A/HRC/40/43 reported that the Israel Defense Forces had appointed Brigadier General Moti Baruch, Head of the General Staff’s Doctrine and Training Division, to lead the investigation into the conduct of the Israel Defense Forces. It appears that the General Staff Mechanism for Fact Finding Assessments, the same mechanism that was mandated to examine events that occurred during the 2014 escalation of hostilities in Gaza, is in charge of that inquiry. 30 In the light of the deficiencies of the mechanism described above, this raises concerns as to whether such an internal examination mechanism meets accountability requirements under international law. 16. On 15 and 23 April 2018, five Israeli and one Palestinian human rights organization submitted two petitions to the High Court of Justice regarding the rules of engagement of the Israel Defense Forces and their application during the Great March of Return. The Government of Israel, in its submission to the Court, advanced a novel category of “legitimate targets” of lethal force not sanctioned by international law, by authorizing the use of lethal force against “main rioters” or “key inciters”, including when they do not pose an imminent threat to life or of severe bodily harm. The High Court decided that the soldiers present at the fence were acting in accordance with both international law and domestic Israeli law, relying on the Israeli legal principle of broad deference to governmental decisions in military operational matters, and invoking the general presumption in Israeli administrative law that the Government’s actions were lawful unless proven otherwise. With regard to the lawfulness of targeting “main rioters” or “key inciters”, the Chief Justice, while acknowledging that these amounted to a new category of targetable individuals not recognized in international law, deferred the question of its legality to the General Staff Mechanism for Fact Finding Assessments. This is particularly problematic because – as noted earlier – the mechanism focuses on the implementation of the rules of engagement. The mechanism’s mandate does not extend to examining the compatibility or conformity of such orders and procedures with international law. 31 17. As of the end of 2018, the Israeli security forces announced investigations into eight incidents involving the killing of demonstrators, including five children, during the Great March of Return. Al Mezan and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights indicated that they had respectively submitted 82 and 56 cases to the Israeli authorities related to individuals killed or wounded at the Gaza fence since 30 March 2018. 18. The lack of accountability for the killing of Palestinians is evident not only in the context of escalations in hostilities in Gaza and of the Great March of Return, but persists also in the context of Israeli military control over and policing of Palestinians in the West Bank. In the past seven years, during which reportedly 114 criminal investigations were opened across the Occupied Palestinian Territory and almost 700 Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli security forces,32 only four indictments were issued against soldiers for the killing of unarmed Palestinians: three for killings in the West Bank and one for a killing in Gaza.33 The three West Bank-related indictments were for the killings of Samir Awad in 2013, Nadeem Nuwara in 2014 and Abdelfattah al-Sharif in 2016. All three cases, closely monitored by the OHCHR office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, were concluded in 2018 and raise serious concerns that justice and redress for the victims have not been delivered in accordance with international standards. 19. Sixteen-year-old Samir Awad was killed on 15 January 2013 by the Israeli security forces. He was struck by live ammunition in his back and head while caught between barbed wire fences near Budrus in the West Bank. After lengthy legal proceedings, on 30 December 2015, two soldiers were charged with reckless and negligent use of a firearm. 30 31 32 33 6 A/73/420, para. 61. See www.lawfareblog.com/supreme-court-israel-dismisses-petition-against-gaza-rules-engagement. According to the OCHA database on casualties, between 2012 and 2018, 692 Palestinians not considered to be members of armed groups, including 212 children, were killed outside the context of escalations of hostilities, including 611 by live ammunition and 23 by non-lethal ammunition (i.e., rubber coated metal bullets, tear gas canisters and tear gas inhalation). Regarding Gaza, an indictment was issued in relation to the killing of Mohammad ‘Atta Abu Jame’a, a 59-year-old farmer, who was shot dead by the Israel Defense Forces east of Khan Yunis on 3 March 2018.