<\/p>\n
GENEVA (5 July 2023) \u2013 Israeli air strikes and ground operations in the occupied West Bank targeting the Jenin Refugee camp and killing at least 12 Palestinians may\u00a0prima facie<\/em>\u00a0constitute a war crime, UN experts said today.<\/p>\n \u201cIsraeli forces\u2019 operations in the occupied West Bank, killing and seriously injuring the occupied population, destroying their homes and infrastructure, and arbitrarily displacing thousands, amount to egregious violations of international law and standards on the use of force and may constitute a war crime,\u201d the experts said.<\/p>\n Between 3 and 4 July, Israeli forces killed at least 12 Palestinians, including five children, and injured more than 100 Palestinians, in one of Israel\u2019s biggest military operations in the occupied West Bank in years. The attacks forced thousands of Palestinians to flee and damaged infrastructure, houses and apartment buildings.<\/p>\n \u201cThe attacks were the fiercest in the West Bank since the destruction of the Jenin camp in 2002,\u201d the UN experts said.<\/p>\n They pointed to multiple reports about ambulances being prevented from accessing Jenin Refugee Camp to evacuate the wounded, hampering their access to medical assistance.<\/p>\n Around 4,000 Palestinians reportedly fled the Jenin Refugee Camp overnight on Monday and Tuesday after the deadly air strikes.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is heart-breaking to see thousands of Palestinian refugees originally displaced since 1947-1949, forced to march out of the camp in abject fear at the dead of night,\u201d the experts said.<\/p>\n Denouncing so-called \u201ccounter terrorism\u201d operations by Israeli forces, the experts said the attacks found no justification under international law.<\/p>\n \u201cThe attacks constitute collective punishment of the Palestinian population, who have been labelled a \u201ccollective security threat\u201d in the eyes of Israeli authorities,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n They expressed grave concern about military weaponry and tactics deployed by Israel\u2019s occupation forces at least twice over the last two weeks against Jenin\u2019s population.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory are protected persons under international law, guaranteed of all human rights including the presumption of innocence,\u201d the experts said. \u201cThey cannot be treated as a collective security threat by the occupying Power, all the more while it advances the annexation of occupied Palestinian land, and displacement and dispossession of its Palestinian residents.\u201d<\/p>\n The experts said Israel\u2019s operations in Jenin were amplifications of the structural violence that has permeated the occupied Palestinian territory for decades.<\/p>\n \u201cThe impunity that Israel has enjoyed for its acts of violence over decades, only fuel and intensify the recurring cycle of violence,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n The UN experts called for Israel to be held accountable under international law for its illegal occupation and violent acts to perpetuate it.<\/p>\n \u201cFor this relentless violence to end, Israel\u2019s illegal occupation must end. It cannot be corrected or improved in the margins, because it is wrong to the core,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n ENDS<\/p>\n *The experts<\/strong>:\u00a0<\/em>Francesca Albanese<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967<\/strong><\/a><\/em>;\u00a0<\/u><\/strong>Paula Gaviria Betancur,<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons<\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>Reem Alsalem,\u00a0Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the\u00a0<\/em>Special Procedures<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council\u2019s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organisation and serve in their individual capacity.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" GENEVA (5 July 2023) \u2013 Israeli air strikes and ground operations in the occupied West Bank targeting the Jenin Refugee camp and killing at least 12 Palestinians may\u00a0prima facie\u00a0constitute a war crime, UN experts said today. \u201cIsraeli forces\u2019 operations in the occupied West Bank, killing and seriously injuring the occupied population, destroying their homes […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[897],"document-category":[1329],"document-source":[6726,2025,4754],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[2517,1769,1829,2033,6257,1741,1857,2021,2185,2153,2385,6245,6251,1841],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-288097","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","country-israel","document-category-press-release","document-source-special-rapporteur-on-the-human-rights-of-internally-displaced-persons","document-source-special-rapporteur-on-the-situation-of-human-rights-in-the-opt","document-source-special-rapporteur-on-violence-against-women-and-girls-its-causes-and-consequences","document-subject-access-and-movement","document-subject-armed-conflict","document-subject-casualties","document-subject-children","document-subject-gender","document-subject-human-rights-and-international-humanitarian-law","document-subject-incidents","document-subject-incursions","document-subject-legal-issues","document-subject-refugee-camps","document-subject-security-issues","document-subject-violence","document-subject-west-bank","document-subject-women","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/288097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/288097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":288099,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/288097\/revisions\/288099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=288097"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=288097"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=288097"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=288097"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=288097"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=288097"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=288097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}