By Yasmine Darwish / GICJ
Israel's extensive policy of repression and violation of the right to life struck again on April 11 with the unlawful shootings and killings of Palestinians by the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF). Mohammad Zakarneh, 17, succumbed to his injuries after being shot by Israeli special forces units during clashes in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin. Like in many other cases, the soldiers were neither charged nor prosecuted for their serious excessive use of force and related grave human rights violations. Israel's legislation and regulations reinforce the culture of impunity by providing safeguards against the prosecution of its soldiers for their extrajudicial and summary executions, which constitute grave violations of the right to life protected in the core universal human rights instruments.
Many of these unlawful killings involve the use of live ammunition and excessive force by the IOF, even though their victim posed no imminent threat, as in the case of Ghadeer Sabatin, an unarmed Palestinian widow and mother of six who was shot and killed on April 10. Sabatin reportedly crossed the street after one of the soldiers asked her to stop. Although she posed no danger to them, she was shot twice. The Israeli military said Sabatin approached the soldiers "suspiciously". While she was killed in cold blood by the occupation forces, it was later confirmed that she was unarmed. Palestinians were not allowed to take her to the hospital, as the soldiers forbade them to approach her body. She bled to death.
The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces in so-called "law enforcement incidents" has more than tripled compared to 2020. Israeli security forces killed 74 Palestinians, including 17 boys and five women, compared to 23 in the last reporting period. NGOs reported high civilian casualties, extensive damage to civilian objects and infrastructure, explosive weapons with large-scale effects in densely populated areas, and the apparent lack of specific military objectives. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has also documented several instances in which Israeli security forces used lethal force when less lethal means would have been sufficient or when an attacker no longer posed a threat.
Geneva International Centre of Justice (GICJ) condemns Israel's use of excessive force, a strategy designed to silence, punish, and weaken the Palestinian people who stand against its oppression perpetrated against them for opposing its colonial apartheid regime.We urge the International Community to launch effective and independent investigations into all incidents where unnecessary or excessive force appears to have been used and bring those suspected of being responsible to justice. A failure to do so will only perpetuate years of impunity.
Right to life, Apartheid, Palestine, Israel, Occupation, Occupying Power, Justice, Human Rights, Geneva, Geneva4justice, GICJ, Geneva International Centre For Justice
Image source : Pixabay
