Rights and Accountability 26 November 2018
Israeli occupation forces shot and killed a Palestinian man on Monday.
The military claimed that Ramzi Abu Yabes, 32, had attacked and injured three soldiers with his car near the Gush Etzion junction in the southern West Bank.
A photo of Abu Yabes was published by Palestinian media after his death:
Abu Yabes, a medical worker, was reportedly en route to the southern West Bank city of Hebron to report to work when the incident occurred.Surveillance footage of the incident shows a vehicle veering off its path and throwing a person into the air:
Soldiers detained a Palestinian ambulance in order to remove Abu Yabes’ body and transfer it to a military vehicle.Israel withholds the bodies of Palestinians slain during what it claims were attacks on soldiers and civilians as a form of collective punishment against their families.
Israel claims that large funerals for slain Palestinians amount to rallies of support for such alleged attacks, encouraging more of them, though it has often required funerals to be conducted at night with only a handful of family members present.
It has delayed the transfer of the bodies of dozens of Palestinians killed during the course of actual and alleged attacks on Israelis in the occupied West Bank since late 2015.
The Israeli government has openly admitted that it seeks to hold the bodies of some slain Palestinians as bargaining chips to pressure Hamas to return the bodies of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza.
Affected Palestinian families have protested the measure, saying it prevents them from burying their relatives according to tradition and prohibits them from requesting an official autopsy.
On Monday, Palestinians marched through Dheisheh camp, near Bethlehem, where Abu Yabes resided, following his death:
Seven Israelis and nine Palestinian assailants and alleged assailants have been killed in the context of alleged and actual attacks since the beginning of the year.Teen dies from police fire
Last week, a Palestinian teen died from his injuries days after he was shot by Israeli forces after he allegedly carried out a stabbing attack at an occupied East Jerusalem police station on 14 November.
Seven Israeli police officers were reported injured during the incident in which Abd al-Rahman Abu Jamal, 17, was fatally wounded.
Israeli forces also raided Abu Jamal’s home and detained his parents and siblings.
Israeli forces and settlers have killed more than 50 Palestinian children in the West Bank and Gaza so far this year, more than triple the number slain in all of 2017.
Around 290 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis since the beginning of the year. Twelve Israelis were slain by Palestinians during the same period, as well as a Palestinian from the West Bank killed by a rocket fired from Gaza in southern Israel earlier this month.
