This year alone, dozens of Palestinians have been killed, hundreds injured and many more displaced. Homes and property have been damaged or destroyed, leaving many without shelter or livelihoods.
“The frequent and severe violence must be brought to an end,” said Julien Lerisson, the head of the ICRC’s delegation for Israel and the occupied territories.
“Authorities have a responsibility to protect the population from violence, including when that violence is inflicted by settlers. What international humanitarian law says on the protection of private and public property, and on the population’s access to essential services, must be respected,” he said.
The humanitarian impact of the violence, including the tragic loss of life and serious injuries, is overwhelming. Movement restrictions mean that patients are unable to reach health care, children are unable to get to school, people are cut off from their homes and livelihoods, and families and whole communities face increasingly intolerable conditions in which to live.
Ambulances are sometimes held up for hours at checkpoints and roadblocks, or forced to add hours to their routes to avoid road closures and violence. All of this makes the work of first responders harder and endangers the lives of those they seek to help.
Israel has a right to take measures to ensure its own security. However, as the occupying power in the West Bank it also has a responsibility towards Palestinians, who are protected persons under international humanitarian law. The occupying power has an obligation to treat protected persons humanely at all times, protect them against all acts of violence or threats thereof, and must make every effort to restore and maintain public order and civil life.
“Upholding international humanitarian law and respecting obligations under the law of occupation are necessary steps towards restoring the safety and dignity of the population. This means protecting civilians from violence and ceasing the expansion of civilian settlements,” Lerisson said.
Note to editors:
The ICRC’s longstanding legal position is that the establishment and expansion of civilian settlements by Israel anywhere in the West Bank is incompatible with Israel’s obligation under Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which prohibits the transfer of part of the Occupying Power’s civilian population into the territory it occupies.
About the ICRC
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a neutral, impartial, and independent organization with an exclusively humanitarian mandate that stems from the Geneva Conventions of 1949. It helps people around the world affected by armed conflict and other situations of violence, doing everything it can to protect their lives and dignity and to relieve their suffering, often alongside its Red Cross and Red Crescent partners.
For more information, please contact:
Pat Griffiths: Jerusalem – mob: +972 52 601 9150 – email: pgriffiths@icrc.org
Mohammad Abdullah: Ramallah – mob: +970 593 010 067 – email: mohaabdallah@icrc.org
Gilad Grossman: Tel Aviv – mob: +972 52 601 9123 - email: ggrossman@icrc.org
