13 june 2018
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US's envoy to the UN rebukes politicians for seeking political gain by voting on 'one-sided resolution' against Israel after Gaza violence; ‘This resolution blames everything on Israel.’
The United States UN Ambassador Nikki Haley reprimanded members of the General Assembly on Wednesday as the body convened to vote on a resolution condemning Israel for violence that has gripped the Gaza border in recent week. “This resolution blames everything on Israel,” Haley said in her remarks, adding that “it does not even mention Hamas.” Kuwait tried to pass earlier this month a similar resolution at the UN Security |
Council, which condemned Israel for using "excessive force" against the Palestinians and called for a UN protection force to defend Gazans. However, it was vetoed by the United States.
Washington then presented its own resolution calling on the council to condemn Hamas. The resolution failed to pass, but focused the discussion on Hamas's activities.
Haley scorned the members of the General Assembly for attempting to score political points back home by ganging up on Israel, but accused them of only furthering the prospect of peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
“Gaza is an important international matter. But what makes it different and more urgent than conflicts in Nicaragua, Iran, Yemen, Burma or many other desperate places? Because we haven’t gathered here to discuss any of these urgent issues. The United States would welcome that,” she said.
“What makes Gaza different for some is that attacking Israel is their favorite political sport. That’s why we’re here today.”
“It is totally one-sided. It makes not one mention of Hamas who routinely initiates violence in Gaza. Such one-sided resolutions at the UN do nothing to advance peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Everyone recognizes that,” she continued, accusing the members of engaging in “pure politics.”
Addressing the General Assembly, Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon also slammed accused the body of “empowering Hamas” if it supported the resolution.
“I am here today to stand up for a basic right, the right afforded to every country in the world. The right to defend its citizens,” Danon began in his speech,
The resolution, he charged, was “the international community’s attempt to take away our basic right to defend itself.”
“By supporting this resolution, you are colluding with a terrorist organization. By supporting this resolution, you are empowering Hamas,” he said.
Urging countries to read the resolution, which makes no mention of Hamas, Danon asked: “Do you support terrorism? Do you support suicide bombers?”
Algerian Ambassador Sabri Boukadoum, representing Arab nations, first sought to block a vote on a US amendment to condemn Hamas, saying it wasn't relevant to the resolution. He said it also undermined reconciliation efforts between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah as well as the "remote prospects" of reviving peace negotiations with Israel.
His motion to take "no action" on the amendment was defeated by a vote of 59-78 with 26 abstentions, allowing the US amendment to be put to a vote.
The US amendment was approved by a 62-58 vote, with 42 abstentions. But General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak declared that under an assembly rule, a two-thirds majority was needed so the amendment failed.
Haley appealed, citing another rule that says only a majority vote was required. After a short break, Lajcak put the US appeal to a vote. The US narrowly lost that vote 66-73 with 26 abstentions.
Finally, the assembly voted on the original Palestinian-backed resolution, approving it 120-8 with 45 abstentions.
Haley said in a statement afterward that "in the face of Hamas terrorists routinely inciting violence ... today the UN made the morally bankrupt judgment that the recent Gaza violence is all Israel's fault."
"But the common practice of turning a blind eye to the UN's anti-Israel bias is changing," she said. "Today, a plurality of 62 countries voted in favor of the US-led effort to address Hamas' responsibility for the disastrous conditions in Gaza."
Israel's ambassador accused "anti-Israel elements" of blocking condemnation of Hamas.
"This was a badge of shame for the UN," Danon said. But "thanks to the combined efforts with our American friends and our allies from around the world, we proved today that the automatic majority against Israel in the UN is not destiny and can be changed."
Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour urged the assembly before the vote to address the escalating violence in Gaza and "the crisis" of protecting civilians. He called the US amendment a "bad-faith attempt" to shift the focus away from "the core objective of protecting civilians and upholding international law."
"We need action. We need protection for our civilian population. ... Is that a crime to ask for?" he said.
"We cannot remain silent in the face of the most violent crimes and human rights violations being systematically perpetrated against our people," Mansour said.
The resolution deplores "any excessive use of force" by Israeli forces, particularly in Gaza, and demands that Israel "refrain from such actions." It "deplores the firing of rockets from the Gaza Strip against Israeli civilian areas," but doesn't say who is doing the firing.
After the vote, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement thanking US President Donald Trump's support for Israel in the UN.
"Israel appreciates the Trump administration’s steadfast support for Israel at the United Nations and Ambassador Haley’s strong statement today exposing the hypocrisy of the UN’s bias against Israel," a statement from the Prime Minster's Office said.
"The UN’s incessant focus on Israel not only brings shame to the organization. It also draws attention away from so many other pressing issues that demand the attention of the international community," it continued.
"As for Gaza, Hamas is responsible for the terrible situation there and for the loss of life and suffering that has occurred as a result of the violent riots it has instigated over the last few weeks."
Rather than improve the lives of the people of Gaza, it added, "Hamas is using the civilian Palestinian population as human shields in its unremitting terror war against Israel."
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was also blamed by Netanyahu for making matters in Gaza worse. He "has only made the humanitarian situation in Gaza worse by reducing payments of salaries to Gaza and by refusing to pay for electricity provided to Gaza," the statement charged.
"While Israel will continue to defend itself and protect the security of its citizens, Israel will continue to seek ways to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza. The people of Gaza are not our enemy. Hamas is."
Washington then presented its own resolution calling on the council to condemn Hamas. The resolution failed to pass, but focused the discussion on Hamas's activities.
Haley scorned the members of the General Assembly for attempting to score political points back home by ganging up on Israel, but accused them of only furthering the prospect of peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
“Gaza is an important international matter. But what makes it different and more urgent than conflicts in Nicaragua, Iran, Yemen, Burma or many other desperate places? Because we haven’t gathered here to discuss any of these urgent issues. The United States would welcome that,” she said.
“What makes Gaza different for some is that attacking Israel is their favorite political sport. That’s why we’re here today.”
“It is totally one-sided. It makes not one mention of Hamas who routinely initiates violence in Gaza. Such one-sided resolutions at the UN do nothing to advance peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Everyone recognizes that,” she continued, accusing the members of engaging in “pure politics.”
Addressing the General Assembly, Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon also slammed accused the body of “empowering Hamas” if it supported the resolution.
“I am here today to stand up for a basic right, the right afforded to every country in the world. The right to defend its citizens,” Danon began in his speech,
The resolution, he charged, was “the international community’s attempt to take away our basic right to defend itself.”
“By supporting this resolution, you are colluding with a terrorist organization. By supporting this resolution, you are empowering Hamas,” he said.
Urging countries to read the resolution, which makes no mention of Hamas, Danon asked: “Do you support terrorism? Do you support suicide bombers?”
Algerian Ambassador Sabri Boukadoum, representing Arab nations, first sought to block a vote on a US amendment to condemn Hamas, saying it wasn't relevant to the resolution. He said it also undermined reconciliation efforts between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah as well as the "remote prospects" of reviving peace negotiations with Israel.
His motion to take "no action" on the amendment was defeated by a vote of 59-78 with 26 abstentions, allowing the US amendment to be put to a vote.
The US amendment was approved by a 62-58 vote, with 42 abstentions. But General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak declared that under an assembly rule, a two-thirds majority was needed so the amendment failed.
Haley appealed, citing another rule that says only a majority vote was required. After a short break, Lajcak put the US appeal to a vote. The US narrowly lost that vote 66-73 with 26 abstentions.
Finally, the assembly voted on the original Palestinian-backed resolution, approving it 120-8 with 45 abstentions.
Haley said in a statement afterward that "in the face of Hamas terrorists routinely inciting violence ... today the UN made the morally bankrupt judgment that the recent Gaza violence is all Israel's fault."
"But the common practice of turning a blind eye to the UN's anti-Israel bias is changing," she said. "Today, a plurality of 62 countries voted in favor of the US-led effort to address Hamas' responsibility for the disastrous conditions in Gaza."
Israel's ambassador accused "anti-Israel elements" of blocking condemnation of Hamas.
"This was a badge of shame for the UN," Danon said. But "thanks to the combined efforts with our American friends and our allies from around the world, we proved today that the automatic majority against Israel in the UN is not destiny and can be changed."
Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour urged the assembly before the vote to address the escalating violence in Gaza and "the crisis" of protecting civilians. He called the US amendment a "bad-faith attempt" to shift the focus away from "the core objective of protecting civilians and upholding international law."
"We need action. We need protection for our civilian population. ... Is that a crime to ask for?" he said.
"We cannot remain silent in the face of the most violent crimes and human rights violations being systematically perpetrated against our people," Mansour said.
The resolution deplores "any excessive use of force" by Israeli forces, particularly in Gaza, and demands that Israel "refrain from such actions." It "deplores the firing of rockets from the Gaza Strip against Israeli civilian areas," but doesn't say who is doing the firing.
After the vote, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement thanking US President Donald Trump's support for Israel in the UN.
"Israel appreciates the Trump administration’s steadfast support for Israel at the United Nations and Ambassador Haley’s strong statement today exposing the hypocrisy of the UN’s bias against Israel," a statement from the Prime Minster's Office said.
"The UN’s incessant focus on Israel not only brings shame to the organization. It also draws attention away from so many other pressing issues that demand the attention of the international community," it continued.
"As for Gaza, Hamas is responsible for the terrible situation there and for the loss of life and suffering that has occurred as a result of the violent riots it has instigated over the last few weeks."
Rather than improve the lives of the people of Gaza, it added, "Hamas is using the civilian Palestinian population as human shields in its unremitting terror war against Israel."
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was also blamed by Netanyahu for making matters in Gaza worse. He "has only made the humanitarian situation in Gaza worse by reducing payments of salaries to Gaza and by refusing to pay for electricity provided to Gaza," the statement charged.
"While Israel will continue to defend itself and protect the security of its citizens, Israel will continue to seek ways to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza. The people of Gaza are not our enemy. Hamas is."
The UN General Assembly is set to vote on Wednesday on a draft resolution condemning the latest Israeli crimes in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The Arab Member States submitted the draft resolution to the UN General Assembly after it was vetoed by Washington at the Security Council.
The draft calls for taking the necessary measures to protect the Palestinian civilians in Gaza after 129 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army since the Great March of Return started on 30th March.
