Since 30 March 2019, Palestinians have gathered every Friday to protest and participate in the Great Return March. In response, the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) have systematically and forcefully suppressed the peaceful protests along the Gaza fence with unnecessary and excessive force, including lethal force. To date, 204 Palestinians, including 46 children, seven persons with disability, three paramedics and two journalists have been killed as a result of Israel’s disproportionate use of force, firing live ammunition, rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas canisters indiscriminately at protesters. The information provided below is based on Al-Haq’s field documentation throughout the Great Return March protests between the one-year mark of the Great Return March, on 30 March, and 19 April 2019.

On Tuesday 16 April 2019, the Jerusalem District Court upheld the work permit revocation of Human Rights Watch (HRW) Israel and Palestine Director Omar Shakir and gave him until 1 May 2019 to leave the country. This alarming decision is part of an ongoing attempt to hinder Mr. Shakir in his work as leading human rights defender as well as a flagrant violation of his basic rights to movement and freedom of expression. The case represents the first application of Amendment No. 28 of the Entry into Israel Law against a person lawfully present in Israel.

Between 11 March - 24 March 2019, Al-Haq documented five cases of killings of Palestinian civilians across the West Bank. In total, eight Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) over the past three weeks.[1] The number and the frequency of the killings reflect an Israeli policy of systematic resort to excessive, unnecessary and disproportionate use of lethal force. Cases documented in the reporting period of this weekly focus include killings as a result of excessive use of lethal force, extrajudicidial killings, torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, as well as the targeting of protected persons and civilian objects,  constituting multiple violations of Israel’s obligations as Occupying Power as set forth under international law.

On 27 March 2019, the Israeli occupying forces killed 17-year-old Palestinian citizen, Sajed Abd Al-Hakim Hilmi Mizher, a volunteer first responder with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS), who was fatally shot by the Israeli occupying forces while he was on duty tending to the injured during confrontations between Palestinian youth and Israeli soldiers in Dheisheh Refugee Camp, south of Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank. Since Wednesday, 27 March 2019, Al-Haq has carried out comprehensive field investigations into the killing of Sajed Mizher, having collected sworn affidavits from eyewitnesses, prepared a field report of the incident, and collected images and other relevant documents on the case. This report outlines the facts of the killing, as documented by Al-Haq, and provides contextual information collected in relation to the victim, while it further details the distortion of the truth by the Israeli occupying authorities in relation to alleged footage of the killing distributed by the Israeli army and media, and sheds light on Al-Haq’s conclusions as a result of its detailed documentation and follow-up.