27 may 2015
Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, refused the Amnesty International’s report on charging Hamas of committing war crimes in Gaza Strip.
Hamas said, in a statement on Wednesday, the report is politicized and unprofessional as it is based on false allegations.
It called Amnesty International to adopt professional methods before launching its false accusations.
Replying to what has been included in Amnesty’s report, Hamas denied responsibility over the mentioned killings in last summer’s war on Gaza. Hamas said Israel is the one to blame for recruiting spies who caused killing and great damage against the Palestinian people.
The statement pointed out that the killing was carried out during the Israeli aggression on Gaza Strip which led to great damage to the infrastructure for the Palestinian security forces in the Strip.
As the Israeli airstrikes targeted the jails in Gaza, some detainees managed to flee amid the chaos resulting from the Israeli striking. Some of those who were able to runaway were arrested on charges of collaboration with Israel leading to the death of dozens of Palestinians.
The escape of those prisoners constitutes an opportunity to some of the families of Palestinians, who died because of those spies, to avenge their victims by killing the runaways.
The Palestinian Ministry of Interior in Gaza revealed that investigation is running and results will be announced to the public once the investigation is done.
For his part, MP Mohammad al-Ghoul, head of Hamas bloc in the Palestinian Legislative Council, described the Amnesty’s report as illegal and biased to Israel.
In a statement on Wednesday, Ghoul said the report lacks justice, transparency and integrity as it has false evidence.
He added that the report lacks investigations, evidence or referring to the official authorities in Gaza Strip.
Hamas said, in a statement on Wednesday, the report is politicized and unprofessional as it is based on false allegations.
It called Amnesty International to adopt professional methods before launching its false accusations.
Replying to what has been included in Amnesty’s report, Hamas denied responsibility over the mentioned killings in last summer’s war on Gaza. Hamas said Israel is the one to blame for recruiting spies who caused killing and great damage against the Palestinian people.
The statement pointed out that the killing was carried out during the Israeli aggression on Gaza Strip which led to great damage to the infrastructure for the Palestinian security forces in the Strip.
As the Israeli airstrikes targeted the jails in Gaza, some detainees managed to flee amid the chaos resulting from the Israeli striking. Some of those who were able to runaway were arrested on charges of collaboration with Israel leading to the death of dozens of Palestinians.
The escape of those prisoners constitutes an opportunity to some of the families of Palestinians, who died because of those spies, to avenge their victims by killing the runaways.
The Palestinian Ministry of Interior in Gaza revealed that investigation is running and results will be announced to the public once the investigation is done.
For his part, MP Mohammad al-Ghoul, head of Hamas bloc in the Palestinian Legislative Council, described the Amnesty’s report as illegal and biased to Israel.
In a statement on Wednesday, Ghoul said the report lacks justice, transparency and integrity as it has false evidence.
He added that the report lacks investigations, evidence or referring to the official authorities in Gaza Strip.
Rights group's report says Gaza rulers used Protective Edge to 'settle scores' with rival Palestinians, detailing the 'extrajudicial execution of at least 23 Palestinians and the arrest and torture of dozens of others'.
The Islamist group Hamas used its 2014 Gaza war with Israel to "settle scores" with rival Palestinians, executing at least 23 in possible war crimes, Amnesty International said Wednesday.
The London-based rights group detailed the abuses in a report entitled "Strangling Necks': Abduction, torture and summary killings of Palestinians by Hamas forces during the 2014 Gaza/Israel conflict."
The report detailed the "brutal campaign of abductions, torture and unlawful killings against Palestinians accused of 'collaborating' with Israel" by Hamas, de facto ruler of the Gaza Strip enclave.
The report details the "extrajudicial execution of at least 23 Palestinians and the arrest and torture of dozens of others".
"It is absolutely appalling that, while Israeli forces were inflicting massive death and destruction upon the people in Gaza, Hamas forces took the opportunity to ruthlessly settle scores, carrying out a series of unlawful killings and other grave abuses," Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa director Philip Luther said.
"The de facto Hamas administration granted its security forces free rein to carry out horrific abuses including against people in its custody. These spine-chilling actions, some of which amount to war crimes, were designed to exact revenge and spread fear across the Gaza Strip," Luther added.
Around 2,200 Palestinians were killed during last year's 50-day conflict with Israel, with 73 killed on the Israeli side. The Jewish state went to war against Hamas to stamp out cross-border rocket and mortar fire.
A March report by Amnesty found that rockets fired during the war by Gaza terrorists killed more Palestinians than Israelis. According to the new Amnesty report, "Hamas forces also abducted, tortured or attacked members and supporters of Fatah, their main rival political organization within Gaza, including former members of the Palestinian Authority security forces". "Not a single person has been held accountable for the crimes committed by Hamas forces against Palestinians during the 2014 conflict, indicating that these crimes were either ordered or condoned by the authorities," it said.
Wednesday's report highlighted a particularly brutal incident, which it said took place in Gaza on August 22.
"In one of the most shocking incidents, six men were publicly executed by Hamas forces outside al-Omari mosque ... in front of hundreds of spectators, including children," Amnesty said. Hamas had announced the men were suspected "collaborators" who had been sentenced death in "revolutionary courts," the rights group added.
"The hooded men were dragged along the floor to kneel by a wall facing the crowd, then each man was shot in the head individually before being sprayed with bullets fired from an AK-47," the report said of the August incident.
Hamas violently seized Gaza from forces loyal to Abbas in 2007, leaving Palestinians bitterly divided - Hamas ruling Gaza and Abbas governing parts of the West Bank. Since then, Hamas has launched thousands of rockets at Israel and fought three wars with the Jewish state.
The report said 16 of the people killed by Hamas were already being held by the militant group when the conflict erupted and many of them were waiting to hear the verdict of their Hamas-organized trials. "Many had been sentenced after trials before courts whose proceedings are grossly unfair. A number had said they had been tortured in order to extract 'confessions,'" the report said.
Amnesty's report also said that Hamas abducted and tortured people in an outpatient clinic that was no longer in use, within the grounds of Gaza City's main hospital, Shifa.
Luther accused Hamas of "appalling crimes against powerless individuals", which in some cases constitute war crimes.
He said the militant movement displayed "a disregard for the most fundamental rules of international humanitarian law. Torture and cruel treatment of detainees in an armed conflict is a war crime. Extrajudicial executions are also war crimes."
Amnesty called on the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority and Hamas to "cooperate with independent and impartial international investigative mechanisms", and to bring "suspected perpetrators" to justice.
A Hamas spokesman criticised the report as being unfair, unprofessional and not credible.
"The report is dedicated against Palestinian resistance and the Hamas movement ... it deliberately exaggerated its descriptions without listening to all sides and without making an effort to check the truthfulness of details and information," said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman.
Salah Bardawil, a Hamas official in Gaza, said the incidents mentioned in the report took place 'outside the framework of the law' and Hamas was investigating them.
The Palestinians are preparing to sue Israeli officials through the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes committed during last year's Gaza conflict. The IDF has opened investigations into deadly incidents that took place during the war.
Amnesty accused Israel in a December report of committing war crimes in its Gaza campaign.
The Islamist group Hamas used its 2014 Gaza war with Israel to "settle scores" with rival Palestinians, executing at least 23 in possible war crimes, Amnesty International said Wednesday.
The London-based rights group detailed the abuses in a report entitled "Strangling Necks': Abduction, torture and summary killings of Palestinians by Hamas forces during the 2014 Gaza/Israel conflict."
The report detailed the "brutal campaign of abductions, torture and unlawful killings against Palestinians accused of 'collaborating' with Israel" by Hamas, de facto ruler of the Gaza Strip enclave.
The report details the "extrajudicial execution of at least 23 Palestinians and the arrest and torture of dozens of others".
"It is absolutely appalling that, while Israeli forces were inflicting massive death and destruction upon the people in Gaza, Hamas forces took the opportunity to ruthlessly settle scores, carrying out a series of unlawful killings and other grave abuses," Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa director Philip Luther said.
