Erekat: Palestinians request UN probe of Israeli 'executions'

Senior PLO official makes remarks following meeting with UN special envoy to the Middle East peace process.

By YASSER OKBI/ MAARIV HASHAVUA

MARCH 28, 2016 18:47

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat (photo credit: REUTERS) — Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat

(photo credit: REUTERS)

The Palestinians have requested that the United Nations open an official investigation into the "execution of Palestinians by Israel," senior PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat said Monday following his meeting with UN special envoy to the Middle East peace process Nikolai Malednov.

Erekat said that there are 207 cases of executions that require international investigation and "Israel must be brought to justice."

The Palestinian official said that in his meeting with Malednov he also discussed what he stated was Israel's "collective punishment" of the Palestinians, which he said included the failure to return bodies of "martyrs" killed while attempting attacks, the destruction of Palestinian homes and the expulsion of families and activities in the settlements.

"After joining a number of international organizations, including the International Criminal Court, the Palestinians are ready to grant their full support and to provide reports and evidence of arbitrary executions to every UN or other relevant international body, in order to begin an immediate investigation into the current situation," he said.

Erekat's comments came days after an IDF soldier was documented on film shooting dead a wounded Palestinian terrorist who was lying prone on the ground in the Hebron area.

The IDF opened its own investigation into the killing of Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, 21, who minutes earlier had stabbed and lightly wounded an IDF soldier along with a partner, Ramzi al-Kasrawi, who was also killed.

A volunteer for the NGO B’Tselem who lives near the scene of the incident filmed the shooting from the window of his home. It was posted online and immediately went viral, fueling condemnations from the Left and Right.

An investigation by OC Central Command Maj.-Gen.Roni Numa found that the soldier, who is in Military Police custody, arrived at the scene of Thursday’s knife attack in Hebron during which two assailants stabbed an IDF soldier after it had ended.

Soldiers had opened fire on the assailants during the attack, killing one while the other lay on the ground seriously wounded.

Six minutes after the incident ended, the Kfir Brigade soldier arrived and decided, on his own, to fire on the wounded Palestinian assailant, an IDF source said, citing Numa’s investigation results.

Two platoon commanders and a company commander were rebuked by the commander of the Kfir Brigade for failing to provide medical treatment to the wounded attacker, and for not evacuating him to the hospital.

None of the officers expected the soldier to open fire on the wounded Palestinian, the source said.

Yaakov Lappin contributed to this report.