Ramallah: Human Rights and Democracy Media Center- SHAMS, stated that the Israeli occupation’s encroachment on the West Bank is part of the ongoing aggression against the Palestinian people. The Center emphasized that the practices of the Israeli occupation, including crimes of aggression and trespass of cities, refugee camps, and villages in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, are part of a systematic policy aimed at uprooting the Palestinian people from their land and ending their national question. In the context of the continued crimes of genocide, war crimes, and force-displacement in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation government has intensified its encroachment on West Bank cities, targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure in a deliberate policy of killing and destruction, especially in Palestinian cities, villages, and camps. The cities of Jenin, Tulkarm, Jericho, and the refugee camps in these two governorates, are subject to these aggressive practices, including the killing and targeting of civilians. The Israeli army is proceeding in killing children, women, and elderly people alongside the destruction of infrastructure, the use of drones, along with the demolition of buildings, desecration of mosques, besieging hospitals, hindering the work of ambulance crews, preventing them from transferring the wounded to hospitals and health centers
SHAMS Center emphasizes that the Israeli occupation forces’ invasion of the city of Tulkarm and Nour Shams refugee camp on December 16, 2023, constitutes a fully-fledged war crime. The Israeli army targeted Palestinian youth in the camp with a drone, resulting in the martyrdom of four Palestinians and the injury of several others. The Israeli occupation forces prevented ambulances from transferring the wounded to hospitals, leading to their martyrdom. The martyrs are Walid Abdulrazzaq Asad Zahra (22 years old), Asad Fathi Asad Zahra (33 years old), Mahmoud Samer Jaber (22 years old), Ghaith Yasser Shehada (25 years old), and Jihad Hatem Amarna (23 years old). Nour Shams camp was declared a closed military zone, and the infrastructure in the camp was destroyed.
SHAMS Center emphasized that the various crimes committed by the Israeli occupying authorities in the occupied Palestinian territory would not have occurred without the international support, particularly from Europe and the United States, providing political cover for the Israeli occupation state in international institutions, shielding it from condemnation or prosecution, whether through United Nations institutions or international judicial bodies. This support allows the Israeli leadership to evade accountability for the daily crimes committed against the Palestinian people, witnessed by the entire world. The Center condemned the financial, military, and political support provided by the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and other European countries to the Israeli occupation government in its aggression against the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This support is manifested through a military aid airlift from these countries to Israel, as well as the arrival of American and British naval vessels in the waters of the eastern Mediterranean to support the Israeli occupation in its aggression against the Palestinian people. Additionally, the security and intelligence cooperation between these countries and the Israeli occupation in targeting the Palestinian people, carrying out assassination campaigns, mass arrests, and the use of internationally prohibited weapons against the Palestinian people and their civil institutions
The Center condemns the Israeli war machine’s targeting of civilians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The attacks carried out by the occupation’s air force on civilian targets and civilians in particular, those attacks that target innocent civilians, without any mentioned military objectives. What is the military significance and value of occupying a shelter center or taking control of a hospital? It only results in the killing, destruction, and extermination of Palestinian civilians. These actions are driven by a motive of revenge and the pursuit of what is known as Israeli deterrence, engaging in acts of genocide and destroying the Palestinian civilian infrastructure. The political leadership in the extremist Israeli government is deeply involved in these crimes to restore their reputation and improve their political standing in Israeli society at the expense of the blood and lives of Palestinian civilians.
SHAMS Center emphasizes that the actions of the Israeli occupation state constitute a blatant violation of international humanitarian law. It also violates all ethical, human, and religious principles that protect human rights and dignity. It is a violation of Article 18 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states, “Civilian hospitals organized to give care to the wounded and sick, the infirm and maternity cases, may in no circumstances be the object of attack but shall at all times be respected and protected by the Parties to the conflict.” This action also violates the Hague Convention on Land Warfare of 1907, particularly Article 27, which stipulates, “In sieges and bombardments, all necessary steps must be taken to spare, as far as possible, buildings dedicated to religion, art, science, or charitable purposes, historic monuments.” Furthermore, it contravenes the Rome Statute of 1998, as Article 8 of the Statute states that “intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science, or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals, and places where the sick and wounded are collected constitutes a war crime.
At the end of its press release, SHAMS Center called on the United Nations, governments of friendly nations supporting the Palestinian people’s struggle, governmental and non-governmental institutions, the International Red Cross, Médecins Sans Frontières, and Amnesty International, to urgently take action. The Center urged these entities to fulfill their duties and exert pressure on the Israeli occupation government to stop its crimes and continuous aggression against the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It called for compelling the Israeli government to abide by the rules of international humanitarian law, neutralize civilians and civilian objects from conflict zones and military operations, refrain from targeting them, and provide safe areas for their protection.