion: his body was found near the gates, while his wife’s was found within the school. Furthermore, 7 others sustained shrapnel wounds in the airstrike, including 4 of the victims’ children (including two little girls): Salim (19); Mohammed (18); Fatima al-Zahra’ (13); Layan (11); two women from the neighborhood: Hanan Shehda Mohyaldeen Helles (26); Shereen Fouad Khalil Helles (21); and Mahmoud Fouad Abdulrahman Abulatta, victim’s bodyguard. The injuries were reported to be minor and moderate.
IOF and the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) announced in a press statement by the Israeli military spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, that the targeted attack against prominent Islamic Jihad Leader in Gaza was a joint operation between the Israeli military and the intelligence services. He also reiterated that Israeli Prime Minister and Defense Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, authorized the attack, which is the first extrajudicial execution carried out by Israeli airstrikes since the 2014 Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip.
The Gaza attack was simultaneous with another targeted airstrike by Israeli warplanes against Islamic Jihad Political Bureau member, Akram al- ‘Ajoury, in the Syrian capital, Damascus. According to Islamic Jihad press release and Syrian media, al- ‘Ajoury’s son was killed in the attack.
Today’s attacks are worrying signs of a larger escalation against the Gaza Strip, as precedented in similar Israeli attacks that Palestinian armed groups responded to with a rain of retaliatory rocket fire at Israeli settlements and cities, as is the scenario today. IOF warplanes carried out multiple airstrikes on various targets in the Gaza Strip, some located within densely populated areas, causing great damage and destruction. PCHR teams and fieldworkers are working round the clock to document and investigate each incident.
An Israeli missile targeted and destroyed a residential apartment on the third floor of Khayal Building, on al-Rasheed Street; no injuries were reported. Another missile hit the Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) office in Harara Building in Gaza City center, causing grave damage. The missile hit the 5th floor of the Gaza office, destroying it. The floor was empty as all staff were in a meeting on the sixth floor, which sustained partial damage on the eastern side. Bahjat Ibrahim al-Helou, Head of ICHR Training and Awareness Unit, sustained wounds due to shattering glass.
PCHR team will continue to document, investigate and report on all airstrikes and attacks.
PCHR reminds and stresses that it is always Palestinian civilians who pay the price for the Israeli attacks and military escalations and warns that this policy retains 2 million Palestinian hostages to aggression, fear, anxiety and direct targeting. Palestinian Government Press announced the activation of the emergency state in all government office, and suspension of education until further notice.
Additionally, in another act under the Israeli policy of collective punishment against Palestinians, IOF closed Kerm Shalom Commercial Crossing, east Rafah, which is Gaza’s only crossing for goods; and Beit Hanoun “Erez” Crossing, northern Gaza, dedicated for movement of individuals. IOF also announced reducing the fishing area to 6 nautical miles until further notice, according to Major General Kamil Abu Rokon, Coordinator of the Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), justified by the security situation in Gaza.
PCHR strongly condemns the Israeli extrajudicial execution policy against Palestinian activists and expresses its concern for a dramatic deterioration of the security situation, warning that the situation is susceptible to a deterioration on all aspects. As such, PCHR:
IOF and the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) announced in a press statement by the Israeli military spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, that the targeted attack against prominent Islamic Jihad Leader in Gaza was a joint operation between the Israeli military and the intelligence services. He also reiterated that Israeli Prime Minister and Defense Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, authorized the attack, which is the first extrajudicial execution carried out by Israeli airstrikes since the 2014 Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip.
The Gaza attack was simultaneous with another targeted airstrike by Israeli warplanes against Islamic Jihad Political Bureau member, Akram al- ‘Ajoury, in the Syrian capital, Damascus. According to Islamic Jihad press release and Syrian media, al- ‘Ajoury’s son was killed in the attack.
Today’s attacks are worrying signs of a larger escalation against the Gaza Strip, as precedented in similar Israeli attacks that Palestinian armed groups responded to with a rain of retaliatory rocket fire at Israeli settlements and cities, as is the scenario today. IOF warplanes carried out multiple airstrikes on various targets in the Gaza Strip, some located within densely populated areas, causing great damage and destruction. PCHR teams and fieldworkers are working round the clock to document and investigate each incident.
An Israeli missile targeted and destroyed a residential apartment on the third floor of Khayal Building, on al-Rasheed Street; no injuries were reported. Another missile hit the Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) office in Harara Building in Gaza City center, causing grave damage. The missile hit the 5th floor of the Gaza office, destroying it. The floor was empty as all staff were in a meeting on the sixth floor, which sustained partial damage on the eastern side. Bahjat Ibrahim al-Helou, Head of ICHR Training and Awareness Unit, sustained wounds due to shattering glass.
