PCHR: “In New Crime of Excessive Use of Force, Israeli Forces Kill Two Palestinian Civilians from Jenin Refugee Camp, Northern West Bank”

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 In new crime of excessive use of force, Israeli forces killed two Palestinian civilians and wounded a third one in Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns this new crime. PCHR hereby stresses this crime was committed after the Israeli political and military leaders gave the Israeli soldiers the green light to shed the Palestinian blood in light of the international community’s policy to tolerate Israel for crimes committed by the Israeli soldiers against Palestinian civilians.

According to PCHR’s investigations and eyewitnesses’ testimonies, at approximately 02:00 on Wednesday, 12 July 2017, Israeli forces backed by military vehicles and dozens of infantry soldiers moved into Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank.

They stationed in the center of the camp and then stepped out of their vehicles.  They surrounded several houses to raid them and arrest some of its residents.

Meanwhile, dozens of Palestinian young men and children gathered and threw stones at the soldiers, who heavily opened fire at the stone-throwers.

As a result, a child and young man were killed while another young man was only wounded after being hit with a bullet to the leg.  The latter was identified as ‘Oday Nizar Abu Na’asah (19) while the two killed were identified as follows:

1. Sa’ed Naser ‘Abdel Fattah Salah (20), from al-Harah al-Sharqiyah in Jenin, was hit with two bullets to the head and left side of the chest and died on the spot.
2. Aws Mohammed Yousif Salamah (17), from Jenin refugee camp, was hit with a bullet that entered his abdomen and exited from the chest.  He was transferred to Martyr Dr. Khalil Soliman Governmental Hospital in Jenin, and doctors there tried for hours to save his life, but he died succumbing to his serious wounds.

The Israeli forces claimed that the soldiers opened fire at “two attackers” after “Palestinian armed persons opened fire at them and threw explosive devices at the forces stationed in the camp.

However, eyewitnesses said that the Israeli soldiers stationed near the camp buildings opened fire at a motorbike driving to the western side of the camp and traveled by the two killed persons, who were not involved in the clashes which broke out between the Palestinian civilians and Israeli soldiers.

In light of the above, PCHR condemns this new crime committed by the Israeli forces resulting in the death of Salah and Salamah.  Thus, PCHR:

1. Calls upon the United Nations to provide international protection for Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) and ensure guarantees to protect civilians in the oPt;
2. Calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions to oblige Israel, in its capacity as a Member State, to apply the Geneva Conventions in the oPt;
3. Calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions to fulfill their obligations under these Conventions by exercising their Universal Jurisdiction to hold Israeli war criminals accountable regardless of the criminals’ nationalities and the place where the crimes were committed and put an end to their impunity; and
4. Calls upon the States, which extended their domestic jurisdiction, to hold war criminals accountable regardless of their origins and not to obedient to the Israeli pressures aiming at limiting this jurisdiction in favor of maintaining the impunity enjoyed by the Israeli war criminals.

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