Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 5th June. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights chief Volker Türk on Tuesday said that over 500 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank linked to the ongoing war in Gaza since 7 October.
UN High Commissioner’s Office, OHCHR said that two of the latest fatalities were 16-year-old Ahmed Ashraf Hamidat and 17-year-old Mohammed Musa Al Bitar, both shot “at a distance of about 70 metres while running away after throwing stones and/or Molotov cocktails towards an Israeli military post outside a settlement near Aqabat Jaber, CCTV footage shows”.
OHCHR said that the youngsters’ deaths with the killings of 4 Palestinians by the Israeli army on Monday, brings the Palestinian toll to 505.
Some 24 Israelis including 8 who were Israeli Security Forces members, were killed in the West Bank and Israel in clashes or alleged attacks by Palestinians from the West Bank.
Volker Türk said that as if the tragic events in Israel and then Gaza over the past 8 months were not enough, the people of the occupied West Bank are being subjected to day-after-day of unprecedented bloodshed. It is unfathomable that so many lives have been taken in such a wanton fashion.”
“The killing, destruction and widespread human rights violations are unacceptable, and must cease immediately. Israel must not only adopt but enforce rules of engagement that are fully in line with applicable human rights norms and standards,” Mr. Türk stated.
“Any allegation of unlawful killings must be thoroughly and independently investigated and those responsible held to account.”
He noted that the killing of Palestinians had already reached a “record high” in the first nine months of last year, only to rise “sharply” after the 7 October attacks by Hamas-led fighters that left some 1,250 dead and more than 250 taken hostage.
“Since the start of 2024, almost 200 Palestinians have been killed by the ISF, compared with 113 and 50 killed in the same periods in 2023 and 2022 respectively,” the OHCHR office statement said.
It stressed that despite the absence of armed hostilities in the occupied West Bank, the ISF carried out at least 29 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 OHCHR, during these operations, 164 Palestinians were killed, 35 children, which pointed to a “prevalence” of Palestinian victims shot in the upper part of the body and denied medical assistance.
The office added that this 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 situationsin cases where those shot clearly did not represent an imminent threat to life”.
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