Mohammad Abu Amsha al-Atrash

April 22, 2015: Mohammad Abu Amsha al-Atrash, 24, was killed by Israeli soldiers at a military roadblock near Nablus, in northern West Bank.

The Israeli army claimed that Mohammad approached soldiers at the roadblock and asked them for a drink of water.

The army added that Mohammad distracted the soldiers before stabbing one with a knife, before other soldiers opened fire and killed him.

Medical sources said Mohammad was shot six times and died at the scene.

Mohammed was shot six times and died at the scene. He is at least the 25th Palestinian to be killed by Israeli forces since the start of 2015.

Mohammad and his twin brother, Mahmoud, were in the middle of building a house together. They planned to have a joint wedding and move into their newly built homes on the same day.

Mahmoud and Mohammed were born only seconds apart at a small hospital in Jenin, a city in the north of the occupied West Bank. Most of their life has been spent side-by-side.

Mahmoud and his family vehemently deny the government’s official statement.

“First, Mohammad didn’t carry a knife. I would know if he had a knife and Mohammed didn’t,” Mahmoud said adamantly.

“Second, we’ve been under occupation for 67 years in this country, we aren’t a political family, but Mohammed was a healthy guy, and I don’t know any Palestinian that would ask an Israeli soldier for a drink of water unless they were dying. Third, trying to stab a soldier at a checkpoint is a suicide mission, and that wasn’t Mohammad.”

Mohammad was from Kafr Ra’ey village, near Jenin, in northern West Bank. Source: Middle East Eye

 

Rafiq at-Taj

Rafiq_Taj

August 15, 2015: Rafiq Kamel at-Taj, 21, was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers at the Za’tara roadblock, south of Nablus. He had allegedly stabbed and mildly injured a soldier. Although Rafiq was shot with several rounds of live ammunition, the soldiers refused to allow Palestinian medics to approach him, and he died of his wounds. He was from Tubas in the West Bank. Source: IMEMC

Anas Montaser Taha

August 9, 2015: Anas Montaser Taha, 24, was killed by Israeli soldiers near an illegal Israeli colony near Ramallah, in central West Bank.

The Israeli army claimed that Anas stabbed an Israeli settler, wounding him lightly.

Taha was shot and severely injured, before he was moved to Shaari Tzedek Israeli Medical Center, in Jerusalem, where he succumbed to his wounds.

The Israeli settler sustained mild stab wounds before he was moved to a hospital for treatment.

The incident took place near Modi’in illegal colony, which was built on illegally confiscated Palestinian lands, west of Ramallah.

In a statement, the Palestinian foreign ministry said that a file on Israel’s policy of field execution committed against the Palestinian people is being prepared in preparation to take it to the international Criminal Court (ICC) in Hague.

According to the Middle East Monitor “At least 23 Palestinians have been killed and another 2,156 detained by the Israeli military since January 1, 2015.

The report noted that the Israeli army killed at least 42 Palestinians in the same period of 2014.

Anas was from Qotna town, northwest of Jerusalem. Source: PNN

Saad Dawabsha

August 8th, 2015:  Saad Dawabsha, 32, died of burn wounds sustained on July 31st. He was burned to death along with his wife and 18 month old baby, Ali, when right-wing Israelis firebombed his family’s home. His four-year-old son, Ahmad, was the only one to survive the attack – with third degree burns all over his body.

The attack took place at about 2:30 in the morning, in the village of Douma, in the northern part of the West Bank near the city of Nablus.

The Israeli attackers arrived in the dead of night in the village, and began by spray-painting hate slogans against Palestinians on the Dawabsha family home. They then broke a window and threw a firebomb inside, setting off the fire that killed the baby.

The graffiti, written in Hebrew, included the phrase ‘price tag’, which is a slogan used by right-wing Israeli extremists against Palestinians – the reference being that continued Palestinian existence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank would exact a price from the Israeli colonizers.

Ali’s father Sa’ad Dawabsha, and his mother Reham, 37, were also burned to death. Ali’s older brother, Ahmad, four years of age, suffered third degree burns all over his body but survived the attack.

In May 2020, nearly five years after the attack, one of the Israeli attackers was convicted of murder. The other attackers were not convicted, and still walk free.

Israel’s Lod District Court convicted Israeli settler, Amiram Ben-Uliel for his involvement in the arson attack that resulted in the death of 18-month-old Ali Dawabsha.

Ben-Uliel was involved in the 2015  attack that killed Ali Dawabsha and severely burned his older brother Ahmad and both his parents, Reham and Sa’ad when the settler, with others, threw flaming Molotov cocktails into the family bedroom. Reham and Saad later died of their wounds.

The Dawabsha family was from Douma village near Nablus. Source: IMEMC