The Outcome of the IOF Offensive on
the Gaza Strip:

Enire Families Have Passed Away;
Children and Women Constitute More Than 43% of the Total Number of Victims;
Entire Features of Many Areas Have Disppeared; and the Civilian Infrastructure
Services Have Completely Collapsed

 

IOF Offensive on the Gaza Strip

 

· 1,285 Palestinians have been killed.

 

· The victims include 895 civilians and 167 civil police
officers.

 

· The civilian victims include 280 children and 111 women.

 

· 4,336 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including 1,133
children and 735 women, have been wounded.

 

· Dr. Nizar Rayan and Mr. Sa’id Siam, senior leader of Hamas,
were extra-judicially executed together with a number of members of their
families by IOF.

 

· The IOF artillery shelled houses and members of entire
families were killed or wounded.

 

· IOF attacked ambulances and vehicles of civil defense and
relief services.

 

· 2,400 houses were
completely destroyed, including 490 ones that were destroyed by air strikes.

 

· IOF destroyed 28 public civilian facilities,
including buildings of a number of ministries, municipalities, governorates,
fishing harbors and the building of the Palestinian legislative Council.

 

· IOF destroyed 21 private projects,
including cafeterias, wedding halls, tourist resorts and hotels.

 

· IOF destroyed 30 mosques completely
and 15 others partially.

 

· IOF destroyed offices of 10
charitable societies.

 

· IOF destroyed 121 industrial and
commercial workshops and damaged at least 200 others.

 

· IOF destroyed 5 factories of
concrete and one of juice.

 

· IOF destroyed 60 police stations.

 

·  IOF destroyed buildings of 5 media
institutions and 2 health ones.

 

· IOF have destroyed 29 educational
institutions completely or partially.

 

·  IOF have razed thousands of donums[1]
of agricultural land.

 

Daily Violations of Human Rights

 

· A Palestinian civilian was killed by IOF and settlers in the
West Bank.

 

· 40 Palestinian civilians, including 17 children, were
wounded by IOF and settlers in the West Bank.

 

· IOF conducted 34 incursions into Palestinian communities in
the West Bank.

 

· IOF arrested 46 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank,
including 3 children.

 

· IOF have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT.

 

· The Gaza Strip is completely isolated from the outside world.

 

· IOF troops positioned at various checkpoints in the West
Bank arrested 6 Palestinian civilians, including a girl.

 

· IOF have continued to take measures aiming at the
Judaization of Jerusalem.

 

· IOF closed 4 flats in Jerusalem with concrete.

 

· IOF confiscated 500 donums of land in Abu Dis town.

 

· IOF have continued settlement activities in the West Bank
and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and
property.

 

· IOF confiscated 3,000 donums in Hebron and 23 donums in
Bethlehem for the purpose of settlement expansion.

 

Summary

 

In the early morning of Sunday, 18 January 2009, Israel declared a
ceasefire, while decided to keep its military presence in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) redeployed outside Palestinian communities
towards border areas, but continued threats to resume the offensive of
Palestinian resistance groups attacked Israeli communities with home-made
rockets. PCHR field workers who visited several areas throughout the Gaza
Strip, especially Gaza City, the north and the Egyptian border reported as
these areas looked as they were struck by a heavy earthquake. Since the
morning, medical and civil defense crews have continued to pick up decayed
corpses from areas that had been invaded by IOF. IOF military vehicles that had
redeployed outside residential areas have continued to fire at Palestinian
civilians, especially those who live in border areas.

 

Following the
declaration of the ceasefire, evidences that IOF committed war crimes in the
Gaza Strip have started to be revealed. According to international and Arab
doctors who were able to enter the Gaza Strip to provide medical treatment for
the wounded, IOF used weapons whose use is believed to be internationally
prohibited, such as phosphorous bombs. IOF officially admitted the use of phosphorous
bombs in the Gaza Strip, but claimed that the way it was used would be
investigated. They further claimed that they used such bombs in
“uninhabited areas” just to specify targets and hit
“terrorists,” and that the use of such bombs does not contradict with
international law.

