Israel’s Supreme Court on Friday rejected a legal challenge to the military’s rules on when soldiers can fire weapons amid weeks of protests that have killed Palestinians on the border with Gaza.
Six human rights groups had asked the court to declare as unlawful any regulations that allow soldiers to open fire at unarmed civilians.
But in its unanimous ruling, the court sided with the Israeli military, which argued that the protests were taking place in the context of a long-running armed conflict with the Islamic militant group Hamas which rules Gaza and that weapons-use regulations are subject to the rules of armed conflict. Such rules provide greater leeway for the use of lethal force than those governing law enforcement practices. Yesh Din, one of the rights groups that brought the challenge, slammed the court’s decision.
“The judges missed an opportunity to prevent the continuation of the killing and injuries,” the group said on Twitter.
Israeli fire has killed more than 100 Palestinians in weeks of violent protests along Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip. Nearly 60 of those were killed May 14, the deadliest protest day that also saw hundreds of Palestinians wounded.