"The de facto Hamas administration granted its security forces free rein to carry out horrific abuses including against people in its custody. These spine-chilling actions, some of which amount to war crimes, were designed to exact revenge and spread fear across the Gaza Strip," Luther added.
Around 2,200 Palestinians were killed during last year's 50-day conflict with Israel, with 73 killed on the Israeli side. The Jewish state went to war against Hamas to stamp out cross-border rocket and mortar fire.
A March report by Amnesty found that rockets fired during the war by Gaza terrorists killed more Palestinians than Israelis. According to the new Amnesty report, "Hamas forces also abducted, tortured or attacked members and supporters of Fatah, their main rival political organization within Gaza, including former members of the Palestinian Authority security forces". "Not a single person has been held accountable for the crimes committed by Hamas forces against Palestinians during the 2014 conflict, indicating that these crimes were either ordered or condoned by the authorities," it said.
Wednesday's report highlighted a particularly brutal incident, which it said took place in Gaza on August 22.
"In one of the most shocking incidents, six men were publicly executed by Hamas forces outside al-Omari mosque ... in front of hundreds of spectators, including children," Amnesty said. Hamas had announced the men were suspected "collaborators" who had been sentenced death in "revolutionary courts," the rights group added.
"The hooded men were dragged along the floor to kneel by a wall facing the crowd, then each man was shot in the head individually before being sprayed with bullets fired from an AK-47," the report said of the August incident.
Hamas violently seized Gaza from forces loyal to Abbas in 2007, leaving Palestinians bitterly divided - Hamas ruling Gaza and Abbas governing parts of the West Bank. Since then, Hamas has launched thousands of rockets at Israel and fought three wars with the Jewish state.
The report said 16 of the people killed by Hamas were already being held by the militant group when the conflict erupted and many of them were waiting to hear the verdict of their Hamas-organized trials. "Many had been sentenced after trials before courts whose proceedings are grossly unfair. A number had said they had been tortured in order to extract 'confessions,'" the report said.
Amnesty's report also said that Hamas abducted and tortured people in an outpatient clinic that was no longer in use, within the grounds of Gaza City's main hospital, Shifa.
Luther accused Hamas of "appalling crimes against powerless individuals", which in some cases constitute war crimes.
He said the militant movement displayed "a disregard for the most fundamental rules of international humanitarian law. Torture and cruel treatment of detainees in an armed conflict is a war crime. Extrajudicial executions are also war crimes."
Amnesty called on the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority and Hamas to "cooperate with independent and impartial international investigative mechanisms", and to bring "suspected perpetrators" to justice.
A Hamas spokesman criticised the report as being unfair, unprofessional and not credible.
"The report is dedicated against Palestinian resistance and the Hamas movement ... it deliberately exaggerated its descriptions without listening to all sides and without making an effort to check the truthfulness of details and information," said Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman.
Salah Bardawil, a Hamas official in Gaza, said the incidents mentioned in the report took place 'outside the framework of the law' and Hamas was investigating them.
The Palestinians are preparing to sue Israeli officials through the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes committed during last year's Gaza conflict. The IDF has opened investigations into deadly incidents that took place during the war.
Amnesty accused Israel in a December report of committing war crimes in its Gaza campaign.
State of Israel
Head of state: Reuven Rivlin (replaced Shimon Peres in July)
Head of government: Benjamin Netanyahu
Israeli forces committed war crimes and human rights violations during a 50-day military offensive in the Gaza Strip that killed over 1,500 civilians, including 539 children, wounded thousands more civilians, and caused massive civilian displacement and destruction of property and vital services. Israel maintained its air, sea and land blockade of Gaza, imposing collective punishment on its approximately 1.8 million inhabitants and stoking the humanitarian crisis. In the West Bank, Israeli forces carried out unlawful killings of Palestinian protesters, including children, and maintained an array of oppressive restrictions on Palestinians’ freedom of movement while continuing to promote illegal settlements and allow Israeli settlers to attack Palestinians and destroy their property with near total impunity. Israeli forces detained thousands of Palestinians, some of whom reported being tortured, and held around 500 administrative detainees without trial. Within Israel, the authorities continued to demolish homes of Palestinian Bedouin in “unrecognized villages” in the Negev/Naqab region and commit forcible evictions. They also detained and summarily expelled thousands of foreign migrants, including asylum-seekers, and imprisoned Israeli conscientious objectors.
Background
Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians mounted rapidly amid the collapse of US-sponsored negotiations in April, a Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement, and Israel’s continuing illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank and blockade of Gaza. The tensions flared into renewed armed conflict in July following the killing of at least 15 Palestinians by Israeli forces since the beginning of the year, the abduction and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank by Palestinian men affiliated to Hamas, the reprisal killing of a Palestinian youth by Israelis, and rocket-firing from Gaza into Israel. The Israeli military launched an offensive, Operation Protective Edge, on 8 July against the Gaza Strip while Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups increased rocket firing into southern Israel. After 10 days of air strikes, Israel launched a ground invasion in Gaza, withdrawing shortly before a US and Egypt-brokered ceasefire took effect after 50 days of hostilities.
The ceasefire brought an end to open conflict but tension remained acute, particularly in the West Bank. Community relations were inflamed by a series of attacks by Palestinians targeting Israeli civilians, including one on worshippers in a synagogue; new killings of Palestinians, including protesters, by Israeli forces; the government’s announcement of new land expropriations and plans to build additional housing units for settlers in East Jerusalem; and the Israeli authorities’ decision in November to temporarily close access to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, preventing worshippers from reaching the Al-Aqsa mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites. Growing international recognition of Palestine as a state also contributed to tensions.
In December , Prime Minister Netanyahu dismissed two ministers for reasons including disagreements on a proposed “Nation-State Bill” defining Israel as a state for the Jewish people. The Knesset voted for dissolution and the holding of new elections in March 2015, upon the Prime Minister’s initiative.
Armed conflict
Israel’s Protective Edge military offensive, which Israel said it launched in response to an upsurge in rocket firing into Israel by Palestinian armed groups in Gaza, killed more than 2,000 inhabitants of Gaza, including more than 1,500 civilians, among them some 539 children. Israeli air and ground attacks damaged or destroyed thousands of civilian homes and internally displaced around 110,000 Palestinians, as well as severing power generation and water supplies, and damaging other civil infrastructure. In Israel, indiscriminate rockets and other weapons fired by Palestinian armed groups from Gaza in breach of the laws of war killed six civilians, including one child, injured dozens and damaged civilian property.
During the 50 days of conflict before a ceasefire took effect on 26 August, Israeli forces committed war crimes, including disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks on Gaza’s densely populated civilian areas as well as targeted attacks on schools sheltering civilians and other civilian buildings that the Israeli forces claimed were used by Hamas as command centres or to store or fire rockets. On the night of 30 July, Israeli artillery fire hit the Jabaliya elementary school where more than 3,000 civilians had taken refuge, killing at least 20 and injuring others. It was the sixth time a school being used by the UN to shelter civilians had been attacked since the conflict began three weeks earlier.
Israeli forces also attacked hospitals and medical workers, including ambulance staff seeking to assist the wounded or retrieve the bodies of those killed. Dozens of homes were destroyed or damaged by missiles or aerial bombs with families still inside. For example, in eight cases documented by Amnesty International, Israeli strikes on inhabited houses killed at least 104 civilians, including 62 children. Often the Israeli military gave no reason for specific attacks.
In the days immediately leading up to the ceasefire, Israeli forces launched attacks that destroyed three multistorey residential buildings in Gaza City and a modern commercial centre in Rafah, amid vague assertions that the residential buildings housed a Hamas command centre and “facilities linked to Palestinian militants” but without providing any compelling evidence or explanation why, if there were legitimate military reasons to justify the attacks, less destructive means were not selected.
Israeli authorities sought publicly to shift the blame for the large loss of life and wholesale destruction caused by the Israeli offensive in Gaza onto Hamas and Palestinian armed groups on the grounds that they fired rockets and other weapons from within or near civilian residential areas and concealed munitions in civilian buildings.
