A PALESTINIAN was shot and left to bleed to death by the Israeli army at Beit Anoun junction to the east of Hebron on Sunday, according to witnesses.
Following the funeral procession of Ra’ed Jaradat, 22, and Mahmoud Ghnemat, 20, both shot dead by the Israeli army last week, Palestinians rallied at the junction, located near Kiryat Arba, an illegal Israeli settlement on the outskirts of Hebron, provoking clashes with forces present there.
A Palestinian, whose identity remained unknown yesterday and according to witnesses was nowhere near the scene of the clashes, was shot and left to bleed to death by the Israeli army soldiers, who claimed the Palestinian ran toward them with a knife-wielding hand in an attempt to stab them.
The army prevented paramedics from administrating medical assistance to the Palestinian, leaving him to bleed on the ground before he succumbed to his critical wounds. The killing of the aforementioned Palestinian brings the total number of Palestinians who were killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of unrest in early October, 2015, to 73.
Thousands had filled the streets of Sair and Surif villages in the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron for the funerals of two young men who were killed by Israeli forces in October, following alleged stabbing attempts. Israeli authorities delivered the bodies of Raed Jaradat, 22, and Mahmoud Ghneimat, 20, to the Palestinian liaison department early Sunday morning. The remains were then transferred to the Hebron public hospital before they were taken to their hometowns.
Jaradat, from the village of Sair east of Hebron, was shot dead by Israeli soldiers on October 26, after Israelis sources said he stabbed and injured a 19-year-old Israeli soldier in the neck. Similarly, Ghneimat, from the village of Surif west of Hebron, was shot dead on October 22 after Israeli sources said he had attempted a stabbing attack, however the circumstances around the incident are unclear.
Jaradat was shot in the face during the incident, making it difficult to identify the body, the family said. Family members of Jaradat said it took the family two hours to identify the body as their relative for certain. Both men received a full military procession out of the hospital before they were taken to their hometowns. Jaradat and Ghneimat’s remains were two of the seven bodies expected to be returned to families in Hebron on Sunday.
Israeli authorities on Saturday had agreed to release the bodies of at least seven Palestinians being held by Israeli authorities following a joint funeral of five others whose bodies Israel had released on Friday. However, Palestinian officials said that Israeli forces retracted their latest decision to release all seven bodies, and instead only released the two.
On Friday, Israeli forces returned the bodies of Dania Irsheid al-Husseini, 17, Bayan Ayman al-Essili, 16, Tariq Ziyad al-Natsha,16, Hussam Ismail al-Jabari,17, and Bashar Nidal al-Jabari,15. All were involved in attacks that the Israeli army said resulted in injury of Israeli military personnel excluding Dania, who eyewitnesses said did not attempt an attack.
Around twenty Palestinians have been killed in the Hebron district since the beginning of October, the majority of whom were shot dead during alleged, attempted, or actual attacks on Israeli military.
Video footage and eyewitness accounts of some of the incidents raised serious concerns over the deliberate use of lethal force by Israeli forces against Palestinians who did not pose any threat at the time of their death.
The accusations carry extra weight in the flashpoint city of Hebron, where Israeli settlers often work in tandem with Israeli forces to push local Palestinians out, rights groups say. Since the start of October, Israel has held the majority of bodies of Palestinians killed during attacks across occupied Palestinian territory and Israel, according to Israeli media.
Israel’s security cabinet decided on October 13 that the bodies of Palestinians shot dead by Israeli forces after carrying out attacks on Israelis would no longer be returned to their families. The five in Saturday’s funeral, as well as a Palestinian from al-Eizariya, were returned after Israel’s security cabinet considered keeping the bodies ‘a burden and not an asset,’ Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
Israel has in the past held the bodies of Palestinians involved in attacks, burying them in undisclosed locations and using them later as bargaining chips in negotiations. Meanwhile, female and minor Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have been suffering unbearable imprisonment conditions and maltreatment by the prison authorities, including physical abuse, according to the Prisoners’ Affairs Commission (PAC).
A PAC attorney said that female prisoners in Hasharon Israeli prison are held in unbearably overcrowding cells, in the aftermath of Israel’s recent large-scale detention campaigns carried out in the West Bank, including Jerusalem. Lina Jarbouni, who represents female prisoners in Hasharon prison, said that due to heavy rains last week, power was shut down in the prison cells and prisoners’ rooms were flooded with rainwater, which further exacerbate their suffering.
Apart from overcrowding, a number of female prisoners also reported having been subjected to physical abuse during detention and investigations. Jarbouni cited the case of prisoner Jurin Qadah from Ramallah, who was exposed to severe beatings when she was recently detained by the Israeli army, which left her bruised throughout her body. She said that the majority of female prisoners are also subjected to other forms of abuse.
There are 31 female prisoners currently incarcerated in Hasharon prison, while nine others are still undergoing investigation or receiving hospital treatment. Meanwhile, CPA attorney Fadi Ebedat, who was recently allowed to visit minor prisoners in Jaf’on Israeli prison, said about 40 child prisoners, all of whom are from Jerusalem, are experiencing harsh conditions, and are routinely maltreated and verbally abused by the prison’s guards.
Ebedat said that prisoners were distributed across the prison’s small cells, where six prisoners share each cell, equipped with only light blankets and broken electric appliances. The prisoners are also ill-fed in terms of quantity and quality and are in dire need of sufficient clothes. Other prisoners in Jaf’on jail are further denied family visitations, Ebedat added.
Violations against female prisoners in Israeli jails include the brutal manner of their arrest in front of their families and young children; physical and mental interrogation methods; medical negligence towards pregnant prisoners; physical restraints during childbirth; punishments during imprisonment, such as isolation and force; detention in inappropriate places; provocative searches by prison officers; insults, assaults and the use of tear gas.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners Centre for Studies (PPCS), the Israeli forces have arrested 78 Palestinian women in the first quarter of 2015, including several minors.
It said that the year 2015 has seen a clear escalation in the detention of Palestinian women, including minors. ‘Most were arrested inside the Sanctuary of Al-Aqsa Mosque,’ the NGO said.
Head of PPCS, Riyad al-Ashqar, noted that the suffering of female prisoners in Israeli jails has increased during the past few months, especially the increase of night raids that are notoriously carried out by male Israeli soldiers without pre-warning, reported the Middle East Monitor on its website.
In March 2013 UNICEF released ‘Children in Israeli Military Detention’, a 22-page document declaring that abuse was ‘widespread, systematic and institutionalised’ in Israeli jails. ‘In no other country,’ it said, ‘are children systematically tried by juvenile military courts that, by definition, fall short of providing the necessary guarantees’.
The report cited terrifying night-time arrests; physical and verbal abuse; painful restraints; denial of access to food, water and toilet facilities; solitary confinement; coerced confessions; lack of access to lawyers and family members; shackling during court appearances; and transfer to prisons outside Palestine. It noted that these practices violate international law.
