Israeli forces shoot Palestinians who pose no threat to them: Rights group

Rasa - An Israeli rights group says Israeli forces regularly fire at Palestinian protesters who pose no threat to them in the eastern part of the besieged Gaza Strip.

News ID: 436258

Date: 04 February 2018 - 23:35

RNA - B’Tselem said the Israeli military is pursuing the policy of suppressing demonstrations using live bullets, Al-Hayat al-Jadida reported on Friday.

The rights group said that Israeli soldiers take positions in concrete towers or behind bulwarks and shoot at Palestinian demonstrators.

According to the report, the number of demonstrations increased since US President Donald Trump on December 6, 2017, announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s "capital" and relocate the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied city.

At least eight Palestinian protesters had been killed and 322 others injured in Gaza by the end of December, it said.

The Israeli military regularly opens fatal fire on Palestinians, accusing them of attempting to carry out stabbing attacks against its forces.

Human rights groups have repeatedly criticized the Tel Aviv regime for its policy of shoot-to-kill as a large number of the Palestinians killed at the scene of attacks did not pose serious threats to Israelis.

The number of Israeli attacks have sharply risen since Trump’s announcement on Jerusalem al-Quds, which triggered demonstrations in the occupied Palestinian territories, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Algeria, Iraq, Morocco and other Muslim countries.

On December 21, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly voted in favor of a resolution that calls on the US to withdraw its controversial recognition of Jerusalem al-Quds as the Israeli “capital.”

Jerusalem al-Quds remains at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with Palestinians hoping that the eastern part of the city would eventually serve as the capital of a future independent Palestinian state.

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