UN rights chief urges end to killings in West Bank

GENEVA

The UN human rights chief on Tuesday urged for an end to killings in the West Bank by Israeli forces.

On Saturday, Israeli forces shot dead 16-year-old Ahmed Ashraf Hamidat and critically wounded 17-year-old Mohammed Musa Al Bitar near Aqabat Jaber refugee camp, Jericho. Al Bitar died the following day, according to the human rights office.

Their deaths, along with the killings of four more Palestinians by the Israeli army on Monday, took the number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank to 505 since Oct. 7.

"As if the tragic events in Israel and then Gaza over the past eight months were not enough, the people of the occupied West Bank are also being subjected to day-after-day of unprecedented bloodshed. It is unfathomable that so many lives have been taken in such a wanton fashion," Volker Turk said in a statement.

"The killing, destruction and widespread human rights violations are unacceptable, and must cease immediately," Turk said. "Israel must not only adopt but enforce rules of engagement that are fully in line with applicable human rights norms and standards."

He stressed that any allegation of unlawful killings must be "thoroughly and independently" investigated and those responsible held to account.

"Pervasive impunity for such crimes has been commonplace for far too long in the occupied West Bank. Such impunity has created an enabling environment for more and more unlawful killings by the ISF," he warned, referring to the Israeli Security Forces by initials.

The office noted that ISF has often used "lethal force as a first resort" against Palestinian protesters throwing stones, incendiary bottles, and firecrackers at ISF armored vehicles, in cases where those shot "clearly did not represent an imminent threat to life."

The prevalence of Palestinians who died after being shot in the upper part of the body, along with a pattern of the denial of medical assistance to those injured, suggests "intent to kill in violation of the right to life, rather than a graduated application of force and an attempt to de-escalate tense situations," it said.

"Fatality verification and in-depth monitoring of over 80 cases by the UN Human Rights Office indicates consistent violations of international human rights law on the use of force by the ISF through unnecessary and disproportionate use of lethal force and an increase in apparently planned targeted killings," said Turk.

He added: "They also show the systematic denial or delaying of medical assistance to those critically injured."

Since Oct. 7, "despite the absence of armed hostilities in the occupied West Bank," the Israeli army has carried out at least 29 military operations, involving airstrikes by unmanned aerial vehicles or planes and the firing of ground-to-ground missiles on refugee camps and other densely populated areas, according to the human rights office.

Tensions have been running high across the West Bank since Israel launched a deadly military offensive against the Gaza Strip after an attack by the Hamas group on Oct. 7, 2023.

Israel stands accused of “genocide” at the International Court of Justice, which in its latest ruling has ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war.