Ramallah, June 21, 2023—A Palestinian girl died this morning after Israeli forces shot her in the head in Jenin on Monday.
Sadil Ghasan Ibrahim Naghnaghieh, 14, was shot in the head with live ammunition by an Israeli soldier inside an armored military vehicle passing near her house in Jenin around 8 a.m. on June 19 during an Israeli military incursion into Jenin refugee camp, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International - Palestine. Sadil was sitting in the garden of her family’s home, opposite the Zahra neighborhood north of Jenin refugee camp, and used her phone to record Israeli military vehicles on a street near her home. As an armored Israeli military vehicle passed near her house, an Israeli soldier opened the vehicle’s back door and fired two bullets at Sadil. One bullet struck the front of her head and exited from the back. Sadil was transferred to Jenin Government Hospital, where doctors reported the bullet had injured her brain, and she was declared dead around 6 a.m. today.
“Shooting a Palestinian child suddenly and without warning at her own home in broad daylight is a clear violation of international law and demonstrates that Israeli forces enjoy total impunity with no fear of repercussions,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “Filming Israeli soldiers on a cell phone is not a crime. Targeting and killing Palestinian children is a war crime.”
Sadil and her family live near the Tawalbeh mosque, north of Jenin camp. When an Israeli soldier targeted Sadil with live ammunition, there were no confrontations between Israeli forces and Palestinians in that area, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
Sadil is the second Palestinian child killed by Israeli forces during the June 19 Israeli military incursion into Jenin refugee camp, according to documentation collected by DCIP. 14-year-old Ahmad Yousef Ahmad Saqer was shot by an Israeli soldier in the abdomen and was pronounced dead on arrival at Jenin Government Hospital on Monday.
During the Israeli military incursion into Jenin refugee camp, Israeli forces killed at least seven Palestinians, including Ahmad and Sadil, and injured at least 91, according to the BBC. The military incursion is the first time since the Second Intifada in 2000 that the Israeli military has used attack helicopters in the occupied West Bank.
29 Palestinian children have been killed in 2023, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Israeli forces have shot and killed 22 Palestinian children 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.
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.
