Jerusalem – The Israeli Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the nation’s policy of targeted killings of Palestinian militants, allowing the army to maintain a practice that has drawn widespread condemnation.
The unanimous ruling from a three-judge panel fixed some legal limits, but it did not insist on prior court approval for the attacks, leaving the limits only theoretical and endorsing the killings in practice.
Israel has defended the practice as necessary to prevent terrorist attacks. But the original justification of stopping “ticking bombs” has been expanded over the years to targeting militant leaders.
Palestinians and human-rights groups, who have denounced the killings as assassinations and summary executions without trial, criticized the court for giving legal legitimacy to the practice. The Israeli human rights organization B’tselem estimates that 339 Palestinians have been killed in the targeted operations since 2000.
