Press Release
Israeli forces shot dead four Palestinian children in separate incidents across the occupied West Bank city of Hebron in the first two weeks of the year.
On Saturday, an Israeli security guard killed a Palestinian girl at the entrance to the West Bank settlement of Anatot, near Jerusalem, Defence for Children International – Palestine is still verifying the details.
The number of child fatalities has drastically increased since October 2015, after tensions across East Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories escalated into lethal attacks. DCIP has confirmed that over the past 16 weeks, Israeli forces fatally shot at least 30 Palestinian children, all except seven while carrying out alleged knife attacks.
Israeli authorities have not opened investigations into any of these shootings and have refused family requests for autopsies that could verify the circumstances of their deaths.
Israeli forces and security personnel now appear to be implementing a ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy, which in most incidents may amount to extrajudicial killings.
Read the full joint statement here:
