UN Human Rights Office – Palestine condemns recent spate of killings of civilians across West Bank and Gaza

The UN Human Rights Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory condemns the Israeli airstrike on Jenin Refugee Camp in the West Bank on the night of Tuesday, 14 January, which claimed the lives of six Palestinians, including a 15-year-old boy, and injured two others. Videos circulating online reportedly show the victims eating while gathered around a bonfire, moments before the strike.

The incident follows two Israeli airstrikes last week in Tammoun, Tubas that killed five Palestinians including three children aged 8, 10 and 17. Overall, Israeli security forces and settlers killed 819 Palestinians since 7 October 2023, including 251 in airstrikes or with other explosive munitions.

Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the West Bank, is unlawful and must end. In the meantime, Israel is the occupying power bound by the rules imposed by international law on the use of force. The West Bank is not a zone of active hostilities to which international humanitarian law rules on the conduct of hostilities apply. Instead, Israel is strictly bound by international human rights law, which is applicable to the use of force during law enforcement. In this context deliberate lethal force can only be used to prevent an imminent threat to life.

The use of airstrikes, targeting individuals not posing any imminent threat, is a flagrant example of Israel’s growing use of military tactics and weapons in law enforcement operations and use of unnecessary and disproportionate force in the West Bank in violation of international human rights law, with apparent disregard for Palestinian lives. Jenin, in particular, has borne the brunt of steadily intensifying violence by both Israeli and Palestinian security forces.

In the West Bank, both Israel and the Palestinian Authority must ensure that their operations minimize risk to human life. The carrying out of airstrikes, the targeted killings of “wanted” persons who are not posing an imminent threat to life, and the use of tactics that frequently result in the shooting of unarmed bystanders, including children, are in violation of the applicable international human rights law standards.

Concerns over the ongoing operations in Jenin are compounded by the Palestinian Authority’s growing crackdown on freedom of expression and opinion, which is intensifying in connection with the conduct of the Jenin operation.

Such acts include the recent banning of broadcasts by Al Jazeera in the West Bank, months after the Israeli authorities shut down Al Jazeera offices in Ramallah. Residents of Jenin also informed the UN Human Rights Office that Palestinian security forces removed many CCTV cameras from around the camp. Palestinian security forces also reportedly intimidated and banned journalists from entering to cover the PSF operations or subjected them to threats, arrests, beating and ill-treatment. There are concerns that such actions may be deliberate attempts to disrupt access to information about the situation in Jenin.

The UN Human Rights Office has also documented recent administrative orders by local officials effectively outlawing criticism of the Palestinian Authority and what appears to be a significant increase in arbitrary detentions targeting critics of the government, in particular of the Jenin operation. Reports about detention are accompanied by survivors’ testimonies and video evidence indicating torture or ill-treatment.

The repression of freedom of expression, opinion, and the press in the West Bank is not only a violation of international human rights law; it also creates an enabling environment for more violations and infringements of the rights of Palestinians.

Meanwhile on 14 January in Gaza, a reported Israeli airstrike struck and almost completely destroyed a house in Deir al Balah in Middle Gaza, killing at least 12 Palestinians, including at least 4 children and 3 women, while severely injuring others. Among those critically injured was Mr. Raafat Saliha, a long-serving member of the Independent Commission on Human Rights, while his wife and children were killed.

Israel must ensure full compliance with international humanitarian law (IHL) in Gaza, including the principles of distinction, proportionality, precautions in attack and the prohibition of indiscriminate attacks, and must open independent, effective, and transparent investigations into all Israeli attacks that appear to violate fundamental principles of IHL, holding those responsible to account.

The UN Human Rights Office once again calls for full compliance with international human rights norms and standards across the Occupied Palestinian Territory in the realization of the whole range of Palestinians’ human rights. The violence and repression must stop.