Ramallah, August 2, 2023—Israeli forces shot and killed a 15-year-old Palestinian boy yesterday and are withholding his body from his family.
Mohammad Farid Shawqi Al-Za’arir, 15, was shot and killed by Israeli forces on August 1 around 5:30 p.m. near a bus station on Route 60 close to the illegal Israeli settlement outpost Mitzpe Eshtamoa, located south of Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International - Palestine. Mohammad was walking along the road when two Israeli soldiers approached him in a vehicle, then he allegedly attempted to stab them. Israeli forces shot and killed Mohammad with live ammunition and confiscated his body.
“Israel is the only country in the world with a policy of confiscating human remains,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “Without releasing his body, there can be no independent autopsy to confirm how Mohammad was killed. Israeli forces routinely shoot to kill Palestinian children in violation of international law and so Mohammad’s killing must be independently investigated.”
It is not clear how many bullet wounds Mohammad sustained or their location since Israeli forces are withholding his body. It is also not clear how long Mohammad was left to bleed or if he received medical attention.
Israeli forces summoned Mohammad’s father and adult brother to Gush Etzion interrogation center, located inside a closed Israeli military area in an illegal settlement north of Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank, according to information collected by DCIP. Israeli forces interrogated them separately for three hours before releasing them without allowing them to see Mohammad’s body.
Israeli forces have withheld the bodies of at least 17 Palestinian children since June 2016, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Three of the children’s bodies have since been released to their families, while 14 Palestinian children’s bodies remain withheld by Israeli authorities.
37 Palestinian children have been killed in 2023, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Israeli forces have shot and killed at least 29 Palestinian children and killed one Palestinian child with a targeted drone strike in the occupied West Bank. Six Palestinian children in Gaza were killed in the May 2023 Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip, and a 10-year-old Palestinian child in Gaza succumbed to head wounds he sustained during the Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip in August 2022.
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.
Israel’s Jewish-only settlements in the occupied West Bank amount to a war crime as transferring civilians into the Occupied Palestinian Territory violates international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Despite living in the same territory, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are subject to Israeli military law, while Israeli settlers living illegally in permanent, Jewish-only communities built on Palestinian land are subject to the Israeli civilian legal system.
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.
53 Palestinian children were killed in 2022, according to documentation collected by DCIP, including 36 Palestinian children shot and killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the occupied West Bank. DCIP documented the killing of 17 Palestinian children between August 5–7 after Israeli forces launched a military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