Permanent observer of Palestine to the UN Riyad Masnour last Friday announced that the UN General Assembly will hold an emergency session soon on providing international protection for Palestinians in the occupied territories.
Mansour said that a new draft resolution, similar to the Kuwait-drafted one which was blocked by Washington in early June, will be presented in the meeting.
Earlier in June, the US vetoed a draft resolution submitted by Kuwait to the Security Council calling for providing international protection to the Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Another draft resolution condemning Hamas movement was presented by the US and rejected by the Security Council members.
The Palestinians hope that they win as many votes as possible as they did in the January vote held against the US president Donald Trump' decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump's decision received 9 votes in favor and 128 against.
The Arab Member States submitted the draft resolution to the UN General Assembly after it was vetoed by Washington at the Security Council.
The draft calls for taking the necessary measures to protect the Palestinian civilians in Gaza after 129 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army since the Great March of Return started on 30th March.
Permanent observer of Palestine to the UN Riyad Masnour last Friday announced that the UN General Assembly will hold an emergency session soon on providing international protection for Palestinians in the occupied territories.
Mansour said that a new draft resolution, similar to the Kuwait-drafted one which was blocked by Washington in early June, will be presented in the meeting.
Earlier in June, the US vetoed a draft resolution submitted by Kuwait to the Security Council calling for providing international protection to the Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Another draft resolution condemning Hamas movement was presented by the US and rejected by the Security Council members.
The Palestinians hope that they win as many votes as possible as they did in the January vote held against the US president Donald Trump' decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump's decision received 9 votes in favor and 128 against.
Accountability Needed for Officials Who Authorized Lethal Force
Tear gas fired by Israeli forces fall near Palestinian protesters on May 14 east of Jabalya in the Gaza Strip
(New York) – Israeli forces’ repeated use of lethal force in the Gaza Strip since March 30, 2018, against Palestinian demonstrators who posed no imminent threat to life may amount to war crimes, Human Rights Watch said today. Israeli forces have killed more than 100 protesters in Gaza and wounded thousands with live ammunition.
The United Nations General Assembly should support a resolution that calls for exploring measures to guarantee the protection of Palestinians in Gaza, and a UN inquiry mandated to investigate all violations and abuses should identify Israeli officials responsible for issuing unlawful open-fire orders. The killings also highlight the need for the International Criminal Court to open a formal investigation into the situation in Palestine. Third countries should impose targeted sanctions against officials responsible for ongoing serious human rights violations.
“Israel’s use of lethal force when there was no imminent threat to life has taken a heavy toll in life and limb,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The international community needs to rip up the old playbook, where Israel conducts investigations that mainly whitewash the conduct of its troops and the US blocks international accountability with its Security Council veto, and instead impose real costs for such blatant disregard for Palestinian lives.”
Kuwait has brought a resolution to the UN General Assembly that deplores Israel’s use of live ammunition against protesters in Gaza, as well as rockets launched by Palestinian armed groups at Israeli population centers, and calls for an end to the closure of Gaza and for the UN Secretary General to consider options to better protect Palestinians in Gaza. Kuwait sought General Assembly action after the US vetoed this resolution at the Security Council on June 1.
Human Rights Watch interviewed nine people who witnessed Israeli forces shooting protesters in Gaza on May 14, the day with the highest toll of deaths and injuries so far when more than 60 people were killed, and another who saw a journalist shot and killed on April 6. Seven of these interviewees not only witnessed people being shot, but were also themselves shot. The shootings happened at places where protests were held near the perimeter fences that separate the Gaza Strip from Israel, including east of Jabalya, Gaza City, Khan Yunis, and Rafah.
Their accounts, along with photographs and videos, show a pattern of Israeli forces shooting people who posed no imminent threat to life with live ammunition. Israel should pay adequate compensation in all cases in which its forces unlawfully shot people or killed their family members.
Six of the witnesses Human Rights Watch interviewed said they were 200 to 300 meters from the two parallel fences, that in most places separate Gaza’s eastern periphery and Israel, on May 14 when Israeli forces shot them or people close to them with live ammunition. The victims include journalists, civil defense workers, and volunteers trying to evacuate the wounded, and a child running away from the fences.
Three other witnesses said that soldiers shot them when they were between 30 and 40 meters from the fences. These three include a 14-year-old boy and a 48-year-old man, shot in separate incidents, who said they had not thrown stones or otherwise tried to harm Israeli soldiers. A third man said he had approached the fences and thrown stones at Israeli forces, but that he was shot later, while attempting to evacuate another man who was shot and wounded. The accounts are consistent with numerous news reports and videos that show Palestinians being shot while standing still or running away from the fences.
Those Human Rights Watch interviewed said most of the shooting incidents they witnessed during the May 14 protests involved Israeli forces shooting people in the legs. But witnesses also described seven additional cases in which Israeli forces shot protesters who posed no imminent threat to life in the upper body, indicating that Israeli soldiers may have intended to kill them.
One witness said he was shot in the back at a distance of 200 meters from the fences, with the bullet exiting his chest. Another said he saw a civil defense worker fatally shot in the chest 200 meters from the fences. Another witness said he saw a man in his 50s who was shot in the head when he approached to within 15 meters of the fences while holding a Palestinian flag. Two witnesses said they saw a man who was fatally shot in the head while being evacuated from close to the fences after being shot in the arm.
From March 30 to June 8, Palestinians have engaged in weekly demonstrations near the fences between Gaza and Israel to protest against the 11-year closure of Gaza and to commemorate the expulsion and flight of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees when Israel was established in 1948.
Protests held on May 14 were also against the opening of the US embassy that day in Jerusalem. During the protests in this period, Israeli forces fired on demonstrators and killed 118 people during demonstrations, including 14 children, and wounded 3,895 with live ammunition who required hospitalization. At least 40 have needed to have limbs amputated, and hundreds more suffered severe injuries, medical officials reported.
The Israeli closure of Gaza, backed by Egypt, as well as disputes over funding between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas have left medical facilities struggling to operate due to severe lack of electricity and essential drugs, medical disposables, and equipment. Doctors in Gaza have told Physicians for Human Rights–Israel they are powerless [PDF] to provide needed treatment to many wounded patients. Israeli military authorities should reverse their policy of denying medical exit permits for Palestinians who were wounded in the protests. The Palestinian Authority should promptly issue required approvals for patients’ medical treatment.
During the weekly protests, the Israeli military shot and killed protestors on the basis of a policy, according to public statements by Israeli officials and a submission to Israel’s supreme court, to use live ammunition against people who approached or attempted to cross or damage the fences. Israeli leaders rejected repeated calls from the UN and the EU and petitions by human rights groups to change those orders and praised the military’s actions.
Israeli officials, including military commanders, apparently greenlighted the use of live ammunition against demonstrators. The officials include the chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The vast majority of protesters were unarmed. Some threw rocks and “Molotov cocktails” (improvised gasoline bombs), used slingshots to hurl projectiles, launched kites with incendiary materials, and sought to damage the fences between Gaza and Israel. In one instance, four armed men fired at Israeli soldiers during a protest in northern Gaza on May 14, a witness said.
The UN reported that four Israeli soldiers have been wounded during the Gaza protests from March 30 to June 7, the first of whom was a soldier who was lightly wounded on May 14. An Israeli military spokesperson told the Guardian that no one had crossed the fences on May 14. “Our troops have not taken any sustained direct fire,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying.
International human rights law standards on the use of force, which apply to law enforcement situations such as the Gaza protests, permit the use of live ammunition only as a last resort to prevent the imminent threat of death or serious injury. Israeli officials explicitly rejected human rights standards and argued that live ammunition was necessary to stop protesters from breaching the fences, because Hamas organized the protests so armed fighters could exploit the breaches to kill or capture soldiers or civilians.
The use of live ammunition cannot be justified by automatically deeming every Palestinian who attempts to breach the fences to be an imminent threat to life, and in fact Israeli forces also shot medics, journalists, children, and others who were hundreds of meters away from the fences, Human Rights Watch said. In addition, because Palestinians in Gaza are entitled to protection under the Geneva Conventions as an occupied people, any wilful killing of them would constitute a war crime.
A senior Israeli military official told the Washington Post that the only weapons Israeli forces used were live ammunition and tear-gas, not water cannon or other measures that Israel uses in the West Bank, which the official said lacked adequate range.
In addition to the barbed wire fence separating Gaza and Israel, the two-meter-high fencing with electronic sensors, ditches, and military watchtowers along the Gaza periphery, in 2015 the Israeli military built fences around 12 Israeli communities near Gaza with electronic sensors that detect any contact with the fence and automatically alert the military. This further undercuts the claim that the protesters posed an imminent treat.
Photographs, videos, and statements by surgeons indicate that Israeli forces fired on protestors using military assault rifles that fire bullets at high velocity. Medical journal articles, including by Israel Defense Forces trauma surgeons [PDF], have documented that gunshot wounds from assault-rifle bullets cause severe soft tissue damage, have a high incidence of complications, and that “any delay at the scene of injury might jeopardize limb survival.”
The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, is examining alleged serious crimes committed in Palestine since June 13, 2014, including war crimes and crimes against humanity. On May 22, Palestine submitted a “referral” [PDF] requesting the prosecutor investigate crimes under the ICC’s jurisdiction, including crimes against humanity and the war crimes of willfully killing or willfully “causing great suffering, or serious injury”[PDF] to civilians and the residents of an occupied territory. Crimes against humanity are criminal acts committed on a widespread or systematic basis as part of an “attack on a civilian population,” involving a plan or policy to commit the crime.
Such acts include murder, persecution on political grounds, and “other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health,” according to the Rome Statute.
Given strong evidence that serious crimes have been committed in Palestine since 2014, including new population transfers into occupied territories, Human Rights Watch has called on Bensouda to open a formal probe consistent with the ICC’s Rome Statute.
“Impunity for unlawfully killing and maiming people in Gaza risks continuing the cycle where still more lives and families will be torn apart in the future,” Whitson said. “The UN Human Rights Council inquiry should identify and call for sanctions against officials implicated in ongoing serious human rights violations.”
