Ramallah, June 5, 2023—A two-year-old Palestinian child died today after Israeli forces shot him in the head with live ammunition last week.
Mohammad Haitham Ibrahim Tamimi, two, was sitting in the back of his father’s car around 9 p.m. on June 1 outside their home in Nabi Saleh, a village northwest of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, when Israeli forces opened fire indiscriminately, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International - Palestine. Israeli bullets struck Mohammad in the head and his father, Haitham, in the shoulder. Mohammad was airlifted to Tel Hashomer hospital, near Tel Aviv, where doctors planned to surgically remove the bullet lodged in Mohammad’s head, but were unable to perform the procedure due to his serious condition. Mohammad was declared dead around 2 p.m. on June 5, four days after he was shot.
“Firing live ammunition indiscriminately in a residential neighborhood where there is no threat to an Israeli soldier’s life is a clear violation of the Israeli military’s own policies,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “Unlawful killings of Palestinian children have become the norm as Israeli forces become increasingly empowered to use intentional lethal force in situations that are not justified. This is a war crime with no consequence.”
27 Palestinian children have been killed in 2023, according to documentation collected by DCIP. Israeli forces have shot and killed 20 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.
