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Israeli human rights group charge excessive force used against Palestinian attackers

Xinhua, December 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

Israeli security forces and vigilante citizens have used unjustified lethal force against Palestinian attackers in several cases, amid the ongoing wave of violence, an Israeli human rights group report charged on Wednesday.

B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, charged that while in some cases the response against Palestinian attackers carrying out shooting, stabbing and vehicular could be justified, in several instances that was not case. According to the report, 71 Palestinian assailants were shot dead at the scenes of attacks.

"This wave of violent assaults is appalling, and clearly Israeli security forces must protect the public and use force to that end," the authors of the report stated, referring to the lone wolf attacks which killed 19 Israelis and one U.S. citizen.

"However, in at least some of the cases, firing at the assailants did not cease even after they no longer posed any danger," they added, mentioning that the Israeli law permits shooting to kill only when a person poses mortal danger to others.

According to the organization, in some of the cases the attackers were injured and motionless on the ground while they were killed, and in some cases, the shooting appears as "summary executions without trial."

Among the cases described in the report is the killing of Omar Yasser Fakhri Skafi from Beit Hanina in east Jerusalem, who ran over an Israeli man and stabbed a police officer, both lightly wounded, in Jerusalem on December 6.

Video footage obtained by the organization shows a soldier shooting at the attacker, and then shooting five more rounds of ammunition, after he had already fell to the ground and appeared to pose no danger.

Other cases include a police man shooting and killing a 14-year-old Palestinian girl in Jerusalem after she had already been knocked down, after trying to attack an elderly man with scissors, as well as "massive" gunfire aimed at a 73-year-old Palestinian woman who was alleged to try to run over soldiers in Halhul near Hebron.

The excessive force, the authors claim, is party influenced by "inflammatory language" used by right-wing ministers and politicians. They specifically mention a statement by Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, who said on October 20 that "every terrorist must know that he will not survive the attack he is about to perpetrate."

The current wave of violence started in October, and approximately 117 Palestinian have been killed during this time, most of them trying to attack Israelis, while others were killed in clashes with Israeli security forces.

Israeli right-wing politicians blame the Palestinian Authority for incitement to violence based on religious motives, following strife over the flashpoint holy site of the al-Aqsa mosque in east Jerusalem, holy to both Jews and Muslims. Endit