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Scene: Published by PCHR and IMEMC News
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by PCHR (Palestinian Center for Human Rights)
Published by IMEMC News
May 11, 2018

Israeli forces continued with systematic crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) for the week of 03 – 09 May, 2018.

Israeli forces continued to use lethal force against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. A Palestinian civilian succumbed to wounds he sustained in the March of Return and Breaking Siege demonstrations. 3 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip, while 189 Palestinian civilians, including 39 children, 3 women, 4 journalists and 4 paramedics, were wounded in peaceful protests.

Shooting:

Israeli forces continued to use excessive lethal force against Palestinian civilians, who participated in peaceful demonstrations organized on the 42nd anniversary of the Earth Day, particularly in the Gaza Strip, which witnessed peaceful demonstrations along the eastern Gaza Strip border area, where ten thousands of defenseless Palestinian young men, women, children, and elderlies participated. On Friday, 04 May 2018, the Gaza Strip witnessed peaceful demonstrations where ten thousands of Palestinian civilians participated. As a result, 169 Palestinian civilians, including 31 children, 3 women, 4 journalists and 4 paramedics, were wounded on the above-mentioned Friday. During the reporting period, the Israeli forces killed 3 Palestinian civilian in a new crime of excessive use of force while another civilian succumbed to wounds he sustained while participating in the March of Return Demonstrations, which sporadically and peacefully occurred during this week. During the demonstrations, 189 Palestinian civilian, including 38 children, 3 women, 4 journalists and 4 paramedics, were wounded; the injury of 5 of them is serious. In the West Bank, the Israeli forces wounded 11 Palestinian civilians, including 1 child and 1 paramedic, in separate incidents.


In the Gaza Strip, in a new crime of using lethal forces, on 06 May 2018, Israeli forces killed 3 Palestinian civilians and detained the body of one of them. This occurred 10 meters away from the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel, east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. One of those killed was attempting to reach two wounded persons when the Israeli soldiers opened fire at him and he fell. Following this, on his twitter account, the spokesperson of the Israeli forces tweeted that “After investigating the attempt to sneak incident, it turned out that a cell comprised of 4 persons arrived at the security fence to sneak into Israel and carry out “a sabotage attack!”” PCHR’s investigations emphasize that those four civilians did not cross the border fence contrary to the spokesperson’s claims and were targeted at least 50 meters away from the border fence. The investigations added that one of those killed came from his house after hearing the gunfire and attempted to rescue and evacuate the targeted civilians. Thus, the Israeli forces could have used a less-lethal force specially that that those civilians were unarmed.


Medical sources at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City declared on 03 May 2018 that Anas Abu ‘Aser (19) from al-Sabrah neighborhood succumbed to wounds he sustained on Friday 27 April 2018, while participating in the March of Return and Breaking Siege demonstrations in eastern al-Zaytoun neighborhood, east of Gaza City.


This high number of casualties in the Gaza Strip proves that the Israeli forces continue to commit crimes and use excessive force against Palestinian civilians in disregard for their lives and upon an official political decision. PCHR indicates that according to Israeli forces’ spokesperson on his Facebook page following the declaration of organizing these demonstrations commemorating the 42nd anniversary of the Land Day, the Israeli forces prefigured the demonstrations, whose organizers previously declared they would be peaceful, sending threatening messages to intimidate the organizers and Gaza Strip residents and deploying Israeli snipers along the border fence.

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Fully detailed document available at the official webiste of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR).

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