The Israeli army disputes these figures , contending that the number of Palestinians injured by live ammunition was likely in the dozens. 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." “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. 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. 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 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. 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. "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.
Human Rights Watch claims there was no evidence of any threat to Israeli soldiers and calls the killings 'unlawful' and 'calculated'.