Ramallah, September 21, 2024—Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinian boys on September 18 in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank.
17-year-old Hasan Yousef Hasan Al-Shaer was shot and killed by Israeli forces on September 18 around 3:15 a.m. near the entrance to the Palestinian town of Ni'lin, west of Ramallah, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Hasan was driving a car, when Israeli forces started shooting at the car and leading to his injury. Hasan’s father received a phone call from the Palestinian Liaison Office informing him that his child had been killed by Israeli forces.
Israeli authorities are withholding Hasan’s body. It is not clear how many bullet wounds Hasan sustained or their location since Israeli authorities confiscated his body.
“As Israeli forces bomb and starve Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip, they are targeting children in the occupied West Bank with lethal force,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “Years of systemic impunity has created a situation where Israeli forces kill Palestinian children without limit or consequence.”
15-year-old Hani Majdi Majed Taha was shot and killed by Israeli special forces on September 18 around 7:30 p.m. near UNRWA installations compound at the entrance of Shu’fat refugee camp, north of Jerusalem, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Hani was standing with other Palestinian children when Israeli special forces entered the camp and started firing live ammunition at them from a distance of 5 to 10 meters (16 to 33 feet) away.
Hani was struck with a bullet in the chest with an exit from the back. A group of Palestinian youth transferred Hani to a health center in the camp, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Hani, an orphan who had lost both parents, lived with his paternal grandmother. He was buying bread for her when he was shot.
Israeli forces and settlers have killed 80 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank in 2024, including two United States citizens, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
161 Palestinian children have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7, according to documentation collected by DCIP, when the Israeli military began a full-scale military offensive on the Gaza Strip.
In 2023, Israeli forces and settlers killed at least 121 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Israeli forces and settlers shot and killed 103 Palestinian children with live ammunition, 13 Palestinian children were killed in drone strikes, four Palestinian children were killed by missiles fired from a U.S.-sourced Apache attack helicopter, and one child was killed in an Israeli warplane airstrike.
Israeli forces have withheld the bodies of at least 43 Palestinian children since June 2016, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Five of the children’s bodies have since been released to their families, while 38 Palestinian children’s bodies remain withheld by Israeli authorities.
Israeli authorities’ practice of confiscating and withholding Palestinian bodies is a violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, which include absolute prohibitions on cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, as well as stipulate that parties of an armed conflict must bury the deceased in an honorable way. For families, the practice amounts to collective punishment in violation of international humanitarian law.
In September 2019, the Israeli Supreme Court approved the practice of confiscating human remains after several legal challenges to the policy. On November 27, 2019, Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett ordered all bodies of Palestinians alleged to have attacked Israeli citizens or soldiers to be withheld and not returned to their families. Israel is the only country in the world with such a policy of confiscating human remains, according to Adalah.
Under international law, intentional lethal force is only justified in circumstances where a direct threat to life or of serious injury is present. However, investigations and evidence collected by DCIP regularly suggest that Israeli forces use lethal force against Palestinian children in circumstances that may amount to extrajudicial or wilful killings.
