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By Gili Cohen for Haaretz

Israeli forces killed three times as many Palestinians in the West Bank than in the Gaza Strip in 2013, according to a report compiled by B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories.

The organization said Israeli security forces in 2013 killed 27 Palestinians in the West Bank, in 21 incidents, and nine Palestinians in seven incidents in and around the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians killed six Israelis this year, five of them in the West Bank. In 2012 four Israelis died as a result of Palestinian rocket and mortar fire.

In 2012 Israeli forces killed eight Palestinians in the West Bank and 246 in the Gaza Strip. Of the latter, 167 died in Operation Pillar of Defense, in November 2012.

Israel’s Military Police conducted an investigation into the deaths of 15 Palestinians in the West Bank, in keeping with the Military Advocate General’s policy requiring such action in all cases with the exception of deaths in combat.

Only one of these investigations resulted in a conviction. A soldier in the Home Front Command was convicted in a plea bargain of the negligent manslaughter of Uday Darwish and sentenced to seven months in prison. Twelve of the 15 cases are still under investigation.

According to Israel Defense Forces data, accurate as of two weeks ago, since the investigation policy was implemented in April 2011, the Military Police have initiated investigations into 20 incidents in which 24 Palestinians were killed. Four of the cases were closed; in one, an appeal of the closure is pending. The only indictment was in the case of Darwish’s death. A hearing was held for the soldier’s company commander, but no decision has been made on a prosecution.

Three investigations that have been completed were submitted to the Military Advocate General for its decision. The MAG has requested additional investigation into eight incidents from 2012, and four cases from that year are still under investigation.

The IDF did not respond to a request for details on the status of all the investigations into the West Bank deaths. In a detailed response to this report the IDF said, in part, “It should be recalled that investigations of deaths are complex probes, during which the Military Police investigators must deal with considerable difficulties, including only partial cooperation from Palestinian witnesses and difficulties in obtaining evidence from the scene.”

The executive director of B’Tselem, Jessica Montell, criticized the investigative process as slow and complicated. She said decisions are made only years after the events take place. In such a system almost no one is required to take responsibility for the killing of Palestinians, and it provides no deterrence and reflects contempt for human life, she said.

In nine of the cases that occurred on the West Bank last year, B’Tselem reports they happened when the IDF entered Palestinian cities and towns to arrest suspects. In four of these cases, soldiers fired after Palestinians threw rocks at them. In another four incidents, the soldiers were shot at. In another case, B’Tselem says it could not confirm Israeli claims of an exchange of fire.

As to the Gaza Strip, the B’Tselem report says the NGO determined that four of the Palestinians killed in the territory by Israeli forces had engaged in combat, three had not and information was not available on another. One of the Palestinian was killed in a targeted assassination.

The B’Tselem report details each Palestinian death thoroughly.

The Israelis killed in 2013 were Evyatar Borovsky, murdered at the Tapuah Junction; soldier Tomer Hazan, who was kidnapped and murdered near the village of Beit Amin; Gal Kobi, a Givati Brigade soldier who was shot near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron; Seraya Ofer, a retired IDF colonel who was murdered outside his Jordan Valley home; Eden Atias, a soldier who was stabbed to death on a bus in Afula and Salah Abu Latif, killed by a sniper near the Gaza border fence.