Israeli State Terror — Killing Palestinians with Impunity

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

Throughout Jewish state history, its ruling regimes treated Occupied Palestinians and Arab citizens ruthlessly.

Terrorizing them is longstanding Israeli policy, including daily arrests throughout the Occupied Territories, torture, beatings and other forms of abuse, targeted killings, and justice nearly always denied.

Last week, Al Jazeera reported about "grief and anger (in the al-Amari refugee camp) as women wept, young men chanted with raised fists, and masked gunmen fired into the air during" Ahmed Fahd's funeral.

According to his family, he was extrajudicially arrested by Israeli undercover agents — then assassinated by multiple shots in  the back and legs.

Mortally wounded and bleeding to death in public pre-dawn, he was left to die in Ramallah's Um al-Shayaret neighborhood last Tuesday.

What happened to Fahd repeats time and again throughout the Occupied Territories, accountability virtually never forthcoming.

Weeping at her son's funeral, Fahd's mother mother said he "was shot without mercy."

According to a Palestinian health ministry spokesman, he was shot multiple times at close range, adding:

"Doctors reported that one of the bullets that entered his back made a 2.5cm entry hole, but when it exited his stomach the hole was 7cm, proving that he'd been shot at close range."

Israeli soldiers, security forces, and undercover agents use dumdum "butterfly bullets," Palestinian doctors explained.

They explode on impact, cause severe internal injuries, and make large exit wounds.

Palestinian human rights group Al Haq's general director Shawan Jabarin said Fahd's state-sponsored murder was no accident, adding:

His "killing is part of a deliberate Israeli policy of assassinating Palestinians at close range by undercover units known as Musta'ribeen as well as regular troops."

"The(se) (elements) come into Ramallah nearly every night after 2:00 AM to carry out arrests."

"There have been a number of cases where Shin Bet intelligence officers phoned the families of Palestinians they killed after shooting them at close range and blocking ambulances from evacuating those critically wounded – young men whom they accused of armed attacks on Israeli soldiers and settlers – saying that 'the account had now been settled.' "

Al Haq documented numerous cases of Israeli state-sponsored assassinations of Palestinians for invented reasons.

Musta'ribeen are ruthless. Arabic speaking, they pose as Arabs to seek out, abduct, and assassinate targeted Palestinians.

According to the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), undercover Israelis "pos(e) as protesters and incit(e) the situation."

They "attack civilians very violently and make severe threats, especially against minors."

"There have been cases when undercover officers pulled people, including minors, off the street without identifying themselves, which made the arrests look like kidnappings."

In May alone, Palestinians threatening no one were killed almost daily in the West Bank and East Jerusalem — with impunity.

B'Tselem explained that when Israeli security forces kill or otherwise harm Palestinians, "none of those responsible have faced charges."

Most often, probes aren't conducted. When initiated, whitewash nearly always follows.

The Israeli Yesh Din human rights group denounced targeted killings of Palestinians, saying:

"The combination of permissive rules of engagement, regarding firing at unarmed protesters and a law enforcement system that prevents genuine, effective investigation of protester deaths, is a lethal one," adding: 

"The result is the unfortunate, unnecessary loss of many lives, a lack of accountability for harming innocents, and the abandonment of (Palestinians) who remain defenseless against the specter of losing their lives."

A Final Comment

Countless thousands Gazan children were terrorized, traumatized, and severely damaged emotionally from days of Israeli aggression in May.

During round-the-clock IDF terror-bombing and shelling, children endured nightmares.

When bombs detonated overnight, many woke up screaming.

The effects of what happened left permanent scars.

Parents tried to stay strong for their children, but devastation in much of the Strip took a toll on most all its residents.

According to Palestinian psychotherapist Ghada Redwan:

"There are a number of cases suffering from severe panic and intense fear."  

"There are also children whose psychological symptoms are showing up in strong emotions and vomiting."

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) explained that Palestinian children who survived the trauma of war likely relive what they endured for some time after it ended.

For some, trauma never ends.

As a boy and adolescent in the 1940s, my next door neighbor was a WW II survivor around my own age.

I was too young at the time to understand why he was different from other neighborhood kids, largely keeping to himself, not playing with me and my other friends.

The trauma of war took its toll on countless numbers who survived the ordeal, developing young children likely affected most of all.

VISIT MY WEBSITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

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"Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity"

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