Freedom of movement – Gaza blockade and West Bank restrictions
Israeli forces maintained their land, sea and air blockade of Gaza throughout the year, effectively imposing collective punishment on the territory’s approximately 1.8 million, predominantly civilian, inhabitants, with all imports and exports, and any movements of people into or out of Gaza, subject to Israeli approval; Egypt’s continued closure of its Rafah border crossing kept Gaza effectively sealed. The already severe humanitarian consequences of the blockade, in force continuously since June 2007, were evidenced by the sizeable proportion of Gaza’s population that depended on international humanitarian aid for their survival, and were greatly exacerbated by the devastation and population displacement caused during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge.
Israeli forces policed the blockade using live fire against Palestinians who entered or approached a 500m-wide buffer zone that they imposed inside Gaza’s land border with Israel, and against fishermen who entered or approached the “exclusion zone” that Israel maintains along the full length of Gaza’s coast. Israeli forces shot dead seven Palestinian civilians in or near the buffer zone before Operation Protective Edge, and another after the ceasefire, when the buffer zone was to be reduced and the permitted fishing zone extended. Shooting incidents remained frequent; some fishermen were also shot and wounded by Israeli navy forces.
In the West Bank, Israel continued its construction of the wall/fence with attached guard towers, mostly on Palestinian land, routing it to afford protection to illegal settlements while cutting off Palestinian villagers from their lands. Palestinian farmers were required to obtain special permits to access their lands between the wall and the Green Line demarcating the West Bank’s border with Israel. Throughout the West Bank, Israeli forces maintained other restrictions on the free movement of Palestinians by using military checkpoints and restricting access to certain areas by preventing Palestinians using bypass roads constructed for the use of Israeli settlers. These restrictions hindered Palestinians’ access to hospitals, schools and workplaces. Furthermore, Israel forcibly transferred Palestinians out of occupied East Jerusalem to other areas in the West Bank.
Restrictions were tightened further during Operation Brother’s Keeper, the Israeli authorities’ crackdown following the abduction of three Israeli teenage hitchhikers in the West Bank in June. Operation Brother’s Keeper saw a heightened Israeli military presence in Palestinian towns and villages, the killing of at least five Palestinians, mass arrests and detentions, the imposition of arbitrary travel restrictions and raids on Palestinian homes.
Excessive use of force
Israeli soldiers and border guards unlawfully killed at least 50 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and continued to use excessive force, including live fire, during protests against Israel’s continued military occupation, when arresting political activists and during Israel’s 50-day military offensive against Gaza. Some killings may have amounted to extrajudicial executions. In September, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that the number of Palestinians wounded by Israeli forces in the West Bank – more than 4,200 since the start of 2014 – already exceeded the 2013 total, and that many of those wounded, including children, had been hit by rubber-coated metal bullets fired by Israeli forces. As in previous years, soldiers and border guards used live fire against protesters, including those who threw stones and other projectiles, who posed no serious threat to their lives.
Impunity
The authorities failed to conduct independent investigations into alleged war crimes and human rights violations committed by Israeli forces during Operation Protective Edge and refused to co-operate with an international investigation appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. However, they apparently co-operated with the UN Secretary-General’s Board of Inquiry, established to look into incidents relating to UN buildings in Gaza.
In August, the military’s Chief of General Staff ordered an inquiry into more than 90 “exceptional incidents” during Operation Protective Edge where there was “reasonable ground for suspicion of a violation of the law”. In September, it was announced that the Military Advocate General had closed investigations into nine cases and ordered criminal investigations into 10 others.
Authorities also failed to carry out adequate investigations into shootings of Palestinians during protests in the West Bank despite compelling evidence that Israeli forces repeatedly used excessive force and resorted to live fire in circumstances where such lethal means were unwarranted.
Detention without trial
Hundreds of Palestinians from the Occupied Palestinian Territories were held without charge or trial under administrative detention orders issued against them on the basis of secret information to which they and their lawyers had no access, and were unable to effectively challenge. The number of administrative detainees more than doubled following the security forces’ round-up of Palestinians after the abduction and killing of three Israeli teenagers in June, rising from nearly 200 in May to 468 in September.
Torture and other ill-treatment
Palestinian detainees continued to be tortured and otherwise ill-treated by Israeli security officials, particularly Internal Security Agency officials, who frequently held detainees incommunicado during interrogation for days and sometimes weeks. Methods used included physical assault such as slapping and throttling, prolonged shackling and stress positions, sleep deprivation, and threats against the detainee and their family. Reports of torture increased amid the wave of arrests that followed the abduction of Israeli teenagers in June.
The authorities failed to take adequate steps either to prevent torture or to conduct independent investigations when detainees alleged torture, fuelling a climate of impunity.
Housing rights – forced evictions and demolitions
In the West Bank, Israeli forces continued to demolish Palestinian homes and other structures, forcibly evicting hundreds from their homes often without warning or prior consultation. Families of Palestinians who had carried out attacks on Israelis also faced demolition of their homes as a punitive measure.
Palestinian Bedouin citizens of Israel living in “unrecognized” and newly recognized villages also faced destruction of homes and structures because the authorities said that they had been built without permission. Israeli authorities prohibited all construction without official permits, which were denied to Arab inhabitants of the villages, while also denying them access to basic services such as electricity and piped water supplies. Under the 2011 Prawer Plan, the authorities proposed to demolish 35 “unrecognized” villages and forcibly displace up to 70,000 Bedouin inhabitants from their current lands and homes, and relocate them to officially designated sites. Implementation of the plan, which was adopted without consultation with the affected Bedouin communities, remained stalled following the resignation in December 2013 of the government minister overseeing it. Official statements announced its cancellation, but the army continued to demolish homes and other structures.
Conscientious objectors
Military tribunals continued to impose prison sentences on Israeli citizens who refused to undertake compulsory military service on grounds of conscience. At least six conscientious objectors were imprisoned during the year. Omar Sa’ad was released in June after serving 150 days in a military prison and then declared unsuitable and exempted from military service.
Refugees and asylum-seekers
Asylum-seekers in need of international protection were denied access to a fair determination process. Authorities held more than 2,000 African asylum-seekers in indefinite detention in a facility in the Negev/Naqab desert.
The authorities held more than 2,200 Eritrean and Sudanese asylum-seekers at Holot, a desert detention facility opened after the government rushed through Amendment 4 of the Prevention of Infiltration Law in 2013. In September, the High Court of Justice struck down Amendment 4, under which the authorities had taken powers to automatically detain all newly arrived asylum-seekers for one year, ruling that it infringed the right to human dignity. The Court ordered the government to close the Holot facility or establish an alternative legislative arrangement within 90 days. In December, the Knesset passed new amendments to the law that would allow the authorities to continue automatic detention of asylum-seekers.
Eritrean and Sudanese nationals, who made up more than 90% of an estimated 47,000 African asylum-seekers in Israel, continued in practice to be denied access to fair refugee determination procedures. By the end of the year, Israeli authorities had extended refugee status to just two Eritreans and no Sudanese, dismissing many other claims without due consideration. Asylum-seekers were prohibited by law from taking paid work and had little or no access to health care and welfare services. Meanwhile, the authorities pressured many to leave Israel “voluntarily” under a process that paid them to withdraw their asylum claims and return to their home countries or travel to third countries. More than 5,000 Eritrean and Sudanese nationals were reported to have accepted “voluntary return” in the first 10 months of the year, some leaving after facing imminent risk of detention, despite fears that they faced persecution or torture in the countries from which they had fled. Some were reported to have been detained when they returned to Sudan and accused of spying for Israel.
Israel allegedly maintained secret agreements with certain African countries allowing for the transfer of asylum-seekers under conditions which denied them access to a fair refugee determination process in Israel or any protection from possible subsequent transfers to their home countries, including in cases where such returns amounted to refoulement.
