{"id":45526,"date":"2021-05-30T08:23:14","date_gmt":"2021-05-30T08:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=45526"},"modified":"2021-05-30T08:23:14","modified_gmt":"2021-05-30T08:23:14","slug":"killing-with-impunity-israels-undercover-units-in-palestine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=45526","title":{"rendered":"Killing with impunity: Israel\u2019s undercover units in Palestine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Ramallah, Occupied West Bank<\/strong> \u2013 The grief and anger was palpable as women wept, young men chanted with raised fists, and masked gunmen fired into the air during the funeral of Ahmed Fahd, 24, at the al-Amari refugee camp.<\/p>\n

Fahd\u2019s family told Al Jazeera that Israeli undercover agents first arrested him and then shot him in the back several times at close range about 5:30am, before leaving him to bleed to death on a street in the Um al-Shayaret neighbourhood of Ramallah on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son was shot without mercy. He was a loving son who had many friends and was always smiling,\u201d Um Fahd said as she clutched a poster of her son and wept uncontrollably.<\/p>\n

Fahd, who was an employee at El Bireh Municipality, was to be married in a few weeks\u2019 time.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Palestinian health ministry, Muhammad al-Awda, told Al Jazeera that according to doctors at Ramallah Hospital, Fahd was shot multiple times at close range.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoctors 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 \u2013 proving that he\u2019d been shot at close range,\u201d said al-Awda.<\/p>\n

Palestinian medics on the ground have reported Israeli forces using live rounds known as the \u201cbutterfly bullet\u201d, which \u201cexplode\u201d upon impact, pulverizing tissue, arteries and bone while causing severe internal injuries and large exit wounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe also had several bullet wounds in his legs,\u201d the health ministry spokesman added.<\/p>\n

Sabrin Abu Libdeh, a family friend, told Al Jazeera an intelligence official from Israel\u2019s domestic intelligence agency, Shin Bet, later phoned the family to apologise, saying agents had not meant to kill the younger Fahd, but were actually after his brother and uncle who they accused of being involved in \u201cterror activities\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat good is their apology now?\u201d asked Ahmed\u2019s sister Roseanne, her eyes puffy from weeping. \u201cWill that bring him back?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahmed Fahd\u2019s family console each other at his funeral on Tuesday [Al Jazeera]<\/figure>\n

\u2018Assassinating Palestinians\u2019<\/h2>\n

While the Israelis acknowledged their \u201cmistake\u201d in this particular incident, Shawan Jabareen, from the Al-Haq human rights organisation in Ramallah, said the ongoing killing of Palestinians by Israeli security forces, particularly the undercover units, was no accident.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are currently investigating his death but the killing is part of a deliberate Israeli policy of assassinating Palestinians at close range by undercover units known as Musta\u2019ribeen as well as regular troops,\u201d Jabareen told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe soldiers come into Ramallah nearly every night after 2am to carry out arrests.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere 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 \u2013 young men whom they accused of armed attacks on Israeli soldiers and settlers \u2013 saying that \u2018the account had now been settled.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo clearly these were acts of revenge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Jabareen explained his organisation documented numerous cases of Israeli security forces killing Palestinians when their lives had not been endangered.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe presented statistics and documentation to various international organisations showing that 95 percent of the deaths were unnecessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Musta\u2019ribeen are Israeli special forces renowned for their brutality who pose undercover as Arabs and operate in Palestinian societies. The commandos dress like Arabs, portray the customs and etiquette of Arab culture, and speak fluent Arabic in the appropriate dialect.<\/p>\n

\u2018Inciting the situation\u2019<\/h2>\n

Gary Spedding, a consultant on the Middle East, said the activities of the Musta\u2019ribeen \u201callow the Israeli military and border police to identify protesters they wish to arrest and detain\u201d.<\/p>\n

Israeli affairs expert Antoine Shalhat explained the main missions of the Musta\u2019ribeen\u00a0\u201cinclude gathering intelligence and counter-terrorist operations\u201d.<\/p>\n

These undercover units have also been involved in the sweeping arrest campaign of Palestinians currently being carried out in northern Israel, following protests there against the deaths in Gaza and the violence in occupied East Jerusalem over Palestinians being expelled from their homes.<\/p>\n

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) said it received \u201callegations of undercover officers posing as protesters and inciting the situation, attacking civilians very violently and making severe threats, especially against minors\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been cases when undercover officers pulled people, including minors, off the street without identifying themselves, which made the arrests look like kidnappings,\u201d said PCATI.<\/p>\n

Following the recent establishment of a new undercover unit specifically for operating in Arab areas, Adalah<\/a>, The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, sent a letter to senior Israeli police officials and politicians saying no democracy in the world would approve of the establishment of a police unit directed at a specific ethnic group.<\/p>\n

Israeli forces fire at Palestinian demonstrators near the Jewish settlement of Beit El near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank [Abbas Momani\/AFP]<\/figure>\n

\u2018Permissive rules of engagement\u2019<\/h2>\n

Yet the killing of Palestinians on an almost daily basis continues unabated with at least 28 Palestinians killed in the West Bank alone in May during clashes with Israeli security forces or during arrests.<\/p>\n

And so does the impunity of Israeli security forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs in the vast majority of cases in which security forces harmed Palestinians, none of those responsible have faced charges,\u201d Israeli rights group B\u2019Tselem said in a report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Citing some examples from when the second Intifada began in late 2000 through 2015, B\u2019Tselem demanded an investigation in 739 cases in which soldiers killed, wounded, or beat Palestinians, used them as human shields, or damaged Palestinian property.<\/p>\n

The rights group said figures from mid-2016 show in one-quarter of cases, no investigation was ever launched, in nearly half the probe was closed with no further action, and only in extremely rare instances were charges brought against the accused soldiers.<\/p>\n

B\u2019Tselem said it would no longer cooperate with the \u201cwhitewash\u201d military investigations as these had not led to any accountability.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Israeli human rights group Yesh Din pressed the Israeli military to investigate Palestinian deaths in Gaza during the Great March of Return<\/a>, when Palestinians protested against the siege at the Israeli barrier.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d Yesh Din stated in one of its latest reports.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe result is the unfortunate, unnecessary loss of many lives, a lack of accountability for harming innocents, and the abandonment of Gaza\u2019s residents who remain defenceless against the spectre of losing their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ramallah, Occupied West Bank \u2013 The grief and anger was palpable as women wept, young men chanted with raised fists, and masked gunmen fired into the air during the funeral of Ahmed Fahd, 24, at the al-Amari refugee camp. Fahd\u2019s family told Al Jazeera that Israeli undercover agents first arrested him and then shot him…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}