B’Tselem reviews 2013: 5-year high in number of Palestinian fatalities in West Bank

Published:
30 Dec 2013

No progress made in investigation of most of this year’s fatalities

Palestinian fatalities:

Three times as many people were killed in the West Bank in 2013 as were in 2012. This calculation is based on data compiled by Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem. In contrast to the situation from 2003 to 2012 when most Palestinian fatalities occurred in the Gaza Strip, in 2013 the majority of Palestinian fatalities occurred in the West Bank. According to the data for the past year, Israeli security forces killed 27 Palestinians in the West Bank in 21 separate incidents and nine Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in seven incidents.

The incidents that resulted in fatalities in the West Bank include the following instances:

In nine incidents, Israeli security forces entered Palestinian communities for the purpose of what the military calls arrest operations: In four of these incidents, soldiers fired shots when stones were thrown at them; another four incidents involved exchanges of fire; regarding the last incident the Israeli military maintains that there were exchanges of fire, but B’Tselem has been unable to verify this information.
In three incidents, soldiers fired while lying in wait to capture stone-throwers.
In four incidents, soldiers discharged lethal gunfire when Palestinians were throwing stones.
Five incidents occurred under other kinds of conditions: one man was shot when he tried to enter Israel without carrying a legal entry permit; one woman passerby was shot by the military who argued that a Molotov cocktail had been lobbed in the area; one man was shot when he broke into a military base with a tractor; and one man was shot after allegedly assaulting a Border Police officer.

Of the Gaza residents killed: four were taking part in the hostilities when they were killed; three were not; regarding one, it is unknown whether or not he was taking part in the hostilities; and one was killed in a targeted assassination.

http://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20131230_2013_fatalities_statistics