Press releases
West Bank: Israeli soldier shooting dead a wounded Palestinian man is 'potential war crime'
‘Israeli forces have a long history of carrying out unlawful killings’ - Philip Luther
An Israeli soldier shown in a video shooting dead a Palestinian man in the West Bank city of Hebron as he lay wounded on the ground following his alleged role in a knife attack earlier today, may have committed a war crime and should be investigated as such.
The dead man, Abed al-Fatah al-Sharif, was one of two Palestinians believed to have been involved in the stabbing of an Israeli soldier. Footage of the shooting was released by the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem.
Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Director Philip Luther said:
“The shooting of a wounded and incapacitated person, even if they have been involved in an attack, has absolutely no justification and must be prosecuted as a potential war crime.“Israeli forces have a long history of carrying out unlawful killings - including extrajudicial executions - in the Occupied Palestinian Territories with impunity. Amnesty has documented a number of similar cases during the upsurge in violence that began in October.“While it is encouraging that the soldier in the video has reportedly been suspended and placed under investigation, previous Israeli investigations have failed to hold members of the Israeli forces accountable even when there has been clear evidence of criminal wrongdoing. The Israeli authorities must use this opportunity to end the culture of impunity that has made such killings increasingly commonplace.”