Coordination committee of the Great March of Return has sent a letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid bin Ra’ad asking him to send an international fact-finding mission to keep a close watch on Gaza protests.
Head of the committee Zaher Birawi said that the letter conveyed that the Israeli occupation forces continue to attack unarmed protesters near Gaza border although they have maintained the peacefulness of the Great March of Return since the day it was first launched.
Birawi explained that 32 Palestinians have been killed two of whom are being detained by the Israeli occupation forces and over 2850 injured due to Israel’s excessive use of lethal force against peaceful protesters demanding their right of return.
Birawi stressed in his letter that there are legal obligations which Israel must abide by mainly organized by three international protocols: the Hague Regulations on the Laws and Customs of War on Land of 1907 the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of Armed Conflict and the Additional Protocol I to the Four Geneva Conventions of 1977.
The coordination committee said that the civilians living under occupation should not be subjected to collective punishment such as the siege imposed on Gaza or excessive force like what is happening in the Great March of Return.
It continued to say that the use of excessive and unlawful force against peaceful protests in Gaza violates Articles 27 and 47 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and Article 46 of the Hague Regulations.