The Gaza Protests and Israel’s Use of Live Ammunition
Palestinians have held weekly protests beginning on March 30 near the fences along the eastern perimeter of the Gaza Strip. The protests were against Israel’s 12-year closure of the Gaza Strip and to commemorate the expulsion and flight of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during Israel’s establishment, which Palestinians call the Nakba, or “catastrophe.”
Dr. Ayman al-Sahabani, the head of the emergency department at al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, told Human Rights Watch that on May 14 alone the hospital received about 500 patients, most with bullet wounds to the legs, and 18 people who were dead on arrival. The emergency department’s capacity is 20 beds.
Many of the injuries are life-changing, according to medical personnel. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) stated on April 19 that their clinics in Gaza had treated more than 250 people “where the bullet has literally destroyed tissue after having pulverized the bone,” many of whom would require additional surgery. From March 30 to May 23, 40 people shot by Israeli forces, including at least three children, needed a limb amputated, 10 of whom lost a leg above the knee, according to information reported by the Gaza Health Ministry and other medical sources to the World Health Organization.
Prior to the first mass weekly demonstration in Gaza on March 30, the Israeli government security cabinet – which consists of the prime minister, defense minister, and other senior officials – held two meetings to discuss the army’s planned response. The Israeli military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, briefed the security cabinet and later told Israeli media that “a big portion of the army” as well as more than 100 snipers would be present and that “the orders are to use a lot of force.” On March 29, Netanyahu’s Arabic spokesman posted a video of a man shot in the leg, stating, “This is the least that anyone who tries to cross the security fence between Gaza and Israel will face.”
On March 30, the Israeli military, using live ammunition, killed 17 Palestinians, 12 of them demonstrators, and wounded hundreds. The next day, the chairperson of Meretz, a left-leaning Israeli political party, the EU, and the UN secretary-general separately called for an independent investigation into the events. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman rejected those calls and said that “the IDF soldiers” at the Gaza fences “have my full backing.” Netanyahu thanked “our soldiers who are protecting the country’s borders.”
Protesters announced further demonstrations for the following Friday, April 6. Ahead of those protests, an Israeli military spokesperson stated that people “could potentially be shot” if they approached the fences or tried to damage them, and Lieberman stated that “anyone who comes close to the fence endangers his life.” During the April 6 protests, the Israeli military killed nine Palestinians in Gaza and injured hundreds more, according to the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, which had called on soldiers to disobey unlawful orders to fire on protesters who posed no threat to life. At a cabinet meeting on April 11, Netanyahu chastised critics of the military’s actions and said “we will give [Israeli soldiers] all the backing they need to do their holy work.”
International Law and Israeli Claims
The use of force outside of active armed conflict is governed by international human rights standards set out in the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials. These standards, which apply to the Gaza demonstrations, prohibit shooting live ammunition [PDF] except to prevent “the imminent threat of death or serious injury” or “the perpetration of a particularly serious crime involving grave threat to life,” and “only when less extreme means are insufficient to achieve these objectives.”
The military did not publish its rules of engagement, but Israel’s state attorney disclosed some information in an April 29 response [PDF] to a petition by Israeli human rights groups against the military’s use of lethal force against demonstrators in Gaza. The government response rejected applying human rights law applicable in law enforcement to the demonstrations, and claimed that only international humanitarian law, applicable in fighting in armed conflicts, applies, because the protests were “organized, coordinated and directed by Hamas, a terrorist organization engaged in armed conflict with Israel.” But even where the laws of armed conflict on targeting do apply, in any case where there is doubt as to a person’s civilian status, they must be presumed to be a civilian and may not be targeted.
Israeli officials argued that Hamas directed protesters to cross the fences so that armed fighters could run through the breach to kill or kidnap Israeli civilians or soldiers. The Israeli military spokesperson, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, said on May 15 that there was “no dilemma” in deciding between “having a lower amount of Palestinian casualties,” and using lethal force in order to “defend Israeli communities immediately behind the [Gaza perimeter fences].”
The government’s April 29 court response elaborated that soldiers could use “potentially lethal force” [PDF] to prevent protesters from breaching the fences and crossing from Gaza to Israel if “the evaluation is that the force is necessary at that time to remove the danger before it is realized, even if the danger itself has not yet become imminent,” and that shooting demonstrators before they reach the fences is justified because if crowds breached them, it would “operationally require live fire on a massive scale.”
In its efforts to justify the use of live ammunition to prevent Palestinians from crossing the fences, the government claimed in court to be following an open-fire policy that does not appear to account for the amounts of live ammunition used. The government stated to Israel’s supreme court [PDF] that the orders only permit “accurate shooting towards the legs of a ‘major agitator or instigator’,” after giving verbal warnings and using non-lethal means to disperse demonstrations, “as a last resort only and subject to stringent requirements” of proportionality. The government stated that the orders do not permit live fire against a person because he is near the fences, took part in demonstrations, or supports Hamas.
In fact, Israeli forces appear to have routinely exceeded these restrictions, firing from behind sand mounds and the fences separating Gaza and Israel at demonstrators in many cases more than 200 meters away.
Netanyahu referred to a May 15 statement by a Hamas leader, Salah al-Bardawil, that 50 of 62 people killed by Israeli forces on May 14 were Hamas members – “in other words, members of a terrorist organization,” Netanyahu said. Israeli military and political officials also claimed that Hamas “strategically placed [civilians] in harm’s way” because graphic media coverage of their injuries would harm Israel’s image. Hamas’s encouragement of and support for the protests and the participation of Hamas members in the protests do not justify the use of live ammunition against protestors who posed no threat to life.
On May 25 Israel’s supreme court rejected petitions by human rights groups against the military’s live-fire orders without applying the clear standard on the use of lethal force set out in international human rights law, and substantially deferring to the government’s discretion. The court’s unwillingness to apply international law and to challenge a policy that authorizes lethal force even when there is no imminent threat to life highlights the importance of the International Criminal Court prosecutor opening a formal investigation into the situation in Palestine.
Palestinians in Gaza are protected persons under the Geneva Conventions. Willful killings of protected persons by the occupying power outside what is permissible under human rights standards would constitute a grave breach of the laws of occupation. The prohibition of war crimes and crimes against humanity can be the basis for individual criminal liability in international courts, as well as in domestic courts in many countries under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
Accounts from Witnesses
In total, from March 30 to June 2, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported that hospitals in Gaza received 530 Palestinians who were wounded in the head or neck, and 311 in the chest or back. News media reported that a 14-year-old girl who had tried to breach the fences with wire-cutters was fatally shot in the head.
The protesters were separated from the soldiers by the two fences and electronic sensors. Protesters had reached and torn down some of the barbed wire fence on April 27, and witnesses at the May 14 protests said that some protesters had cut or damaged sections of the barbed wire fence east of Gaza City, but that none had reached the electric fence beyond it.
One witness said he was aware of a person who had joined the May 14 protests while carrying a firearm, but apparently did not fire it because members of Hamas warned him that doing so could prompt Israeli soldiers to target the area. Another man said that four members of an armed group had attempted to attack Israeli forces east of Jabalya, by concealing guns until they reached the first fence, where they fired at Israeli forces positioned behind sand mounds about 80 meters away, before being shot fatally.
Israeli forces killed at least 17 people in that area on May 14. Israeli concerns that members of armed groups would use the protests as cover to fire at Israeli soldiers or plant explosives near the fences do not justify the repeated use of live ammunition, including with apparent lethal intent, against protesters who posed no imminent lethal threat, Human Rights Watch said.
Witnesses consistently described the positioning of Israeli soldiers across the fences that separate Israel and Gaza, atop large earthen mounds overlooking the area where protesters congregated. The mounds were 10 to 30 meters apart, with 5 to 10 soldiers on each one. The Palestinian rights group Al Mezan reported that Israeli forces entered Gaza at 3 a.m. on May 14 and leveled the land in front of the fences in multiple areas, apparently to eliminate protestors’ cover.
A freelance photojournalist, Mahmoud Abu Salama, 33, was covering demonstrations in an area east of Jabalya called Abu Safiyya, in the northern Gaza Strip, about 200 meters from the fences, where he saw a man shot in the groin at around noon on May 14, and a boy shot in the leg at about 3:30 p.m. Human Rights Watch has a photo he took of the boy. Abu Salama said:
I still hear the voices of people who were screaming after being shot. One man was launching stones with a slingshot, he was just a meter-and-a-half from me when he was shot in the groin. He was bleeding so badly that the paramedics didn’t know how to deal with him, his face color went between yellow and blue. The boy was also close to me when he was shot in his leg. I saw him while he was escaping from the teargas and running away with his back to the fence when they shot him.
Mohammad Meqdad, 39, a civil defense worker, spoke to Human Rights Watch while awaiting surgery at al-Shifa hospital on May 15. Wearing an orange, reflective vest, like other civil defense workers, he had been evacuating wounded people east of Gaza City to ambulances throughout the morning on May 14, he said. At around 1:30 p.m., he was walking back toward the fences after evacuating a casualty, and was about 300 meters away when he was shot in the leg:
My face was toward the fence. I was able to see soldiers on hills of sand and those hills were higher [on May 14] than they were on previous protest days. On each of the hills, there were about 10 soldiers. There were guys closer to the fence who were burning tires, chanting for Jerusalem, and throwing stones, but others were shot who were much farther away. The last people I evacuated before I was shot were three women, all in their late 20s, who were shot in the neck or in the head. They had been carrying flags and chanting, they were in a group of women that was about 150 meters from the fence, behind a group of men who were closer than they were to the fence. I evacuated one, and then another got shot, and then the other, over 5 or 10 minutes. One of them died immediately, but I don’t know what happened to the other two.
Mohaweya al-Ay, a 20-year-old student from the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, spoke to Human Rights Watch on May 17, after surgery at al-Shifa hospital. He said that he had been helping three civil defense workers evacuate wounded protesters east of Gaza City at 1 p.m. on May 14 when Israeli forces fatally shot one of the civil defense workers, Mousa Abu Hassanein, in the chest. They were about 200 meters from the fences at the time, al-Ay said.
A Canadian doctor, Tarek Loubani, told Human Rights Watch that Abu Hassanein had helped rescue him when he was shot in the legs about an hour before Abu Hassanein was killed. The Palestinian rights group Al Mezan reported that four paramedics were shot with live ammunition on May 14.