Head of state: Reuven Rivlin (replaced Shimon Peres in July)
Head of government: Benjamin Netanyahu
Israeli forces committed war crimes and human rights violations during a 50-day military offensive in the Gaza Strip that killed over 1,500 civilians, including 539 children, wounded thousands more civilians, and caused massive civilian displacement and destruction of property and vital services. Israel maintained its air, sea and land blockade of Gaza, imposing collective punishment on its approximately 1.8 million inhabitants and stoking the humanitarian crisis. In the West Bank, Israeli forces carried out unlawful killings of Palestinian protesters, including children, and maintained an array of oppressive restrictions on Palestinians’ freedom of movement while continuing to promote illegal settlements and allow Israeli settlers to attack Palestinians and destroy their property with near total impunity. Israeli forces detained thousands of Palestinians, some of whom reported being tortured, and held around 500 administrative detainees without trial. Within Israel, the authorities continued to demolish homes of Palestinian Bedouin in “unrecognized villages” in the Negev/Naqab region and commit forcible evictions. They also detained and summarily expelled thousands of foreign migrants, including asylum-seekers, and imprisoned Israeli conscientious objectors.
Background
Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians mounted rapidly amid the collapse of US-sponsored negotiations in April, a Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement, and Israel’s continuing illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank and blockade of Gaza. The tensions flared into renewed armed conflict in July following the killing of at least 15 Palestinians by Israeli forces since the beginning of the year, the abduction and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank by Palestinian men affiliated to Hamas, the reprisal killing of a Palestinian youth by Israelis, and rocket-firing from Gaza into Israel. The Israeli military launched an offensive, Operation Protective Edge, on 8 July against the Gaza Strip while Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups increased rocket firing into southern Israel. After 10 days of air strikes, Israel launched a ground invasion in Gaza, withdrawing shortly before a US and Egypt-brokered ceasefire took effect after 50 days of hostilities.
The ceasefire brought an end to open conflict but tension remained acute, particularly in the West Bank. Community relations were inflamed by a series of attacks by Palestinians targeting Israeli civilians, including one on worshippers in a synagogue; new killings of Palestinians, including protesters, by Israeli forces; the government’s announcement of new land expropriations and plans to build additional housing units for settlers in East Jerusalem; and the Israeli authorities’ decision in November to temporarily close access to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, preventing worshippers from reaching the Al-Aqsa mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites. Growing international recognition of Palestine as a state also contributed to tensions.
In December , Prime Minister Netanyahu dismissed two ministers for reasons including disagreements on a proposed “Nation-State Bill” defining Israel as a state for the Jewish people. The Knesset voted for dissolution and the holding of new elections in March 2015, upon the Prime Minister’s initiative.
Armed conflict
Israel’s Protective Edge military offensive, which Israel said it launched in response to an upsurge in rocket firing into Israel by Palestinian armed groups in Gaza, killed more than 2,000 inhabitants of Gaza, including more than 1,500 civilians, among them some 539 children. Israeli air and ground attacks damaged or destroyed thousands of civilian homes and internally displaced around 110,000 Palestinians, as well as severing power generation and water supplies, and damaging other civil infrastructure. In Israel, indiscriminate rockets and other weapons fired by Palestinian armed groups from Gaza in breach of the laws of war killed six civilians, including one child, injured dozens and damaged civilian property.
During the 50 days of conflict before a ceasefire took effect on 26 August, Israeli forces committed war crimes, including disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks on Gaza’s densely populated civilian areas as well as targeted attacks on schools sheltering civilians and other civilian buildings that the Israeli forces claimed were used by Hamas as command centres or to store or fire rockets. On the night of 30 July, Israeli artillery fire hit the Jabaliya elementary school where more than 3,000 civilians had taken refuge, killing at least 20 and injuring others. It was the sixth time a school being used by the UN to shelter civilians had been attacked since the conflict began three weeks earlier.
Israeli forces also attacked hospitals and medical workers, including ambulance staff seeking to assist the wounded or retrieve the bodies of those killed. Dozens of homes were destroyed or damaged by missiles or aerial bombs with families still inside. For example, in eight cases documented by Amnesty International, Israeli strikes on inhabited houses killed at least 104 civilians, including 62 children. Often the Israeli military gave no reason for specific attacks.
In the days immediately leading up to the ceasefire, Israeli forces launched attacks that destroyed three multistorey residential buildings in Gaza City and a modern commercial centre in Rafah, amid vague assertions that the residential buildings housed a Hamas command centre and “facilities linked to Palestinian militants” but without providing any compelling evidence or explanation why, if there were legitimate military reasons to justify the attacks, less destructive means were not selected.
Israeli authorities sought publicly to shift the blame for the large loss of life and wholesale destruction caused by the Israeli offensive in Gaza onto Hamas and Palestinian armed groups on the grounds that they fired rockets and other weapons from within or near civilian residential areas and concealed munitions in civilian buildings.
Freedom of movement – Gaza blockade and West Bank restrictions
Israeli forces maintained their land, sea and air blockade of Gaza throughout the year, effectively imposing collective punishment on the territory’s approximately 1.8 million, predominantly civilian, inhabitants, with all imports and exports, and any movements of people into or out of Gaza, subject to Israeli approval; Egypt’s continued closure of its Rafah border crossing kept Gaza effectively sealed. The already severe humanitarian consequences of the blockade, in force continuously since June 2007, were evidenced by the sizeable proportion of Gaza’s population that depended on international humanitarian aid for their survival, and were greatly exacerbated by the devastation and population displacement caused during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge.
Israeli forces policed the blockade using live fire against Palestinians who entered or approached a 500m-wide buffer zone that they imposed inside Gaza’s land border with Israel, and against fishermen who entered or approached the “exclusion zone” that Israel maintains along the full length of Gaza’s coast. Israeli forces shot dead seven Palestinian civilians in or near the buffer zone before Operation Protective Edge, and another after the ceasefire, when the buffer zone was to be reduced and the permitted fishing zone extended. Shooting incidents remained frequent; some fishermen were also shot and wounded by Israeli navy forces.
In the West Bank, Israel continued its construction of the wall/fence with attached guard towers, mostly on Palestinian land, routing it to afford protection to illegal settlements while cutting off Palestinian villagers from their lands. Palestinian farmers were required to obtain special permits to access their lands between the wall and the Green Line demarcating the West Bank’s border with Israel. Throughout the West Bank, Israeli forces maintained other restrictions on the free movement of Palestinians by using military checkpoints and restricting access to certain areas by preventing Palestinians using bypass roads constructed for the use of Israeli settlers. These restrictions hindered Palestinians’ access to hospitals, schools and workplaces. Furthermore, Israel forcibly transferred Palestinians out of occupied East Jerusalem to other areas in the West Bank.
Restrictions were tightened further during Operation Brother’s Keeper, the Israeli authorities’ crackdown following the abduction of three Israeli teenage hitchhikers in the West Bank in June. Operation Brother’s Keeper saw a heightened Israeli military presence in Palestinian towns and villages, the killing of at least five Palestinians, mass arrests and detentions, the imposition of arbitrary travel restrictions and raids on Palestinian homes.
Excessive use of force
Israeli soldiers and border guards unlawfully killed at least 50 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and continued to use excessive force, including live fire, during protests against Israel’s continued military occupation, when arresting political activists and during Israel’s 50-day military offensive against Gaza. Some killings may have amounted to extrajudicial executions. In September, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that the number of Palestinians wounded by Israeli forces in the West Bank – more than 4,200 since the start of 2014 – already exceeded the 2013 total, and that many of those wounded, including children, had been hit by rubber-coated metal bullets fired by Israeli forces. As in previous years, soldiers and border guards used live fire against protesters, including those who threw stones and other projectiles, who posed no serious threat to their lives.
Impunity
The authorities failed to conduct independent investigations into alleged war crimes and human rights violations committed by Israeli forces during Operation Protective Edge and refused to co-operate with an international investigation appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. However, they apparently co-operated with the UN Secretary-General’s Board of Inquiry, established to look into incidents relating to UN buildings in Gaza.
