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<p style="text-align: center;"><ins><strong>Addameer Holds Israeli
Occupation Responsible for the Recent Escalation in Occupied
Palestine</strong></ins></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Ramallah- 25/10/10/2015- Addameer
Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association holds Israeli
occupation authorities responsible for the recent escalation in
the West Bank and 1948 territory. The practices and violations
by Israeli occupation and Israeli settler in addition to the
provocation at Al-Aqsa mosque are the main reasons for the
recent deterioration and escalation. Israeli practices of
collective punishment and daily violations including house
demolitions, arrests, extrajudicial executions and assaults on
Palestinians in addition to confiscating Palestinian land for
settlement and overlooking settler violence –the most recent of
which was the arson of the Dawabsheh family in Duma south of
Nablus have all factored to fuel the current escalation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Since the beginning of the
Palestinian popular uprising that started this October, the
occupation authorities carried out mass arrests in the West Bank
and 1948 territory. Addameer’s statistics show that since the
beginning of October and until the afternoon of 25 October 2015,
942 Palestinians including 144 children were arrested as
follows; 790 were arrested from the West Bank including 247 from
occupied Jerusalem and 152 were arrested from 1948 territory.
The total number of Palestinians in Israeli detention thus rises
to approximately 6300 Palestinians including 270 children and 36
female prisoners. Israeli occupation authorities have also
issued 60 administrative detention orders since the
beginning of the month, 43 of which were new orders and the
remaining 17 which were renewals. These statistics are
alarmingly increasing on a daily basis.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The recent wave of mass arrests
has resulted in a severe overcrowding in Israeli occupation
prisons and detention and interrogation centers and in
exacerbating their already poor conditions. Addameer’s lawyers
documented during recent visits the suffering of prisoners and
detainees who testified they were not receiving enough food,
hygiene products, clothes, mattresses or pillows in addition to
the overcrowing in cells and other inhuman and degrading
detention conditions.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">IOF have also resorted to using
live ammunition and lethal force against Palestinian
demonstrators and against anyone upon suspicion. Since the
beginning of October, the Palestinian Ministry of Health has
reported that 58 Palestinian were killed by IOF including 12
children. Furthermore, over 2245 Palestinians were injured by
IOF including 645 with live ammunition and 1600 with rubber
coated bullets. Over 4200 other Palestinians were hurt as a
result of teargas inhalation.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Israeli occupation authorities
have further escalated their oppressive measures against
Palestinians and have resorted to holding the bodies of 22
Palestinian who were suspected of allegedly attempting stabbing
attacks, despite little evidence to support such suspicions. The
families of these individuals were also targeted and harassed as
several of them were arrested and some received punitive house
demolition orders, all being policies and acts of collective
punishment and reprisal.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Israeli practices aim at creating
facts on the ground by imposing and validating the status quo of
settlements, displacing Palestinians from occupied Jerusalem and
Area “C” of the West Bank in addition to isolating Jerusalem
from the West Bank and harassing Palestinian civilians. Israel’s
practices will only result in further deteriorating the current
situation and escalating it.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Grave Violations against
Palestinians</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">IOF have gravely escalated their
human violations in response to the recent uprising in the
occupied territory. IOF have arrested dozens of wounded
Palestinians and took them for interrogation regardless of their
medical condition. Furthermore, IOF have kidnapped and arrested
wounded Palestinians from ambulances (4 cases have been
documented) and from hospitals. The IOF has broken into the
Specialized Arab Hospital in Nablus and kidnapped one of the
patients there, Karam Al-Masri (23 years old) and have also
broken into several hospitals in Jerusalem, searched ambulances
and obstructed their work.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Addameer further monitored several
punitive arrests and harassment of family members of Palestinian
youth suspected of allegedly attempting stabbing attacks. So far
seven family members of suspects were arrested including two who
were placed under 6 months administrative detention; the father
of Thaer Abu Ghazaleh and the brother of Shuruq Dwaiat both
suspected of stabbing attacks.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Addameer also documented an
escalation with arrests of Palestinians accused of allegedly
inciting violence and racism through social media outlets
including Facebook. So far, Addameer has documented the arrest
of 30 Palestinians charged with incitement 25 of whom were
placed under administrative detention without charge or trial.
Such arrests are a major blow to freedom of expression and a
violation of international human rights norms. It is noteworthy
that Israeli occupation authorities have not arrested an
Israelis under such allegations.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The majority of those arrested
face all forms of physical and psychological abuse and
illtreament by Israeli occupation forces and the undercover
Mustaribin forces. Addameer has documented an upsurge in brutal
assaults during arrest and interrogation since the beginning of
the recent events earlier this month. Among the cases that
Addameer has documented was that of 18-year-old Mohammad Burqan
who was shot with a rubber bullet in his left eye by Israeli
occupation forces in Al-Turi Neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem.
