A United Nations commissioner on Tuesday provided a detailed account of the killing of a 14-year-old Palestinian boy by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank, saying that those soldiers left the youth to bleed to death and staged a cover-up.
Speaking at a press conference in Geneva, Chris Sidoti, a commissioner of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, said the teenager was shot last November while simply leaving his home during a period when no active combat was taking place.
"A 14-year-old boy, he was shot by an Israeli military patrol as he was leaving his house. The patrol had been in the area, but at the time there had been no fighting taking place. He was shot, badly injured and was lying on the ground. He was surrounded by a company of Israeli soldiers who were chatting and probably some of them smoking over a period of 45 minutes, while this 14-year-old boy bled to death," Sidoti.
Sidoti also said that Israeli forces not only failed to provide aid but also prevented his mother and medical personnel at the scene from treating him. He added that Israeli soldiers threw a stone near the youth in an attempt to falsely frame him as having thrown rocks at the patrol.
"His mother was watching from the house that he'd just left, so as the mother sought to leave the house to go to the child to rescue him or attend to him, she was shot at by the Israeli military patrol," said Sidoti.
Sidoti added that Israeli forces subsequently confiscated the teenager's body, which has not yet been returned to his family for burial.
Sidoti also said that the report left no doubt that Israeli authorities had violated every international legal norm in their treatment of Palestinian children, adding that those responsible must be held accountable.
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel released a report on violations against Palestinian children since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 2023.
According to the report, the deliberate targeting of Palestinian children by Israeli forces amounts to crimes of genocide in the Gaza Strip and war crimes in the West Bank.
UN inquiry details Israeli soldiers' deliberate killing of Palestinian child, staging cover-up