In August, the military’s Chief of General Staff ordered an inquiry into more than 90 “exceptional incidents” during Operation Protective Edge where there was “reasonable ground for suspicion of a violation of the law”. In September, it was announced that the Military Advocate General had closed investigations into nine cases and ordered criminal investigations into 10 others.
Authorities also failed to carry out adequate investigations into shootings of Palestinians during protests in the West Bank despite compelling evidence that Israeli forces repeatedly used excessive force and resorted to live fire in circumstances where such lethal means were unwarranted.
Detention without trial
Hundreds of Palestinians from the Occupied Palestinian Territories were held without charge or trial under administrative detention orders issued against them on the basis of secret information to which they and their lawyers had no access, and were unable to effectively challenge. The number of administrative detainees more than doubled following the security forces’ round-up of Palestinians after the abduction and killing of three Israeli teenagers in June, rising from nearly 200 in May to 468 in September.
Torture and other ill-treatment
Palestinian detainees continued to be tortured and otherwise ill-treated by Israeli security officials, particularly Internal Security Agency officials, who frequently held detainees incommunicado during interrogation for days and sometimes weeks. Methods used included physical assault such as slapping and throttling, prolonged shackling and stress positions, sleep deprivation, and threats against the detainee and their family. Reports of torture increased amid the wave of arrests that followed the abduction of Israeli teenagers in June.
The authorities failed to take adequate steps either to prevent torture or to conduct independent investigations when detainees alleged torture, fuelling a climate of impunity.
Housing rights – forced evictions and demolitions
In the West Bank, Israeli forces continued to demolish Palestinian homes and other structures, forcibly evicting hundreds from their homes often without warning or prior consultation. Families of Palestinians who had carried out attacks on Israelis also faced demolition of their homes as a punitive measure.
Palestinian Bedouin citizens of Israel living in “unrecognized” and newly recognized villages also faced destruction of homes and structures because the authorities said that they had been built without permission. Israeli authorities prohibited all construction without official permits, which were denied to Arab inhabitants of the villages, while also denying them access to basic services such as electricity and piped water supplies. Under the 2011 Prawer Plan, the authorities proposed to demolish 35 “unrecognized” villages and forcibly displace up to 70,000 Bedouin inhabitants from their current lands and homes, and relocate them to officially designated sites. Implementation of the plan, which was adopted without consultation with the affected Bedouin communities, remained stalled following the resignation in December 2013 of the government minister overseeing it. Official statements announced its cancellation, but the army continued to demolish homes and other structures.
Conscientious objectors
Military tribunals continued to impose prison sentences on Israeli citizens who refused to undertake compulsory military service on grounds of conscience. At least six conscientious objectors were imprisoned during the year. Omar Sa’ad was released in June after serving 150 days in a military prison and then declared unsuitable and exempted from military service.
Refugees and asylum-seekers
Asylum-seekers in need of international protection were denied access to a fair determination process. Authorities held more than 2,000 African asylum-seekers in indefinite detention in a facility in the Negev/Naqab desert.
The authorities held more than 2,200 Eritrean and Sudanese asylum-seekers at Holot, a desert detention facility opened after the government rushed through Amendment 4 of the Prevention of Infiltration Law in 2013. In September, the High Court of Justice struck down Amendment 4, under which the authorities had taken powers to automatically detain all newly arrived asylum-seekers for one year, ruling that it infringed the right to human dignity. The Court ordered the government to close the Holot facility or establish an alternative legislative arrangement within 90 days. In December, the Knesset passed new amendments to the law that would allow the authorities to continue automatic detention of asylum-seekers.
Eritrean and Sudanese nationals, who made up more than 90% of an estimated 47,000 African asylum-seekers in Israel, continued in practice to be denied access to fair refugee determination procedures. By the end of the year, Israeli authorities had extended refugee status to just two Eritreans and no Sudanese, dismissing many other claims without due consideration. Asylum-seekers were prohibited by law from taking paid work and had little or no access to health care and welfare services. Meanwhile, the authorities pressured many to leave Israel “voluntarily” under a process that paid them to withdraw their asylum claims and return to their home countries or travel to third countries. More than 5,000 Eritrean and Sudanese nationals were reported to have accepted “voluntary return” in the first 10 months of the year, some leaving after facing imminent risk of detention, despite fears that they faced persecution or torture in the countries from which they had fled. Some were reported to have been detained when they returned to Sudan and accused of spying for Israel.
Israel allegedly maintained secret agreements with certain African countries allowing for the transfer of asylum-seekers under conditions which denied them access to a fair refugee determination process in Israel or any protection from possible subsequent transfers to their home countries, including in cases where such returns amounted to refoulement.
State of Palestine
Head of state: Mahmoud Abbas
Head of government: Rami Hamdallah
Authorities in the West Bank and Gaza restricted freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly, carried out arbitrary arrests and detentions, and tortured and otherwise ill-treated detainees with impunity. Women and girls faced discrimination in law and practice, and were inadequately protected against gender-based violence. The death penalty remained in force; there were no executions in the West Bank, but the Hamas authorities in Gaza, who continued to try civilians before unfair military courts, carried out at least two executions. Hamas forces in Gaza carried out at least 22 extrajudicial executions of people they accused of “collaborating” with Israel. Israel’s Protective Edge military offensive killed more than 1,500 civilians in Gaza, wounded thousands more, and caused huge devastation, exacerbating the hardship felt by Gaza’s 1.8 million inhabitants due to Israel’s continuing military blockade of the territory. During the 50-day conflict, Hamas and Palestinian armed groups fired thousands of indiscriminate rockets and mortar rounds into civilian areas of Israel, killing six civilians, including one child.
Background
US-convened negotiations, which began in 2013 and aimed to resolve the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, concluded at the end of April without reaching any agreement.
The same month, Fatah, the ruling party of the Palestinian Authority, which administers the West Bank, and Hamas, the de facto administration in Gaza since 2007, announced a unity agreement. In June, Fatah, Hamas and other Palestinian factions agreed to a national reconciliation government of independent technocrats to run civilian affairs in both areas until parliamentary and presidential elections take place. No date for elections had been set by the end of the year.
There was growing international recognition of Palestinian statehood, despite opposition from Israel and the USA. In October, Sweden became the first EU member state to recognize the State of Palestine (although three other European states did so before joining the EU), and the UK’s House of Commons and France’s National Assembly both passed non-binding votes in favour of recognition. In December, Jordan submitted a resolution to the UN Security Council that proposed setting a timetable for a negotiated settlement that would require Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian territories by the end of 2017.
In April, Palestine ratified the four Geneva Conventions and an array of international human rights and other treaties, including the ICCPR, ICESCR, CEDAW, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, and the UN Convention against Torture. On 31 December President Mahmoud Abbas signed 16 other international treaties as well as the Rome Statute recognizing the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in the Occupied Palestinian Territories including East Jerusalem from 13 June 2014.
Tensions were heightened by Israel’s killing of at least 15 Palestinians by the end of June, the abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers by Palestinians near Hebron and the revenge killing of a Palestinian youth by Israelis. The tensions spiralled into renewed armed conflict in July when Israel launched its Protective Edge military offensive, comprising aerial attacks and a ground invasion of Gaza. The offensive lasted for 50 days before the two sides agreed a ceasefire facilitated by the US and Egyptian governments. The offensive caused the deaths of more than 1,500 civilians in Gaza, including over 500 children, and the wounding of thousands more. It wrought huge devastation, damaging and destroying schools, hospitals, homes and other civilian infrastructure. Gaza remained under Israeli military blockade throughout the year.
Armed conflict
Hamas and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza repeatedly fired indiscriminate rockets and mortars into Israel. Firing greatly intensified in the period preceding and throughout Israel’s Protective Edge military offensive in Gaza. By the time of the August ceasefire that ended the conflict, firing of indiscriminate weapons from Gaza by Palestinian armed groups had killed six civilians in Israel, including a child aged four, wounded other civilians and damaged a number of civilian homes. The firing also led directly to civilian deaths in Gaza, due to the premature explosion of some rockets; the killing of 10 Palestinian civilians including nine children in the al-Shati’ refugee camp on 28 July was believed to have been caused by a rocket that fell short of its target. Palestinian armed groups also exposed civilians in Gaza to lethal harm from Israeli attacks by concealing and firing rockets and other projectiles from locations within or close to civilian residential areas. Firing was mostly halted after the ceasefire agreement.
