Ref: 146/2003

Following 3 aerial attacks earlier
on Monday, Israeli occupying forces conducted a further 2 aerial attacks
yesterday evening in the Gaza Strip. In the fourth aerial attack in 24 hours, 7
Palestinian civilians, including a child and an on-duty doctor, were killed in
Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.  The attack was an
assassination attempt by Israeli occupying forces targeting 2 members of the
Palestinian resistance. The two targeted individuals escaped but 50
Palestinians civilians were wounded in the attack, including 11 children.

According to PCHR’s preliminary
investigations, at approximately 21:15 on Monday, 20 October 2003, Israeli
helicopter gunships launched a missile at a civilian car (grey Peugeot)
traveling approximately 150m to the east of Nusseirat refugee camp in the
central Gaza Strip.  The missile reportedly hit the front of the car, but
the passengers managed to flee the vehicle. As Palestinian civilians gathered
around the scene of the attack, Israeli helicopter gunships launched another
missile towards the car, sending shrapnel into the crowd. 7 Palestinian
civilians were killed instantly, including a 12-year-old child and a doctor
from Nusseirat Medical Center who was tending to those wounded by the first
missile. 50 civilians were wounded, including 10 seriously. 

Those killed in this fourth attack
were identified as:

1.    Mohammed Ziad
Mohammed Baroud, 12;

2.    Zein
al-‘Aabedeen Mohammed Shahin, 35, a physician;

3.    Mohammed
Shnaiwi al-Masri, 23;

4.     ‘Atiya
Yousef Mo’nes, 20;

5.     
Mahdi Isma’il Jarbou’, 20;

6.     
‘Abdul Halim Mohammed Tabaza, 23; and

7.     
Ahmed ‘Eid Khalifa, 49.

In the fifth aerial attack, at
approximately 22:20, Israeli F-16 fighter jets fired missiles at a building in
al-Shojaeya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City, for the second time in less than
24 hours. The building was totally destroyed and 8 Palestinian civilians were
wounded, including a child. The building had been hit in an attack earlier on
Monday, severely damaging it and wounding 21 civilians, including 7 children.
Israeli occupying forces claimed that the building served as a weapons
store. 

In total, Israeli occupying forces
conducted 5 aerial attacks in the Gaza Strip on Monday 20 October 2003. 
10 Palestinians were killed, an additional 2 Palestinians were declared
clinically dead and over 80 Palestinians were wounded (see PCHR press release
of 20 October 2003).

PCHR is gravely concerned by this
escalation in aerial attacks on the Gaza Strip. Such aerial attacks in
densely-populated civilian areas demonstrate the Israeli occupying forces’
increasing disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians. PCHR demands an
immediate to halt to all willful killings and injuries of Palestinian civilians
and other grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention perpetrated by the
Israeli military in the OPTs.  PCHR further repeats its calls to the High
Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to take immediate steps to
ensure the protection of Palestinian civilians in the OPTs.