JERUSALEM, January 23, 2016 (WAFA) – A thirteen-year-old Palestinian girl Saturday morning was shot dead following an alleged stabbing attempt outside an Illegal Israeli settlement to the northeast of Jerusalem, said a municipal source.
Israeli forces gunned down the girl after she allegedly attempted to stab an Israeli security guard outside the entrance of Anatot settlement, also known as Almon.
The girl was identified as Ruqayya Abu ‘Eid from the Jerusalem village of Anata.
WAFA reported on Head of Anata Village Council, Taha Nu‘man, as saying that Ruqayya’s family comes originally from Yatta town, south of Hebron, but has been living in Anata for 10 years.
Israeli media, Walla wensite, reported that the girl allegedly approached the entrance of Anatot, “brandishing a knife, and attempted to stab the policeman as he went to speak to her.”
“A 13-year-old Palestinian girl with a knife in her hand ran toward the civilian security guard at Anatot (settlement),” Israeli police spokeperson Luba Samri reportedly said in a statement. “The guard opened fire, gravely wounding her and medics pronounced her dead shortly afterward,” she added.
No injuries on the Israeli side were reported in the alleged stabbing attempt.
Citing the findings of an initial investigation, the Israeli news website Ynet claimed that “the girl had fought with her parents and stormed out the family home with the knife, declaring that she wanted to die.”
The father, Ynet added, went out to look for his daughter and came across the scene at the entrance to Anatot before being detained for questioning.
This brought the total number of Palestinians gunned down by Israeli forces since the beginning of unrest in the occupied Palestinian Territories in early October 2015 to 164, including 32 minors. Over 16,000 others have been injured.
This came about a week after Israeli forces gunned down a Palestinian man at Huwwara checkpoint, south of Nablus, following an alleged stabbing attempt. During the same period, an Israeli settler was stabbed to death in the Israeli settlement of Otniel, south of Hebron.
Israeli military detained a 15-year-old Palestinian from Yatta for being suspected of perpetrating the Otniel stabbing attack and prevented an estimated 11,000 Palestinian laborers from entering West Bank settlement.
The ban came as part of several measures to be approved by Israeli cabinet against Palestinians across Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories since violence flared up in October 1. Such measures have included road closures, restricting movement in and out of Palestinian villages and towns and carrying out detention raids.
Israeli has been criticized for its reflexive use of lethal force and “extrajudicial killings” when Palestinian alleged attackers no longer pose an immediate threat. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that circumstances surrounding such killings over the past months remain disputed.
According to a report issued by various human rights organizations in Israel and published on B’Tselem website, an Israeli human rights center, “In instances when Jews have been suspected of attacks, none of the suspects has been shot.”
“No-one disputes the serious nature of the events of recent days, nor the need to protect the public against stabbing and other attacks. However, it seems that too often, instead of acting in a manner consistent with the nature of each incident, police officers and soldiers are quick to shoot to kill,” said the center,” said the center.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International said in a statement that, Israeli forces - using intentional lethal force without justification - must end the pattern of unlawful killings carried out against Palestinians. Based on the findings of an ongoing research trip to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the organization documented in depth at least four incidents in which Palestinians were deliberately shot dead by Israeli forces when they posed no imminent threat to life, in what it said, ‘appear to have been extrajudicial executions.’
In some cases, the person shot was left bleeding to death on the ground and was not given prompt medical assistance, in violation of the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment, said the center.
“A clear pattern has emerged of lethal force being used unlawfully by Israeli forces following a wave of recent stabbing attacks by Palestinians against Israeli civilians and military or police forces in Israel and the occupied West Bank,” said Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International.
“Intentional lethal force should only be used when absolutely necessary to protect life. Instead we are increasingly seeing Israeli forces recklessly flouting international standards by shooting to kill in situations where it is completely unjustified.”
Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström called for an investigation to be opened into Israel’s “extrajudicial killings” of Palestinians.
“It is vital that there are thorough and credible investigations into these deaths in order to clarify and bring about possible accountability,” she stated.
In the meantime, The Palestinians Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs‘ Commission maintained, in a report, that Israeli forces executed Palestinians in ‘cold-blood’ and on the grounds of mere suspicion, maintaining that forces acted as both judges and executioners.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), said in this regard that, “Ministers, Knesset members, senior police officers and other public officials have explicitly called to take revenge on those who commit a stabbing, or are suspected of stabbing, by killing them,” added ACRI.
“There is no dispute as to the severity of the incidents and the need to protect the public from stabbings and other assaults. However, it appears that in too many cases, rather than acting in a manner that was appropriate for each incident, police officers and soldiers were quick to open fire in order to kill.”
K.F./T.R.