PCHR team will continue to document, investigate and report on all airstrikes and attacks.
PCHR reminds and stresses that it is always Palestinian civilians who pay the price for the Israeli attacks and military escalations and warns that this policy retains 2 million Palestinian hostages to aggression, fear, anxiety and direct targeting. Palestinian Government Press announced the activation of the emergency state in all government office, and suspension of education until further notice.
Additionally, in another act under the Israeli policy of collective punishment against Palestinians, IOF closed Kerm Shalom Commercial Crossing, east Rafah, which is Gaza’s only crossing for goods; and Beit Hanoun “Erez” Crossing, northern Gaza, dedicated for movement of individuals. IOF also announced reducing the fishing area to 6 nautical miles until further notice, according to Major General Kamil Abu Rokon, Coordinator of the Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), justified by the security situation in Gaza.
PCHR strongly condemns the Israeli extrajudicial execution policy against Palestinian activists and expresses its concern for a dramatic deterioration of the security situation, warning that the situation is susceptible to a deterioration on all aspects. As such, PCHR:
- Reminds all parties of the need to protect protected civilians under the international humanitarian law (IHL), especially that Gaza Strip civilians and their property have been subjected to direct targeting by IOF in grave violations of the 4th Geneva Convention of 1949, that amount to war crimes; and
- Calls upon the international community to move immediately and urgently to pressure Israel to cease its attacks against Palestinians and to remind it of its obligations under international law, especially the 4th Geneva Convention of 1949.
It has been a week of appalling abuses committed by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank – little different from the other 2,670 weeks endured by Palestinians since the occupation began in 1967.
The difference this past week was that several entirely unexceptional human rights violations that had been caught on film went viral on social media.
One shows a Palestinian father in the West Bank city of Hebron leading his son by the hand to kindergarten. The pair are stopped by two heavily armed soldiers, there to help enforce the rule of a few hundred illegal Jewish settlers over the city’s Palestinian population.
The soldiers scream at the father, repeatedly and violently push him and then grab his throat as they accuse his small son of throwing stones. As the father tries to shield his son from the frightening confrontation, one soldier pulls out his rifle and sticks it in the father’s face.
It is a minor incident by the standards of Israel’s long-running belligerent occupation. But it powerfully symbolises the unpredictable, humiliating, terrifying and sometimes deadly experiences faced daily by millions of Palestinians.
A video of another such incident emerged last week. A Palestinian man is ordered to leave an area by an armed Israeli policewoman. He turns and walks slowly away, his hands in the air. Moments later she shoots a sponge-tipped bullet into his back. He falls to the ground, writhing in agony.
It is unclear whether the man was being used for target practice or simply for entertainment.
The reason such abuses are so commonplace is that they are almost never investigated – and even less often are those responsible punished.
It is not simply that Israeli soldiers become inured to the suffering they inflict on Palestinians daily. It is the soldiers’ very duty to crush the Palestinians’ will for freedom, to leave them utterly hopeless. That is what is required of an army policing a population permanently under occupation.
The message is only underscored by the impunity the soldiers enjoy. Whatever they do, they have the backing not only of their commanders but of the government and courts.
Just that point was underlined late last month. An unnamed Israeli army sniper was convicted of shooting dead a 14-year-old boy in Gaza last year. The Palestinian child had been participating in one of the weekly protests at the perimeter fence.
Such trials and convictions are a great rarity. Despite damning evidence showing that Uthman Hillis was shot in the chest with a live round while posing no threat, the court sentenced the sniper to the equivalent of a month’s community service.
In Israel’s warped scales of justice, the cost of a Palestinian child’s life amounts to no more than a month of extra kitchen duties for his killer.
But the overwhelming majority of the 220 Palestinian deaths at the Gaza fence over the past 20 months will never be investigated. Nor will the wounding of tens of thousands more Palestinians, many of them now permanently disabled.
There is an equally disturbing trend. The Israeli public have become so used to seeing YouTube videos of soldiers – their sons and daughters – abuse Palestinians that they now automatically come to the soldiers’ defence, however egregious the abuses.
The video of the father and son threatened in Hebron elicited few denunciations. Most Israelis rallied behind the soldiers. Amos Harel, a military analyst for the liberal Haaretz newspaper, observed that an “irreversible process” was under way among Israelis: “The soldiers are pure and any criticism of them is completely forbidden.”