Arbitrary arrests and detentions
Security authorities in both the West Bank and Gaza arbitrarily arrested and detained their critics and supporters of rival political organizations.
Torture and other ill-treatment
Detainees were tortured and otherwise ill-treated with impunity. The Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), a national body established to monitor human rights and receive complaints, said it received over 120 allegations of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees from the West Bank and over 4 40 allegations from Gaza during the year. Methods of torture included beatings and forcing detainees to stand or sit in stress positions (shabah) for long periods. In the West Bank, detainees alleged that they were tortured or otherwise ill-treated by police, Preventive Security, military intelligence and General Intelligence officials. In Gaza, at least three men died in custody allegedly from torture by Internal Security officials. Both authorities failed to protect detainees from torture and other ill-treatment, investigate allegations or hold those responsible to account.
Unfair trials
Political and judicial authorities failed to ensure that detainees received prompt and fair trials. Authorities in the West Bank held detainees for indefinite periods without charge or trial. In Gaza, the Hamas authorities continued to subject civilians to unfair trials before military courts.
Freedoms of expression, association and assembly
Authorities restricted freedoms of expression, association and assembly in the West Bank and Gaza. Security forces dispersed protests organized by opposition activists, frequently using excessive force. On many occasions, journalists reporting on protests complained that security forces assaulted them or damaged their equipment. Security officials also harassed and sought to intimidate journalists and social media activists, including by repeatedly summoning them for questioning and sometimes detaining them for their writings.
In March, police in the Gazan city of Khan Yunis used force to break up a commemorative event organized by Fatah supporters, reportedly firing in the air to disperse the gathering and arresting and briefly detaining many participants.
In the West Bank, security forces assaulted journalists from Palestinian broadcaster Wattan TV who were present to report on demonstrations. In one incident in October, security forces attacked a Wattan TV crew covering a demonstration in Hebron and seized their equipment.
Extrajudicial executions
During the Israeli offensive Protective Edge, members of Hamas’ military Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades and the Internal Security Force committed at least 22 summary and extrajudicial executions of people whom they accused of “collaboration” with Israel. Those killed included a number of prisoners who were appealing against sentences of death or prison terms passed by military courts in Gaza; others were detainees who had faced no formal charges or trial. On 5 August the de facto Ministry of Interior removed five inmates of Katiba Prison who were extrajudicially executed outside the prison. On 22 August Hamas forces removed 11 prisoners from Katiba Prison whose trials or appeals were pending, and extrajudicially executed them at the al-Jawazat Police Station. Later the same morning six men arrested during Operation Protective Edge were shot dead in public after Friday prayers. Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades reportedly shot other suspected "collaborators" in the street during Operation Protective Edge.
Impunity
Palestinian authorities failed to take any steps to investigate alleged war crimes and possible crimes against humanity committed by Hamas’ military wing and other Palestinian armed groups in the run-up to and during the conflict in July and August or during previous conflicts with Israel in which Palestinian armed groups fired indiscriminate rockets and mortars into Israel. They also failed to hold to account officials who committed human rights violations, including excessive use of force against peaceful protesters and the torture of detainees.
Violence against women and girls
Women and girls continued to face discrimination in both law and practice, and remained inadequately protected against gender-based violence committed by male relatives, ostensibly for reasons of family “honour”. At least 11 women and girls were murdered by male relatives in so-called “honour killings” during the year, according to reports of the ICHR. They included Islam Mohammad Al-Shami, 18, who died after she was stabbed in the neck on 20 October while praying inside her family home at Bani Suheila, Khan Yunis governorate.
Death penalty
The death penalty remained in force for murder and other crimes. There were no executions reported in the West Bank, but in Gaza, Hamas military and first instance courts sentenced at least eight people to death on murder charges. In May, Gaza authorities executed two men, both of whom had been sentenced to death on treason and murder charges.
Head of state: Mahmoud Abbas
Head of government: Rami Hamdallah
Authorities in the West Bank and Gaza restricted freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly, carried out arbitrary arrests and detentions, and tortured and otherwise ill-treated detainees with impunity. Women and girls faced discrimination in law and practice, and were inadequately protected against gender-based violence. The death penalty remained in force; there were no executions in the West Bank, but the Hamas authorities in Gaza, who continued to try civilians before unfair military courts, carried out at least two executions. Hamas forces in Gaza carried out at least 22 extrajudicial executions of people they accused of “collaborating” with Israel. Israel’s Protective Edge military offensive killed more than 1,500 civilians in Gaza, wounded thousands more, and caused huge devastation, exacerbating the hardship felt by Gaza’s 1.8 million inhabitants due to Israel’s continuing military blockade of the territory. During the 50-day conflict, Hamas and Palestinian armed groups fired thousands of indiscriminate rockets and mortar rounds into civilian areas of Israel, killing six civilians, including one child.
Background
US-convened negotiations, which began in 2013 and aimed to resolve the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, concluded at the end of April without reaching any agreement.
The same month, Fatah, the ruling party of the Palestinian Authority, which administers the West Bank, and Hamas, the de facto administration in Gaza since 2007, announced a unity agreement. In June, Fatah, Hamas and other Palestinian factions agreed to a national reconciliation government of independent technocrats to run civilian affairs in both areas until parliamentary and presidential elections take place. No date for elections had been set by the end of the year.
There was growing international recognition of Palestinian statehood, despite opposition from Israel and the USA. In October, Sweden became the first EU member state to recognize the State of Palestine (although three other European states did so before joining the EU), and the UK’s House of Commons and France’s National Assembly both passed non-binding votes in favour of recognition. In December, Jordan submitted a resolution to the UN Security Council that proposed setting a timetable for a negotiated settlement that would require Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian territories by the end of 2017.
In April, Palestine ratified the four Geneva Conventions and an array of international human rights and other treaties, including the ICCPR, ICESCR, CEDAW, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, and the UN Convention against Torture. On 31 December President Mahmoud Abbas signed 16 other international treaties as well as the Rome Statute recognizing the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in the Occupied Palestinian Territories including East Jerusalem from 13 June 2014.
Tensions were heightened by Israel’s killing of at least 15 Palestinians by the end of June, the abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers by Palestinians near Hebron and the revenge killing of a Palestinian youth by Israelis. The tensions spiralled into renewed armed conflict in July when Israel launched its Protective Edge military offensive, comprising aerial attacks and a ground invasion of Gaza. The offensive lasted for 50 days before the two sides agreed a ceasefire facilitated by the US and Egyptian governments. The offensive caused the deaths of more than 1,500 civilians in Gaza, including over 500 children, and the wounding of thousands more. It wrought huge devastation, damaging and destroying schools, hospitals, homes and other civilian infrastructure. Gaza remained under Israeli military blockade throughout the year.
Armed conflict
Hamas and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza repeatedly fired indiscriminate rockets and mortars into Israel. Firing greatly intensified in the period preceding and throughout Israel’s Protective Edge military offensive in Gaza. By the time of the August ceasefire that ended the conflict, firing of indiscriminate weapons from Gaza by Palestinian armed groups had killed six civilians in Israel, including a child aged four, wounded other civilians and damaged a number of civilian homes. The firing also led directly to civilian deaths in Gaza, due to the premature explosion of some rockets; the killing of 10 Palestinian civilians including nine children in the al-Shati’ refugee camp on 28 July was believed to have been caused by a rocket that fell short of its target. Palestinian armed groups also exposed civilians in Gaza to lethal harm from Israeli attacks by concealing and firing rockets and other projectiles from locations within or close to civilian residential areas. Firing was mostly halted after the ceasefire agreement.
Arbitrary arrests and detentions
Security authorities in both the West Bank and Gaza arbitrarily arrested and detained their critics and supporters of rival political organizations.
