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Wednesday 28 Oct 2015 - 14:06 Makkah mean time-15-1-1437
Ramallah, (IINA) - The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemned on Monday the Israeli disregard for Palestinian lives as well as the Israeli shoot-to-kill policy applied when the army or police suspect a Palestinian of potentially carrying a knife, WAFA reported.
"With the continuing international policy of silence over grave crimes and violations committed by Israeli forces in the occupied Palestinian territory, Israeli troops have continued to flagrantly commit more crimes and violations against the Palestinian civilians", said PCHR.
It called upon the international community to take immediate action and fulfill its legal and moral obligations to protect the Palestinian civilians in the occupied Palestinian Territory and exert efforts to put an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
“The silence of the international community towards these crimes encourages the Israeli government to continue its policy that violates the international humanitarian law, which means there will be more Palestinian civilian victims”, stressed the center.
PCHR cited the case of 17-year-old Dania Ersheid, who was fatally shot by Israeli forces last Sunday in what the center described as a new cold-blooded crime.
Israeli forces stationed at the entrance of the Ibrahimi Mosque, south of Hebron's Old City, killed Ersheid when she stopped to have her school bag searched. Ersheid's body was taken to an unknown destination.
According to investigations conducted by PCHR and statement of an eyewitness, at approximately 13:30 on Sunday, Ersheid entered the Ibrahimi Mosque's yard through a metal detector gate fixed between the mosque's yard and the old market in the city and she obeyed the search orders by Israeli soldiers in the location. While one of the soldiers standing behind a desk was searching the girl's school bag, some Israeli forces gathered around her. Ersheid was standing behind an iron barrier erected by Israeli soldiers to allow persons subjected to searching pass through it. The soldier, who was searching the bag, asked the girl: "Where is the knife? Where is the knife?" The girl replied, "I do not have a knife", and put her hands up. She was petrified. An officer fired a bullet around Ersheid, whereas the bullet hit the wall behind her. She moved few steps backward putting her hands up, but a number of bullets were fired at her. As a result, she fell to the ground and bled to death.
The center stressed that the girl did not pose any threat to the security and lives of Israeli forces and that she was even putting her hands up when the soldier was talking to her and accused her of having a knife. “Israeli forces could have arrested her instead of killing her if she posed any threat to them”, said the center.
Israeli forces have killed at least 59 Palestinians since the beginning of October 2015, including 14 children and a pregnant woman.
PCHR strongly condemned these crimes that prove the increasing number of killings of Palestinian civilians in the occupied Palestinian territories. It stressed that Israeli forces could have used less force against the victims or could have arrested and tied them if their allegations were true.
The center reiterated its call for the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 to fulfill their obligations under Article 1, which says: "The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances". The center also urged them to uphold their obligation under Article 146, which says: "Each High Contracting Party shall be under the obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed, grave breaches and shall bring such persons, regardless of their nationality, before its own courts".
Article 147 lists war crimes as follows: "Willful killing; torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments; willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health; unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a protected person; compelling a protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile power, or willfully depriving a protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial prescribed in the present Convention; taking of hostages and extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly".
The center stressed that the Israeli actions against Palestinians constitute war crimes under the aforementioned article, urging the High Contracting Parties to uphold their obligations.
AG/IINA
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