When the Israeli state offers impunity to its soldiers, the only deterrence is the knowledge that such abuses are being monitored and recorded for posterity – and that one day these soldiers may face real accountability, in a trial for war crimes.
But Israel is working hard to shut down those doing the investigating – human rights groups.
For many years Israel has been denying United Nations monitors – including international law experts like Richard Falk and Michael Lynk – entry to the occupied territories in a blatant bid to stymie their human rights work.
Last week Human Rights Watch, headquartered in New York, also felt the backlash. The Israeli supreme court approved the deportation of Omar Shakir, its Israel-Palestine director.
Before his appointment by HRW, Shakir had called for a boycott of the businesses in illegal Jewish settlements. The judges accepted the state’s argument: he broke Israeli legislation that treats Israel and the settlements as indistinguishable and forbids support for any kind of boycott.
But Shakir rightly understands that the main reason Israel needs soldiers in the West Bank – and has kept them there oppressing Palestinians for more than half a century – is to protect settlers who were sent there in violation of international law.
The collective punishment of Palestinians, such as restrictions on movement and the theft of resources, was inevitable the moment Israel moved the first settlers into the West Bank. That is precisely why it is a war crime for a state to transfer its population into occupied territory.
But Shakir had no hope of a fair hearing. One of the three judges in his case, Noam Sohlberg, is himself just such a lawbreaker. He lives in Alon Shvut, a settlement near Hebron.
Israel’s treatment of Shakir is part of a pattern. In recent days other human rights groups have faced the brunt of Israel’s vindictiveness.
Laith Abu Zeyad, a Palestinian field worker for Amnesty International, was recently issued a travel ban, denying him the right to attend a relative’s funeral in Jordan. Earlier he was refused the right to accompany his mother for chemotherapy in occupied East Jerusalem.
And last week Arif Daraghmeh, a Palestinian field worker for B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, was seized at a checkpoint and questioned about his photographing of the army’s handling of Palestinian protests. Daraghmeh had to be taken to hospital after being forced to wait in the sun.
It is a sign of Israel’s overweening confidence in its own impunity that it so openly violates the rights of those whose job it is to monitor human rights.
Palestinians, meanwhile, are rapidly losing the very last voices prepared to stand up and defend them against the systematic abuses associated with Israel’s occupation. Unless reversed, the outcome is preordained: the rule of the settlers and soldiers will grow ever more ruthless, the repression ever more ugly.
The difference this past week was that several entirely unexceptional human rights violations that had been caught on film went viral on social media.
One shows a Palestinian father in the West Bank city of Hebron leading his son by the hand to kindergarten. The pair are stopped by two heavily armed soldiers, there to help enforce the rule of a few hundred illegal Jewish settlers over the city’s Palestinian population.
The soldiers scream at the father, repeatedly and violently push him and then grab his throat as they accuse his small son of throwing stones. As the father tries to shield his son from the frightening confrontation, one soldier pulls out his rifle and sticks it in the father’s face.
It is a minor incident by the standards of Israel’s long-running belligerent occupation. But it powerfully symbolises the unpredictable, humiliating, terrifying and sometimes deadly experiences faced daily by millions of Palestinians.
A video of another such incident emerged last week. A Palestinian man is ordered to leave an area by an armed Israeli policewoman. He turns and walks slowly away, his hands in the air. Moments later she shoots a sponge-tipped bullet into his back. He falls to the ground, writhing in agony.
It is unclear whether the man was being used for target practice or simply for entertainment.
The reason such abuses are so commonplace is that they are almost never investigated – and even less often are those responsible punished.
It is not simply that Israeli soldiers become inured to the suffering they inflict on Palestinians daily. It is the soldiers’ very duty to crush the Palestinians’ will for freedom, to leave them utterly hopeless. That is what is required of an army policing a population permanently under occupation.
The message is only underscored by the impunity the soldiers enjoy. Whatever they do, they have the backing not only of their commanders but of the government and courts.
Just that point was underlined late last month. An unnamed Israeli army sniper was convicted of shooting dead a 14-year-old boy in Gaza last year. The Palestinian child had been participating in one of the weekly protests at the perimeter fence.
Such trials and convictions are a great rarity. Despite damning evidence showing that Uthman Hillis was shot in the chest with a live round while posing no threat, the court sentenced the sniper to the equivalent of a month’s community service.
In Israel’s warped scales of justice, the cost of a Palestinian child’s life amounts to no more than a month of extra kitchen duties for his killer.
But the overwhelming majority of the 220 Palestinian deaths at the Gaza fence over the past 20 months will never be investigated. Nor will the wounding of tens of thousands more Palestinians, many of them now permanently disabled.
