(Jerusalem) – The Israeli military should immediately stop shooting at Palestinian civilians inside Gaza. Israeli military forces have killed 4 and wounded more than 60 civilians near the perimeter fence with Gaza since the beginning of 2014, according to UN figures. There have been no reports of armed Palestinian fighters shot in the same areas this year.

Human Rights Watch investigated seven incidents between January 2 and March 1, in which Israeli forces shot civilians in the vicinity of the fence. Four were killed, including a high school student on a picnic and a woman with an intellectual disability who was lost. Five others were wounded, including two journalists and two demonstrators planting olive trees, none of whom posed a threat to the soldiers or others. The Israeli military has not claimed that any of the victims in the seven cases were engaged in military operations or that armed groups were in the area when the shooting occurred.

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  Amina Qdeih, a 58-year-old woman with an intellectual disability, was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers on February 28, 2014, after getting lost walking home from a wedding party near the perimeter fence in the Gaza Strip.

  Photo courtesy of the Qdeih family

“Month after month, Israeli forces have wounded and killed unarmed Palestinians who did nothing but cross an invisible, shifting line that Israel has drawn inside Gaza’s perimeter,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.  “It’s appalling that soldiers have shot men, women, and children apparently for simply crossing a line.”

The Israeli military has issued directives prohibiting any Palestinian presence on land within Gaza abutting the territory’s perimeter fence, currently up to 300 meters from the fence, but Israeli forces have frequently shot at Palestinians beyond that distance.

more @ www.hrw.org/news/2014/04/24/israel-stop-shooting-gaza-civilians