RAMALLAH – on Monday condemned the approval of a law by the Israeli parliament that would allow the execution of Palestinian prisoners convicted of “terrorism.”
Describing the move as “a blatant violation of international humanitarian law,” the presidency said the law “constitutes a clear breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, particularly the protections it guarantees for individuals and the safeguards for fair trials,” the Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported.
“The legislation amounts to a war crime against the Palestinian people and comes within the broader context of escalating Israeli policies and measures across the occupied Palestinian territories, including the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem,” it said.
Also on Monday, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said the approval of the law “marks a dangerous shift toward genocidal legislation and the adoption of field executions.”
The ministry “affirms that Israel has no sovereignty over Palestinian land and that Israeli laws do not apply to the Palestinian people.”
Meanwhile, Hamas said the move “reflects the bloody nature of the occupation and its approach based on killing and terrorism, and exposes the falsity of its repeated claims of civilization and commitment to human values.”
“This decision reaffirms the occupation and its leaders’ disregard for international law, and their trampling on all human norms and conventions,” it added.
Israel’s parliament on Monday approved a bill making the death penalty the default punishment for Palestinians in the West Bank convicted of “terrorism,” a move that has drawn international criticism.
Proposed by Israel’s far-right coalition government, the new law mandates the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis with the intent to harm the state. It does not apply to Israelis who kill Palestinians.
Under the law, courts can impose the death penalty even if prosecutors do not request it, and a unanimous judicial decision is not required.
Two killed by army fire
Two Palestinians were killed on Monday by Israeli army gunfire in two separate incidents in the West Bank, Palestinian sources said.
Palestinian security sources told Xinhua that Abdul Rahman Abu al-Rub, 31, was killed after Israeli forces opened fire on his vehicle near the Anab checkpoint, east of Tulkarm in the northern West Bank.
In a separate incident, a young Palestinian man was killed by Israeli army in the village of Kharsa, near Dura in southwest Hebron, Palestinian medical sources said.