November 23, 2015: Hadeel Wajeeh ‘Awwad, 16, was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers after attempting to stab Israelis. Her 14-year-old friend was seriously injured by the soldiers. A surveillance video showed an Israeli guard firing the fatal shot after Hadeel was already shot and wounded. She was from Qalandia, north of Jerusalem. Source: IMEMC
November 22, 2015: Ashraqat Taha Qatanany, 16, was killed when an Israeli settlement leader rammed her with his car, claiming that she had a knife.
When the girl fell to the ground, another Israeli paramilitary settler pulled over and shot her multiple times.
Israeli colonial settlement leader Gershon Mesika rammed a teenage girl with his car, claiming ‘she had a knife’.
When the girl fell to the ground, another Israeli paramilitary settler pulled over and shot her multiple times.
While Israeli authorities claim that Mesika ‘thwarted a terror attack’, the claim of Mesika and the other settler that the girl had a knife contradicts other accounts of the incident.
The child did not harm or attempt to harm anyone, and a knife photographed at the scene appears to have been tossed near her dead body.
Gershon Mesika, from Elon Moreh illegal colony, is the former head of the “Samaria Regional Council”, which is a body organized by Israeli settlers living illegally in the occupied West Bank.
He rammed the child with his car, landing the car in the ditch and leaving the girl lying prone on the ground. A paramilitary settler from the car behind Mesika’s then got out of his car and fired multiple shots at the girl. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Israeli paper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that the shooting was done by an Israeli driver of a vehicle behind Mesika’s. A later article by the Israeli news agency Arutz Sheva claimed that she was shot ‘by soldiers on the scene’.
A number of recent incidents in which Palestinians were shot and killed have been questioned by Palestinians and their supporters, as the eyewitness reports that unarmed Palestinian civilians were shot by Israeli paramilitary settlers have been reported in the Israeli and international media as ‘thwarted attacks’. In several cases, the Israeli military appears to have taken credit for shootings that were actually carried out by paramilitary settler groups.
Ashraqat was from Nablus in the northern part of the West Bank. Source: IMEMC
November 9, 2015: Rasha Ahmad Hamed ‘Oweissi, 23, was killed by Israeli soldiers at a military roadblock in the West Bank when she approached the checkpoint from afar holding a knife in her hand (and a suicide letter in her bag). She was shot by a soldier while she was still at least 30 feet away from the roadblock. Rasha was from Qalqilia. Source: IMEMC
November 6, 2015: Tharwat Ibrahim Salman Sha’rawi, 73, was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers after she allegedly tried to ram them with her car. The military’s claim was strongly denied by eyewitnesses. Tharwat was from Hebron city in the southern part of the West Bank. Source: IMEMC
October 24, 2015: Dania Jihad Ersheid, 17, was shot dead by the Israeli Border Police near Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank. The police claimed that police officers saw “a knife in her hand.” No Israelis were injured during the incident. Dania was from Hebron. Source: IMEMC
October 18, 2015: Hoda Mohammad Darwish, 65, died after suffering a respiratory issue due to teargas inhalation. Israeli soldiers at a military road block delayed the car transporting her to the hospital even though her family pleaded with them regarding the grave nature of her condition. She died minutes after finally reaching the hospital. Hoda was from al-‘Eesawiyya town in Jerusalem. Source: IMEMC
October 17, 2015: Bayan Abdul-Wahab al-‘Oseyli, 16, was killed by Israeli soldiers in Wad al-Ghrous, close to the Keryat Arba’ Israeli settlement, in the southern West Bank city of Hebron. The army claims she stabbed a female soldier. Baya was from Hebron. Source: IMEMC
October 11, 2015: Nour Rasmi Hassan, 30 years old and pregnant, and her 2 year old child Rahaf were killed in their home during an Israeli air strike in Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City. Rescue teams found the child’s body under the rubble. Source: IMEMC
September 22, 2015: Hadil al-Hashlamun, 18, was killed by Israeli soldiers in Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank.