On June 1, Israeli forces shot Razan al-Najjar in the chest, while the 21-year-old volunteer paramedic was wearing a white coat and treating wounded people at that day’s protest. The Israeli army has said “no shots were deliberately or directly aimed towards her.”
Al-Ay was shot in the back later that afternoon in the same area, while he was trying to reach a young man who had been shot, who he later learned was an 18-year-old named Ahmad al-Zarqa:
I saw a man was bleeding and walked toward him slowly. My back was toward the fence, no one was around me, throwing stones or anything else. Then a bullet hit my back from the right side and exited through my chest. I was about 200 meters away from the fence. There were no ambulances, they couldn’t come to us because of the shooting. Two civil defense men were near me and pulled me behind a wall [for cover from gunfire], and another guy took my phone and called my family.
Al-Ay said that he did not burn tires or throw stones. Israeli forces in that area had begun firing earlier in the day on a group of protesters who had reached the barbed-wire fence, tied a rope to it, and begun to pull it away, he said: “No one reached the electric fence. There were a large number of martyrs. The soldiers were on high hills of dirt and the first shootings were toward the top of people’s heads.”
The International Federation of Journalists identified nine journalists who were wounded on May 14, including photojournalist Farhan Abu Hadayed, 26, who was shot at around noon. He and two other witnesses, whom Human Rights Watch interviewed separately, said that he was about 150 meters from the fences wearing a flak jacket marked “Press” when he was shot in the leg. Abu Hadayed said that about 15 journalists had begun to follow a large group of demonstrators who were walking in the direction of the fences when “without any prior warning, and no firing of tear gas, they shot four people in the legs, and I was the fifth.”
A freelance photojournalist, Mohammad Qandil, said he also saw the shooting and held onto Abu Hadayed’s camera when he was evacuated to an ambulance. Abu Hadayed had gone to the protests with Ramzi al-Shakhreet, the supervisor at his media company, Truth Pioneers Network. Al-Shakreet, 34, said he was five meters away when Abu Hadayed was shot, and that “there was a clear line of sight from him to the soldiers at the fence. He was shot while he was taking photos.”
Al-Shakhreet also told Human Rights Watch that he saw two other protesters shot at around 1 p.m. A man in his 50s had approached to within 15 meters of the steel fence, waving a Palestinian flag, when he was shot in the head and apparently died instantly. A man in his mid-20s was about 150 meters from the fences when he was shot in the left leg: “He was seven or eight meters from me, I was to his right side, and he was shot while standing in the middle of the group of protesters, not doing anything except watching,” said al-Shakreet.
On April 6, Israeli forces had fatally shot another journalist, Yasser Murtaja, in the abdomen between 1:30 and 2:30 in the afternoon while he was covering demonstrations east of Khan Yunis. Another journalist, Muthana al-Najar, said that Murtaja “stepped forward to film someone who was injured on the ground, he had just turned to his right when he was shot in the left side of his waist.” Al-Najar said that there was thick smoke near the fences because protesters had been burning tires, but that he had a clear view of some snipers on a hill of dirt on the opposite side of the fences. Murtaja was more than 200 meters from the fences and was wearing a vest marked “Press” when he was shot. Murtaja was holding a digital camera and had told al-Najar he was filming a documentary about the weekly demonstrations. The Israeli military has opened an internal inquiry into some specific deaths, including Murtaja’s.
Human Rights Watch interviewed Abd el-Rahman Abu Qamar, a 14-year-old boy, at his bedside at al-Shifa hospital on May 17.
He said he was running away from teargas and shooting and was about 200 meters from the fences east of Gaza City when he was shot in the leg at about 2 p.m. on May 14. His brother, Malek, 18, who went with his brother to the demonstration, said they were in a large group “chanting for Jerusalem.” Malek said Israeli forces fired on the group and he hit the ground to avoid the bullets, and then saw a paramedic and a civil defense worker evacuating Abd el-Rahman.
Defense for Children International-Palestine reported the names of six boys and a girl who were killed with live ammunition on May 14, the youngest being 13-year-old Izz al-Samak. Five were shot in the head or neck, and two in the abdomen.
Samer Nasser, 23, said he was part of a group east of Jabalya that was throwing stones and trying to approach the barbed-wire fence to cut it with wire-cutters when a man near him was shot in the arm. Nasser had driven a “tuk tuk,” a three-wheeled motorized vehicle, to the area. He loaded the wounded man onto it and was driving away to reach medical treatment when Israeli forces “started shooting heavily,” Nasser said. “The injured man in my tuk tuk was shot again in the head and immediately died, and I was shot in the thigh. I was bleeding for 15 minutes, and had to crawl until I reached a woman who helped me.”
Human Rights Watch obtained a video from another Gaza resident, Jamil Barakat, who said he filmed the woman who helped Nasser. In the video she is shown seeking cover behind a rock, gesturing to Nasser and encouraging him to crawl toward her. Barakat was also taking shelter behind the rock. “We were luckily not shot, but we were unable to move forward or backward for half an hour because they opened fire at us,” Barakat said. Barakat confirmed that the wounded man whom Nasser had put on his tuk tuk died before he could be evacuated. Nasser said that he participated in the demonstration to protest the US embassy move to Jerusalem (which happened on the same day as the 14 May protest), and Israel’s closure of Gaza.
Maher Harara, a 48-year-old from al-Shujaiya, a neighborhood east of Gaza City, said he saw a woman’s finger shot off as she was making a victory sign while facing the fences east of Gaza City at around 1 p.m. on May 14. She was about 40 meters from the fences. Harara was himself shot a few hours later. He had attended each of the protests since March 30 without being injured but was shot in his left leg at about 5 p.m. on May 14 in the same area, 40 meters from the fences: “I was not holding anything, even my mobile phone was in my pocket, and I was standing by myself, but maybe they shot me because I was wearing black trousers and a black t-shirt so they thought I was a leader, but I wasn’t.”
An 18-year-old youth said he was shot in the ankle in the Malaka area east of Gaza City, about 30 meters from the fences, in the afternoon of May 14:
There were about 50 people in front of me, they were the front group of protesters. I was watching them. Suddenly I fell down on the ground, shot in the leg. I was completely peaceful, doing nothing, just there because of the situation [the opening of the US embassy] in Jerusalem. I stood behind the main group assuming that would be safe, but they hit me.
Around me there were a few guys throwing stones, and others burning tires, flying kites, and using slingshots. I also saw an old man get shot in his leg, he was 15 meters in front of me toward the fence, but also just standing and watching.
Tear gas fired by Israeli forces fall near Palestinian protesters on May 14 east of Jabalya in the Gaza Strip
(New York) – Israeli forces’ repeated use of lethal force in the Gaza Strip since March 30, 2018, against Palestinian demonstrators who posed no imminent threat to life may amount to war crimes, Human Rights Watch said today. Israeli forces have killed more than 100 protesters in Gaza and wounded thousands with live ammunition.
The United Nations General Assembly should support a resolution that calls for exploring measures to guarantee the protection of Palestinians in Gaza, and a UN inquiry mandated to investigate all violations and abuses should identify Israeli officials responsible for issuing unlawful open-fire orders. The killings also highlight the need for the International Criminal Court to open a formal investigation into the situation in Palestine. Third countries should impose targeted sanctions against officials responsible for ongoing serious human rights violations.
“Israel’s use of lethal force when there was no imminent threat to life has taken a heavy toll in life and limb,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The international community needs to rip up the old playbook, where Israel conducts investigations that mainly whitewash the conduct of its troops and the US blocks international accountability with its Security Council veto, and instead impose real costs for such blatant disregard for Palestinian lives.”
Kuwait has brought a resolution to the UN General Assembly that deplores Israel’s use of live ammunition against protesters in Gaza, as well as rockets launched by Palestinian armed groups at Israeli population centers, and calls for an end to the closure of Gaza and for the UN Secretary General to consider options to better protect Palestinians in Gaza. Kuwait sought General Assembly action after the US vetoed this resolution at the Security Council on June 1.
Human Rights Watch interviewed nine people who witnessed Israeli forces shooting protesters in Gaza on May 14, the day with the highest toll of deaths and injuries so far when more than 60 people were killed, and another who saw a journalist shot and killed on April 6. Seven of these interviewees not only witnessed people being shot, but were also themselves shot. The shootings happened at places where protests were held near the perimeter fences that separate the Gaza Strip from Israel, including east of Jabalya, Gaza City, Khan Yunis, and Rafah.
Their accounts, along with photographs and videos, show a pattern of Israeli forces shooting people who posed no imminent threat to life with live ammunition. Israel should pay adequate compensation in all cases in which its forces unlawfully shot people or killed their family members.
Six of the witnesses Human Rights Watch interviewed said they were 200 to 300 meters from the two parallel fences, that in most places separate Gaza’s eastern periphery and Israel, on May 14 when Israeli forces shot them or people close to them with live ammunition. The victims include journalists, civil defense workers, and volunteers trying to evacuate the wounded, and a child running away from the fences.
Three other witnesses said that soldiers shot them when they were between 30 and 40 meters from the fences. These three include a 14-year-old boy and a 48-year-old man, shot in separate incidents, who said they had not thrown stones or otherwise tried to harm Israeli soldiers. A third man said he had approached the fences and thrown stones at Israeli forces, but that he was shot later, while attempting to evacuate another man who was shot and wounded. The accounts are consistent with numerous news reports and videos that show Palestinians being shot while standing still or running away from the fences.
Those Human Rights Watch interviewed said most of the shooting incidents they witnessed during the May 14 protests involved Israeli forces shooting people in the legs. But witnesses also described seven additional cases in which Israeli forces shot protesters who posed no imminent threat to life in the upper body, indicating that Israeli soldiers may have intended to kill them.
One witness said he was shot in the back at a distance of 200 meters from the fences, with the bullet exiting his chest. Another said he saw a civil defense worker fatally shot in the chest 200 meters from the fences. Another witness said he saw a man in his 50s who was shot in the head when he approached to within 15 meters of the fences while holding a Palestinian flag. Two witnesses said they saw a man who was fatally shot in the head while being evacuated from close to the fences after being shot in the arm.
