NOVANEWS
On Thursday morning, 24 March 2016, in a new crime of extra-judicial execution, Nazi forces killed two Palestinians in Hebron after the latter stabbed an Nazi soldier in his arm. Nazi forces wounded and killed the two civilians with live bullets. After a viral video taken by a Palestinian civilian documenting the crime, Nazi forces announced that they kept the soldier, who opened fire, in custody and initiated an investigation. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) stresses that this crime was committed after the Nazi political and military leaders gave the Nazi soldiers the green light to shed the Palestinian blood and tolerated the soldiers for their crimes against Palestinian civilians.
According to PCHR’s investigations and statements of eyewitnesses, at approximately 08:20 on Thursday morning, Nazi forces stationed at “Gilbert” checkpoint in the center of Tal al-Rumaidah neighborhood in Hebron opened fire at two Palestinian civilians after one of the latter stabbed an Nazi soldier in his arm. As a result, the 2 Palestinians were wounded. Nazi soldiers opened fire at them sporadically amidst cries of settlers, who arrived at the scene. The two killed civilians were identified as Ramzi Azez Mostafa Qasrawi (20) and Abdul Fatah al-Sharef (20).
An eyewitness said to a PCHR fieldworker, “At approximately 08:20 on Thursday morning, 24 March 2016, I was in my house overlooking the main street of Tal al-Rumaidah neighborhood where “Gilbert” checkpoint is 10 meters to the north of my house. I heard gunfire, so I held my camera, hurried to the window and saw a young man wearing a black jacket and running towards the road leading to al-Zaweyah Gate. This young man was heading to the right but he went back, crossing the street. It seemed that he got confused. He stopped 30 meters away from my house holding a knife.
An Nazi soldier was standing about 10 meters away from the young man, so the soldier fired two live bullets at him, due to which he fell to the ground. The soldier stepped back and fired two other bullets at another injured civilian wearing a gray blouse, who was lying closer to my house. As a result, the two bullets hit the civilian’s head and face. I think the soldier, who was blonde and medium height, was with a lieutenant rank and is an officer at the Israeli “Kifr” Brigade in Hebron. I then went up to the roof and saw a number of Nazi soldiers, three others in plain clothes carrying guns and a number of armed settlers who shouted at the young man, “Die…Die”, describing the 2 wounded as dogs and terrorists. In the meantime, three Nazi ambulances arrived at the scene and offered first aid to the wounded soldier, ignoring the two wounded young men, one of whom wearing the black jacket was moving slowly. At approximately 08:40, an Israeli ambulance transported the wounded soldier, after which an Nazi soldier talked to an officer with a high rank that arrived at the scene. Amidst the settlers’ shouts, “The terrorist is still alive”, the abovementioned Nazi soldier approached him and fired a live bullet at his head from a distance of 3-5 meters. As a result, his head heavily bled”.
At approximately 12:30 on Friday morning, 25 March 2016, Emad Awni Abu Sahmseyah (46), who videotaped the crime, received a phone call of an unknown person speaking in Arabic and threatening to burn him as they did with Dawabshah family. In addition, a group of Nazi Jewish settlers raided the roof of Abu Shamseya’s house and insulted and cursed him and his family. He added that he got his sons out of the house in case of any attacks by the settlers but he stayed in his house in order not to be occupied by the settlers. It should be noted that Abu Shamseyah suffers a permanent disability in his right hand and leg.
PCHR condemns this new crime with the strongest terms, and:
- Demands the United Nations to provide international protection for Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) and ensure guarantees to protect civilians in the oPt;
- Calls on the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions to oblige Nazi regime to apply the Geneva Conventions in the oPt in its capacity as a Member State to these conventions.
- Demands the states signing the Geneva Conventions to fulfil their obligations by exercising their Universal Jurisdiction to hold Nazi war criminals to account regardless of the criminals’ nationalities and the place where the crimes were committed and put an end to their impunity.
- Appeals to the abovementioned states that extended their Jurisdiction to account war criminals regardless of their origins, not to be obedient to the Nazi pressure that aims to limit the states’ jurisdiction in order to keep the Nazi war criminals’ impunity.
