The journalists "synchronized 15 videos and reviewed dozens more from March 16, including CCTV footage from surrounding businesses, some of which took nearly a month to surface. Investigation and Finding of Gross Violations by YAMAM in March 2023Ī detailed investigation of the March 2023 attack by the YAMAM unit documented the extrajudicial killings of two men and the wanton recklessness that killed two others in Jenin's civilian neighborhood, which legal experts concluded were gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian law." On May 26, 2023, journalists Imogen Piper, Meg Kelly and Louisa Loveluck published an investigative report in the Washington Post. §1350, the Torture Victim Prevention Act, an extrajudicial killing is defined as "a deliberate killing not authorized by a previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples." government considers torture, extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance, and rape under color of law as GVHRs when implementing the Leahy law." According to Section 3(a) of the 28 U.S.C. support only when the State Department finds that "the government of such country is taking effective steps to bring the responsible members of the security forces unit to justice." The Leahy Law authorizes the State Department to restrict military assistance to a foreign military unit when it "has credible information that such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights (GVHR)." The sanctioned unit may resume receiving U.S. has the tools to stop Israeli execution squads unless the State Department takes action, Israel will continue to escalate its attacks, leaving more and more dead Palestinians in their streets, like this week's incursion into Jenin."ĭAWN called on the State Department to impose Leahy Law restrictions on the YAMAM unit to prohibit the unit from receiving U.S.
"This brazen extrajudicial execution and reckless attack in the heart of a residential neighborhood of Jenin is a direct challenge to the United States and the rules based order that President Biden touts," said Shapiro. The Israeli agents also killed a fourth man, Luay al-Zughair, 37 years old, in the raid, apparently as the undercover agents opened fire on a civilian crowd as they drove out of the area. Abahrah and another bystander took the boy to the Jenin Government Hospital, but he was dead when he arrived, according to the hospital report. Another Palestinian civilian, Abdallah Abahrah, went to check on Awadin, who was lying on his back on the ground. According to the Washington Post's forensic review of surveillance footage, the Israeli agents fired in the direction of the two targets when they hit Awadin in the back. Video surveillance cameras from the area also show that the streets were crowded with civilians, including Awadin, who was riding his bicycle. Video footage then shows one Israeli agent shooting Khazem in the head at point blank range after he was already lying prone face-down on the ground, a clear cut case of an extrajudicial killing. Video footage shows that Khazem was hit by the opening hail of bullets, while Shreim managed to run before the YAMAM agents shot and killed him.
In addition to the two targets, Israeli agents killed 14-year-old Omar Awadin, and another civilian, Luay Al-Zughair, who were both shot when the Israeli agents fired in the direction of the targets in the crowded street. On March 16, 2023, four YAMAM undercover agents supported with intelligence by the Shin Bet, Israel's spy agency, carried out a broad daylight attack in the middle of a Jenin residential street, targeting and killing two Palestinian men, Nidal Khazem, 28, and Yousef Shreim, 29, who were allegedly involved in attacks on Israeli soldiers.
"If the State Department does not apply the Leahy Law in this case, the law may as well not exist." "Agents from the Israeli YAMAM unit acted as judge, jury and executioner when they shot and killed two Palestinian men in broad daylight in Jenin on March 16, 2023, a textbook example of an extrajudicial killing by Israeli forces who are used to operating with impunity," said Adam Shapiro, Director of Advocacy at DAWN. assistance and cooperation, said Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) in a referral presented to the government.ĭAWN's review of YAMAM's record found that undercover agents from the unit committed two extrajudicial killings and two indiscriminate and reckless killings, including of a child in Jenin in March 2023, constituting gross violations of human rights under the Leahy Law and war crimes under the Rome Statute. State Department should subject YAMAM, Israel's National Counter-Terrorism Unit, to the Leahy Law vetting process and sanction the unit by adding it to the list of security forces ineligible to receive U.S.
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