Human Rights Watch has called for Israel’s militia to stop shooting at Palestine civilians in Gaza, citing the shooting of civilians including a disabled woman and a high school student having a picnic.
There have been 4 deaths and some 60 injuries since the beginning
of this year based on UN statistics
“Month after month, Israeli forces have wounded and killed
unarmed Palestinians who did nothing but cross an invisible,
shifting line that Israel has drawn inside Gaza’s
perimeter,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at
Human Rights Watch in a statement published on the organization’s
website.
“It’s appalling that soldiers have shot men, women, and children
apparently for simply crossing a line,” Whitson said.
The US-based human rights group conducted research into seven
separate incidents between the New Year and March 1 during which
Israeli troops unleashed gunfire in the vicinity of the fence.
Among the dead were a high school student was killed while
picnicking and an intellectually disabled woman who had lost her
way.
The five who have been wounded over the course of the incidents
included two journalists and two protesters who had been planting
olive trees.
While some young people had been throwing stones during a
protest, the wounded had not been in the vicinity, according to
the HRW sources.
None of the casualties had been posing an apparent threat to
either soldiers or other human beings and the Israeli military
has not tried to explain the attacks by claiming any victims were
engaged in military operations or that armed forces were in the
area when the shootings took place, according to HRW.
The group states that the attacks, “in violation of
international humanitarian law (or the laws of war) which
prohibits attacks on civilians, Israeli soldiers have repeatedly
shot at civilians near the fence on the Palestinian side,”
adding that the rules state attacks can only be carried out
against military personnel in the form of enemy combatants. If
there is any doubt as to the identity it is stated that attacks
must be cancelled.
“Military personnel who willfully kill civilians are
committing a war crime,” said the HRW statement.
Previous concerns have been aired over Israel’s activities.
Between 2005 and 2013, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
(PCHR) made more than 20 complaints to Israel’s military
requesting that criminal investigations be opened into killings
near Gaza’s land boundary. However, the military never opened any
investigations in response to the complaints.
“Shooting at civilians is not a lawful policy near Gaza’s
perimeter fence or anywhere else,” Whitson said.
“Israeli commanders need to change their policies and
practices to abide by international law, not flaunt it,” she
added.
At the end of February, Amnesty International released a report
slamming Israeli killings of dozens of Palestinian civilians,
including children. The report, entitled: “Trigger-happy:
Israel’s use of excessive force in the West Bank” said that
some of the killings were unnecessary and willful, which may
qualify them as war crimes.
A total of 22 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank over
the last year, at least 14 of them during rallies. Most of those
murdered were young adults under 25, and at least four were
children. Among those killed are peaceful protesters, civilian
bystanders, human rights activists and journalists, Amnesty
reported.