The Human Rights and Democracy Media Center “SHAMS” highlights that the ongoing targeting of the Jenin Refugee Camp by the Israeli occupation—most recently the launch of three missiles from a drone on the evening of Tuesday, January 14, 2025, near the Return Roundabout in the camp—resulting in the martyrdom of six Palestinians, including a child and three brothers, is a manifestation of systematic crimes and a clear reflection of the impunity provided to the occupation and its leaders by certain major powers. The attack claimed the lives of child Mahmoud Ashraf Mustafa Gharbieh (15 years), Moamen Ibrahim Mahmoud Abu Al-Heija (28 years), and his brothers Amir (27 years) and Baha (33 years), as well as Hussam Hassan Issa Qanouh (34 years) and Ibrahim Mustafa Quneiri (23 years). With these six martyrs, the number of Palestinians martyred in the West Bank since October 7, 2023, has risen to 852.
The “SHAMS” Center condemns this heinous act of genocide targeting the Jenin Refugee Camp amidst the ongoing campaign of collective extermination in Gaza. This serves as a stark warning that the occupation’s policies of destruction and displacement extend beyond Gaza to also target the West Bank, including its towns, villages, and camps, albeit in a gradual manner. Statements and declarations from members of the Israeli government and the extreme right affirm this, such as the call by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for a plan to turn the northern West Bank into a replica of Jabalia in northern Gaza, in an explicit incitement to genocide, displacement, and destruction.
The “SHAMS” Center points out that the targeting of Jenin Refugee Camp is part of a broader plan by the Israeli government to destroy Palestinian refugee camps and eliminate the right of return. This is evidenced by the legislation enacted by the occupation government against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), labeling it a terrorist organization and restricting its activities. Such laws constitute a blatant violation of the United Nations Charter, its principles, and its institutions.
The “SHAMS” Center strongly condemns the international silence in the face of these crimes, emphasizing that human rights are indivisible and derive from the inherent dignity of every person without discrimination. This silence reveals complicity and alignment by some nations and organizations that claim to uphold human rights and fundamental freedoms. Such duplicity exposes the hypocrisy of these nations and their instrumentalization of international law and liberal values to serve their interests and those of their allies, undermining the credibility and significance of international human rights frameworks.
The “SHAMS” Center asserts that the occupation’s crimes in Jenin Refugee Camp constitute a grave violation of international humanitarian law, specifically the Fourth Geneva Convention of August 12, 1949. Article 15 of the convention mandates the protection of persons who do not participate in hostilities or engage in military actions during their residence in conflict areas. Furthermore, Article 49 prohibits the forced or individual transfer or deportation of protected persons from occupied territories to the territory of the occupying power or any other state, regardless of the motives.
Additionally, these actions violate international human rights law, particularly the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Article 8 of the statute states that deliberately directing attacks against civilian populations or civilian objects, causing widespread destruction, and forcibly transferring populations within or outside occupied territories constitute war crimes. Moreover, these acts breach the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of December 9, 1948. Article 2 of the convention defines genocide as any act committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, including subjecting the group to living conditions calculated to bring about its physical destruction.
The “SHAMS” Center calls on the United Nations Security Council, the UN General Assembly, the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions, the parties to the Rome Statute, the UN Secretary-General, the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, and international governmental and non-governmental organizations to fulfill their humanitarian and legal responsibilities. These entities must pressure the Israeli government to cease its ongoing genocidal crimes against the Palestinian people and ensure compliance with international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians and the prohibition of targeting them in military operations.