Ref: 68/2018
Date: 30 June 2018
Press Release,
Two Palestinians were killed – including a child – and 415 injured as the Israeli occupation forces continues to target peaceful demonstrators in Gaza Strip.
The International Commission to Support Palestinians’ Rights (ICSPR) strongly condemns the Israeli occupation forces continuous targeting of the Palestinians who participated in the peaceful demonstrations for the 13th consecutive Friday (the Friday of “from Gaza to the West bank”).
The International Commission to Support Palestinians’ Rights (ICSPR) reiterates its strong condemnation of the Israeli crimes committed against the demonstrators participating in the return marches. The Israeli occupation forces deliberately since Friday noon 29 June 2018 until 20:00 local time, employed violent response by the use of excessive and lethal armed force against the demonstrators, killing two of the citizens ( Yasser Amjad Musa Abu al-Naja, 12 yr), who was killed by a live bullet in the head east of Khuza’a, and (Mohammed Fawzi Mohammed al-Hamaydeh, 24 yr), who was killed by a live bullet in the abdomen east of Rafah, and injured 415 others.
Among the injuries were 11 children, 3 women, 3 paramedics, a journalist and dozens with suffocation as a result of the repression and aggression by the Israeli occupation forces against peaceful demonstrations in different parts of the occupied West Bank cities and villages, in response to the invitation to participate in the Friday “from Gaza to the West Bank, a unity of blood and common destiny”.
Throughout the past week, the Israeli occupation forces have intensified the targeting of balloons and kites’ flyers, in an attempt to kill them and prevent them from expressing their opinion, after a large campaign directed to justify targeting them under the pretense that these kites have became military targets.
During the period between March 30, 2018 and June 28, 2018, the occupation forces have killed 131 civilians, including 15 children, one woman, two journalists, two paramedics, and injured 14811 citizens, of whom 2525 were children, 1158 women, with at least 336 critical injuries, 3,746 moderate injuries, 10,699 minor injuries, 3,947 of them were caused by live bullets, 427 rubber-coated metal bullets, 1,466 gas suffocation, 2135 other injuries.
The International Commission to Support Palestinians’ Rights (ICSPR) stresses on the peacefulness of the return marches and its activities, it considers the deliberate killing and wounding of the Palestinian demonstrators by the Israeli occupation forces to be a clear denial of the human rights system and international law. ICSPR confirms that the method of the Israeli occupation forces to deal with the peaceful Palestinian demonstrators came within the framework of implementing a systematic plan and a political decision of the highest level in the Israeli occupation state, and it affirms that it has dozens of irrefutable evidence on the Israeli occupation forces deliberate killing and injuring demonstrators through the use of lethal force. Despite that no one posed any danger to the lives of Zionist soldiers, the Commission also considers that the repeated crimes of targeting kites flyers provides further evidence of the unwillingness of the Occupation to respect the established international legal principles and in particular the principles of proportionality and discrimination. Therefore, ICSPR demands the following:
ICSPR warns the Israeli occupation and its military forces against the policy of the deliberate, warns the international community against continuing silence on the Israeli crimes against the demonstrators
ICSPR calls upon the international community, the United Nations bodies, the Human Rights Council and the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Convention to carry out their moral and legal responsibilities to protect Palestinian civilians and demonstrators in the popular march “the return march” and hold the occupation leaders accountable for the crimes committed against the participants and peaceful demonstrators.
ICSPR call on the International Human Rights Council to accelerate the formation of the Fact-Finding Commission and ensure that its members have extensive experience in this field and have the integrity to work independently and transparently.
ICSPR calls upon the Palestinian leadership to refer the crimes of the occupation against the demonstrators and all files to the Permanent International Criminal Court, under article 14 of the Rome Charter, and not only to refer the file of settlements, which would ensure that the Israeli criminals will be held accountable. It also reiterates its call on the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to make a fair decision to open a criminal investigation into Israeli crimes committed in the Palestinian case.
Regards,,
