Shooting Palestinians at point-blank range is Israel’s habit these days

A video clip taken by passers-by during yesterday’s brutal Israeli army raid into the city of Jenin, north of the occupied West Bank, shows a number of undercover Israeli soldiers shooting directly at the head of Nidal Amin Khazem, 28, who was critically injured and lying on the ground.
Witnesses in Jenin said the special Israeli forces, dressed in civil clothes, fired point-blank at Khazem, who fell on the ground, before one of their soldiers approached the young man’s body while he was lying on the ground, firing a final bullet directly into his head.
Three other Palestinians, including a 17-year-old child, Omar Awadin, were killed in the brutal raid, which took place in blatant daylight in one of the busiest streets of the Jenin city center, the Abu Bakr Street.
It was not possible to ascertain that Khazim was still alive after the last bullet was fired at him, as the undercover Israeli forces blocked access of medical staff to the scene. In any case however, this crime is classified as an extrajudicial execution, which is a flagrant violation of international human rights law, international humanitarian law, and the Fourth Geneva Convention for the Protection of Civilian Persons, and therefore amounts to a war crime.
The Israeli occupation forces pursue a policy of extrajudicial execution amid international inaction that gives them the green light to continue their crimes with impunity, despite the existence of irrefutable testimonies and documents on these crimes, many of which were documented by cameras.
The crime the execution of the young man Khazem reminds us of several similar Israeli crimes that were documented in videos and photos.
On the 15th of January, the Israeli occupation soldiers manning a checkpoint near the village of Yabroud, east of Ramallah, fired point blank at Palestinian Ahmed Kahla, 45, killing him on the spot.
Two bullets in the neck put an end to the life of Kahla, who hails from the village of Ramoun, east of Ramallah, and who supports five children, the eldest of whom is Qusai, 20 years old, who was with him in his last moments of life.
Qusai said that his father and he were on their way to work in the morning, when their vehicle was stopped by Israeli occupation soldiers at the checkpoint. The soldiers, Qusai added, fired a stun grenade that hit the roof of the car, before they pulled his father out of the vehicle and shot him at point blank.
A videotape taken by a driver who was waiting his turn at the checkpoint showed that at the beginning, soldiers engaged in a fistfight with Kahla before other fellow Israeli soldiers at the site shot him at point blank range despite him posing no danger to the soldiers.
The Israeli occupation army later admitted that it killed Kahla without him posing a danger or threat, as was previously claimed, and that it concluded in an investigation that Kahla posed no danger to the soldiers, and that the accident shouldn’t have ended in his death.
On 2nd of December 2022, Palestinian young man Ammar Mufleh (23) from the village of Usarin, south of Nablus, was shot dead by an Israeli soldier at point blank range in the town of Huwara.
A video taken from the scene showed that an Israeli soldier fired live bullets at Mufleh at zero-point distance.
Despite international condemnations and calls for an investigation into Mufleh’s execution, the soldier who shot him is still at large without any accountability. Rather, the occupation government sometimes goes further by honoring and glorifying its murderous soldiers and the perpetrators of crimes against our people.
On March 24, 2016, Palestinian young Abd al-Fattah al-Sharif was killed by an Israeli soldier in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron. The execution was documented in a video clip taken by the photographer of the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. The video sparked international outrage, which forced the Israeli occupation forces to arrest the murderous soldier, Elor Azaria. He was only detained for nine months.
The killer soldier said in a press interview after his release that he “does not regret what he did, ” and that he would “do it again if time turned back,” which reflects the criminal mentality in the occupation army, which is reinforced by the absence of accountability and impunity.
The crime of “extrajudicial execution” is added to a number of crimes committed by the occupation against our people, which all contradict with international and humanitarian laws, and amount to war crimes, such as demolishing homes, forcible displacement, oppression of male and female prisoners, appropriation of land and property, violation of the sanctity of holy places, and others.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency (WAFA)

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