AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL HAS called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate killings of Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank, where violence has ramped up significantly since the attacks against Israel on 7 October last year.
In a report published by the human rights NGO today, Amnesty detailed four “emblematic cases where Israeli forces used unlawful lethal force”. Three of those incidents occurred in October and another in November.
In total, the four incidents resulted in the unlawful killing of 20 Palestinians, including seven children, the report claimed.
Amnesty researchers interviewed 12 people in compiling the report, 10 of them eyewitnesses. They included first responders and local residents. The organisation’s Crisis Evidence Lab also verified 19 videos and four photos in examining the incidents.
Between 7 October and 31 December, 299 Palestinians were killed in the occupied territory, a 50% increase compared to the previous nine months, Amnesty said.
‘Three bullets were fired without any mercy’
One of the cases investigated by Amnesty was a 30-hour-long raid on Nour Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem that began on 19 October, during which Israeli forces killed 13 Palestinians, including six children, four of them under the age of 16, and arrested 15 people, the report said.
One of the victims of that assault was unarmed 15-year-old Taha Mahamid, who “Israeli forces shot dead in front of his house” as he went out to see if they had left the area.
A video filmed by one of his sisters and verified by Amnesty shows Taha walking on the street, peeking to check for the presence of soldiers and then collapsing outside his house after the sound of three gunshots, according to the report.
“They did not give him a chance. In an instant, my brother was eliminated. Three bullets were fired without any mercy. The first bullet hit him in the leg. The second, in his stomach. Third, in his eye. There were no confrontations… there was no conflict,” Taha’s sister Fatima told investigators.
An eye witness told Amnesty that when Taha’s father Ibrahim attempted to save his son, an Israeli sniper shot him in the back.
Fatima said her father “raised his hands, showing them (the soldiers) that he had nothing in them. He just wanted to take his son. They shot him with one bullet, and my father fell next to Taha.”
Ibrahim Mahamid suffered serious damage to his internal organs and had to be taken to intensive care.
Roughly 12 hours later, according to the report, Israeli soldiers stormed the Mahamid family home and locked family members, including three young children, in a room under the supervision of a soldier for about 10 hours. They also drilled holes in the walls of two rooms to position snipers overlooking the neighbourhood. One witness said the soldiers searched the house, beat a member of the family, and one was seen urinating on the doorstep.
‘With my own eyes’
Another incident detailed in Amnesty’s report involved Israeli soldiers opening fire on a group of at least 80 unarmed and peaceful protestors who were demonstrating in support of the people of Gaza on 13 October in Tulkarem.
Two journalists who spoke to Amnesty saw four people being shot and injured as they tried to run away from the shooting. A few minutes later, Israeli forces shot in the direction of the journalists despite them wearing vests clearly marked as Press.
The most recent case contained in the report occurred on 27 November, when the Israeli military fired live ammunition and rubber coated bullets at a crowd of people who had gathered to greet prisoners being released by Israel as part of the deal that led to a temporary pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas.
The soldiers also dropped tear gas canisters using drones and drove military jeeps into the crowd, eyewitnesses told Amnesty.
As well as these incidents of excessive use of force and unlawful killing, the report also described how Israeli occupation forces have frequently prevented medics and ambulances from attending to wounded people, who have been left to bleed out in the street.
“I saw with my own eyes the medical people and the ambulance getting shot at by Israeli snipers,” one witness told Amnesty when describing the crackdown on the Tulkarem demonstration on 13 October.
A litmus test for international law
“Under the cover of the relentless bombardment and atrocity crimes in Gaza, Israeli forces have unleashed unlawful lethal force against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, carrying out unlawful killings and displaying a chilling disregard for Palestinian lives,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s director of global Research, advocacy and policy.
Guevara-Rosas said that Israeli authorities, including the Israeli judicial system, have shown themselves to be “shamefully unwilling to ensure justice for Palestinian victims”.
“In this climate of near total impunity, an international justice system worth its salt must step in,” she said, calling on the Prosecutor of the ICC to investigate the killings and injuries as “possible war crimes”.
“The situation in Palestine and Israel is a litmus test for the legitimacy and reputation of the court. It cannot afford to fail it.”
Amnesty International sent requests for information on the four cases to Israeli authorities on 26 November. There has so far been no response from Israel.
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