From March 30 to June 8, Palestinians have engaged in weekly demonstrations near the fences between Gaza and Israel to protest against the 11-year closure of Gaza and to commemorate the expulsion and flight of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees when Israel was established in 1948.
Protests held on May 14 were also against the opening of the US embassy that day in Jerusalem. During the protests in this period, Israeli forces fired on demonstrators and killed 118 people during demonstrations, including 14 children, and wounded 3,895 with live ammunition who required hospitalization. At least 40 have needed to have limbs amputated, and hundreds more suffered severe injuries, medical officials reported.
The Israeli closure of Gaza, backed by Egypt, as well as disputes over funding between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas have left medical facilities struggling to operate due to severe lack of electricity and essential drugs, medical disposables, and equipment. Doctors in Gaza have told Physicians for Human Rights–Israel they are powerless [PDF] to provide needed treatment to many wounded patients. Israeli military authorities should reverse their policy of denying medical exit permits for Palestinians who were wounded in the protests. The Palestinian Authority should promptly issue required approvals for patients’ medical treatment.
During the weekly protests, the Israeli military shot and killed protestors on the basis of a policy, according to public statements by Israeli officials and a submission to Israel’s supreme court, to use live ammunition against people who approached or attempted to cross or damage the fences. Israeli leaders rejected repeated calls from the UN and the EU and petitions by human rights groups to change those orders and praised the military’s actions.
Israeli officials, including military commanders, apparently greenlighted the use of live ammunition against demonstrators. The officials include the chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The vast majority of protesters were unarmed. Some threw rocks and “Molotov cocktails” (improvised gasoline bombs), used slingshots to hurl projectiles, launched kites with incendiary materials, and sought to damage the fences between Gaza and Israel. In one instance, four armed men fired at Israeli soldiers during a protest in northern Gaza on May 14, a witness said.
The UN reported that four Israeli soldiers have been wounded during the Gaza protests from March 30 to June 7, the first of whom was a soldier who was lightly wounded on May 14. An Israeli military spokesperson told the Guardian that no one had crossed the fences on May 14. “Our troops have not taken any sustained direct fire,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying.
International human rights law standards on the use of force, which apply to law enforcement situations such as the Gaza protests, permit the use of live ammunition only as a last resort to prevent the imminent threat of death or serious injury. Israeli officials explicitly rejected human rights standards and argued that live ammunition was necessary to stop protesters from breaching the fences, because Hamas organized the protests so armed fighters could exploit the breaches to kill or capture soldiers or civilians.
The use of live ammunition cannot be justified by automatically deeming every Palestinian who attempts to breach the fences to be an imminent threat to life, and in fact Israeli forces also shot medics, journalists, children, and others who were hundreds of meters away from the fences, Human Rights Watch said. In addition, because Palestinians in Gaza are entitled to protection under the Geneva Conventions as an occupied people, any wilful killing of them would constitute a war crime.
A senior Israeli military official told the Washington Post that the only weapons Israeli forces used were live ammunition and tear-gas, not water cannon or other measures that Israel uses in the West Bank, which the official said lacked adequate range.
In addition to the barbed wire fence separating Gaza and Israel, the two-meter-high fencing with electronic sensors, ditches, and military watchtowers along the Gaza periphery, in 2015 the Israeli military built fences around 12 Israeli communities near Gaza with electronic sensors that detect any contact with the fence and automatically alert the military. This further undercuts the claim that the protesters posed an imminent treat.
Photographs, videos, and statements by surgeons indicate that Israeli forces fired on protestors using military assault rifles that fire bullets at high velocity. Medical journal articles, including by Israel Defense Forces trauma surgeons [PDF], have documented that gunshot wounds from assault-rifle bullets cause severe soft tissue damage, have a high incidence of complications, and that “any delay at the scene of injury might jeopardize limb survival.”
The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, is examining alleged serious crimes committed in Palestine since June 13, 2014, including war crimes and crimes against humanity. On May 22, Palestine submitted a “referral” [PDF] requesting the prosecutor investigate crimes under the ICC’s jurisdiction, including crimes against humanity and the war crimes of willfully killing or willfully “causing great suffering, or serious injury”[PDF] to civilians and the residents of an occupied territory. Crimes against humanity are criminal acts committed on a widespread or systematic basis as part of an “attack on a civilian population,” involving a plan or policy to commit the crime.
Such acts include murder, persecution on political grounds, and “other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health,” according to the Rome Statute.
Given strong evidence that serious crimes have been committed in Palestine since 2014, including new population transfers into occupied territories, Human Rights Watch has called on Bensouda to open a formal probe consistent with the ICC’s Rome Statute.
“Impunity for unlawfully killing and maiming people in Gaza risks continuing the cycle where still more lives and families will be torn apart in the future,” Whitson said. “The UN Human Rights Council inquiry should identify and call for sanctions against officials implicated in ongoing serious human rights violations.”
The Gaza Protests and Israel’s Use of Live Ammunition
Palestinians have held weekly protests beginning on March 30 near the fences along the eastern perimeter of the Gaza Strip. The protests were against Israel’s 12-year closure of the Gaza Strip and to commemorate the expulsion and flight of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during Israel’s establishment, which Palestinians call the Nakba, or “catastrophe.”
Dr. Ayman al-Sahabani, the head of the emergency department at al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, told Human Rights Watch that on May 14 alone the hospital received about 500 patients, most with bullet wounds to the legs, and 18 people who were dead on arrival. The emergency department’s capacity is 20 beds.
Many of the injuries are life-changing, according to medical personnel. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) stated on April 19 that their clinics in Gaza had treated more than 250 people “where the bullet has literally destroyed tissue after having pulverized the bone,” many of whom would require additional surgery. From March 30 to May 23, 40 people shot by Israeli forces, including at least three children, needed a limb amputated, 10 of whom lost a leg above the knee, according to information reported by the Gaza Health Ministry and other medical sources to the World Health Organization.
Prior to the first mass weekly demonstration in Gaza on March 30, the Israeli government security cabinet – which consists of the prime minister, defense minister, and other senior officials – held two meetings to discuss the army’s planned response. The Israeli military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, briefed the security cabinet and later told Israeli media that “a big portion of the army” as well as more than 100 snipers would be present and that “the orders are to use a lot of force.” On March 29, Netanyahu’s Arabic spokesman posted a video of a man shot in the leg, stating, “This is the least that anyone who tries to cross the security fence between Gaza and Israel will face.”
On March 30, the Israeli military, using live ammunition, killed 17 Palestinians, 12 of them demonstrators, and wounded hundreds. The next day, the chairperson of Meretz, a left-leaning Israeli political party, the EU, and the UN secretary-general separately called for an independent investigation into the events. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman rejected those calls and said that “the IDF soldiers” at the Gaza fences “have my full backing.” Netanyahu thanked “our soldiers who are protecting the country’s borders.”
Protesters announced further demonstrations for the following Friday, April 6. Ahead of those protests, an Israeli military spokesperson stated that people “could potentially be shot” if they approached the fences or tried to damage them, and Lieberman stated that “anyone who comes close to the fence endangers his life.” During the April 6 protests, the Israeli military killed nine Palestinians in Gaza and injured hundreds more, according to the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, which had called on soldiers to disobey unlawful orders to fire on protesters who posed no threat to life. At a cabinet meeting on April 11, Netanyahu chastised critics of the military’s actions and said “we will give [Israeli soldiers] all the backing they need to do their holy work.”
International Law and Israeli Claims
The use of force outside of active armed conflict is governed by international human rights standards set out in the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials. These standards, which apply to the Gaza demonstrations, prohibit shooting live ammunition [PDF] except to prevent “the imminent threat of death or serious injury” or “the perpetration of a particularly serious crime involving grave threat to life,” and “only when less extreme means are insufficient to achieve these objectives.”
The military did not publish its rules of engagement, but Israel’s state attorney disclosed some information in an April 29 response [PDF] to a petition by Israeli human rights groups against the military’s use of lethal force against demonstrators in Gaza. The government response rejected applying human rights law applicable in law enforcement to the demonstrations, and claimed that only international humanitarian law, applicable in fighting in armed conflicts, applies, because the protests were “organized, coordinated and directed by Hamas, a terrorist organization engaged in armed conflict with Israel.” But even where the laws of armed conflict on targeting do apply, in any case where there is doubt as to a person’s civilian status, they must be presumed to be a civilian and may not be targeted.
Israeli officials argued that Hamas directed protesters to cross the fences so that armed fighters could run through the breach to kill or kidnap Israeli civilians or soldiers. The Israeli military spokesperson, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, said on May 15 that there was “no dilemma” in deciding between “having a lower amount of Palestinian casualties,” and using lethal force in order to “defend Israeli communities immediately behind the [Gaza perimeter fences].”
The government’s April 29 court response elaborated that soldiers could use “potentially lethal force” [PDF] to prevent protesters from breaching the fences and crossing from Gaza to Israel if “the evaluation is that the force is necessary at that time to remove the danger before it is realized, even if the danger itself has not yet become imminent,” and that shooting demonstrators before they reach the fences is justified because if crowds breached them, it would “operationally require live fire on a massive scale.”
In its efforts to justify the use of live ammunition to prevent Palestinians from crossing the fences, the government claimed in court to be following an open-fire policy that does not appear to account for the amounts of live ammunition used. The government stated to Israel’s supreme court [PDF] that the orders only permit “accurate shooting towards the legs of a ‘major agitator or instigator’,” after giving verbal warnings and using non-lethal means to disperse demonstrations, “as a last resort only and subject to stringent requirements” of proportionality. The government stated that the orders do not permit live fire against a person because he is near the fences, took part in demonstrations, or supports Hamas.
In fact, Israeli forces appear to have routinely exceeded these restrictions, firing from behind sand mounds and the fences separating Gaza and Israel at demonstrators in many cases more than 200 meters away.
Netanyahu referred to a May 15 statement by a Hamas leader, Salah al-Bardawil, that 50 of 62 people killed by Israeli forces on May 14 were Hamas members – “in other words, members of a terrorist organization,” Netanyahu said. Israeli military and political officials also claimed that Hamas “strategically placed [civilians] in harm’s way” because graphic media coverage of their injuries would harm Israel’s image. Hamas’s encouragement of and support for the protests and the participation of Hamas members in the protests do not justify the use of live ammunition against protestors who posed no threat to life.
