Human Rights Watch: Israelis Responsible For Gaza Protest Killings
Image by Getty Images
By Josh Nathan-Kazis April 3, 2018
The watchdog group Human Rights Watch said Tuesday that senior Israeli officials were responsible for the deaths of 14 Palestinian protesters at the Gaza border on Friday, and the injuries of hundreds of others.
“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,” HRW’s deputy Middle East director, Eric Goldstein, said in the group’s statement.
According to Human Rights Watch, Israeli officials said before the protests that soldiers were authorized to shoot people who approached the border, but did not present evidence that violence by the protesters was a serious threat to the Israeli soldiers. The group said that it found no evidence that the protesters used firearms. Without the presence of firearms, according to the group, international law would prevent using deadly force.
“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,” the group said.
Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
