Israeli leaders who ordered troops to open fire on Palestinians taking part in the Great March of Return rallies in Gaza last Friday, even though marchers posed no threat, bear personal responsibility for the deaths and injuries, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.

They are responsible for “calculated” killings of unarmed civilians in violation of international law, the human rights group states, warning that Israeli leaders could face prosecution abroad.

In a detailed report on Israel’s violence against the marches that coincided with the Palestinian commemoration of Land Day, Human Rights Watch dismantles Israeli claims that the use of military snipers against civilian demonstrators was justified by a “terrorist” threat.

Human Rights Watch reaches two key conclusions: the Israeli violence against Palestinians was premeditated, illegal under international law, and ordered at the highest level; and Israel has presented no evidence whatsoever of any credible threat that would justify the violence it used on the day.

The report points to evidence of numerous instances in which troops targeted Palestinians far from the Gaza-Israel boundary fence.

The death toll from 30 March has now risen to 18 – the bloodiest single day for Palestinians since Israel’s 2014 assault on Gaza.

These include 14 Palestinians killed when Israeli forces opened fire on thousands of people taking part in rallies along the Gaza-Israel boundary protesting Israel’s siege of the territory and demanding the right for refugees to return to lands from which they were expelled by Israel.

Approximately 1,400 were injured, including around 800 people hit with live ammunition.

On Monday, an additional protester died from injuries sustained on Friday. The first killing on 30 March was of Omar Samour, a farmer tending his field at dawn. The same day, two Palestinian resistance fighters were killed in a separate incident in the north of Gaza away from the protest rallies.

And on Tuesday, Israeli forces killed 25-year-old Ahmad Omar Arafa with a bullet to the chest during a demonstration east of al-Bureij refugee camp, near the boundary with Israel.

“Israeli soldiers were not merely using excessive force, but were apparently acting on orders that all but ensured a bloody military response to the Palestinian demonstrations,” Eric Goldstein, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Middle East director, said of Friday’s bloodshed. “The result was foreseeable deaths and injuries of demonstrators on the other side of a border who posed no imminent threat to life.”

“The killings highlight the importance of the International Criminal Court prosecutor opening a formal investigation into serious international crimes in Palestine,” Human Rights Watch said.

The ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has however for years been refusing or dragging her feet about whether to place Israeli leaders and commanders under formal investigation, despite a mountain of evidence turned over to her office by human rights investigators.

Human Rights Watch notes that in the days before the planned marches, “Israeli officials repeatedly proclaimed their intent to fire on ‘instigators’ and those approaching the border fence.”

Israeli army chief Gadi Eisenkot announced the deployment of 100 snipers and declared that “The orders are to use a lot of force.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Arabic spokesperson Ofir Gendelman posted a video of a man shot in the leg, stating, “This is the least that anyone who tries to cross the security fence between Gaza and Israel will face.”

And on the morning of 30 March, defense minister Avigdor Lieberman tweeted in Arabic that, “Anyone who approaches the border puts his life in jeopardy.”

“Entering a zone declared off limits should not be a crime considered punishable by death,” Human Rights Watch said.

Tens of thousands of people are reported to have taken part in the Land Day rallies.

“While some protesters near the border fence burned tires and threw rocks, Human Rights Watch could find no evidence of any protester using firearms or any IDF [Israeli army] claim of threatened firearm use at the demonstrations,” the group’s report states.

Even the footage of demonstrations published by the army “includes no evidence of firearms.”

Israel did publish a video it claims showed two men firing at Israeli troops that day, but Human Rights Watch notes that “this took place in northern Gaza Strip, not on the eastern border where the Land Day demonstrations took place,” and that no demonstrators can be seen in that footage.

Israel also claims that some demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails.

“The Israeli government has not shown that the demonstrators throwing rocks or Molotov cocktails posed a grave threat to the well-protected soldiers deployed on the other side of the border fence, nor has Israel claimed that any Palestinian crossed the border on 30 March,” Human Rights Watch states.

Israel has reported no injuries to any of its personnel.

Evidence reviewed by Human Rights Watch includes a video that “appears to show a demonstrator shot in the leg while praying and another video showing a man shot while throwing a rock.”

Other videos the group cites show demonstrators shot while slowly walking toward the border empty-handed or holding only a Palestinian flag or retreating from the border.

Some of these videos have already been widely circulated by media and human rights organizations.

In the days since the massacre, Israel has attempted to justify the killings by painting the mass civilian rallies as a provocation instigated by Hamas.

In a tweet, the army alleged that the dead included “10 known terrorists with track records of terror activity.”

But my making such claims, Human Rights Watch states, “the military appears to be trying to justify otherwise unlawful killings in a law enforcement situation based on alleged past activity.”

Human Rights Watch recalls that last year it documented senior Israeli officials inciting soldiers and police to kill alleged Palestinian assailants in the occupied West Bank “even when they are no longer a threat.”

And last December, Israel’s killing with a bullet to the head of Ibrahim Abu Thurayya, a disabled wheelchair user who was holding nothing but a Palestinian flag as he took part in a protest near the boundary, caused global revulsion.

The UN human rights chief called that slaying “incomprehensible” and a “truly shocking and wanton act.”

Journalists covering Friday’s rallies did not escape the extraordinary level of Israeli violence.

Ten journalists were injured, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

They include Ahmed Salem Muammar, who was hit in his lower abdomen by a live bullet, east of the city of Khan Younis, and Wisam Mousa, a photographer who was hit by live bullets in both legs while he was covering the protests from afar at the al-Bureij refugee camp.

Mahmoud Adnan Mdouj, a photographer for the production company Media Town, was hit by a live bullet in his right leg, while he was covering the march behind the protesters, about 500 meters from the border fence.

The Committee to Protect Journalists urged Israel to “independently and credibly investigate” the incidents – something Israel has no history of doing.

Despite the clear evidence of premeditated slaughter and maiming of civilians, governments that support Israel – particularly the European Union and its members – are publicly feigning a high level of ignorance about what happened Friday.

In the United States, it appears that only two of 535 members of Congress have condemned the Israeli violence – Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Betty McCollum.

The EU and many of its states failed to condemn Israel’s actions. Instead, they backed a call by the UN secretary-general for an independent investigation.

While on the surface that appears like a robust stance, it gives the false impression that the main thrust of what happened is disputed or in doubt. As the Human Rights Watch report confirms, there can be no such doubt.

Israel has for its part already stated that there won’t be an internal inquiry and it won’t cooperate with any international investigation.

Moreover, Lieberman and Netanyahu have praised soldiers for their roles in the slayings.

Israel has threatened Palestinian civilians with even more violence.

On past experience, there’s little reason to believe that either the calls by the UN secretary-general or EU for an investigation were anything other than meant to deflect demands for effective action.

Asked if the European Union planned any action to hold Israel accountable in light of its rejection of an investigation, a spokesperson for the 28-member bloc indicated that no such action was planned.

“We continue to believe an independent and transparent investigation as requested in the statement is needed,” the EU spokesperson told The Electronic Intifada Tuesday, referring to the EU’s response to the killings issued on Saturday. “And that to prevent further loss of life and promote return to negotiations, restraint is needed.”

The spokesperson did not respond to a question about whether the EU accepts the findings of Human Rights Watch.

This official shrug is in keeping with the EU’s longstanding policy of complicity with Israel.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch is warning Israeli leaders that despite the impunity they enjoy at home and from governments around the world, they may yet face justice.

More rallies are planned by Palestinians in the weeks leading up to Nakba Day on 15 May – the 70th anniversary of the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

Human Rights Watch states: “The Israeli government should recognize that, even in the absence of serious domestic oversight, officials who order unlawful lethal force may become subject to prosecution abroad as a matter of universal jurisdiction or in international judicial forums.”</s>The Israeli army's killing of more than a dozen Palestinians who were demonstrating along the Gaza Strip's eastern border on Friday was unlawful and calculated, according to a new Human Rights Watch (HRW) report.

