News / Palestine

Palestinian govt. urges UN to probe Israeli killing of Palestinians

Monday, 28 March 2016 4:46 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 28 March 2016 4:45 PM ]

Israeli forces surround the bodies of two Palestinians who were killed in the West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron) on March 24, 2016. ©AFP

The Palestinian government has called on the United Nations to launch a probe into the Israeli regime’s extrajudicial killing of Palestinians in the occupied lands.

The request was made on Monday following the deadly shooting of an injured Palestinian by an Israeli trooper in the West bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron).

Saeb Erekat, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) said the Israeli regime claims to have launched a probe into the killing of the Palestinian, but history shows that their investigations have failed to “serve justice” and instead have been “rewarded with impunity.”

“Since September 13, 207 cases of Israeli extrajudicial executions of Palestinians urgently require an international investigation. These executions are not isolated events and Israel must be held accountable for committing these crimes,” he added.

On March 24, an Israeli human rights group released a video showing two Palestinian youths getting shot over alleged stabbing of an Israeli soldier earlier in the day.

In the video, a wounded Palestinian, named Abed Al-Fattah Al Sharif, can be seen lying on the ground after being initially shot by Israeli forces. After about a minute, one of the Israeli troops raises his gun and shoots the man in the head, causing a surge of blood from the wound, which then stains the surrounding pavement. The second Palestinian also succumbed to his wounds after being denied medical aid by the Israeli soldiers.

A number of Israeli military officials claimed that the Israeli trooper had acted in self defense.

Nickolay Mladenov, the UN special envoy to the Middle East, condemned the “apparent extrajudicial execution” and said it was “a gruesome, immoral and unjust act that can only fuel more violence and escalate an already volatile situation.”

Tensions have heightened in the occupied territories since August 2015, when Israel imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam after Masjid al-Haram in Mecca and Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina.

More than 200 Palestinians, including children and women, have lost their lives at the hands of Israeli forces since the beginning of last October.

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