HRW slams Israel for unlawfully holding body of slain Palestinian for over 10 weeks

Human Rights Watch has criticized Israeli officials for refusing to hand over the body of the nephew of a senior Palestinian official for more than 10 weeks after he was shot dead without apparent justification at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank.

“After fatally shooting Ahmad Erekat without apparent justification, Israeli authorities have unlawfully held his body hostage for more than 10 weeks,” Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at the New York-based organization, said on Monday.

He added, “Preventing Erekat’s family from burying their son in a dignified manner is cruel and without legal justification.”

Dozens of organizations demand justice over Israel's extrajudicial killings

Civil society  organizations from 16 countries write to the UN Special Procedures, demanding accountability for the Israeli regime over its “shoot-to-kill” policy against Palestinians.

Israeli forces said on June 24 they had shot and killed a suspect, who they claimed attempted to run over a female officer at a checkpoint in the Palestinian village of Abu Dis, east of occupied Jerusalem al-Quds.

Palestinian officials vehemently rejected the account about the 27-year-old, who was later identified as nephew of Saeb Erekat, Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

His family said he had spent the afternoon running errands in preparation for his sister’s wedding that evening.

Ahmad was “executed” by the Israeli police, his uncle Saeb told AFP at the time, adding that he held Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responsible for “the crime.”

He dismissed Israeli police allegation of an attempted car ramming as "impossible," saying that Ahmad was due to be married himself later in the week.

“This young man was killed in cold blood. Tonight was his sister's wedding. What the occupation army claims, that he was trying to run someone over, is a lie,” the PLO chief pointed out.

Israeli High Court allows military to hold bodies of slain Palestinians for use in negotiations

Israel’s High Court of Justice rules that the military can withhold the bodies of slain Palestinians for use as leverage in future negotiations with Palestinians.

Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi also called on the international community to take “concrete steps” to hold the Israeli regime accountable for Ahmad's death.

“Israel also attempted to slander Ahmad and excuse his murder. It is part of a tragically familiar pattern, where Israel habitually uses false pretexts that are all too familiar now to justify the murder of Palestinians by trigger happy soldiers,” Ahrawi noted.

Israel has been holding the bodies of 67 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since 2015, according to the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC).

The so-called Israeli supreme court ruled in 2017 that the Tel Aviv regime has no legal basis to withhold bodies.

It, however, reversed the decision last year, and rubber-stamped the policy to withhold bodies of Palestinians affiliated with the Hamas resistance movement and those who have purportedly killed or wounded Israeli settlers and officers.

Palestinian prisoner contracts coronavirus in Israeli jail

Separately, the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs announced on Monday that a Palestinian prisoner recently arrested by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank has tested positive for coronavirus.

The commission said Muhammad Basim Hassan Zaid was detained on September 9, and the Ofer Military Court ruled on Sunday that he must be remanded in custody for nine days pending further investigation.

There have been growing calls from regional and international rights groups, including the Europal Forum, to put pressure on the Israeli regime to provide Palestinian prisoners with enough protection against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Two more Palestinian prisoners infected with coronavirus in Israeli jail

Two more Palestinian prisoners are infected with coronavirus in Israeli jails amid concerns of medical negligence by Israeli authorities.

More than 7,000 Palestinian prisoners are currently held in some 17 Israeli jails, with dozens of them serving multiple life sentences.

Over 350 detainees, including women and minors, are under Israel’s administrative detention, which is a form of imprisonment without trial or charge, allowing authorities to incarcerate Palestinians for up to six months. The duration could be extended for an infinite number of times.

The detention takes place on orders from a military commander and on the basis of what the Israeli regime describes as ‘secret’ evidence.

Some prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to 11 years.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk