Excellency,
Innocent, defenseless Palestinian children continue to be murdered in cold blood by the military forces of Israel, the occupying Power, in grave breach of international law, including humanitarian and human rights law. While the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in Article 6, affirms that “every child has the inherent right to life” and commits States Parties to ensuring “to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child”, Palestinian children are being deprived of this right every single day by this cruel and illegal occupation.
Israel’s killing and maiming of Palestinian peaceful protesters in the context of the Great Return March in the blockaded Gaza Strip in particular continues unabated and with absolute impunity. We regret to have to convey yet another list of names of Palestinian civilians, including four children, wantonly killed for the sole act of calling for freedom and an end to their dehumanization under this oppressive, colonial occupation.
On 23 October, Muntasir Muhammad al-Bazz, age 17, was killed by Israeli occupying forces, who routinely open fire on unarmed Palestinian civilians carrying out what is clearly a kill-to-shoot policy.
On 26 October, four Palestinians, Ahmad Said Abu Libdeh, age 22, Ayyash Ghassan Shaath, age 23, Nassar Iyad Abu Teem, age 23, Muhammad Khalid Abd al-Nabi, age 27, and Jabir Abu Hameesa, age 27, were also brutally murdered by the occupying forces.
This was followed on 27 October by the targeting of more than 85 locations in the densely-populated Gaza Strip by Israeli warplanes, and the killing on 28 October of three more Palestinian boys, Abdul Hameed Abdul Aziz Abu Zaher, age 13, Mohammed Ibrahim al-Sutari, age 13, and Khaled Bassam Abu Saeed, age 14. This brings the total number of Palestinians killed since the protests began on 30 March, to at least 217, and more than 20,000 civilians injured, many gravely wounded and disabled for life. [Read more…]
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