"The Israeli government presented no evidence that rock-throwing and other violence by some demonstrators seriously threatened Israeli soldiers across the border fence," the report, released on Tuesday, said.

Pointing out that senior Israeli officials had "unlawfully" called for the use of live ammunition before and after the protests, HRW said: "the high number of deaths and injuries was the foreseeable consequence of granting soldiers leeway to use lethal force outside of life-threatening situations in violation of international norms."

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On Friday, the Israeli army killed 17 Palestinians in mass demonstrations calling for the right of return for Palestinian refugees to the homes and villages by from which they were driven out by Zionist armed groups in 1948. At least 1,500 others were wounded, while one Palestinian succumbed to his wounds on Monday.

The death toll is expected to rise owing to the high number of injuries and the lack of medical supplies in the Gaza Strip, which has been under an Israeli land, sea and air blockade for more than a decade.

Prior to the demonstrations, the Israeli army announced it had deployed more than 100 snipers with permission to fire.

Palestinian rights group Adalah said the Israeli army on Saturday "accidentally" took responsibility for the attacks on Palestinian protesters, before deleting a post from their official Twitter page.

"Yesterday we saw 30,000 people; we arrived prepared and with precise reinforcements. Nothing was carried out uncontrolled; everything was accurate and measured, and we know where every bullet landed," a screenshot of the post, shared by Adalah, read.

'No evidence of firearms'

Protesters in Gaza gathered in five different spots along the border, originally positioned about 700 metres away from a highly fortified fence marking the Gaza-Israel border.

Israeli forces responded with live fire, tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets, according to the Palestinian ministry of health.

Multiple videos appear to show Palestinians being shot while not posing an immediate threat.

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"Human Rights Watch could find no evidence of any protester using firearms or any IDF claim of threatened firearm use at the demonstrations," the report said.

The Israeli use of deadly force has drawn international condemnation; the United Nations and rights groups have called for an independent investigation into the killings.

But the Israeli minister for security has said "there is no reason" for Israel to cooperate with a UN inquiry into army actions.

On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the army, saying his troops were successful "guarding the country's borders" and allowing "Israeli citizens to celebrate the [Passover] holiday peacefully".

The protests were planned on the 42nd commemoration of Land Day, which took place on March 30, 1976, when six unarmed Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed by Israeli forces during protests against the Israeli government's decision to expropriate massive tracts of Palestinian-owned land.

Eric Goldstein, the deputy Middle East director at HRW, said: "Praising the army’s handling of the March 30 events and saying there shall be no inquiry into how Israeli soldiers gunned down 14 protesters across a fence says much about how cheaply Israeli authorities view the lives of Palestinians in Gaza."</s>Senior Israeli officials who unlawfully called for use of live ammunition against Palestinian demonstrations who posed no imminent threat to life bear responsibility for the killings of 14 demonstrators in Gaza and the injuring of hundreds on March 30, 2018, Human Rights Watch said today

Both before and after the confrontations, senior officials publicly said that soldiers stationed along the barrier that separates Gaza and Israel had orders to target “instigators” and those who approach the border. However, the Israeli government presented no evidence that rock-throwing and other violence by some demonstrators seriously threatened Israeli soldiers across the border fence.

The high number of deaths and injuries was the foreseeable consequence of granting soldiers leeway to use lethal force outside of life-threatening situations in violation of international norms, coupled with the longstanding culture of impunity within the Israeli army for serious abuses.

“Israeli soldiers were not merely using excessive force, but were apparently acting on orders that all but ensured a bloody military response to the Palestinian demonstrations,” said Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The result was foreseeable deaths and injuries of demonstrators on the other side of a border who posed no imminent threat to life.”

The killings highlight the importance of the International Criminal Court prosecutor opening a formal investigation into serious international crimes in Palestine, Human Rights Watch said.

Organizers of this year’s Land Day demonstrations said they would also affirm Palestinians’ internationally recognized right of return. Most of the thousands who participated in Gaza stayed in tent encampments, due to remain in place until May 15, the 70th anniversary of the Nakba (Arabic for “catastrophe”), the displacement of Palestinians that accompanied the founding of the Israeli state. The tent villages were pitched at various points about 500 meters inside the border.

While most of the people in the tent villages did not approach the border, groups of mostly young men did so, some throwing stones, and, according to the IDF, “Molotov cocktails” (improvised gasoline bombs). Israeli forces directed fire at these men, killing 14 and injuring 1,415 – 758 of them with live ammunition, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Rubber bullets and teargas injured others. The Israeli army disputes these figures, contending that the number of Palestinians injured by live ammunition was likely in the dozens.

While some protesters near the border fence burned tires and threw rocks, Human Rights Watch could find no evidence of any protester using firearms or any IDF claim of threatened firearm use at the demonstrations. The IDF spokesperson, in a tweet posted in the early morning of March 31, “Everything you need to know about the riots in Gaza today,” accused demonstrators of “hurling burning tires, throwing Molotov cocktails, and attempting to harm or destroy Israel’s security infrastructure.” It made no mention of Palestinians using firearms at the protests.

Human Rights Watch reviewed footage it believes authentic based on an interview with the videographer that appears to show a demonstrator shot in the leg while praying and another video showing a man shot while throwing a rock. Other videos reviewed appear to show demonstrators shot while slowly walking toward the border empty-handed or holding only a Palestinian flag or retreating from the border. Interviews with six witnesses, including three journalists, indicated that soldiers shot at men who were in the area between the encampments and the fence but who posed no grave threat to anyone across the fence.

Entering a zone declared off limits should not be a crime considered punishable by death, Human Rights Watch said.</s>Both before and after the confrontations, senior officials publicly said that soldiers stationed along the barrier that separates Gaza and Israel had orders to target “instigators” and those who approach the border. However, the Israeli government presented no evidence that rock-throwing and other violence by some demonstrators seriously threatened Israeli soldiers across the border fence. The high number of deaths and injuries was the foreseeable consequence of granting soldiers leeway to use lethal force outside of life-threatening situations in violation of international norms, coupled with the longstanding culture of impunity within the Israeli army for serious abuses.

Israel and Egypt maintain a heavily secured border around the 40-kilometer-long, 11-kilometer-wide Gaza Strip. Since Israel withdrew its permanent ground troop presence and civilian settlements from the Gaza Strip in 2005, it has maintained a “no-go zone” on the border that restricts access to about 17 percent of Gaza’s territory , including a third of its agricultural lands. Nearly 2 million Palestinians, including 1.3 million refugees, live in Gaza. The vast majority are unable to leave, including to the West Bank, due to sweeping Israeli and Egyptian restrictions on movement. Israel’s closure policy also heavily restricts the flow of goods into and out of Gaza.

While most of the people in the tent villages did not approach the border, groups of mostly young men did so, some throwing stones, and, according to the IDF, “Molotov cocktails” (improvised gasoline bombs). Israeli forces directed fire at these men, killing 14 and injuring 1,415—758 of them with live ammunition—according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Rubber bullets and teargas injured others. The Israeli army disputes these figures , contending that the number of Palestinians injured by live ammunition was likely in the dozens.

Human Rights Watch spoke to doctors who treated patients at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City who said they had received 294 injured demonstrators on March 30, most with injuries to the lower limbs from live ammunition, and five who died, all with head and chest injuries.

As events unfolded in the afternoon, both the IDF spokesperson and Israel’s coordinator of government activities in the territories, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai , tweeted that the army was firing on “main instigators.” The spokesperson added that, “Whenever there has been an attempt to damage the fence, we fired with precision, intensity and determination, exercising judgment.” Gen. Ronen Manelis, the chief army spokesman, told the New York Times that the operation aimed “not to allow the sabotage of military infrastructure and not to allow any mass crossing of the fence.”

While some protesters near the border fence burned tires and threw rocks, Human Rights Watch could find no evidence of any protester using firearms or any IDF claim of threatened firearm use at the demonstrations. The IDF spokesperson, in a tweet posted in the early morning of March 31, “Everything you need to know about the riots in Gaza today,” accused demonstrators of “hurling burning tires, throwing Molotov cocktails, and attempting to harm or destroy Israel’s security infrastructure.” It made no mention of Palestinians using firearms at the protests.

In the absence of armed hostilities, in which international humanitarian law applies, the use of force in Gaza is governed by international human rights law. While security forces may use force under applicable international law to prevent unauthorized crossing of borders, Israel has presented no information that any threat at the border required a response in which the use of military force was necessary, such as an attack by armed combatants. The United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials hold that security forces shall “apply non-violent means before resorting to the use of force and firearms,” and that “whenever the lawful use of force and firearms is unavoidable, law enforcement officials shall: (a) Exercise restraint in such use and act in proportion to the seriousness of the offence and the legitimate objective to be achieved; (b) Minimize damage and injury, and respect and preserve human life.” Furthermore, “intentional lethal use of firearms may only be made when strictly unavoidable in order to protect life.”

The Israeli government has not shown that the demonstrators throwing rocks or Molotov cocktails posed a grave threat to the well-protected soldiers deployed on the other side of the border fence, nor has Israel claimed that any Palestinian crossed the border on March 30.

Entering a zone declared off limits should not be a crime considered punishable by death, Human Rights Watch said.

“Praising the army’s handling of the March 30 events and saying there shall be no inquiry into how Israeli soldiers gunned down 14 protesters across a fence says much about how cheaply Israeli authorities view the lives of Palestinians in Gaza,” Goldstein said.</s>Israeli leaders who ordered troops to open fire on Palestinians taking part in the Great March of Return rallies in Gaza last Friday, even though marchers posed no threat, bear personal responsibility for the deaths and injuries, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday They are responsible for "calculated" killings of unarmed civilians in violation of international law, the human rights group states, warning that Israeli leaders could face prosecution abroad.In a detailed report on Israel's violence against the marches that coincided with the Palestinian commemoration of Land Day , Human Rights Watch dismantles Israeli claims that the use of military snipers against civilian demonstrators was justified by a "terrorist" threat.Human Rights Watch reaches two key conclusions: the Israeli violence against Palestinians was premeditated, illegal under international law, and ordered at the highest level; and Israel has presented no evidence whatsoever of any credible threat that would justify the violence it used on the day.The report points to evidence of numerous instances in which troops targeted Palestinians far from the Gaza-Israel boundary fence.On Monday, an additional protester died from injuries sustained on Friday. TThe same day, two Palestinian resistance fighters were killed in a separate incident in the north of Gaza away from the protest rallies.And on Tuesday, Israeli forces killed 25-year-old Ahmad Omar Arafa with a bullet to the chest during a demonstration east of al-Bureij refugee camp, near the boundary with Israel."Israeli soldiers were not merely using excessive force, but were apparently acting on orders that all but ensured a bloody military response to the Palestinian demonstrations," Eric Goldstein, Human Rights Watch's deputy Middle East director, said of Friday's bloodshed. "The result was foreseeable deaths and injuries of demonstrators on the other side of a border who posed no imminent threat to life.""The killings highlight the importance of the International Criminal Court prosecutor opening a formal investigation into serious international crimes in Palestine," Human Rights Watch said.The ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has however for years been refusing or dragging her feet about whether to place Israeli leaders and commanders under formal investigation, despite a mountain of evidence turned over to her office by human rights investigators.Human Rights Watch notes that in the days before the planned marches, "Israeli officials repeatedly proclaimed their intent to fire on 'instigators' and those approaching the border fence."Israeli army chief Gadi Eisenkot announced the deployment of 100 snipers and declared that " The orders are to use a lot of force ."Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Arabic spokesperson Ofir Gendelman posted a video of a man shot in the leg , stating, "This is the least that anyone who tries to cross the security fence between Gaza and Israel will face."
Human Rights Watch claims there was no evidence of any threat to Israeli soldiers and calls the killings 'unlawful' and 'calculated'.