Torture and other ill-treatment
Detainees were tortured and otherwise ill-treated with impunity. The Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), a national body established to monitor human rights and receive complaints, said it received over 120 allegations of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees from the West Bank and over 4 40 allegations from Gaza during the year. Methods of torture included beatings and forcing detainees to stand or sit in stress positions (shabah) for long periods. In the West Bank, detainees alleged that they were tortured or otherwise ill-treated by police, Preventive Security, military intelligence and General Intelligence officials. In Gaza, at least three men died in custody allegedly from torture by Internal Security officials. Both authorities failed to protect detainees from torture and other ill-treatment, investigate allegations or hold those responsible to account.
Unfair trials
Political and judicial authorities failed to ensure that detainees received prompt and fair trials. Authorities in the West Bank held detainees for indefinite periods without charge or trial. In Gaza, the Hamas authorities continued to subject civilians to unfair trials before military courts.
Freedoms of expression, association and assembly
Authorities restricted freedoms of expression, association and assembly in the West Bank and Gaza. Security forces dispersed protests organized by opposition activists, frequently using excessive force. On many occasions, journalists reporting on protests complained that security forces assaulted them or damaged their equipment. Security officials also harassed and sought to intimidate journalists and social media activists, including by repeatedly summoning them for questioning and sometimes detaining them for their writings.
In March, police in the Gazan city of Khan Yunis used force to break up a commemorative event organized by Fatah supporters, reportedly firing in the air to disperse the gathering and arresting and briefly detaining many participants.
In the West Bank, security forces assaulted journalists from Palestinian broadcaster Wattan TV who were present to report on demonstrations. In one incident in October, security forces attacked a Wattan TV crew covering a demonstration in Hebron and seized their equipment.
Extrajudicial executions
During the Israeli offensive Protective Edge, members of Hamas’ military Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades and the Internal Security Force committed at least 22 summary and extrajudicial executions of people whom they accused of “collaboration” with Israel. Those killed included a number of prisoners who were appealing against sentences of death or prison terms passed by military courts in Gaza; others were detainees who had faced no formal charges or trial. On 5 August the de facto Ministry of Interior removed five inmates of Katiba Prison who were extrajudicially executed outside the prison. On 22 August Hamas forces removed 11 prisoners from Katiba Prison whose trials or appeals were pending, and extrajudicially executed them at the al-Jawazat Police Station. Later the same morning six men arrested during Operation Protective Edge were shot dead in public after Friday prayers. Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades reportedly shot other suspected "collaborators" in the street during Operation Protective Edge.
Impunity
Palestinian authorities failed to take any steps to investigate alleged war crimes and possible crimes against humanity committed by Hamas’ military wing and other Palestinian armed groups in the run-up to and during the conflict in July and August or during previous conflicts with Israel in which Palestinian armed groups fired indiscriminate rockets and mortars into Israel. They also failed to hold to account officials who committed human rights violations, including excessive use of force against peaceful protesters and the torture of detainees.
Violence against women and girls
Women and girls continued to face discrimination in both law and practice, and remained inadequately protected against gender-based violence committed by male relatives, ostensibly for reasons of family “honour”. At least 11 women and girls were murdered by male relatives in so-called “honour killings” during the year, according to reports of the ICHR. They included Islam Mohammad Al-Shami, 18, who died after she was stabbed in the neck on 20 October while praying inside her family home at Bani Suheila, Khan Yunis governorate.
Death penalty
The death penalty remained in force for murder and other crimes. There were no executions reported in the West Bank, but in Gaza, Hamas military and first instance courts sentenced at least eight people to death on murder charges. In May, Gaza authorities executed two men, both of whom had been sentenced to death on treason and murder charges.
18 may 2015
The Palestinian foreign minister, Riyad Al-Maliki on Monday said that he asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to set a date for submitting the case files pertaining to the settlements and war crimes lawsuits against Israel to the court.
"I filed a request two days ago to the ICC to set a date so we can submit the case files of the settlements and Israel's war crime lawsuits," al-Maliki told Palestinian radio, according to videonews.us.
"We're waiting for a date to be scheduled, and it might be in the middle of next month," al-Maliki said, adding that he "will head to The Hague for this [submitting the case files] once a date is set".
On April 1st, Palestine officially joined the ICC after The Hague-based tribunal approved its accession bid.
In January, Palestinians formally delivered the UN papers ratifying the Rome Statute – the legal document establishing the court – with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon acting as "depository."
The move came after an Arab draft resolution at the UN General Assembly seeking a deadline for ending Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories failed to win the nine votes needed to pass.
Shortly later, Abbas applied for Palestinian membership in 18 international treaties, including the Rome Statute.
The ICC was established in 1998 as a court of last resort to prosecute the most heinous offenses – such as war crimes and crimes against humanity – in cases where national court systems had failed.
"I filed a request two days ago to the ICC to set a date so we can submit the case files of the settlements and Israel's war crime lawsuits," al-Maliki told Palestinian radio, according to videonews.us.
"We're waiting for a date to be scheduled, and it might be in the middle of next month," al-Maliki said, adding that he "will head to The Hague for this [submitting the case files] once a date is set".
On April 1st, Palestine officially joined the ICC after The Hague-based tribunal approved its accession bid.
In January, Palestinians formally delivered the UN papers ratifying the Rome Statute – the legal document establishing the court – with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon acting as "depository."
The move came after an Arab draft resolution at the UN General Assembly seeking a deadline for ending Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories failed to win the nine votes needed to pass.
Shortly later, Abbas applied for Palestinian membership in 18 international treaties, including the Rome Statute.
The ICC was established in 1998 as a court of last resort to prosecute the most heinous offenses – such as war crimes and crimes against humanity – in cases where national court systems had failed.
14 may 2015
The documentation necessary for Palestine to bring Israel to the International Criminal Court will be approved before the end of 2015, says the ambassador of Palestine to Switzerland.
Documentation will include reports regarding illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories, the Israeli military offensives against the Gaza Strip, among others to be submitted when the Palestinian Authority decides to go to ICC, Ibrahim Khreisha said Wednesday.
After decades of failed negotiations with Israel and no prospect of achieving statehood anytime soon, Palestinian leadership has been waging a campaign for recognition at international bodies including the ICC, where leaders hope Palestinians may gain justice against alleged war crimes committed by Israel.
Khreisha highlighted to Ma'an that the United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Israeli military offensive on Gaza would submit its final report to the UN Human Rights Council by the end of May.
Furthermore, added Khreisha, a World Health Organization committee has already submitted the results of an investigation into Israeli health violations of Palestinians.The report includes details on Israeli prevention of shipment of medicine and medical equipment into the occupied Palestinian territories, as well as accounts of Israeli prevention of patients from travelling abroad for treatment.
"This report is additional evidence documenting Israeli violations of Palestinian rights and it will be ready for use at ICC," according to Khreisha.
A report on losses sustained by the Palestinian economy from the Israeli occupation since 1967, prepared by the UN Conference on Trade and Development, will also be included, the ambassador said.
Khereisha pointed out that chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Fatou Bensouda has asked Israel to respond to reports submitted so far by human rights groups and civil society organizations. "According to Article 12 of Rome Statute, the chief prosecutor is authorized to verify any information or testimonies the ICC prosecution receives about crimes, then she refers the information to five judges who also verify the claims, and if they approve them, accusation will be leveled to the parties and they will be summoned to the ICC for questioning," explained Khereisha.
ICC chief prosecutor Bensouda said in April she is also weighing opening war crimes investigations into Palestinians, after Palestine joined the tribunal's jurisdiction last month.
A UN report released earlier this month found Israel responsible for seven deadly strikes on UN schools used as shelters during the conflict, but also found that Palestinian militants had used vacant schools as weapons stores and possibly also as firing positions.
Hamas leadership has welcomed any future ICC probes, senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya saying, "War crimes have clear specifications, according to the Rome Statute, that do not in any way apply to the Palestinian resistance, which was, is, and will defend its people."
