An Israeli sniper killed a 16-year-old Palestinian boy northeast of Jerusalem on August 13, 2024

Shadi Wissam Mohammad Shiha, 16, was shot by an Israeli sniper at around 10:00 pm on August 13, in Anata northeast of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, based on documentation collected by Defense for Children International – Palestine. Shadi came to close his family-owned car wash, and his cousin crossed over to help him. From there, they saw that there was a fire on the other side of the Israeli separation wall, opposite the Pisgat Ze’ev settlement. Shadi approached a few meters away to see what was causing the flames. Israeli forces then shot Shadi in the thigh from a distance of 30 to 60 meters away. 

He was bleeding heavily and began crawling, moving about 10 to 20 meters to take cover in the car wash. “Shadi grew up in a hyper-militarized environment where Israeli soldiers and settlers enact violence against Palestinians side by side,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. The Palestinian child isn’t even allowed to rest in peace because the Israeli regime continues confiscating the bodies of children and holding them from their families indefinitely.

Shadi’s cousin transferred him in his private car to the Iman Medical Center, Clalit, in Anata, for first aid. From there, a Palestinian ambulance transferred Shadi through the Hizma Checkpoint to an Israeli Magen David Adom ambulance, and he was taken to Hadassah Hospital in Issawiya, Har Hatzofim, where he was pronounced dead at around 11 pm.

His body was transferred to the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv, and Israeli intelligence refused permission to bury the body of Shadi in Anata, so they confiscated his body.

Israeli forces and settlers killed 64 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank in 2024, including two United States citizens, according to documentation collected by DCIP. According to the documentation collected by DCIP, 145 Palestinian children are known to have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7, when the full-scale military offensive by the Israeli military on the Gaza Strip began.

In 2023, Israeli forces and settlers killed at least 121 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, based on documentation collected by DCIP. Israeli troops and settlers shot and killed 103 Palestinian children with live ammunition. In addition, 13 Palestinian children were killed in drone strikes, four Palestinian children were killed by missiles fired from a U.S.-sourced Apache attack helicopter, and one child was killed in an Israeli warplane airstrike.

The Israeli authorities have withheld the bodies of at least 40 Palestinian children since June 2016, according to DCIP documentation. The bodies of five of the children were later released to their families, while 35 Palestinian children’s bodies remain withheld by Israeli authorities.

The Israeli authorities’ practice of confiscating and holding Palestinian bodies contravenes both international humanitarian law and international human rights law. In addition to founding an absolute prohibition on cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, these two sets of laws also oblige parties to an armed conflict to bury the dead in an honorable way. For families, this practice is collective punishment, directly violating international humanitarian law.

In September 2019, the vote was one of a slew of multiple legal challenges to approve the confiscation of human remains from the Israeli Supreme Court. On November 27, 2019, Minister of Defense Naftali Bennett pledged bodies of Palestinians alleged to have attacked Israeli citizens or soldiers be held and not returned to their families. It is this particular policy of confiscating human remains that Adalah argued Israel is the sole country in the world to do so.

The justification for intentional lethal force under international law has been well established to arise only when there is a direct threat to life or severe injury. However, according to regular investigations and findings from DCIP, Israeli forces are found to have used lethal force against Palestinian children in situations that could amount to extrajudicial or wilful killings.