On May 25 Israel’s supreme court rejected petitions by human rights groups against the military’s live-fire orders without applying the clear standard on the use of lethal force set out in international human rights law, and substantially deferring to the government’s discretion. The court’s unwillingness to apply international law and to challenge a policy that authorizes lethal force even when there is no imminent threat to life highlights the importance of the International Criminal Court prosecutor opening a formal investigation into the situation in Palestine.
Palestinians in Gaza are protected persons under the Geneva Conventions. Willful killings of protected persons by the occupying power outside what is permissible under human rights standards would constitute a grave breach of the laws of occupation. The prohibition of war crimes and crimes against humanity can be the basis for individual criminal liability in international courts, as well as in domestic courts in many countries under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
Accounts from Witnesses
In total, from March 30 to June 2, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported that hospitals in Gaza received 530 Palestinians who were wounded in the head or neck, and 311 in the chest or back. News media reported that a 14-year-old girl who had tried to breach the fences with wire-cutters was fatally shot in the head.
The protesters were separated from the soldiers by the two fences and electronic sensors. Protesters had reached and torn down some of the barbed wire fence on April 27, and witnesses at the May 14 protests said that some protesters had cut or damaged sections of the barbed wire fence east of Gaza City, but that none had reached the electric fence beyond it.
One witness said he was aware of a person who had joined the May 14 protests while carrying a firearm, but apparently did not fire it because members of Hamas warned him that doing so could prompt Israeli soldiers to target the area. Another man said that four members of an armed group had attempted to attack Israeli forces east of Jabalya, by concealing guns until they reached the first fence, where they fired at Israeli forces positioned behind sand mounds about 80 meters away, before being shot fatally.
Israeli forces killed at least 17 people in that area on May 14. Israeli concerns that members of armed groups would use the protests as cover to fire at Israeli soldiers or plant explosives near the fences do not justify the repeated use of live ammunition, including with apparent lethal intent, against protesters who posed no imminent lethal threat, Human Rights Watch said.
Witnesses consistently described the positioning of Israeli soldiers across the fences that separate Israel and Gaza, atop large earthen mounds overlooking the area where protesters congregated. The mounds were 10 to 30 meters apart, with 5 to 10 soldiers on each one. The Palestinian rights group Al Mezan reported that Israeli forces entered Gaza at 3 a.m. on May 14 and leveled the land in front of the fences in multiple areas, apparently to eliminate protestors’ cover.
A freelance photojournalist, Mahmoud Abu Salama, 33, was covering demonstrations in an area east of Jabalya called Abu Safiyya, in the northern Gaza Strip, about 200 meters from the fences, where he saw a man shot in the groin at around noon on May 14, and a boy shot in the leg at about 3:30 p.m. Human Rights Watch has a photo he took of the boy. Abu Salama said:
I still hear the voices of people who were screaming after being shot. One man was launching stones with a slingshot, he was just a meter-and-a-half from me when he was shot in the groin. He was bleeding so badly that the paramedics didn’t know how to deal with him, his face color went between yellow and blue. The boy was also close to me when he was shot in his leg. I saw him while he was escaping from the teargas and running away with his back to the fence when they shot him.
Mohammad Meqdad, 39, a civil defense worker, spoke to Human Rights Watch while awaiting surgery at al-Shifa hospital on May 15. Wearing an orange, reflective vest, like other civil defense workers, he had been evacuating wounded people east of Gaza City to ambulances throughout the morning on May 14, he said. At around 1:30 p.m., he was walking back toward the fences after evacuating a casualty, and was about 300 meters away when he was shot in the leg:
My face was toward the fence. I was able to see soldiers on hills of sand and those hills were higher [on May 14] than they were on previous protest days. On each of the hills, there were about 10 soldiers. There were guys closer to the fence who were burning tires, chanting for Jerusalem, and throwing stones, but others were shot who were much farther away. The last people I evacuated before I was shot were three women, all in their late 20s, who were shot in the neck or in the head. They had been carrying flags and chanting, they were in a group of women that was about 150 meters from the fence, behind a group of men who were closer than they were to the fence. I evacuated one, and then another got shot, and then the other, over 5 or 10 minutes. One of them died immediately, but I don’t know what happened to the other two.
Mohaweya al-Ay, a 20-year-old student from the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, spoke to Human Rights Watch on May 17, after surgery at al-Shifa hospital. He said that he had been helping three civil defense workers evacuate wounded protesters east of Gaza City at 1 p.m. on May 14 when Israeli forces fatally shot one of the civil defense workers, Mousa Abu Hassanein, in the chest. They were about 200 meters from the fences at the time, al-Ay said.
A Canadian doctor, Tarek Loubani, told Human Rights Watch that Abu Hassanein had helped rescue him when he was shot in the legs about an hour before Abu Hassanein was killed. The Palestinian rights group Al Mezan reported that four paramedics were shot with live ammunition on May 14.
On June 1, Israeli forces shot Razan al-Najjar in the chest, while the 21-year-old volunteer paramedic was wearing a white coat and treating wounded people at that day’s protest. The Israeli army has said “no shots were deliberately or directly aimed towards her.”
Al-Ay was shot in the back later that afternoon in the same area, while he was trying to reach a young man who had been shot, who he later learned was an 18-year-old named Ahmad al-Zarqa:
I saw a man was bleeding and walked toward him slowly. My back was toward the fence, no one was around me, throwing stones or anything else. Then a bullet hit my back from the right side and exited through my chest. I was about 200 meters away from the fence. There were no ambulances, they couldn’t come to us because of the shooting. Two civil defense men were near me and pulled me behind a wall [for cover from gunfire], and another guy took my phone and called my family.
Al-Ay said that he did not burn tires or throw stones. Israeli forces in that area had begun firing earlier in the day on a group of protesters who had reached the barbed-wire fence, tied a rope to it, and begun to pull it away, he said: “No one reached the electric fence. There were a large number of martyrs. The soldiers were on high hills of dirt and the first shootings were toward the top of people’s heads.”
The International Federation of Journalists identified nine journalists who were wounded on May 14, including photojournalist Farhan Abu Hadayed, 26, who was shot at around noon. He and two other witnesses, whom Human Rights Watch interviewed separately, said that he was about 150 meters from the fences wearing a flak jacket marked “Press” when he was shot in the leg. Abu Hadayed said that about 15 journalists had begun to follow a large group of demonstrators who were walking in the direction of the fences when “without any prior warning, and no firing of tear gas, they shot four people in the legs, and I was the fifth.”
A freelance photojournalist, Mohammad Qandil, said he also saw the shooting and held onto Abu Hadayed’s camera when he was evacuated to an ambulance. Abu Hadayed had gone to the protests with Ramzi al-Shakhreet, the supervisor at his media company, Truth Pioneers Network. Al-Shakreet, 34, said he was five meters away when Abu Hadayed was shot, and that “there was a clear line of sight from him to the soldiers at the fence. He was shot while he was taking photos.”
Al-Shakhreet also told Human Rights Watch that he saw two other protesters shot at around 1 p.m. A man in his 50s had approached to within 15 meters of the steel fence, waving a Palestinian flag, when he was shot in the head and apparently died instantly. A man in his mid-20s was about 150 meters from the fences when he was shot in the left leg: “He was seven or eight meters from me, I was to his right side, and he was shot while standing in the middle of the group of protesters, not doing anything except watching,” said al-Shakreet.
On April 6, Israeli forces had fatally shot another journalist, Yasser Murtaja, in the abdomen between 1:30 and 2:30 in the afternoon while he was covering demonstrations east of Khan Yunis. Another journalist, Muthana al-Najar, said that Murtaja “stepped forward to film someone who was injured on the ground, he had just turned to his right when he was shot in the left side of his waist.” Al-Najar said that there was thick smoke near the fences because protesters had been burning tires, but that he had a clear view of some snipers on a hill of dirt on the opposite side of the fences. Murtaja was more than 200 meters from the fences and was wearing a vest marked “Press” when he was shot. Murtaja was holding a digital camera and had told al-Najar he was filming a documentary about the weekly demonstrations. The Israeli military has opened an internal inquiry into some specific deaths, including Murtaja’s.
Human Rights Watch interviewed Abd el-Rahman Abu Qamar, a 14-year-old boy, at his bedside at al-Shifa hospital on May 17.
He said he was running away from teargas and shooting and was about 200 meters from the fences east of Gaza City when he was shot in the leg at about 2 p.m. on May 14. His brother, Malek, 18, who went with his brother to the demonstration, said they were in a large group “chanting for Jerusalem.” Malek said Israeli forces fired on the group and he hit the ground to avoid the bullets, and then saw a paramedic and a civil defense worker evacuating Abd el-Rahman.
Defense for Children International-Palestine reported the names of six boys and a girl who were killed with live ammunition on May 14, the youngest being 13-year-old Izz al-Samak. Five were shot in the head or neck, and two in the abdomen.
Samer Nasser, 23, said he was part of a group east of Jabalya that was throwing stones and trying to approach the barbed-wire fence to cut it with wire-cutters when a man near him was shot in the arm. Nasser had driven a “tuk tuk,” a three-wheeled motorized vehicle, to the area. He loaded the wounded man onto it and was driving away to reach medical treatment when Israeli forces “started shooting heavily,” Nasser said. “The injured man in my tuk tuk was shot again in the head and immediately died, and I was shot in the thigh. I was bleeding for 15 minutes, and had to crawl until I reached a woman who helped me.”
Human Rights Watch obtained a video from another Gaza resident, Jamil Barakat, who said he filmed the woman who helped Nasser. In the video she is shown seeking cover behind a rock, gesturing to Nasser and encouraging him to crawl toward her. Barakat was also taking shelter behind the rock. “We were luckily not shot, but we were unable to move forward or backward for half an hour because they opened fire at us,” Barakat said. Barakat confirmed that the wounded man whom Nasser had put on his tuk tuk died before he could be evacuated. Nasser said that he participated in the demonstration to protest the US embassy move to Jerusalem (which happened on the same day as the 14 May protest), and Israel’s closure of Gaza.
