With more than 190 Palestinians shot and killed in five weeks in the occupied West Bank, human rights defenders believe that Israeli soldiers and police now have a “free hand” amid the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
In the West Bank, occupied by Israel for 56 years and where settlements are expanding a little more each year, the pace of incursions by the Israeli army has increased, strikes on the bustling refugee camps have multiplied and deaths have increased. accumulate.
Already more than 190 Palestinians have been killed there since October 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Almost as many as during the first nine months of the year: 208, according to the ministry.
For Iyad Haddad, of the Israeli NGO B’Tselem, “the cases of Palestinians killed by bullets that we examined prove that the Israeli army and the settlers now have a free hand to shoot Palestinians in the West Bank, from a unprecedented way.”
The cases of Palestinian shootings we examined prove that the Israeli army and settlers now have a free hand to shoot Palestinians in the West Bank in an unprecedented way
A week ago, at the scene of an attack on an Israeli police officer in Jerusalem – whose assailant was immediately shot dead – the Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, was clear: “Zero tolerance: When in doubt, no doubt. »
On October 7, the Islamist Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip, launched a bloody attack in Israel which left 1,200 dead, mostly civilians, according to the Israeli authorities. The Israeli army responded with strikes on the Gaza Strip that left more than 11,000 people dead, two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Hamas health ministry.
In the heart of cities
In the West Bank, the number of deaths has also increased, most of them caused during Israeli incursions into the heart of Palestinian towns or during clashes following these incursions.
On Monday, eight Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army, according to the Ministry of Health. The first, a 66-year-old taxi driver, was killed in the morning in Hebron, in the south of the West Bank.
” A soldier [israélien] heard shots and responded,” explains the Israeli army, ensuring that it is investigating to confirm the death of a Palestinian. In Hebron, witnesses assure that the man killed did not participate in any violence.
Then, in Tulkarem, in the north, seven Palestinians were killed in a new Israeli army operation, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Tuesday morning, a new Palestinian was killed near Hebron, according to the same source.
The Israeli army assures that these operations respond to a “significant increase in terrorist attacks” in the West Bank with “more than 550 attempted attacks since the start of the war”.
Questioned by AFP, she did not mention any change in her rules of engagement, saying she was carrying out “anti-terrorist operations […] to arrest suspects, some of whom are Hamas terrorists.”
Thus, on Thursday, she announced that she had arrested “more than 20 wanted suspects”, including two militants from Islamic Jihad, which fights alongside Hamas in Gaza, who were “shooting at” its soldiers in Jenin, in the north of the West Bank.
With 14 dead, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, this raid was the deadliest Israeli operation in the West Bank since at least 2005, when the UN began counting Palestinians killed during Israeli incursions into the West Bank. Palestinian territory.
Burst liver or spleen
At Jenin hospital, Doctor Pedro Serrano, of Doctors Without Borders, said that “most of the patients who arrived had received bullets in the abdomen and legs.”
“Some had burst livers or spleens, others had serious vascular injuries,” he continues.
“There was also the very sad case of this man who was walking right in front of the hospital and who was hit in the head by a sniper », adds the doctor.
Other Palestinians were killed in clashes.
On October 26, Sayed Homeidat, 17, was killed in the Jalazone refugee camp, north of Ramallah, by a shot from an Israeli soldier at least 100 meters away, according to the NGOs al-Haq and B ‘Tselem, as well as witnesses met by AFP.
According to these eyewitnesses, the army had blocked the road which separates the camp from the nearby settlement of Beit El to repair the wall which separates them. Young people threw stones at the soldiers, but Sayed, they said, kept his distance and did not participate in this violence.
For Omran al-Rechq, of the Palestinian NGO al-Haq, “it is very clear […] that Israeli soldiers shoot to kill even if they are not in danger.”
Al-Haq and B’Tselem also accuse the army of “only using live bullets to disperse demonstrators.”
Journalists across the West Bank confirm that they have not seen tear gas grenades fired as often since the start of the war.