Ramallah, August 29, 2024—Israeli forces killed three Palestinian boys in the occupied West Bank at the beginning of this week.
15-year-old Adnan Aysar Adnan Jaber, 13-year-old Mohammad Ahmad Mohammad Elian and 17-year-old Mosab Hassan Ali Moqasqas were all targeted and killed by Israeli forces in two separate incidents in the occupied West Bank on August 25 and 26, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International - Palestine. Israeli authorities confiscated Mosab’s body and have not released it to his family.
“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.”
Adnan Aysar Adnan Jaber, 15, and Mohammad Ahmad Mohammad Elian, 13, were struck by an Israeli drone-fired missile around 10 p.m. on August 26 in the northern part of Al-Manshiya neighborhood, in Nour Shams refugee camp, east of Tulkarem in the northern occupied West Bank, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Adnan and Mohammad, who were standing near a group of wanted men, sustained shrapnel injuries all over their bodies. They were transported by ambulance to the Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital in Tulkarem, where they were pronounced dead on arrival.
Mosab Hassan Ali Moqasqas, 17, was shot and killed by Israeli forces on August 25 around 10:30 p.m. near the entrance to Marda village, north of Salfit, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Mosab was in a car with a Palestinian man, when Israeli forces started shooting at the car and leading to his death. Israeli authorities are withholding Mosab’s body.
It is not clear how many bullet wounds Mosab sustained or their location since Israeli authorities confiscated his body.
Israeli forces and settlers have killed 68 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank in 2024, including two United States citizens, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
149 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 42 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 37 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.
