UN Top Human Rights Official Decries Israel's Use of Excessive Force in Gaza

Rasa - The UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein stressed that Israel must stop the excessive use of force by its security forces along the Gaza border and must hold to account those responsible for many deaths and injuries in the past month.

News ID: 437387

Date: 27 April 2018 - 22:41

RNA - The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement on Friday that in the past four weeks, 42 Palestinians had been killed and more than 5,500 wounded along the fence in Gaza, with no reports of Israeli casualties, Middle East News reported.

“The loss of life is deplorable, and the staggering number of injuries caused by live ammunition only confirms the sense that excessive force has been used against demonstrators – not once, not twice, but repeatedly,” Zeid added.

Thousands of Palestinians launched the Great March of Return in the besieged Gaza Strip to demand their right of return to their villages and towns they were forcibly displaced from in 1948.

The peaceful protests began on March 30, which coincided with the 42nd anniversary of the Land Day, which marks the day Israeli forces killed six Palestinians during protests against land confiscation in 1976.

The 46-day mass protests are expected to continue until May 15, which marks the 70th anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe), in which over 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their homes in 1948.

Despite ongoing international condemnation, Israel continues to use lethal force in suppressing the protesters, who are unarmed and are vulnerable in the face of the heavily armed Israeli soldiers stationed at the borders.

Israel had previously deployed military vehicles and special forces, including 100 snipers, to Gaza’s border, while the regime’s forces had also been authorized to shoot at the demonstrators.

Multiple human rights organizations have come out in full condemnation of Israel’s violent raid on the massive unarmed civilian protests in the besieged sliver.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) slammed Israel’s killing of Palestinian protesters as “unlawful” and “calculated”, saying those officials who authorized the Israeli military to use lethal force ahead of the mass rallies in Gaza are to blame for the bloodshed.

The HRW added that footage of the Gaza demonstrations includes no evidence of protesters using firearms, questioning the Israeli claim that the number of Palestinians injured by live ammunition was likely in the dozens.

847/940