THE PALESTINIAN Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to launch an immediate investigation into the Tel Aviv regime’s crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories after Israeli forces shot dead a young man in the northern part of the West Bank.
The ministry, in a statement released on Tuesday, condemned the killing of 26-year-old Saddam Hussein Bani Odeh, a resident of Tammun town – located about 5 kilometres (3 miles) south of Tubas city, and held the Israeli regime fully and directly responsible for his death.
It also criticised the international community and the United Nations bodies for their ‘dubious silence and inaction’, saying such an approach alienates the world public opinion towards Israel’s crimes and those of Israeli settlers.
The Palestinian foreign ministry then called on the ICC ‘to break its silence and immediately begin investigations into the crimes of the occupying regime and settlers’.
Palestinian Maan news agency reported that Odeh was fatally shot on Tuesday after confrontations broke out between Israeli soldiers and residents of Tubas, shortly after Israeli troops raided the city overnight.
Witnesses told local media that Israeli troops who raided Tubas belonged to a ‘special unit’.
At least two men were arrested from their homes during the raid.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, a bullet fired by an Israeli soldier at the entrance to Tubas penetrated Odeh’s shoulder, heart, and left lung.
Raids and arrest campaigns also took place in other West Bank cities, including Jenin and Nablus, early on Tuesday, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said in a statement.
Eight people were detained from areas across the occupied territories.
Earlier this month, Israeli troops shot and killed a 13-year-old Palestinian boy during weekly protests against the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian health ministry said Mohammed Daadas died in hospital on November 5 after being shot in the stomach during confrontations in the village of Beit Dajan, east of Nablus.
Six other Palestinians were treated at the scene after inhaling tear gas launched by Israeli troops, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.
Israeli troops have on numerous occasions been caught on camera brutally killing Palestinians, with the videos going viral online and sparking international condemnation.
The Tel Aviv regime has been criticised for its extensive use of lethal force against and extrajudicial killing of Palestinians who do not pose an immediate threat to the occupation forces or to the Israeli settlers.
- A former Israeli officer has reflected on torture tactics employed by the occupying regime’s so-called internal security service, Shin Bet, which saw him get arrested, tormented, and imprisoned for years on end.
The security apparatus apprehended Ezzat Nafsous, a ranking official at the time, in 1980, and forced him to confess to ‘spying for Lebanon’.
He was eventually indicted at an Israeli court and incarcerated for ‘seven years and a half’.
In an interview with the Israeli paper Ha’aretz, which was published on Thursday (November 11), Nafsous was asked why ‘innocent people’ were being forced by the agency to admit to crimes they never committed.
He responded: ‘Because, even if you are innocent, it would be crazy to choose not to confess to what they want you to confess,’ said the 66-year-old.
‘Anyone who insists on refusing to confess, even falsely, is crazy.
‘Because they break you down psychologically,’ he noted.
He went on to explain how the interrogation process unfolds by saying, ‘They try to discover you over the first two days’ before realising your weak points and starting to use them against you.
He was subjected to other forms of torture as well, which he enumerated as sleep deprivation and cold showers as well as being tired out excessively and threatened.
‘It was under these circumstances that I admitted to what I had not committed,’ Nafsous noted, saying the person under interrogation ends up coming up with the security apparatus’ desired type of confession because he or she would ‘just want them to leave you alone.’
The former officer, meanwhile, asserted that the Shin Bet was still deploying the tactics against victims.
Re-arrested Palestinian prisoners’ lawyers recount their horrifying situation back in Israeli captivity.
The lawyers stated: ‘Despite formation of regulatory committees, Shin Bet’s performance has not undergone any changes.’
- A Palestinian commission for prisoners says Israel’s top court has rejected an appeal for the immediate release of a Palestinian prisoner who has been on hunger strike for more than 120 days in protest at his detention without charge at the hands of the Tel Aviv regime and is facing the risk of sudden death at any moment.
The Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs said in a statement on Monday that Israel’s so-called supreme court has rejected a petition submitted for the release of Kayed Fasfous for the fourth time, amid Israeli authorities’ indifference and deliberate criminal disregard for his life, Palestine’s official Wafa news agency reported.
Fasfous, 34, has been on hunger strike for 124 days in protest against Israel’s policy of administrative detention, which allows the regime to hold prisoners for long periods of time without charge or trial.
Fasfous has been in hospital for nearly two months following serious deterioration in his health conditions.
On Saturday, doctors at the Israeli Barzilai Medical Centre, where the Palestinian inmate is being treated, told his family that he has developed symptoms suggesting a clot in his blood, which is an early warning of the risk of sudden death.
Fasfous, 34, has been on hunger strike for 123 days.
Fasfous is also suffering from irregular heartbeats, kidney problems, low blood pressure and serious decline in body fluids and vitamins.
There are also four other Palestinians prisoners who have been on hunger strike with a similar cause.
The five Palestinians have been demanding an end to their detention, which is based on a ‘secret file’ even their lawyers are not allowed to view. The so-called files are provided by the Israeli intelligence service.
More than 7,000 Palestinians are reportedly held in Israeli jails. Hundreds of them have apparently been incarcerated under the administrative detention. Some prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to 11 years.
Over a dozen Palestinian lawmakers and nearly 20 journalists are also held in Israeli detention centres, several of them under the same detention policy.
In 2015, Israel approved a law that authorises force-feeding the Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike, a practice rejected by the UN as a violation of human rights.
