Ramallah, Aug 27, 2024— Israeli forces shot and killed a 16-year-old Palestinian boy north of Jenin on August 25.
Ibrahim Mohammad Khalil Al-Antir, 16, was shot by Israeli forces around 12:30 a.m. on August 25 near Al-Jalameh village, north of Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International - Palestine. Ibrahim was in a car with a group of Palestinians, approaching the Israeli separation wall near Al-Jalameh, when Israeli forces started shooting at the car. Ibrahim was injured and arrested, while the others managed to escape toward the village.
“Ibrahim grew up in a hyper militarized environment where Israeli soldiers and settlers enact violence against Palestinians side by side,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “Palestinian children cannot rest even in death as Israeli authorities continue confiscating children’s bodies and withholding them from their families indefinitely.”
Ibrahim's family was left in a state of confusion, unsure whether he had managed to escape or if he had been injured and detained. Ibrahim's father received a phone call from the Palestinian Civil Liaison around 4:45 p.m. on the same day, informing him of his child's death and that Israeli forces were holding his body.
Israeli forces and settlers have killed 65 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank in 2024, including two United States citizens, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
146 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 41 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 36 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.
