Amnesty condemns Israeli forces ‘unlawful killings of Palestinians’

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Wednesday 28 Oct 2015 - 13:50 Makkah mean time-15-1-1437 London (IINA) – Amnesty International condemned the unlawful killings of Palestinians, carried out by the Israeli occupation forces, using intentional lethal force without justification. The London-based human rights organization said Tuesday in a press statement that it has documented in depth at least four incidents in which Palestinians were deliberately shot dead by Israeli forces when they posed no imminent threat to life, in what appear to have been extrajudicial executions. It added that since October 1, Israeli forces have killed more than 30 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Israel either after stabbings were carried out or the Israeli authorities allege stabbing attacks were intended. Amnesty stated that there is mounting evidence that, as tensions have risen dramatically, in some cases Israeli forces appear to have ripped up the rulebook and resorted to extreme and unlawful measures. They seem increasingly prone to using lethal force against anyone they perceive as posing a threat, without ensuring that the threat is real. It also noted that heavily armed Israeli soldiers and police wearing body armor facing a possible knife attack have a duty to use proportionate and graduated force and attempt to arrest suspects before resorting to the use of lethal force. Unfortunately, Israel’s investigation systems have long served to perpetuate impunity for unlawful killings of Palestinians by Israeli military and police forces, the organization added. Amnesty urged, in its statement, the Israeli authorities to conduct independent, impartial investigations into all these incidents, stressing that wilful killings of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, over which all states can exercise universal jurisdiction. AB/IINA