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<h1 class="title">Rights groups slam Israeli 'crimes' in Gaza, say
'shooting unarmed civilians illegal'</h1>
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<div class="stamp">March 31, 2018 - <font size="-2"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=779992">http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=779992</a></font><br>
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BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Human rights organizations have come out in
full condemnation of Israel’s violent response to massive unarmed
civilian protests in Gaza on Friday, <a
href="https://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=779990">which left
16 Palestinians - one farmer and 15 protesters -- dead</a> along
the Gaza border.<br>
<br>
<div>Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights, released a
statement on Friday condemning Israel’s use of military snipers
against the civilian protesters.<br>
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<div>“The Israeli military’s use of 100 snipers against unarmed
Palestinian civilian protesters in the Gaza Strip is illegal, the
statement said, adding “live gunfire on unarmed civilians
constitutes a brutal violation of the international legal
obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants.”<br>
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<div>“Israel is obligated to act in accordance with international
law,” Adalah said, adding that it will be calling for an
investigation into those responsible for the deaths in Gaza, and
“will demand that those found responsible for the killings be
brought to justice.”<br>
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According to the group, on Thursday, the day before 16
Palestinians were shot dead along the border with Gaza, Adalah and
the Gaza-based al-Mezan Center for Human Rights sent a letter to
Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and the Israeli
Military Advocate General “demanding they act to prevent the use
of sniper fire against protesters or for crowd dispersion, and to
clearly and directly order Israeli forces to refrain from use of
live ammunition of any variety – including sniper fire.”<br>
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The groups also sent a second letter calling on the Israeli
military “to remove all social media posts threatening
participants in today’s Gaza march that they will be military
targets and also remove social media posts threatening the
civilian population in Gaza.”<br>
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<div>Leading up to the march, the Israeli army released a statement
saying it had declared the border area along Gaza a “closed
military zone,” meaning that any Palestinian who got close to the
border fence could risk getting shot.<br>
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<div>The Israeli army released statements on Twitter describing the
protests as “violent riots.”Meanwhile, Israeli human rights
organization B’Tselem released a <a
href="https://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20180329_gaza_strip_not_a_combat_zone">statement
</a>on Thursday, condemning the repeated threats of Israeli
officials to use lethal force against the civilian protesters.<br>
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<div>“Completely ignoring the humanitarian disaster in Gaza and
Israel’s responsibility for it, they are couching the planned
protest in terms of a security risk, framing the demonstrators as
terrorists and referring to Gaza as a ‘combat zone’,” B’Tselem
said.<br>
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<div>“Fragments of information reported by the media indicate that:
soldiers will be ordered to shoot anyone coming within 300 meters
of the fence; snipers will fire at anyone touching it; live fire
will be used also in circumstances which are non-life-threatening.
<br>
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In other words: shoot-to-kill unarmed Palestinians taking part in
these demonstrations,” the group said. B’Tselem highlighted that
Israel’s policy of lethally shooting Palestinian demonstrators in
Gaza has been in practice for some time, noting that “in December
2017 alone – the most lethal month in the last year – Israeli
forces shot and killed eight unarmed Palestinian demonstrators in
Gaza.”<br>
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<div>“Israel’s presumption that it can dictate the actions of
Palestinians inside the Gaza Strip is absurd. The decision where
and whether and how to demonstrate in Gaza is not Israel’s to make
– not with regard to tomorrow’s demonstrations nor in general with
regard to daily life,” B’Tselem said. The group concluded by
noting that official Israeli statements” have made no reference to
the actual reason for the protest – the disastrous reality in Gaza
– or to the right to free protest.”<br>
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<div>“Israel has the power to immediately change life in Gaza for
the better, but has chosen not to do so. It has made Gaza a huge
prison, yet forbids the prisoners even to protest against this, on
pain of death.”<br>
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<div>The majority of the nearly two million Palestinians in the Gaza
Strip are sealed inside the coastal enclave due to the
continuation of the military blockade imposed by Israel and upheld
by Egypt on the southern border.<br>
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The destruction from three Israeli offensives over the past six
years, including damage to the enclave’s water, sanitation, energy,
and medical facilities, coupled with slow reconstruction due to the
blockade led the UN in September to warn that Gaza could be
“uninhabitable” by 2020.
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
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