There is an equally disturbing trend. The Israeli public have become so used to seeing YouTube videos of soldiers – their sons and daughters – abuse Palestinians that they now automatically come to the soldiers’ defence, however egregious the abuses.
The video of the father and son threatened in Hebron elicited few denunciations. Most Israelis rallied behind the soldiers. Amos Harel, a military analyst for the liberal Haaretz newspaper, observed that an “irreversible process” was under way among Israelis: “The soldiers are pure and any criticism of them is completely forbidden.”
When the Israeli state offers impunity to its soldiers, the only deterrence is the knowledge that such abuses are being monitored and recorded for posterity – and that one day these soldiers may face real accountability, in a trial for war crimes.
But Israel is working hard to shut down those doing the investigating – human rights groups.
For many years Israel has been denying United Nations monitors – including international law experts like Richard Falk and Michael Lynk – entry to the occupied territories in a blatant bid to stymie their human rights work.
Last week Human Rights Watch, headquartered in New York, also felt the backlash. The Israeli supreme court approved the deportation of Omar Shakir, its Israel-Palestine director.
Before his appointment by HRW, Shakir had called for a boycott of the businesses in illegal Jewish settlements. The judges accepted the state’s argument: he broke Israeli legislation that treats Israel and the settlements as indistinguishable and forbids support for any kind of boycott.
But Shakir rightly understands that the main reason Israel needs soldiers in the West Bank – and has kept them there oppressing Palestinians for more than half a century – is to protect settlers who were sent there in violation of international law.
The collective punishment of Palestinians, such as restrictions on movement and the theft of resources, was inevitable the moment Israel moved the first settlers into the West Bank. That is precisely why it is a war crime for a state to transfer its population into occupied territory.
But Shakir had no hope of a fair hearing. One of the three judges in his case, Noam Sohlberg, is himself just such a lawbreaker. He lives in Alon Shvut, a settlement near Hebron.
Israel’s treatment of Shakir is part of a pattern. In recent days other human rights groups have faced the brunt of Israel’s vindictiveness.
Laith Abu Zeyad, a Palestinian field worker for Amnesty International, was recently issued a travel ban, denying him the right to attend a relative’s funeral in Jordan. Earlier he was refused the right to accompany his mother for chemotherapy in occupied East Jerusalem.
And last week Arif Daraghmeh, a Palestinian field worker for B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, was seized at a checkpoint and questioned about his photographing of the army’s handling of Palestinian protests. Daraghmeh had to be taken to hospital after being forced to wait in the sun.
It is a sign of Israel’s overweening confidence in its own impunity that it so openly violates the rights of those whose job it is to monitor human rights.
Palestinians, meanwhile, are rapidly losing the very last voices prepared to stand up and defend them against the systematic abuses associated with Israel’s occupation. Unless reversed, the outcome is preordained: the rule of the settlers and soldiers will grow ever more ruthless, the repression ever more ugly.
11 nov 2019
Omar Haytham Badawi, 22
Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) asked the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, to open a criminal investigation into the systematic and continued war crimes committed by the Israeli occupation authorities against unarmed Palestinian civilians.
Erekat, in a statement, called on the prosecutor of the ICC to witness the hideous and deliberate field execution of an unarmed Palestinian man.
Omar Haytham Badawi, 22, was critically injured Monday, when Israeli soldiers opened fire at Palestinians participating in marches commemorating the 15th anniversary for the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, died of his wounds. video
Badawi was was driven to a local clinic, by residents, after the soldiers prevented Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulances from reaching him.
He was later transferred to a hospital in Hebron where he was pronounced dead, The Palestinian News and Info Agency (WAFA) reported.
Erekat called on the United Nations to provide immediate international protection for the Palestinian people.
Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) asked the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, to open a criminal investigation into the systematic and continued war crimes committed by the Israeli occupation authorities against unarmed Palestinian civilians.
Erekat, in a statement, called on the prosecutor of the ICC to witness the hideous and deliberate field execution of an unarmed Palestinian man.
Omar Haytham Badawi, 22, was critically injured Monday, when Israeli soldiers opened fire at Palestinians participating in marches commemorating the 15th anniversary for the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, died of his wounds. video
Badawi was was driven to a local clinic, by residents, after the soldiers prevented Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulances from reaching him.
He was later transferred to a hospital in Hebron where he was pronounced dead, The Palestinian News and Info Agency (WAFA) reported.
Erekat called on the United Nations to provide immediate international protection for the Palestinian people.
