Press Releases

Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Witness)

Detailed Human Rights Report On the Field Executions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories 

Thirty-One Executions During One Hundred Days

Cold-Blooded Murder, No Legal Justifications Blatant Abuse in the Pretext of the Right to Self-Defense

Beirut 13-04-2022

Preface:

Throughout this report, the Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Witness) monitors the illegal field executions of Palestinian citizens, that are considered to be a criminality in the international community, mentioning specifically the murders committed during the period between 1/1/2022 and 11/04/2022 including 31 Palestinian citizens among which are 7 children and a woman. Within the same context, the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories documented the killing of 349 Palestinians among which are 257 in Gaza strip as a result of the aggression of May 2021 and injury of 19190 in 2021 [1]

Main Notes Recorded by The Monitoring Team:

·       All these murders done by the Israeli Occupation were in the pretext of the right to self-defense.

·       The occupation army left the injured people to bleed till death and prevented any rescuing attempt.

·       The occupation authorities killed 7 children, 3 elderly people and 1 woman by brutal methods like trampling, dragging and hitting for a distance of more than 200 meters.

·       Intentional direct shooting for the purpose of killing: the assassination of 6 individuals, who were claimed by the occupation forces as belonging to armed groups.

·       The occupation forces killed 12 people during their frequent storming on the camps and cities in the West bank and shooting on the citizens randomly.

·       Extra-legal field execution of 7 people for allegedly carrying out stabbing and attacking Israelis, who could have been arrested.

·       A settler killed a Palestinian youth in a motorized vehicle.

First: Cold-blooded killing in front of international media: Ghada Al- Sabatin as an example:

On Sunday 10/04/2022, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the killing of the widow and mother of six children, Ghada Al Sabatine, by the Israeli occupation forces in the south of the West Bank, although she didn’t carry any weapon, nor did she pose a threat on them. [2]

Apart from that, the report of the monitoring team in the Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Witness) indicated that since the beginning of the current year 2022, the Israeli forces executed 31 Palestinian citizens among which are 7 children and a woman. As well, the United Nations OCHA documented the killing of 349 people and injury of 19190 during 2021 [3]

While preparing for a program at the scene of the incident, the filming of the Palestinian official TV documented the murder committed on Al-Sabatine where she was passing by without any weapon. She then raised her hands -but vainly- to deny their suspicion on her intention to do any action, as the soldier at the checkpoint fired her with a bullet that penetrated her leg and blew an artery. While she remained bleeding on the ground for 15 minutes grappling death without any help to rescue her, many citizens penetrated the checkpoint and ran to save her, but shortly her death was announced in the hospital. [4]

In the light of a constant silence by the international community, especially by the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, without any attempt to make an action to deter the inhuman crimes committed by the Israeli Forces, the occupation army continues their extrajudicial killing policy in the form of frequent assassinations against the Palestinian citizens.

Second: Assassination crimes in international conventions and norms

Extrajudicial assassination crimes are considered to be blatant violations of all conventions and international laws pertaining human rights, that affirm the right to life as one the basic human rights. Article (3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person”. Article (6) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights affirms the right to life as "... an inherent right of every human being." The law shall protect this right, and no one may be arbitrarily deprived of his life. To do so, the second paragraph of the same article prohibits the application of the death penalty against those convicted of any crimes, even those that fall under the category of the most serious ones (crimes relating to national security committed in times of war),except "...by a final judgment issued by a competent court." This paragraph means that the contracting states to the Covenant have an exceptional right to impose and apply the death penalty. However, the exercise of this right must be carried out according to certain conditions that guarantee the elements of a fair trial which are:

1.     That the person or individual subject to punishment has been convicted of a crime that falls under the "serious crimes” section.

2.     That the decision to convict the aforementioned person is to be issued by a competent court. In this sense, international law prohibits any form of extrajudicial killing (assassination), which is carried out outside the courts without giving the person the right to receive an adequate defense and knowledge of the charges against him.

The Rome Statute considers those grave breaches as war crimes, and their perpetrators must be punished before the International Criminal Court. According to Article (8) of the Statute of the International Criminal Court, war crimes are defined as "grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949, any of the following acts against persons and property protected by the relevant Geneva Convention. [5]

The international law prohibits the use of force against any person just because of their affiliation – real or alleged – to any group, rather than on the basis of behavior.  Also, human rights are not protected if disregarding the right to life. Accordingly, extrajudicial arbitrary executions, i.e. intentionally killing people outside the legal framework, are considered genuine breaches to such basic right.

Third: A blatant Violation in the right to self-defense:

According to the rules of shooting, live fire is permitted only in two cases, first if there exist a real threat on the lives of security forces members and other people; provided that there are no other means to avoid the danger and aim only towards the person posing the threat. Second permissible case is shooting on a wanted escape if there is no other way to arrest him, and only after warning him and then shooting in the air on the condition that others are not at risk of injury

Three major principles govern the performance of security forces at times combat: the principle of necessity, proportionality, and non-discrimination. The first principle prohibits the use of force except in extreme necessity within the necessary limits to perform their duty, in order to achieve a legitimate law enforcement objective, provided that there is no reasonable alternative other than the use of force.

The principle of proportionality requires the compatibility of the type of force, its level, and the damage it causes with the level of threat any person or group poses, or with the crime committed or about to be committed.

The principle of non-discrimination: discrimination between members on the basis of their sex, color, religion, affiliation or any similar standards is not allowed. To ensure non-discrimination and effective equal treatment of persons subjected to the use of forces, great caution should be exercised towards individuals who are known or likely to be particularly   vulnerable to the effects of a certain weapon, as well as defenseless individuals.

Israel firing policy during combat almost totally disregard the firing rules, which contradicts to what they claim on their operating according to these principles. For example, soldiers shoot randomly, including passers-by, used ammunitions and combat vehicles that are unable to distinguish between individuals involved and others, bombed residential buildings on people in them and other properties in large scope, and killed cold-bloodedly under the pretext of carrying a knife, yet all their claims turned to be false. They justified their actions by formally upholding the principles of international humanitarian law and interpreting them very broadly to the point where they turn them to be meaningless and inessential. [6]

The occupying government bears criminal responsibility for setting open fire regulations, for issuing illegal orders to soldiers, and for the lethal consequences of their implementation. However, no investigation was opened to put those who are in direct charge before court. They are the politicians who set this policy and worked to implement it, and the government legal counsel who certified for its legality.

Fourth: Recommendations:

The Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Witness) holds the Israeli occupation, as the occupying power, fully responsible for providing protection to the citizens and calls for the following:

1.     The United Nations to urgently intervene to halt war crimes and the systematic human rights violations, and force the Israeli occupation to respect the Fourth Convention of Geneva 1949 pertaining protection of citizens at times of wars.

2.     It being the sponsor of the Geneva four conventions, it is called to hold an urgent meeting for the High Contracting Parties to discuss Israel’s systematic violations against civilians.

3.     The National Palestinian Authority to stop the security coordination with occupation army.

Beirut 19/04/2022

Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Witness)

Table showing the names and the conditions of the Palestinian citizens in the occupied Palestinian territories during the period between 1/1/2022 and 11/4/2022