Israel accused of possible war crime over killing of boy in West Bank | BBC News

Israel accused of possible war crime over killing of boy in West Bank | BBC News

since the October the 7th Hamas attacks the world has been focused on the actions of the Israeli military in Gaza the West Bank is another section of Palestinian territory that has received less attention it’s home to 3 million Palestinians and is partially run by the Palestinian Authority but there has been an Israeli military presence there for decades that military presence has drastically increased since the beginning of the war and violence has been surging the special investigation by Isabelle Yung Josh Baker and Sarah oat has uncovered new evidence about the killing of two boys by the Israeli Army here’s Isabelle Yung you may find some images in her report distressing on the 29th of November last year 15-year-old basil and 8-year-old Adam were killed by Israeli forces on a street in Janine in the West Bank our team in collaboration with BBC verify have been piecing together what happened to them we’ve been able to collect CCTV footage and mobile phone footage witness testimony and information about the movements of the military that day and this has allowed us to create a timeline of those shootings in the afternoon a convoy of at least six Israeli armored vehicles were returning from a nearby raid we’ve tracked their routs across Janine which took them past the street where basil and Adam were the two boys and around seven friends were out on the street CCTV footage from a Shop shows basil in the foreground here holding something in his right hand and making a movement with it with his left hand towards it you can then see him shot hot and falling backwards more bullets hit the ground nearby him video from another angle shows 8-year-old Adam slightly further down that same street from basil he’s shot in the back of his head as he’s trying to run away he also falls this time forwards and is then dragged behind a car we were also able to obtain another crucial video of this incident which is a nearby boy who was filming on his phone at the time he was able to capture one of the Israeli military vehicles driving by when this footage is slowed down and enhanced it shows the driver’s door opening can see that right here the driver has a direct view of those boys they’re around 24 M away from basil and 36 M away from Adam we know that at least 11 shots were fired from the direction of the armored vehicle Because We examined the bullet strikes at the scene we’ve also got a hold of copies of basil and Adams medical reports and they show us that two bullets struck Basil’s chest and another one hit Adam in the back of his head now the exact rules around when soldiers can and can’t use lethal force in the West Bank are secret but some of the rules that apply elsewhere are public guidelines of the Israeli Defense Forces state that the use of lethal Force must be a last resort and that it must be proportionate in relation to the danger suggesting that basil and Adam would have needed to pose a serious threat to soldiers according to all the video evidence that we’ve examined 8-year-old Adam was not armed when he was shot in the back of his head the Israeli Army has said that the suspects had been attempting to hurl explosives towards their forces which put them in immediate danger they also shared this annotated picture with us that they say shows an explosive device lying on the ground close to where basil was shot the object looks consistent with a type of very small pipe bomb that is used in the West Bank but we can’t fully verify the image itself we’ve shown our findings to international human rights experts Dr lorrence Hill corthorn the co-director of the center for international law told us that the soldiers were in armored vehicles even if they were a threat they should have driven away and planned an arrest rather than defaulting to apparently indiscriminate lethal Force which is a violation of international law Ben Su the UN special rorer on human rights and counterterrorism has told us that while there may be questions about the use of lethal force in Basil’s case the killing of Adam in his view appears to be a war crime

On the 29 November last year, two Palestinian boys were killed by Israeli forces in Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

BBC Verify has pieced together what happened on the day when Basil, 15, and eight-year-old Adam were killed.

The evidence has prompted Ben Saul, UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, to say the death of Adam appears to be a “war crime”.

The Israel Defense Forces said the circumstances of the deaths were “under review” but added “live fire is used only in order to remove immediate threats or for arrest purposes, following arrest protocols after exhausting other options”.

Subscribe here: http://bit.ly/1rbfUog

For more news, analysis and features visit: www.bbc.com/news

#Israel #WestBank #BBCNews