The UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory calls for an end to the senseless killings in the occupied West Bank. Israel must stop all extrajudicial executions and other unlawful use of force in the occupied West Bank. Over the last two weeks, Israeli security forces have killed two Palestinian men in planned summary executions, while seven Palestinians were killed in conditions that raise concerns of the use of unnecessary or disproportionate lethal force. An Israeli woman was shot and killed on a highway in the occupied West Bank by as yet unidentified assailants. Israel must ensure that all those responsible for unlawful killings are brought to justice in fair trials.
On 8 May, Israeli undercover forces appear to have summarily executed a 30-year-old “wanted” Palestinian man in the old city of Nablus. CCTV footage suggests that an undercover officer killed the man while he tried to surrender and then shot him again as he lay on the ground injured and incapacitated, seemingly to “confirm the killing”. Claims from Israeli security forces that the man was armed and posing a threat to them appear to be contradicted by this video evidence. On 2 May, disguised Israeli security forces chased and killed a 39-year-old “wanted” Palestinian man in Balata refugee camp in Nablus. Although Israeli security forces claimed that they found a gun and cartridges in his car, they made no claim that he posed a threat to life at the moment he was shot. On 14 May, Israeli security forces reportedly fired live ammunition and injured a young Palestinian man in his thigh near the Qalandiya Refugee Camp, Jerusalem. A video shows two Israeli soldiers repeatedly kicking the man in the head, while he lay injured on the floor. The soldiers then walked away, without carrying out an arrest or providing medical assistance to the man who, in addition to live ammunition injury, reportedly incurred head hemorrhage due to the Israeli soldiers’ kicking.
Meanwhile, also on 15 May, armed Palestinians reportedly shot and killed a pregnant 30-year-old Israeli woman on the highway near Brukhin settlement, west of Salfit, also injuring her husband. Following the incident, Israeli security forces closed several checkpoints in the northern and central West Bank and imposed severe movement restrictions particularly around Burqin, and Salfit, while an Israeli minister called for “flattening” Palestinian villages in response. Israeli security forces must ensure that measures adopted following the attack complies with international law, including the prohibition of collective punishment.
