Adalah, Al Mezan: Israeli military sniper fire on unarmed Palestinian civilian protesters is illegal

In response to today’s (Friday, 30 March 2018) deadly events in the Gaza Strip, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel issues the following statement:

“The Israeli military’s use of 100 snipers against unarmed Palestinian civilian protesters in the Gaza Strip is illegal. Live gunfire on unarmed civilians constitutes a brutal violation of the international legal obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel is obligated to act in accordance with international law. Adalah will call for an investigation into those responsible for today’s deadly incident in Gaza and will demand that those found responsible for the killings be brought to justice.”

Adalah and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights (Gaza) sent a letter yesterday, 29 March 2018, to Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and the Israeli Military Advocate General demanding they act to prevent the use of sniper fire against protesters or for crowd dispersion, and to clearly and directly order Israeli forces to refrain from use of live ammunition of any variety – including sniper fire.

Adalah and Al Mezan sent a second letter calling on the Israeli military to remove all social media posts threatening participants in today’s Gaza march that they will be military targets and also remove social media posts threatening the civilian population in Gaza.

All such acts which would constitute gross violations of both international criminal law and Israeli law.