2 June 05

Last week, B'Tselem published a report on the fatal shooting of Palestinians during what Israel categorizes as arrest operations in the West Bank. The report, "Take No Prisoners", raises the grave suspicion that over the past twelve months, Israel has been using such operations as a guise for assassinations.

According to B'Tselem's figures, since the beginning of 2004, Israel's security forces have killed eighty-nine Palestinians during operations that the defense establishment refers to as arrest operations. At least seventeen of the persons killed were not wanted by Israel, but were civilians who were not suspected by Israel of having committed any offense. In addition, at least forty-three of those killed were unarmed, or were not attempting to use their arms against Israeli security forces at the time they were killed. None of these cases were investigated by the Military Police investigation unit.

"Take No Prisoners" presents four cases investigated by B'Tselem in which Palestinians were killed during these so-called arrest operations. Two of the cases relate to incidents in which IDF soldiers besieged a house in which Israel claimed that a wanted person was present, and then fired at another occupant of the house when he opened the door, without prior warning and without offering them a chance to surrender. In the other two cases, the security forces disarmed the wanted persons, but then shot and killed them. In all these cases, the security forces acted as if they were carrying out an assassination and not an arrest, in flagrant breach of international humanitarian law. Based on the report's findings, there is a grave suspicion that the execution of Palestinians has become a norm among the security forces.

In the conclusion of the report, B'Tselem urges Israel to prohibit security forces from opening fire when their lives are not in danger and to provide all security forces with written open-fire regulations that state clearly and unequivocally the circumstances in which they are prohibited, or permitted, to use their firearms. B'Tselem also calls on Israel to thoroughly investigate all cases in which Palestinian civilians not involved in hostilities were shot and injured by Israeli forces and, where appropriate, prosecute the persons responsible. It is important to investigate cases in which Palestinian citizens who took part in hostilities were shot and injured, if there is reason to suspect that the shooting contravened international humanitarian law.

The following are excerpts from the testimony of Raja'a Abu 'Ayesha, a 17-year-old youth from Hebron, on the abuse her family suffered at the hands of settlers:

"Our house is like a cage. It is completely fenced in, including the entrance. My grandfather set it up that way in 1996 to protect us, after settlers broke all of our windows. Our house looks like an island surrounded by a sea of soldiers, settlers and a violent atmosphere...

"Two months ago, settlers took over the house of al-Bakri family, and have been living there ever since... We were left alone in the neighborhood because my grandfather refuses to leave as the others did. He says that he will die in the house he built, surrounded by all of his memories.

"We have difficulties getting out of the house to go to school and to come back home. Almost every day, the settler children block the path for me and my sister, Fida'a, age 14. They throw stones, water and leftover food at us. We try to ignore them as much as possible. Sometimes we run away or wait until they clear the path and cross only then. There are soldiers in the area and sometimes they shout at the children and tell them to stop throwing stones, but usually they don't listen. I have been injured by stones thrown at me more then once... Two weeks ago during the Jewish holiday of Passover, my uncle Ibrahim, who is six years-old, broke his arm when he fell from a window after settlers threw stones at him. We filed a complaint against them...

"The settlers throw stones and leftover food at the house while we are inside, and sometimes at night while we are sleeping. My brothers and I wake up frightened, worried and scared. Sometimes I feel helpless and depressed and I don't know what to do... There is not one family member that hasn't been attacked by settlers - my grandfather, my parents and my siblings. On Friday two weeks ago, they spilled hot tea on my father and my brother Ashraf, on their way back from prayers...

"As I left school [on 23 April 2005], dozens of settlers threw stones at us and beat us. More then fifteen students were injured. This was in the presence of many soldiers and police officers."

In B'Tselem's previous email update, we reported on another incident in Hebron in which settler children threw stones at Bahija Sharbati and injured her. Last week, B'Tselem received a response from the Shai District Police regarding the incident, which read "The soldiers did intervene, but they did not succeed in preventing the stone throwing by children who ignored the soldiers' request [to stop]."

On 16 May 2005, the Civil Administration demolished a hut belonging to Hakmeh al-Muher, 68, and four other huts near the Sallem checkpoint, in the northern West Bank. Al-Muher lived in the hut and also used it as a shed and to store food for the family's sheep. The structure was made of concrete and tin and was situated on land belonging to al-Muher and her four sons. The Civil Administration rushed to demolish the hut, which was constructed without first obtaining a building permit, although at that very moment the High Court was hearing a petition for a temporary injunction that the family had filed to prevent the demolition. By the time al-Muher was informed that the justices ruled in her favor and issued the temporary injunction, it was too late. The hut was already in ruins.

In her testimony to B'Tselem, al-Muher said: "The soldiers removed the furniture and some of the mattresses, and then picked me up and removed me from the hut... They leveled it completely... Some of the flock and pigeons died under the ruins... After the hut was demolished, we put up a tent that we received from the Red Cross. Now I live under the trees near my land, because the tent is small and low... I cry all the time and don't know how I'll get along."

In the almost forty years of occupation, Israel has restricted Palestinians from building in the Occupied Territories, while allocating wide expanses of land there for the construction and expansion of settlements. Thousands of Palestinians are unable to obtain permits to build on their land, and have no option but to build without a permit to meet their housing needs. In the past decade, the Israeli authorities in the West Bank have demolished more than 2,200 housing units, leaving move than 13,000 Palestinians homeless.