Maher Harara, a 48-year-old from al-Shujaiya, a neighborhood east of Gaza City, said he saw a woman’s finger shot off as she was making a victory sign while facing the fences east of Gaza City at around 1 p.m. on May 14. She was about 40 meters from the fences. Harara was himself shot a few hours later. He had attended each of the protests since March 30 without being injured but was shot in his left leg at about 5 p.m. on May 14 in the same area, 40 meters from the fences: “I was not holding anything, even my mobile phone was in my pocket, and I was standing by myself, but maybe they shot me because I was wearing black trousers and a black t-shirt so they thought I was a leader, but I wasn’t.”
An 18-year-old youth said he was shot in the ankle in the Malaka area east of Gaza City, about 30 meters from the fences, in the afternoon of May 14:
There were about 50 people in front of me, they were the front group of protesters. I was watching them. Suddenly I fell down on the ground, shot in the leg. I was completely peaceful, doing nothing, just there because of the situation [the opening of the US embassy] in Jerusalem. I stood behind the main group assuming that would be safe, but they hit me.
Around me there were a few guys throwing stones, and others burning tires, flying kites, and using slingshots. I also saw an old man get shot in his leg, he was 15 meters in front of me toward the fence, but also just standing and watching.
12 june 2018
A senior councillor in South Africa's Johannesburg city was suspended on Tuesday by the mayor after she made a public declaration that the city was a "friend" of Israel.
Mpho Phalatse, a councillor in charge of health, said at a weekend pro-Israel event, "I would like to declare that I am a friend of Israel and the city of Johannesburg is a friend of Israel," according to a video of her speech.
Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba later announced that he had decided to suspend Phalatse pending an investigation into the "full and proper context in which those remarks were made".
Phalatse is a member of South Africa's main opposition Democratic Alliance which is in power in the city of Johannesburg. The party supports a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Last month, South Africa recalled its ambassador to Israel after the Israeli forces killed 62 Palestinians during peaceful protests against the US embassy transfer to Jerusalem.
The country said in a statement that the decision was made given the "indiscriminate and grave manner of the latest Israeli attack".
Mpho Phalatse, a councillor in charge of health, said at a weekend pro-Israel event, "I would like to declare that I am a friend of Israel and the city of Johannesburg is a friend of Israel," according to a video of her speech.
Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba later announced that he had decided to suspend Phalatse pending an investigation into the "full and proper context in which those remarks were made".
Phalatse is a member of South Africa's main opposition Democratic Alliance which is in power in the city of Johannesburg. The party supports a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Last month, South Africa recalled its ambassador to Israel after the Israeli forces killed 62 Palestinians during peaceful protests against the US embassy transfer to Jerusalem.
The country said in a statement that the decision was made given the "indiscriminate and grave manner of the latest Israeli attack".
11 june 2018
Following the events in Gaza, more and more local authorities in Spain take a hard line against Israel; in Oveido, several events have been cancelled; Valencia passed a decision to become a place 'clean from Israeli apartheid'; leader of radical Left party: Israel is 'illegal.'
The city of Oviedo, the capital of Spain's Asturias region, has decided to cancel a concert of Israel's NK Orchestra, citing political reasons.
The local producer of the concert, which was set to take place in Oviedo this fall, received an official notice from the municipality saying the event's cancellation was the result of a political decision not to hold Israeli activity in the city.
Oviedo also cancelled an Israeli ballet performance.
The Oviedo municipality used to be very friendly towards Israel, but over the past three years it has been governed by a left-wing coalition, which includes extreme left partners. Now, the Israeli Embassy in Madrid reports a lack of cooperation from the city.
This time, however, the Israeli Embassy wasn't involved in the planning or funding of the orchestra concert.
This incident is part of a broader trend that the Israeli Embassy has been witnessing in Spain in different aspects—municipal, cultural and academic—which is gaining momentum in light of recent events in Gaza and political changes in the country: the dismissal of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy by a vote of no confidence and the appointment of a new leader, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, from the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (SWP).
The socialists, in order to survive, have to keep the support of their coalition partners—the radical left-wing Podemos party, which has been at the forefront of all Israeli boycott initiatives in municipalities all across Spain and is demanding a tough line against Israel from the government.
The municipality of Valencia, also governed by a left-wing coalition made up of the Podemos party and the SWP, has approved at the beginning of the month a decision to declare itself as a place “clean from the Israeli apartheid,” which will boycott Israel both culturally and economically.
During the vote, 17 out 33 municipality members supported the decision, while 16 opposed. The official proposal expressed solidarity and complete support for the Palestinians while vehemently criticized Israel.
The Israeli Embassy has held talks with the SWP representatives to scrap the move but the talks collapsed. The deputy mayor told the embassy’s representatives that the images coming out of Gaza have swayed the public opinion against Israel.
Eventually, following great pressure from the radical left, the proposal was passed by a small margin of one voice. The municipality’s decision is very concerning for Israel, especially Israeli firms that operate in the city, although so far the decision has no practical meaning.
Sources in the embassy warn that soon other municipalities might follow suit.
The previous Spanish government has taken measures against the phenomenon, but over the past few years, dozens of Spanish cities adopted policies boycotting Israel amid pressure from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS).
However, following the actions of pro-Israeli organizations, including court petitions or threats of lawsuits, the decisions have been reverted in 24 cities.
Pablo Iglesias Turrión, the leader of Podemos—the third largest Spanish party—told a TV station that Israel is a criminal state, “Spain needs to act more decisively against an illegal state like Israel...Our party defines the existence of Israel as illegitimate,” Turrión asserted.
One pro-Israeli group in Spain said that Turrión’s sentiments are anti-Semitic since his party does not call any other state besides Israel as “illegal.” The organization announced they have filed a lawsuit against the municipality of Valencia.
The Spanish courts, including the Supreme Court, have dismissed 16 anti-Israeli boycott decisions that were passed at a municipal level. Additional seven municipalities have reversed the decision voluntarily.
The city of Oviedo, the capital of Spain's Asturias region, has decided to cancel a concert of Israel's NK Orchestra, citing political reasons.
The local producer of the concert, which was set to take place in Oviedo this fall, received an official notice from the municipality saying the event's cancellation was the result of a political decision not to hold Israeli activity in the city.
Oviedo also cancelled an Israeli ballet performance.
The Oviedo municipality used to be very friendly towards Israel, but over the past three years it has been governed by a left-wing coalition, which includes extreme left partners. Now, the Israeli Embassy in Madrid reports a lack of cooperation from the city.
This time, however, the Israeli Embassy wasn't involved in the planning or funding of the orchestra concert.
This incident is part of a broader trend that the Israeli Embassy has been witnessing in Spain in different aspects—municipal, cultural and academic—which is gaining momentum in light of recent events in Gaza and political changes in the country: the dismissal of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy by a vote of no confidence and the appointment of a new leader, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, from the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (SWP).
The socialists, in order to survive, have to keep the support of their coalition partners—the radical left-wing Podemos party, which has been at the forefront of all Israeli boycott initiatives in municipalities all across Spain and is demanding a tough line against Israel from the government.
The municipality of Valencia, also governed by a left-wing coalition made up of the Podemos party and the SWP, has approved at the beginning of the month a decision to declare itself as a place “clean from the Israeli apartheid,” which will boycott Israel both culturally and economically.
During the vote, 17 out 33 municipality members supported the decision, while 16 opposed. The official proposal expressed solidarity and complete support for the Palestinians while vehemently criticized Israel.
The Israeli Embassy has held talks with the SWP representatives to scrap the move but the talks collapsed. The deputy mayor told the embassy’s representatives that the images coming out of Gaza have swayed the public opinion against Israel.
Eventually, following great pressure from the radical left, the proposal was passed by a small margin of one voice. The municipality’s decision is very concerning for Israel, especially Israeli firms that operate in the city, although so far the decision has no practical meaning.
Sources in the embassy warn that soon other municipalities might follow suit.
The previous Spanish government has taken measures against the phenomenon, but over the past few years, dozens of Spanish cities adopted policies boycotting Israel amid pressure from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS).
However, following the actions of pro-Israeli organizations, including court petitions or threats of lawsuits, the decisions have been reverted in 24 cities.
Pablo Iglesias Turrión, the leader of Podemos—the third largest Spanish party—told a TV station that Israel is a criminal state, “Spain needs to act more decisively against an illegal state like Israel...Our party defines the existence of Israel as illegitimate,” Turrión asserted.
One pro-Israeli group in Spain said that Turrión’s sentiments are anti-Semitic since his party does not call any other state besides Israel as “illegal.” The organization announced they have filed a lawsuit against the municipality of Valencia.
The Spanish courts, including the Supreme Court, have dismissed 16 anti-Israeli boycott decisions that were passed at a municipal level. Additional seven municipalities have reversed the decision voluntarily.
9 june 2018
The United Nations General Assembly is scheduled to hold what was described as an “urgent meeting,” next Wednesday, to discuss the Israeli escalation against the Palestinian protesters in the Gaza Strip.
General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak sent a letter for the 193 member states, informing them of the scheduled meeting, the Maan News Agency has reported.
The assembly will be voting on a draft proposal condemning Israel for its ongoing violations against the nonviolent protesters in the Gaza Strip.
The vote is like the one which was submitted by Kuwait, last week, asking for providing the Palestinians with international protection but was struck down by a Veto from the United States, Palestinian UN ambassador Riyad Mansour said.
Mansour added that the ongoing Israeli escalation, and the repeated excessive use of fatal force against unarmed protesters, requires the International Community to act, and provide the urgently-needed protection to the Palestinian people.
During last week’s vote, the United States was the only country that opposed it, by using its Veto power, while ten countries of the 15-member council, voted for the resolution, and four others abstained.
|Dr. Ashrawi: “US Veto Absolute Proof Of Moral Corruption”|
General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak sent a letter for the 193 member states, informing them of the scheduled meeting, the Maan News Agency has reported.
The assembly will be voting on a draft proposal condemning Israel for its ongoing violations against the nonviolent protesters in the Gaza Strip.
The vote is like the one which was submitted by Kuwait, last week, asking for providing the Palestinians with international protection but was struck down by a Veto from the United States, Palestinian UN ambassador Riyad Mansour said.
Mansour added that the ongoing Israeli escalation, and the repeated excessive use of fatal force against unarmed protesters, requires the International Community to act, and provide the urgently-needed protection to the Palestinian people.