The injury resulted in the loss of eyesight in Burqan’s left
eye. Following his injury, Israeli special forces physically
assaulted him and repeatedly punched him on his head and kicked
him
on his stomach. Burqan was later transferred to Hadasa Ein Karem
hospital where his left eye had to be surgically removed.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Israeli occupation forces
transferred Burqan to interrogation 4 days after the surgery,
despite the fact that he had already been subjected to an
interrogation in the hospital. During his 4 days at the hospital
Burqan was chained to the hospital bed at all times. A charge
sheet was presented against Burqan despite his critical medical
condition. Burqan informed Adv. Farah Bayadsi from Addameer
during a visit in Mascobiyya detention center that he suffers
from severe headaches and dizziness. He was not able to eat for
days as he could not open his mouth due to the pain in his jaw
and he has been bleeding from his nose at night which has
prevented him from sleeping. Adv. Bayadsi confirmed that Burqan
was not
receiving medication or medical treatment since he was
transferred to Mascobiyya detention center despite his critical
medical condition.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Addameer further documented the
arrest of Ahmad Hamed, a 21 years old student at Birzeit
University who was brutally assaulted by the undercover
Mustaribin unit and shot at point-blank range in his thigh
before being arrested and transferred to the settlement Beit El
near Ramallah. Hamed was left to bleed for over an hour while
his hands were tied with plastic handcuffs. Hamed informed Adv.
Samer Sama’an from Addameer during a visit that he was taken
into interrogation a day after his arrest despite his medical
condition. He could not walk and had to be taken with a
wheelchair. He suffers from severe pain in his legs and all over
his body. Hamed was charged with allegedly throwing stones and
assaulting
the undercover Mustareb policeman.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Addameer confirms that the Israeli
occupation practices and ill-treatment against Palestinians
violate International Humanitarian Law which strictly bans acts
of collective punishment and reprisals against protected persons
living under occupation as provided for under Article 33 of the
Fourth Geneva Convention applicable in the occupied Palestinian
territory.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Excessive Use of Force and
Extrajudicial Executions</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Since the beginning of the current
events, IOF has resorted to excessive use of lethal force
against Palestinian civilians and those allegedly accused of
attempting stabbing attacks. Footage and several eyewitnesses
have confirmed that the Israeli occupation’s forces have use
lethal force against unarmed Palestinians upon suspicion without
them posing any direct threat or harm which would justify
opening fire. Furthermore, IOF have also used live ammunition
and rubber bullets aimed at the upper body of protesters during
demonstrations and clashes. This dangerous escalation has
resulted in the death and injury of many Palestinian youth.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The excessive use of force against
suspects has resulted in the death of 28 Palestinian youth and
the injury of several others. These numbers suggest the
deliberate use of lethal force against Palestinians in violation
of international law and human rights norms which limit the use
of lethal force to cases where a suspect poses serious threat.
Even in the cases where Israeli occupation claimed the suspect
held a knife, international law norms prohibit the use of lethal
force and instead allows the use of force to wound following
warnings and apprehend a suspect, not to shoot to kill. This
recent trend constitutes a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva
Convention as provided for under Article 147 and a war crime
as provided for under Article 8 of the Rome Statute.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Among the most notable cases of
extrajudicial executions committed by IOF in the past month was
the killing of 19-year-old Fadi Alloun, who Israeli police
claimed held a knife and attempted stabbing an Israeli settler
in Jerusalem. The circumstances of the alleged stabbing are
still not clear; however footage has emerged which shows that
Alloun was unarmed when he was shot and was actually trying to
take cover from a group of Israeli settlers who tried to lynch
him, and who subsequently asked the police to shoot Alloun
claiming he tried to stab someone. The footage clearly shows
Alloun did not pose a threat to anybody or to the officer who
shot him, and therefore his extrajudicial killing was not
legally
justified. Following Alloun’s unlawful killing, Israeli
occupation authorities held his body for close to week in
violation of ethical and democratic values as well as domestic
and international law and human rights norms. Israeli insistence
on holding the body of Fadi Alloun despite the family’s pleas to
recover the body and bury him even under the Israeli
occupation’s terms, clearly indicate that holding the body is
simply an act of collective punishment.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Addameer demands the following:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;">That the United Nations and UN
Security Council to fulfill their obligation to stop the
crimes and violations by the Israeli occupation and provide
protection for the Palestinian population.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">That the High Contracting
Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention fulfill their
obligation of protecting Palestinian protected persons,
civilian objects and places of worship in times of war.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">That the Prosecutor of the
International Criminal Court to immediately initiate an
investigation into these crimes committed by the Israeli
occupation against Palestinian people.</li>
</ul>
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