Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinian civilians, including children, in the West Bank territory over the last three years. No one in any of these cases appears to have been posing a direct or immediate threat to anyone’s life, “which would amount to war crimes,” according to an Amnesty International report released on Thursday.
The full report, “Trigger-happy: Israel’s use of excessive force in the West Bank,” cited an increase in attacks on civilians over the last three years, and those who have carried out the killings are immune from punishment, Amnesty claims. The human rights organization has urged independent reviews of their investigations.
“The report presents a body of evidence that shows a harrowing pattern of unlawful killings and unwarranted injuries of Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces in the West Bank,” said Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International. “The frequency and persistence of arbitrary and abusive force against peaceful protesters in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers and police officers — and the impunity enjoyed by perpetrators — suggests that it is carried out as a matter of policy.”
Human rights activists and journalists have also been killed, according to Amnesty.
UN figures indicate that more West Bank Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in 2013 than in 2011 and 2012 combined, Amnesty reported, and 45 were killed in the past three years.
“In the last three years at least 261 Palestinians, including 67 children, have been seriously injured by live ammunition fired by Israeli forces in the West Bank,” the report continued.
In 2013, Amnesty stated that most of those killed were under the age of 25, including at least four children.
Amnesty cited the case of 16-year-old Samir Awad, a boy from the town of Bodrus, near Ramallah, that “was shot dead near his school in January 2013 while attempting to stage a protest with friends against Israel’s 800 km-long fence/wall, which cuts through their village.”
Amnesty said three bullets hit Awad in the back of his head, his leg and his shoulder as he ran from Israeli soldiers who “ambushed” his group. Samir’s friend, Malik Murar, 16, witnessed his killing.
“They shot him first in the leg, yet he managed to run away … how far can an injured child run? They could have easily arrested him… instead they shot him in the back with live ammunition,” Murar told Amnesty.
Murar is young, but his testimony suggests Awad was targeted.
“Amnesty International believes Samir’s killing may amount to extrajudicial execution or a wilful killing, which is considered a war crime under international law,” the report said.
Security forces are trained to exercise restraint, but killings like Awad’s suggest Israeli soldiers and police officers are not holding back. More distressing is that no one is holding them accountable, which exhibits a pattern, or policy, of tolerating these kinds of incidents.
According to an article by The Guardian, an Israeli army statement responding to the report did not refer to any specific incidents, “but said 2013 had seen a sharp increase in rock-hurling incidents, which had injured 132 Israeli civilians and military personnel.”
The 87-page report, published on Thursday, focused only on violence in the West Bank, not the Gaza Strip.