A 24-year-old Palestinian, Muhammad Zaghlul Rimawi, died of his injuries on Tuesday morning, September 18, after he had been brutally assaulted by Israeli forces in a predawn raid on his home in the village of Beit Rima in the central occupied West Bank district of Ramallah .
Muhammad’s brother, Bashir Rimawi, told the Palestinian news agency Ma’an that some 40 Israeli soldiers raided their house in Beit Rima before dawn on Tuesday, assaulted Muhammad while he was still lying in bed wearing his nightwear which they tore from his body. Bashir related how the Israeli forces continued to brutally beat his brother after he had lost consciousness, carried him outside the house, and took him to an unknown location.
Muhammad Zaghlul Rimawi (Photo: Wafa)
Bashir said that the Palestinian liaison contacted the family later in the morning and informed them that Muhammad had succumbed to his injuries; no other information was given regarding Muhammad’s death nor when his body would be returned to the family for burial. The Israeli authorities reportedly transferred Muhammad’s body to Abu Kabir Forensic Center in Jaffa for an autopsy to determine the cause of death.
The Rimawi family accused Israeli forces of being responsible for the death of their son, Muhammad, due to the brutal assault he was subjected to during his detention hours before being pronounced dead.
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) also confirmed that Muhammad’s death resulted from excessive beating by Israeli forces. PPS held Israel fully responsible for the killing of Muhammad Rimawi, “whose death has been added to a long list of crimes and unjust executions carried out against Palestinian detainees and prisoners inside detention centers and prisons.”
The Palestinian human rights organization Addameer said that the excessive use of force by Israeli soldiers during Rimawi’s detention was the cause of his death. Addameer added that Rimawi did not pose any threat to the soldiers to require them to use such excessive force against him, pointing out that this is a violation of the international humanitarian law, which bans the use of force against civilians who do not pose any real and direct threat. The organization considers the use of such lethal force in this manner extrajudicial execution.
With the death of Muhammad Zaghlul Rimawi the number of Palestinian detainees and prisoners killed by Israeli forces since the start of the occupation of the Palestinian territories in 1967 has risen to 217. According to a report by PPS, among the previous 216 fatalities 75 were executed after detention, 72 died of torture, 62 of “medical neglect” and 7 were “directly shot and killed by Israeli soldiers and guards inside jails and detention centers.”
