Human Rights and Democracy Media Center- SHAMS, asserts that the escalation of the assassination crimes in the West Bank Refugee Camps and using drones to target civilians, are clear indications of targeting the Palestinian refugee camps and executing the ethnic cleansing policy and forcible displacement similar to the status in the Gaza Strip, which started on October 7, 2023, while there is an international silence in front of these crimes. The latest attack in this regard took place in Nourshams Refugee Camp on Monday 25/8/2024. The crime resulted in the assassination of five Palestinians: Muhammad Ahmad Ulayyan (16 years old), Muhammad Ali Yousef (49 years old), Adnan Aisar Jaber (15 years old), Muhannad Kamal Qaraawi (20 years old), and Ghassan Jibreel Ghassan (19 years old).
SHAMS Center condemns the statement of the extremist Israeli Minister named Itamar Ben Gvier who said that he supports the idea of building a Jewish Synagogue in Al Aqsa Mosque. These statements provoke Muslims and Arabs and could push the region to start a religious war. It is not the first time that the given minister has declared extreme stances as he keeps breaking through Al Aqsa Mosque and provoking Palestinians with extremist statements. In front of these practices, there is Arabic, Islamic, and international silence and nothing is done despite the provocative statements and practices in Al Aqsa Mosque.
SHAMS Center warns against the ongoing attacks and raids of the settlers militias on the Palestinian towns and villages where the latest raid of these was on Wadi Rahhal Village- Bethlehem, on Monday, 25/8/2024. The raid resulted in killing Khalil Salem Ziada (37 years old) and wounding others. The Center asserts that the organized military militias, supported and protected by the Israeli army, are utilized as one of the tools to uproot Palestinians from their land as these attacks are increasing daily and indicate the insistence of the occupation to proceed in the policy of ethnic cleansing against Palestinians and forcible displacement by a variety of means.
SHAMS Center deplores the international silence in front of the crimes of the occupation in the West Bank while continuing the war crimes and genocide war in the Gaza Strip. The silence of the international community reveals the failure of the international order and the international institutions that align with the occupation. The Center condemns mainly the countries that support the occupation in its attack against the Gaza Strip through providing financial, economic, and military aid while providing a political coverage for the occupation in the international and United Nations institutions, mainly in the Security Council. Not only that but also the pressure was exerted on the international judicial institutions to ban these institutions from fulfilling their duty of accounting the Israeli war criminals in accordance with the bylaws and constitutions of these institutions.
SHAMS Center stresses that the raiding on the Palestinian towns, villages, cities, and refugee camps alongside desecration of the holy places, stand as profound violation of the international law and international human rights law. In particular, the occupation breaks the Geneva Fourth Convention (dated 12/8/1949), which provide special protection for civilians under war and armed conflicts: “Protect civilians, especially those who take no part in the hostile attacks and have no military role while they stay in the armed conflicted areas). Furthermore, the occupation violates the Hague CONVENTION RESPECTING THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF WAR ON LAND. Article 27 of the given convention states: “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, hospitals, and places where the sick and wounded are collected, provided they are not being used at the time for military purposes”. Furthermore, it violates Article 8 of the Rome Statute, which states: “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, provided they are not military objectives, are war crime”.
SHAMS Center calls on the United Nations Security Council, the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions, the signatories to the Rome Statute, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Arab League, the European Union, UNESCO, the Human Rights Council, the International Committee of the Red Cross, as well as governmental and non-governmental institutions, to fulfill their legal, humanitarian, and moral obligations and to compel the occupying government to stop its aggression against the Palestinian people, whether in the West Bank or in the Gaza Strip.