During last week’s vote, the United States was the only country that opposed it, by using its Veto power, while ten countries of the 15-member council, voted for the resolution, and four others abstained.
|Dr. Ashrawi: “US Veto Absolute Proof Of Moral Corruption”|
8 june 2018
Britain's foreign minister Boris Johnson called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to initiate an independent probe into the deaths of over a hundred Palestinians by Israeli troops during The Great March of Return on the Gaza border over the past months.
In a meeting with Netanyahu during his visit to London on Wednesday, Johnson said that the UK was concerned about the deteriorating situation in Gaza.
“We are very concerned by the deaths of over 120 Palestinians in recent weeks and the deteriorating situation in Gaza,” Johnson told Netanyahu, urging Israel to “carry out a transparent, independent inquiry into the loss of more than 120 Palestinian lives during the recent Gaza protests, as well as over 10,000 injuries.”
Netanyahu’s visit to London followed stops in Paris on Tuesday and Berlin on Monday.
On Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed "grave concern over threats to prospects for peace", referring the the violent protests, and condemned “any form of violence toward civilians and in particular, these past few weeks in Gaza.”
On Monday, Netanyahu said he discussed with German Chancellor Angela Merkel ways to alleviate Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, with Merkel offering to "help with economic support for the Gaza population."
Earlier last week, the UN Human Rights Council voted last month to send a team of international war crimes investigators to probe the deadly shootings of Gaza protesters by Israeli forces.
In a meeting with Netanyahu during his visit to London on Wednesday, Johnson said that the UK was concerned about the deteriorating situation in Gaza.
“We are very concerned by the deaths of over 120 Palestinians in recent weeks and the deteriorating situation in Gaza,” Johnson told Netanyahu, urging Israel to “carry out a transparent, independent inquiry into the loss of more than 120 Palestinian lives during the recent Gaza protests, as well as over 10,000 injuries.”
Netanyahu’s visit to London followed stops in Paris on Tuesday and Berlin on Monday.
On Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed "grave concern over threats to prospects for peace", referring the the violent protests, and condemned “any form of violence toward civilians and in particular, these past few weeks in Gaza.”
On Monday, Netanyahu said he discussed with German Chancellor Angela Merkel ways to alleviate Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, with Merkel offering to "help with economic support for the Gaza population."
Earlier last week, the UN Human Rights Council voted last month to send a team of international war crimes investigators to probe the deadly shootings of Gaza protesters by Israeli forces.
5 june 2018
Public security minister says IDF snipers should shoot Palestinians in Gaza as they fly incendiary kites across the border into Israel; 'The IDF's targeted assassinations must also apply to these kite-flyers.'
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said Tuesday that Israeli snipers should shoot Palestinians in Gaza who are spotted flying incendiary kites over the border into Israel.
Palestinians are sending kites dangling coal embers or burning rags across the Gaza border to set fire to farmland and forests, in a new tactic that an Israeli minister said should be countered with "targeted assassinations".
"I expect the IDF to handle these kite-flyers exactly as they would any terrorist, and the IDF's targeted assassinations must also apply to these kite-flyers," Erdan said.
Israel has drafted in civilian drone enthusiasts as army reservists, instructing them to fly their remote-controlled aircraft into the kites, an Israeli general said.
"If their drone ends up getting lost in the process, we compensate them," the general told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The army has also fitted larger surveillance drones with weighted fishing lines or blades that can snag or slash kite strings in mid-air, the general said.
But he acknowledged the limitations of such measures, saying: "We'll probably end up having to shoot kite-flyers too."
According to Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, 600 such kites have been sent from the strip so far, while 400 have been intercepted by Israeli security forces using technological means.
“Two-hundred succeeded in reaching our territory and they burned 9,000 dunams of crops and forests,” Lieberman said on Monday, adding that Israel would not accept the kites as a daily norm.
"It began spontaneously. We never thought we would achieve such good results," said Shadi, one of five Palestinian teenagers preparing kites with fabric dipped in diesel and lubricant oil in a Gaza field.
"The idea is simple: use the simplest tools to cause damage and losses on the Occupation (Israel)," said Shadi, 19, wearing a "V for Vendetta" mask favored by protesters in many parts of the world and who, like the others, declined to give his last name.
No one has been hurt by the fires, but some 2,250 acres (910 hectares) of fields and nature reserves, already parched after a dry winter, have been burned by flames stoked by Mediterranean winds, causing $2.5 million in damage, Israel's government said.
Daniel Ben-David, a forestry official for Israel's quasi-governmental Jewish National Fund, said some kites had been decorated with swastikas or the Palestinian national colours, but more recently were made of transparent nylon sheeting.
Some had leaflets attached. "Prepare for a scorching summer," read one, in Hebrew.
In Gaza, kite-maker Shadi said his group had never used swastikas on their kites. He confirmed that transparent plastic was the best material as it made the kites almost invisible against the sky.
Even if the protests wind down, he and others will continue to send the kites—some of which carry the photos of Palestinians killed in the demonstrations—he said.
"Each kite costs us 10 shekels ($2.80). We pay it for it out of our own pockets," Shadi said.
A senior White House envoy, Jason Greenblatt, described the kites as "not harmless playthings or metaphors for freedom (but) propaganda and indiscriminate weapons".
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said Tuesday that Israeli snipers should shoot Palestinians in Gaza who are spotted flying incendiary kites over the border into Israel.
Palestinians are sending kites dangling coal embers or burning rags across the Gaza border to set fire to farmland and forests, in a new tactic that an Israeli minister said should be countered with "targeted assassinations".
"I expect the IDF to handle these kite-flyers exactly as they would any terrorist, and the IDF's targeted assassinations must also apply to these kite-flyers," Erdan said.
Israel has drafted in civilian drone enthusiasts as army reservists, instructing them to fly their remote-controlled aircraft into the kites, an Israeli general said.
"If their drone ends up getting lost in the process, we compensate them," the general told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The army has also fitted larger surveillance drones with weighted fishing lines or blades that can snag or slash kite strings in mid-air, the general said.
But he acknowledged the limitations of such measures, saying: "We'll probably end up having to shoot kite-flyers too."
According to Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, 600 such kites have been sent from the strip so far, while 400 have been intercepted by Israeli security forces using technological means.
“Two-hundred succeeded in reaching our territory and they burned 9,000 dunams of crops and forests,” Lieberman said on Monday, adding that Israel would not accept the kites as a daily norm.
"It began spontaneously. We never thought we would achieve such good results," said Shadi, one of five Palestinian teenagers preparing kites with fabric dipped in diesel and lubricant oil in a Gaza field.
"The idea is simple: use the simplest tools to cause damage and losses on the Occupation (Israel)," said Shadi, 19, wearing a "V for Vendetta" mask favored by protesters in many parts of the world and who, like the others, declined to give his last name.
No one has been hurt by the fires, but some 2,250 acres (910 hectares) of fields and nature reserves, already parched after a dry winter, have been burned by flames stoked by Mediterranean winds, causing $2.5 million in damage, Israel's government said.
Daniel Ben-David, a forestry official for Israel's quasi-governmental Jewish National Fund, said some kites had been decorated with swastikas or the Palestinian national colours, but more recently were made of transparent nylon sheeting.
Some had leaflets attached. "Prepare for a scorching summer," read one, in Hebrew.
In Gaza, kite-maker Shadi said his group had never used swastikas on their kites. He confirmed that transparent plastic was the best material as it made the kites almost invisible against the sky.
Even if the protests wind down, he and others will continue to send the kites—some of which carry the photos of Palestinians killed in the demonstrations—he said.
"Each kite costs us 10 shekels ($2.80). We pay it for it out of our own pockets," Shadi said.
A senior White House envoy, Jason Greenblatt, described the kites as "not harmless playthings or metaphors for freedom (but) propaganda and indiscriminate weapons".
4 june 2018
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday instructed the head of the National Security Council Meir Ben-Shabbat to move forward plans to deduct funds from the monthly tax revenues transferred to the Palestinian Authority (PA), Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
The Hebrew newspaper said that the funds withheld will be used to compensate the farmers of the Israeli settlements neighboring the Gaza Strip for the damages caused in their lands by fires sparked by burning kites sent from the costal enclave.
According to the paper, this move came after several large fires broke out on Sunday in Israeli settlements bordering the Gaza Strip. Fire-fighting teams used special aircraft to prevent the blaze from spreading to other areas.
The Israeli government claimed that damages so far are estimated at millions of shekels after over 250,000 dunums of land were burned. The government said that numbers are expected to increase since kite attacks are witnessed on a daily basis.
The Hebrew newspaper said that the funds withheld will be used to compensate the farmers of the Israeli settlements neighboring the Gaza Strip for the damages caused in their lands by fires sparked by burning kites sent from the costal enclave.
According to the paper, this move came after several large fires broke out on Sunday in Israeli settlements bordering the Gaza Strip. Fire-fighting teams used special aircraft to prevent the blaze from spreading to other areas.
The Israeli government claimed that damages so far are estimated at millions of shekels after over 250,000 dunums of land were burned. The government said that numbers are expected to increase since kite attacks are witnessed on a daily basis.
3 june 2018
Mohamed Hamada 30
A Palestinian young man was pronounced dead at dawn Sunday after he succumbed to a serious bullet injury he suffered several days ago east of the Gaza border.
According a spokesman for the health ministry, 30-year-old Mohamed Hamada died of a serious bullet injury he sustained when an Israeli sniper shot him during his participation in a March of Return protest held on May 14 east of Gaza.
Since the March of Return border rallies in Gaza started in March 30, dozens of Palestinian protesters, paramedics, journalists and farmers have been killed or died later of injuries.
More than 13 others have also suffered different injuries and about 300 of them are in critical condition. video
A Palestinian young man was pronounced dead at dawn Sunday after he succumbed to a serious bullet injury he suffered several days ago east of the Gaza border.
According a spokesman for the health ministry, 30-year-old Mohamed Hamada died of a serious bullet injury he sustained when an Israeli sniper shot him during his participation in a March of Return protest held on May 14 east of Gaza.
Since the March of Return border rallies in Gaza started in March 30, dozens of Palestinian protesters, paramedics, journalists and farmers have been killed or died later of injuries.
More than 13 others have also suffered different injuries and about 300 of them are in critical condition. video
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