Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, January 12, 2018
In one hour, on Thursday afternoon, 11 January 2018, Israeli forces killed two Palestinian children in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and wounded 3 other civilians, including 2 children, in the Gaza Strip. Two of the wounded sustain serious wounds. These two new crimes come in light of the Israeli government’s escalation following the U.S. Decision to recognize Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel. These crimes and recent killings committed by the Israeli forces further prove that the latter deliberately claim as many victims as possible among the Palestinian protestors. The follow-up by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR’s) staff show that the Israeli forces intensified the use of live ammunition to confront the unarmed civilians deliberately and by directly sniping civilians in peaceful demonstrations, noting that the protestors did not pose any threat or danger to the life of Israeli soldiers.
According to PCHR’s investigations into the first crime, at approximately 15:30 on Thursday, 11 January 2018, around 20 Palestinian children and young men gathered in the area of Um Hasaniyeh Hill near the border fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip, east of al-Bureij in the central Gaza Strip. The children and young men threw stones at the Israeli soldiers stationed behind sand barriers along the border fence in protest against the U.S. President’s Declaration to recognize Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel. At approximately 16:30, a number of them approached 50 to 70 meters to the fence, and immediately the soldiers opened fired at them. As a result, four of them, including 3 children, were hit with live bullets and then taken by an ambulance of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah to receive medical treatment. Doctors at the hospital declared the death of one of the children identified as Amir ‘Abdel Hamid Mosa’ed Abu Mosa’ed (15) from al-Musader village after being shot with a bullet to the chest. The 3 other civilians who are all from al-Bureij were a 16-year-old child wounded to the abdomen with a bullet and a 20-year-old young man wounded with a bullet to the abdomen as well. The doctors described their wounds as serious while a 17-year-old child was moderately wounded with a bullet to the left thigh…