The Israeli use of armed drones during its two-day military campaign against the Palestinian West Bank city of Jenin this week may amount to “willful killing,” the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk charged.
“Israeli forces operations in the occupied West Bank need to abide by international human rights standards on the use of force,” Volker said on Tuesday.
He spoke hours before the IDF ended its two-day Operation Home and Garden in Jenin designed to destroy terrorist infrastructure in that city. Volker said that Israel was still bound by international law in such a context, even if the goal was to eliminate terrorism.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on human rights standards
Those human rights “standards do not change simply because the goal of the operation is stated as “counterterrorism,” he explained.
The scale of the Jenin operation, “including the use of repeated airstrikes, along with the destruction of property, raises a host of serious issues with respect to international human rights norms and standards, including protecting and respecting the right to life,” Volker stated.
Palestinians hold funeral for those killed during an Israeli military operation, in Jenin. (credit: REUTERS)“Some of the methods and weapons used…are more generally associated with the conduct of hostilities in armed conflict, rather than law enforcement,” he stated.
In specific, he explained, “The use of airstrikes is inconsistent with rules applicable to the conduct of law enforcement operations. In a context of occupation, the deaths resulting from such airstrikes may also amount to wilful killings.”
International human rights law “sets clear obligations on Israel, as the occupying power, to ensure that all operations are planned and controlled so as to minimize, to the greatest extent possible, resort to force and in particular lethal force,” Volker added.
On Wednesday morning, as the UN published initial data on the harm caused to Jenin as a result of the military raid, including the displacement of 3,500 Palestinians. At least 12 Palestinians, including five minors, were killed and 143 people were injured, it added.
The army – which lost a soldier in the clashes – said it killed combatants only.
Israeli forces also detained around 150 suspected militants and destroyed caches of guns and roadside mines – including an arsenal under a mosque – and a command center, the army said.
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