Documentation will include reports regarding illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories, the Israeli military offensives against the Gaza Strip, among others to be submitted when the Palestinian Authority decides to go to ICC, Ibrahim Khreisha said Wednesday.
After decades of failed negotiations with Israel and no prospect of achieving statehood anytime soon, Palestinian leadership has been waging a campaign for recognition at international bodies including the ICC, where leaders hope Palestinians may gain justice against alleged war crimes committed by Israel.
Khreisha highlighted to Ma'an that the United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Israeli military offensive on Gaza would submit its final report to the UN Human Rights Council by the end of May.
Furthermore, added Khreisha, a World Health Organization committee has already submitted the results of an investigation into Israeli health violations of Palestinians.The report includes details on Israeli prevention of shipment of medicine and medical equipment into the occupied Palestinian territories, as well as accounts of Israeli prevention of patients from travelling abroad for treatment.
"This report is additional evidence documenting Israeli violations of Palestinian rights and it will be ready for use at ICC," according to Khreisha.
A report on losses sustained by the Palestinian economy from the Israeli occupation since 1967, prepared by the UN Conference on Trade and Development, will also be included, the ambassador said.
Khereisha pointed out that chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Fatou Bensouda has asked Israel to respond to reports submitted so far by human rights groups and civil society organizations. "According to Article 12 of Rome Statute, the chief prosecutor is authorized to verify any information or testimonies the ICC prosecution receives about crimes, then she refers the information to five judges who also verify the claims, and if they approve them, accusation will be leveled to the parties and they will be summoned to the ICC for questioning," explained Khereisha.
ICC chief prosecutor Bensouda said in April she is also weighing opening war crimes investigations into Palestinians, after Palestine joined the tribunal's jurisdiction last month.
A UN report released earlier this month found Israel responsible for seven deadly strikes on UN schools used as shelters during the conflict, but also found that Palestinian militants had used vacant schools as weapons stores and possibly also as firing positions.
Hamas leadership has welcomed any future ICC probes, senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya saying, "War crimes have clear specifications, according to the Rome Statute, that do not in any way apply to the Palestinian resistance, which was, is, and will defend its people."
13 may 2015
Prosecutor warns
that unless Israel provides information, she may open a full-scale
investigation into Palestinian allegations of war crimes during
Operation Protective Edge.
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court warned Israel Tuesday that if it doesn't provide reliable information for her preliminary probe into possible war crimes in Palestinian territories she may be forced to decide whether to launch a full-scale investigation based on Palestinian allegations.
Fatou Bensouda said in an interview with The Associated Press that she hasn't received any information yet from either side regarding last summer's Gaza war and urged Israel and the Palestinians to provide information to her.
The Palestinians accepted the court's jurisdiction in mid-January and officially joined the ICC on April 1 in hopes of prosecuting Israel for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza conflict so they are certain to provide Bensouda with information.
Israel, however, has denounced the Palestinian action as "scandalous," with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning that it turns the ICC "into part of the problem and not part of the solution." Bensouda said her office is "making attempts" to contact the Israelis and to reach out to the Palestinians.
"If I don't have the information that I'm requesting," she said, "I will be forced to find it from elsewhere, or I may perhaps be forced to just go with just one side of the story. That is why I think it's in the best interest of both sides to provide my office with information."
Bensouda opened a preliminary examination in mid-January after the Palestinians accepted the court's jurisdiction dating back to just before last year's Gaza war in which more than 2,200 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, were killed. In Israel, 67 soldiers and six civilians were killed.
She stressed repeatedly that a preliminary examination is not an investigation, calling it "a quiet process" to collect information from reliable sources and both sides of the conflict.
Bensouda said the prosecutor's office will then analyze the information to determine whether four criteria are met: Do the crimes come under ICC jurisdiction? Are there any national legal proceedings dealing with those crimes, which could take precedence over ICC action? Are the crimes grave enough to warrant the intervention of the world's permanent war crimes tribunal? Will it not be against the interest of justice if the ICC intervenes?
Once the analysis is made, she said, the prosecutor has three options -- to open an investigation, not to open an investigation, or to seek additional information.
"It's really difficult to say this is going to take two months or three months, or one year or 10 years," Bensouda said, noting that in some instances like Libya the preliminary examination has been very short while in Afghanistan the preliminary probe has already taken 10 years.
Bensouda said she has already received information "from others regarding the preliminary examination," but refused to elaborate except to say that her office is also collecting information from confidential sources, identified groups and individuals and open sources.
Last week, the Israeli group Breaking the Silence that collects testimony from combat soldiers published accounts from last year's Gaza war alleging indiscriminate fire by Israeli soldiers that killed Palestinian civilians.
Bensouda said her office was trying to get a copy of the report "to see how it can assist us in the preliminary examination phase." She said the report must be studied before her office can take a position on it.
The preliminary probe has generated a lot of interest but Bensouda reiterated that the examination "will be conducted in the most independent and impartial way, devoid of any political considerations."
She said prosecutors will be looking at the Gaza conflict but also at other issues -- potentially Israel's settlement construction on occupied Palestinian lands and alleged war crimes by Hamas, which controls Gaza, including its firing of thousands of rockets at Israeli residential areas from crowded neighborhoods.
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court warned Israel Tuesday that if it doesn't provide reliable information for her preliminary probe into possible war crimes in Palestinian territories she may be forced to decide whether to launch a full-scale investigation based on Palestinian allegations.
Fatou Bensouda said in an interview with The Associated Press that she hasn't received any information yet from either side regarding last summer's Gaza war and urged Israel and the Palestinians to provide information to her.
The Palestinians accepted the court's jurisdiction in mid-January and officially joined the ICC on April 1 in hopes of prosecuting Israel for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza conflict so they are certain to provide Bensouda with information.
Israel, however, has denounced the Palestinian action as "scandalous," with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning that it turns the ICC "into part of the problem and not part of the solution." Bensouda said her office is "making attempts" to contact the Israelis and to reach out to the Palestinians.
"If I don't have the information that I'm requesting," she said, "I will be forced to find it from elsewhere, or I may perhaps be forced to just go with just one side of the story. That is why I think it's in the best interest of both sides to provide my office with information."
Bensouda opened a preliminary examination in mid-January after the Palestinians accepted the court's jurisdiction dating back to just before last year's Gaza war in which more than 2,200 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, were killed. In Israel, 67 soldiers and six civilians were killed.
She stressed repeatedly that a preliminary examination is not an investigation, calling it "a quiet process" to collect information from reliable sources and both sides of the conflict.
Bensouda said the prosecutor's office will then analyze the information to determine whether four criteria are met: Do the crimes come under ICC jurisdiction? Are there any national legal proceedings dealing with those crimes, which could take precedence over ICC action? Are the crimes grave enough to warrant the intervention of the world's permanent war crimes tribunal? Will it not be against the interest of justice if the ICC intervenes?
Once the analysis is made, she said, the prosecutor has three options -- to open an investigation, not to open an investigation, or to seek additional information.
"It's really difficult to say this is going to take two months or three months, or one year or 10 years," Bensouda said, noting that in some instances like Libya the preliminary examination has been very short while in Afghanistan the preliminary probe has already taken 10 years.
Bensouda said she has already received information "from others regarding the preliminary examination," but refused to elaborate except to say that her office is also collecting information from confidential sources, identified groups and individuals and open sources.
Last week, the Israeli group Breaking the Silence that collects testimony from combat soldiers published accounts from last year's Gaza war alleging indiscriminate fire by Israeli soldiers that killed Palestinian civilians.
Bensouda said her office was trying to get a copy of the report "to see how it can assist us in the preliminary examination phase." She said the report must be studied before her office can take a position on it.
The preliminary probe has generated a lot of interest but Bensouda reiterated that the examination "will be conducted in the most independent and impartial way, devoid of any political considerations."
She said prosecutors will be looking at the Gaza conflict but also at other issues -- potentially Israel's settlement construction on occupied Palestinian lands and alleged war crimes by Hamas, which controls Gaza, including its firing of thousands of rockets at Israeli residential areas from crowded neighborhoods.