The Israeli military initially claimed the woman was shot in her legs, and later said she is in a critical condition.
She was moved to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem where she died of her wounds. According to her family Hadeel was a first-year student at the Hebron University.
The Palestinian government issued a statement condemning the killing of Hadeel and demanded and international and independent investigation into the incident.
Al-Hashlamoun was shot dead at a checkpoint in Hebron city; pictures of the circumstances that led to her fatal shooting, in addition to eyewitness account collected by Amnesty show that the young woman posed no threat to the soldiers, who had no legal justification to use deadly force. The army claimed she carried a knife.
Amnesty International said: “The killing is the latest in a long time of unlawful killings carries out by the Israeli forces in the West Bank, with near total impunity’.
|Evidence indicates West Bank killing was extrajudicial execution|
Amnesty added the young woman posed no threat to the lives of the soldiers, and that the army had no justification for the use of lethal force, especially since she froze when the soldiers pointed their guns at her.
It also stated that even if the young woman had a knife, as the army claims, the soldiers, who are wearing body armors, and heavily equipped with advanced weapons, could have could have controlled the situation and arrested her without threatening her life.
“Even if al-Hashlamoun did have a knife, Israeli soldiers, who are protected with body armor and heavily equipped with advanced weapons, could have controlled the situation and arrested her without threatening her life,” Amnesty said.
It added that after al-Hashlamoun was shot the first time, the soldiers shot her multiple times, as she was lying on the ground, an issue that indicates her killing was an extrajudicial execution.
The Israeli Information Center For Human Rights In The Occupied Territories (B’Tselem) said:
“The military’s account of the incident, as reported in the media, is that “a metal detector went off when the Palestinian woman walked through the checkpoint. The soldiers called on her to stop and fired a few warning rounds toward the ground after she continued”. Then, the soldiers claim, “she pulled out a knife, and that’s when they fired shots at her legs. The soldiers said they opened fire for a second time after the woman tried again to raise the knife”.
B’Tselem’s investigation raises doubts as to the veracity of this description.
According to B’Tselem’s information, al-Hashlamun approached the checkpoint from the direction of the neighborhood of Bab a-Zawiya in H1.
She was wearing a Niqab, which covers the entire body, and holding a concealed knife. She aroused suspicion among the soldiers, and they told her to open her purse. For an unknown reason, al-Hashlamun froze and did not respond to their calls.
One soldier shot at the ground, next to her. Fawaz Abu ‘Easheh, a resident of the neighborhood of Tel Rumaidah, who arrived at the scene, thought the young woman did not understand the soldiers’ instructions and tried to help her leave. As she was leaving the checkpoint, with a 1.2 meter metal barrier between her and the soldiers, a soldier called her to stop as he was shooting at the ground next to her, and then at her leg. According to Abu ‘Easheh’s testimony Al-Hashlamum fell, and as she was falling, her right hand was revealed to be holding a knife.
She did not get up, but the soldier shot her again, in the other leg, and seconds later in the torso. Some of the incident was caught on camera by an international volunteer who was at the scene.
The circumstances of the incident indicate that the soldiers at the checkpoint acted disproportionately. They did not try to subdue al-Hashlamun and take her into custody without resorting to live fire.
The claim that al-Hashlamun tried to stab soldiers, repeated by the media, cannot be reconciled with the fact that there was a metal barrier between her and the soldiers at the time of the shooting.
Furthermore, the soldier who opened fire continued shooting after she had been hit in the legs and no longer posed a danger. The military has video documentation of the incident from the checkpoint’s security cameras and should publish it in if it stands behind the soldiers’ version of events.
The military command’s knee jerk defense of the soldiers, as expressed in the military’s response to the incident, sends soldiers on the ground a clear message that when it comes to using force, including lethal force, against Palestinian civilians – there are very little limitations.
Hadeel was from Hebron, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank. Source: IMEMC, Amnesty, B’Tselem
