Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that Israeli authorities’ actions to seal the family homes in the occupied West Bank of two Palestinians suspected of attacks against Israelis amount to collective punishment a war crime.
Israeli authorities earlier sealed the home of the Palestinian Khayri Alqam who carried out a shooting attack in Occupied Jerusalem last Friday in a preliminary step ahead of the expected demolition of the house.
Such attacks cannot justify Israeli authorities intentionally punishing the families of Palestinian suspects by demolishing their homes and throwing them out on the street said Omar Shakir Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch.
Israeli police detained 42 people in connection with the attack many of them relatives and acquaintances of Alqam. Most were released the next day but some remain in detention a lawyer representing Alqam’s family told Human Rights Watch.
Israeli authorities have also taken a range of other measures in response to the Neve Yaakov shooting that came a day after Israeli forces killed 10 Palestinians including 2 children and a 61-year-old woman and injuring at least 20 during a raid in the Jenin refugee camp.
Israel has stepped up the punishment of Palestinian property owners for “illegal construction” in East Jerusalem which has already led to the demolitions of properties including homes of Palestinians for whom building permits are nearly impossible to obtain the rights organization added.
The human rights group also documented an upsurge of settler violence in the West Bank. “Between 2005 and 2021 Israeli police closed 92 percent of investigations against settlers who attacked Palestinians without an indictment.”
Human Rights Watch pointed out that international humanitarian law including The Hague Regulations of 1907 and the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits collective punishment including deliberately harming the relatives of those accused of committing crimes in all circumstances.
“Courts around the world have treated collective punishment as a war crime. However Israel’s Supreme Court has consistently rejected the claim that the Israeli government’s practice of punitive home demolitions in Occupied Palestinian Territory amounts to collective punishment.”
