Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) is appalled at the killing of four Palestinians and wounding of 44 at the hands of Israeli occupation forces in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank.
The killings took place during a raid on the morning of Wednesday, 28 September, after dozens of Israeli military vehicles entered the refugee camp.
Those who were killed during the occupation’s raid are: Ahmad Nazmi Alawneh, Abedelrahman Fathi Khazem, Mohammad Mahmoud Alouneh, and Mohammad Abu Naa’sah.
There was further outrage after it was found that the body of Alwaneh had been desecrated by Israeli soldiers. Palestinian groups declared a day of mourning and a general strike in response.
Over the last period the people of Jenin, in the north of the West Bank, have suffered numerous – indeed, near-daily – incursions by Israeli occupation forces, during which Palestinian citizens have been killed, brutalised, and detained. Approximately 150 Palestinians have been killed within the 1967 occupied territories by Israeli forces since the start of this year; a full one-fifth of them were killed in the Jenin Governorate. The West Bank, including Jenin, is occupied territory – as the occupying force, Israel, has no legal right to conduct military or security operations there.
The killings are the latest example of Israel’s use of deadly force and collective punishment, which is illegal under international law.
AOHR UK condemns Israel’s ongoing flouting of international law in this regard – and the ongoing support for such abuses of human rights from world powers.
Once more, AOHR UK calls on the international community to act against these appalling crimes by the. Similar crimes by Russia, Iran, North Korea or any other nation opposed to US interests would make international headlines, and rightly so. But why are the lives of Palestinians so worthless? Why does Israel enjoy such impunity?
Acts of barbarism like this will never bring about peace – they will lead to more conflict, more killings, more anger. Yet this seems to be what Israel wants. This hell inflicted on Palestinians must end.
