GENEVA (Dispatches) – UN human rights experts have called on the Zionist regime to immediately return confidential documents and office equipment its military seized from the offices of an NGO fighting for children’s rights in the occupied West Bank.
“We are deeply concerned by the Israeli military’s interference with the human rights work of a well-known and well-regarded NGO,” said the experts.
Computers, hard drives, binders, and other materials were taken from the offices of the Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP) in Al-Bireh during a nighttime raid at the end of July.
The experts are Michael Lynk, special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territory; Irene Khan, special rapporteur on the right to freedom of expression; Clement Nyaletsossi Voule, special rapporteur on peaceful assembly; and Mary Lawlor, special rapporteur on human rights defenders.
They said in recent years, the children’s rights group had reliably reported on patterns of arrests, maiming, and killings of Palestinian children by the Zionist regime’s military in the occupied West Bank, East Al-Quds and Gaza.
The silencing or hindering of these activities violates the fundamental human rights of expression and association, which the occupying regime has committed to uphold by ratifying two 1966 international covenants, they said.
Meanwhile, Zionist troops used stun grenades to disperse a crowd of Muslim worshippers performing traditional Friday prayers outside the Ibrahimi Mosque in the occupied West Bank city of Al-Khalil.
At least one person could be seen thrown onto the ground and kicked by Zionist troops. It was not immediately clear what sparked the violence.
Sheikh Hefzy Abu Sneina, director of the mosque, told Anadolu Agency that Palestinians responded to the invitation of the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs to perform prayers at the mosque in defiance of the occupying regime’s plans to go ahead with a construction plan that would change some of its features.
On Monday, the Zionist war ministry said it has started a project at the mosque’s courtyards to build a route that directly links the parking area to the mosque and install an electric lift.
Palestinians see the construction as a way to take over the entire site – which is split into separate Jewish and Muslim areas.
Clashes also continued between the Zionist troops and Palestinian protesters in the flashpoint town of Beita, south of Nablus, on Friday.
The Palestine Red Crescent ambulance service said a Palestinian was hit by a tear gas canister.
Since May, the town has seen intensified clashes between Zionist troops and Palestinians protesting against a settlement outpost that has been recently established on Sobeih Mountain by settlers under the protection of the regime’s troops.