In Latest IOF Unjustified Murder: Woman Killed, Ambulance Damaged and 7 Civilians, including 2 Paramedics, Wounded in Jenin and Ramallah
In the early dawn hours on Friday, 07 August 2020, a Palestinian woman was killed by Israeli occupation forces (IOF) after being shot with a live bullet in her chest while closing the window in her house in Jenin, northern West Bank. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) points out that IOF used lethal force when they withdrew from the area without the presence of any threat or danger to soldiers’ lives. This falls within the shoot first and justify later policy that IOF have consistently implemented against Palestinian civilians.
In a separate incident that occurred on the same day, 7 Palestinian civilians, including 2 paramedics, were wounded during IOF suppression of a peaceful demonstration organized in Tarmesi’yah village, northeast of Ramallah in the West Bank.
According to PCHR’s investigations, at approximately 02:30 on Friday, IOF moved into al-Jabriyat neighborhood, southwest of Jenin, northern West Bank. They surrounded Khaled Suliman Abu Hasan’s house near al-Riyad School. IOF interrogated Abu Hasan inside his house until 04:00. Five minutes later, while Israeli military vehicles were preparing to withdraw, IOF fired a sound bomb and several live bullets at Bassam Samodi’s 3-storey house. As a result, Samodi’s wife, Dalia Ahmed Suliman Stiti (24), was injured and shot with a live bullet in her chest, penetrating her liver, pancreas, and aorta. Stiti’s family said to PCHR’s fieldworker that their daughter Dalia, a mother of two (9-month, 2 years), woke up after hearing IOF’s incursion into the village. She headed towards the living room’s window to close it after IOF fired a sound bomb. In the meantime, IOF stationed on the street, 50 meters away from Stiti’s house, opened fire at her on her 3rd floor apartment, wounding her in the chest. Stiti walked several steps and then fell to the living room floor in a pool of her blood. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS)’s crew, who were in the area to rescue the injuries, immediately arrived at the house and took Stiti to Dr. Khalil Suliman Hospital. Stiti was admitted to Intensive Care Unit (ICU), due to her critical health condition and she was pronounced dead at 14:30.
Ayman Mohammed Abu Qabilah (31), the ambulance diver who transferred Stiti, said that he heard a sound of a bomb explosion followed by 4 live bullets from the area where IOF stationed, 50 meters away from where he was present in front of Smoudi family’s house. After that Qabilah felt that the ambulance was targeted. In the meantime, he heard the residents screaming they had an injury in the house, so he rushed to the house along with other paramedics to find out that the injured civilian was Dalia Stiti and her injury was serious. The ambulance was also targeted with 2 live bullets; one of them penetrated from the left side to the paramedic’s chair; while the other bullet penetrated the driver’s chair.
At approximately 14:00 on the same Friday, IOF suppressed a peaceful in Tarmesi’yah village, northeast of Ramallah in the center of the West Bank. The protest took off from the center of the village into its main entrance in protest against the Israeli settlement expansion in the area. IOF used excessive force injuring 7 civilians, including 2 paramedics:
- Hamzah Mohammed Ma’ali (27), paramedic at Al-Asmar Emergency Medical Service, was hit with a tear gas canister in his face.
- Mohammed Malash (29), paramedic at the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, was shot with a rubber bullet in his foot and a tear gas canister in his face. Other civilians sustained rubber bullets in their lower extremities.
PCHR condemns the killing of Stiti and believes this practice is further proof of IOF disregard for Palestinian civilians’ lives, shooting to kill on the basis of mere suspicion without the existence of a real threat to the lives of soldiers.
PCHR also condemns targeting ambulances and paramedics in Jenin and Ramallah, in a flagrant violation of international standards governing the rules protecting medical personnel, including paramedics, their vehicles, and medical facilities under the rules of the international humanitarian law.
Therefore, PCHR reiterates its call upon the international community to take immediate action to put an end to the Israeli crimes; and calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their obligations under Article 1 i.e. to respect and ensure respect for the Convention in all circumstances and their obligations under Article 146 to prosecute persons alleged to commit grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention. These grave breaches constitute war crimes under Article 147 of the same Convention and Protocol (I) Additional to the Geneva Conventions regarding the guarantee of Palestinian civilians’ right to protection in the oPt.