EuroMed Rights strongly condemns the deadly attacks on civilians at Sarona Market in Tel Aviv. It also deplores the Israeli government’s continued recourse to the collective punishment of Palestinians.
On 8 June 2016, two Palestinian opened fire at a café in Tel Aviv, killing four and injuring at least eight civilians. All attacks against civilians are unjustifiable under international law.
After the shooting, the Israeli authorities revoked the entry permits of more than 80,000 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank to visit relatives in Israel during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Israeli forces have also blockaded the alleged hometown of the attackers in the Hebron district of the Occupied West Bank (Yatta) and have revoked the work permits of some 200 relatives of the attackers.
The Israeli authorities’ deployment of hundreds of additional troops into the Occupied West Bank and the Defence Minister, Avigdor Lieberman’s decision to no longer return the bodies of Palestinians killed during attacks only further escalates the situation. These measures follow a recurrent pattern of unlawful recourse to collective punishment and disproportionate actions by the Israeli authorities. As illustrated in the past, such actions do not serve Israel’s security and only further increase the sense of injustice felt by Palestinians. It is time to address the occupation as the root cause of these injustices and ensure the full respect of international law