Ramallah, Aug 15, 2024—An Israeli sniper shot and killed a 16-year-old Palestinian boy northeast of Jerusalem on August 13.
Shadi Wissam Mohammad Shiha, 16, was shot by an Israeli sniper around 10 p.m. on August 13 in Anata, northeast of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International - Palestine. Shadi went to close up his family-owned car wash, and his cousin joined him to help. While there, they noticed a fire on the other side of the Israeli separation wall, opposite the Pisgat Ze'ev settlement. Shadi approached a few meters away to check the source of the fire. Israeli forces then shot Shadi in the thigh from a distance of 30 to 60 meters (98 to 197 feet) away. He was bleeding heavily and began crawling about 10 to 20 meters to take cover in the car wash.
“Shadi 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.”
Shadi’s cousin transferred him in his private car to the Iman Medical Center (Clalit) in Anata for first aid. From there, a Palestinian ambulance transferred Shadi through the Hizma checkpoint to an Israeli Magen David Adom ambulance, which took him to Hadassah Hospital in Issawiya (Har Hatzofim), where he was pronounced dead around 11 p.m.
His body was taken to the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv and Israeli intelligence refused to allow Shadi’s burial in Anata, so they confiscated his body.
Israeli forces and settlers have killed 64 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank in 2024, including two United States citizens, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
145 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 40 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 35 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.
