Let us consider five episodes during which Palestinians were killed recently in the West Bank.

Friday July 23th  Israeli forces entered Nabi Saleh located northwest of Ramallah around 5 p.m. from the eastern area of the village. As they moved through the village, they encountered Palestinian residents. Confrontations followed with Palestinian youth throwing stones and Israeli soldiers firing tear gas, stun grenades, and live ammunitionIsraeli forces shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian boy Mohammad Munir Mohammad Tamimi. The bullet entered his back and exited out through his abdomen, tearing a large hole and exposing his intestines, according to information collected by Defence for Children International – Palestine. Mohammad was taken in a private car to a hospital in Salfit where he underwent four hours of surgery. He was stabilized and moved to the intensive care unit, but later succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead around midnight.

Tuesday July 27^th 41-year-old Shadi Shurafi, a plumber went to check the village’s main water valve near the entrance of Beita (Nablus). He had a wrench in his hand. After finishing, he was heading home. He was shot dead by Israeli soldiers near the pumping station. He was alone and there were no other Palestinians around at that time.  He was a father of four – his son Leith aged 13 and three other younger children.

Wednesday July 28th  A 12-year-old Palestinian, Mohammed al-Alami was killed by IDF gunfire in the West Bank town of Beit Ummar’ north of Hebron.  He was subsequently rushed to hospital in Hebron and was later declared dead.  Mohammed’s father, Muayyad, was taking his children in the pickup for a picnic with 5-year-old Ahmed in front, 10-year-old Anan and 11-year-old Mohammed in the back.  They had shopped for snacks at the grocery store and were heading out of the village when Mohammed asked his father to turn back because they had forgotten some item. As he reversed near the hill which held Israeli soldiers, to head back to the village, the pickup was struck by 13 bullets fired by the soldiers. One of the bullets struck Mohammed in the chest. The others were just lucky to survive.

Thursday July 29th  A 20-year-old Palestinian man died hours after being shot by Israeli forces during the funeral of 12-year-old Mohammed al-Alami, who was killed the day before, also by Israeli military gunfire. He was one of the pallbearers carrying Mohammed’s body. He too was shot by soldiers, who opened fire during the funeral. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, Shawkat Awad sustained gunshot wounds to his abdomen and head and was taken in a critical condition to a hospital in Hebron, where he died.

Friday Aug 6th  38-year-old Imad Duikat, a labourer, had been among hundreds of fellow villagers of Beita who gathered every Friday across from Evyatar, an illegal outpost whose settlers have left for the time being but the  dwellings are still there, intact. He was drinking water from a disposable cup when he was shot. It was about 2.30 p.m. when an IDF soldier took up his rifle and fired just one round – a .22 calibre “tutu” bullet – into Duikat’s chest. Blood spurted out of his mouth; the bullet did not exit. His infant son Ali, and his four sisters, will never see him again. 

These killings categorically show that the Israeli defence forces are operating a ‘shoot to kill’ policy. None of those killed endangered the soldiers who killed them. They were not terrorists but civilians. These five executions left behind grieving families, widowed women, orphaned children and distraught parents, shattering dreams and hopes. They were deliberately targeted by soldiers choosing shooting to kill as the preferred option. In all cases other options were available: arrests, aiming for the legs, not shooting, or simply letting the people be.

Gideon Levy rightly wrote, “All this can be called terror; there is no other definition. All this can be called the actions of death squads; there is no other description. It sounds horrible, but it really is horrific.”

According to the Israeli open-fire regulations, live ammunition may be fired in two situations only. First, shooting to kill is permitted when the lives of members of the security forces or other individuals are in danger. Even then, the use of firearms is only permitted if there is no other way to avert the danger, but only against the assailants themselves. Second, members of the security forces may only shoot at a person’s legs, as the last phase in an attempt to arrest the person in question, only after they have given warning and fired in the air, and only when no one else is in danger of getting hurt.

In using firearms in the Occupied Territories, Israel’s actions are also subject to the provisions of international humanitarian law. These allow security forces to open fire even under non-life-threatening situations. However, and most importantly, they restrict the actions of security forces so as to protect civilians who are not taking part in the fighting, and their property, as much as possible.

However these rules are entirely ignored by the Israeli armed forces despite claiming otherwise.   Soldiers have often fired indiscriminately, hitting passers-by; they targets civilians deliberately and they use firearms without ensuring sufficient distinction between armed groups and civilians.

In order to promote accountability, the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem regularly wrote to the Military Advocate General (MAG) Corps to conduct investigations for cases in which security forces harmed Palestinians.  But thousands of casualties have been largely ignored by the military law enforcement system. In most cases, no investigation was opened at all; in the rare cases that were investigated, no further action was taken. Other than a handful of cases, usually involving low-ranking soldiers, no one has been put on trial for harming Palestinians. Frustrated with this, B’Tselem ceased to demand investigations from MAG Corps in May 2016.

Shockingly, the day after the killing of  Mohammed al-Alami, Israeli soldiers raided the headquarters  of the Palestine branch of the Defence for Children International NGO  in El Bireh, and stole six desktop computers, two laptops, one external hard drive and a few binders. These contained all the evidence that the organisation had collected on the  killing.

More than 40 Palestinians have been killed there since the beginning of the year. The increase in the number of Palestinians killed this year – almost twice as many as in every other recent year – is due to a combination of circumstances such as the May uprisings against the Al-Aqsa intrusions, the evictions in Sheikh Jarrah and attacks on Gaza. According to United Nations, in the period covering July 13^th to 26th, overall, Israeli forces injured 615 Palestinians across the West Bank, including 24 children, the youngest of whom is a three-month-old baby.

The responsibility for these shootings lies squarely with the head of Central Command, Maj. Gen. Tomer Yadai and Israel Defence Forces Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi. When he was appointed as Israel Defence Forces Chief of Staff two and a half years ago, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi said, “Our goal is fielding a lethal army.” He appointed Yadai who has now been removed because there was a call for his sacking because of the multiple incidents of killings of Palestinians. He was replaced by Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fuchs, the new head of Central Command, who still threatens Palestinians with the use of “trained lethal forces without hesitation.”

The Editorial in Haartez of August 4^th 2021 said, “IDF soldiers’ quick trigger fingers are a badge of shame for the army and the lethal chief of staff who heads it. The IDF has proven to be a thug against people smaller and weaker than itself. Only utter contempt for Palestinian lives could explain such a bloody harvest.”

The whole of the Israeli media have just looked away and not reported on these killings, except for Haaretz. Their two veteran journalists Gideon Levy and Amira Hass have courageously investigated some of the incidents and have called for accountability.

To quote Gideon Levy, “It could be less horrific if the Israeli media bothered to report on it, possibly shocking Israelis. It could be much less horrific if IDF commanders took the necessary steps given their army’s murderous recklessness. But most of the media believed that the killing of a child interests no one or is unimportant, or both, so this shocking incident wasn’t reported on. If the soldiers had shot a dog – also a shocking act, of course – it would have attracted more attention. But a dead Palestinian child? What happened? Why should it interest anyone, why is it important?”

It would also be less horrific if the British and American media reported on the killing of innocent Palestinians. But they remain silent, discrediting their defence of human rights across the world.

Image: IDF soldiers. Source: IDF Soldiers Prepare Near Israeli-Syrian Border. Author: Israel Defense Forces, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.