Israel’s Desecration of Palestinian Dead Body A War Crime: Rights Group
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Human rights advocates expressed outrage after video footage of an Israeli military bulldozer dragging the body of a Palestinian man shot dead by Israeli forces in the occupied Gaza Strip circulated widely across social media over the weekend.
"This is a war crime," tweeted the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, a nonprofit group known as Adalah, in response to the Shehab news agency video, Common Dreams reported.
The group demanded in a letter Sunday that Israeli military immediately launch an investigation into the incident.
On Sunday, Israeli troops killed 27-year-old Mohammed Ali al-Naim, a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, east of Khan Yunis, for allegedly trying to plant “an explosive device” near the fence separating Gaza from the Israeli-occupied territories.
The video that went viral on social media over the weekend showed what appeared to be the lifeless body of the resistance fighter dangling from an Israeli military bulldozer as it removed the corpse. Two other men were wounded while trying to retrieve Mohammed’s body.
"In the letter, Adalah attorney Sawsan Zaher detailed a series of international laws—including the Rome Statute, the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment, and the Hague Regulations—which classify the Israeli military actions depicted in the video as war crimes and blatant violations of international criminal law, and international human rights, and humanitarian law," the group said in a statement.
The images of Mohammed’s lifeless body being carried away by the bulldozer have caused widespread outrage among Palestinians and the family has demanded the body’s swift return for burial.
Islamic Jihad later fired a barrage of rockets into Israel in retaliation for the Israeli move. The Gaza-based movement said in a statement the video showed a “brutal crime.”
A spokesman for the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas told Al Jazeera that the incident was reflective of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories and its treatment of Palestinian people.