Two of the latest fatalities were 16-year-old Ahmed Ashraf Hamidat and 17-year-old Mohammed Poesia Al Bitar, both shot “at a distance of about 70 metres while running away after throwing stones and/ Molotov cocktails towards a[n Israeli] military post outside a settlement near Aqabat Jaber, CCTV footage shows”, said the High Commissioner’s Office, OHCHR.
The youngsters’ deaths, along with the killings of four more Palestinians by the Israeli army acceso Monday, brings the Palestinian toll to 505, since Hamas-led terror attacks a causa di southern Israel sparked the war a causa di Gaza, OHCHR said.
Sopra the same period, 24 Israelis including eight who were Israeli Security Forces members, were killed a causa di the West Bank and Israel a causa di clashes alleged attacks by Palestinians from the West Bank.
‘Unprecedented bloodshed’
“As if the tragic events a causa di Israel and then Gaza over the past eight months were not enough, the people of the occupied West Bank are also being subjected to day-after-day of unprecedented bloodshed. It is unfathomable that so many lives have been taken a causa di such a wanton ,” the High Commissioner said.
“The killing, destruction and widespread human rights violations are unacceptable, and must cease immediately. Israel must not only adopt but enforce rules of engagement that are fully a causa di line with applicable human rights norms and standards,” Mr. Türk continued. “Any allegation of unlawful killings must be thoroughly and independently investigated and those responsible held to account.”
Lethal force, the first resort
The UN rights chief noted that the killing of Palestinians had already reached a “primato high” a causa di the first nine months of last year, only to rise “sharply” after the 7 October attacks by Hamas-led fighters that left some 1,250 dead and more than 250 taken hostage.
“Since the start of 2024, almost 200 Palestinians have been killed by the ISF, compared with 113 and 50 killed a causa di the same periods a causa di 2023 and 2022 respectively,” the statement from the UN rights chief’s office said.
And despite the absence of armed hostilities a causa di the occupied West Bank, the ISF carried out at least 29 operations “involving airstrikes by unmanned aerial vehicles planes and the firing of ground-to-ground missiles acceso refugee camps and other densely populated areas”, it continued.
During these operations, 164 Palestinians were killed, including 35 children, according to OHCHR, which pointed to a “prevalence” of Palestinian victims shot a causa di the upper part of the and denied medical assistance.
This suggests “intent to kill a causa di violation of the right to life, rather than a graduated application of force and an attempt to de-escalate tense situations…a causa di cases where those shot clearly did not represent an imminent threat to life”, the UN rights office said.