 

The offensive launched by IOF on the Gaza Strip, between 27 December and
18 January 2009, has caused total destruction in many parts of the Gaza Strip,
making these parts look like earthquake zones. In its offensive on Gaza, IOF
employed its full-fledged arsenal and used its air, ground and sea forces. Some
areas were almost completely razed, while many houses and civilian
establishments became hills of dust. IOF offensive claimed the lives of
hundreds of innocent unarmed civilians, including a large number of children
and women. The casualties included entire families.

 

Following the IOF withdrawal from Gaza in the early morning of 18
January 2009, PCHR field workers could observe closely the humanitarian crisis
that has been caused by IOF offensive. It was obvious that IOF intended to
erase any civilization features in the Gaza Strip. They deliberately and
systematically destroyed the entire vital facilities to make Gaza go decades
back.

 

Israeli violations of
international law and humanitarian law escalated in the OPT during the reporting
period (15 – 21 January 2009):

 

IOF Offensive on the Gaza Strip

 

In the early morning of Sunday, 18 January 2009, Israel declared a
ceasefire and on 21 Jnauary 2009, IOF declared that the last IOF soldier
withdrew from the Gaza Strip. During the 23-day offensive, IOF bombarded
civilian facilities, mosques and houses, without paying attention to the lives
and safety of Palestinian civilians. They claimed that such civilian
facilities, mosques and houses were related to Hamas, but investigations
conducted by PCHR indicate that IOF used excessive lethal force and that the
majority of the facilities that were targeted are public and private property
located in densely populated areas, making Palestinian civilians pay a heavy
price from their lives and property. All of the victims of such attacks are
civilians, and dozens of houses were heavily damaged.

 

According to investigations conducted by
PCHR, most of the Palestinian who were killed during the reporting period are
civilians, many of whom are children. IOF employed their full-fledged arsenal
to attack Palestinian populated areas. IOF also attacked and restricted the movement of medical
crews. They killed 7 medical personnel and wounded dozens of others while they
were evacuating the wounded and the dead.

 

The high number of civilian victims and the extensive
destruction to public and private property are clear evidence that IOF,
instructed by the Israeli political and military establishments, intended to
cause maximum deaths and casualties among Palestinian civilians and maximum
destruction to their property.

 

According to Israeli military sources, IOF launched at least
2,500 air strikes against targets in the Gaza Strip. These targets included
houses, civilian facilities, mosques, charitable societies, schools,
governmental buildings, industrial and commercial workshops, security sites,
fishing harbors, and educational and health institution. No place in the Gaza
Strip was immune to IOF attacks.  

   

According to what PCHR field workers have been able to document the IOF
offensive has resulted in the following deaths and casualties:

 

The table below
provides data on the dead and the wounded

 

The victims are distributed as follows:

 

Northern Gaza Strip: 461 Palestinians, including 400
civilians, have been killed. The victims include 125 children and 54 women.
Additionally, 1,914 Palestinians, including 591 children and at least 385 women,
have been wounded. 

 

Gaza City: 533 Palestinians, including 313 civilians, have been
killed. The victims include 105 children and 41 women. Additionally, 1,000 Palestinians,
including 200 children and 90 women, have been wounded.

 

Central Gaza Strip: 157 Palestinians, including 81 civilians,
have been killed. The victims include 21 children and 10 women. Additionally, 530
Palestinians, including 140 children and 90 women, have been wounded.

 

Khan Yunis: 83 Palestinians, including 61 civilians, have been killed.
The victims include 16 children and 5 women. Additionally, 395 Palestinians,
including 100 children and 76 women, have been wounded.

 

Rafah: 50 Palestinians, including 39
civilians, have been killed. The victims include 13 children and one woman.
Additionally, 497 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including 102 children and 84
women, have been wounded.

 

Destruction to Civilian Property and facilities

 

Northern Gaza Strip

 

· IOF have destroyed 650 houses,
including 250 ones by air strikes. According to initial estimations, at least
another 500 houses have been rendered uninhabitable, and hundreds of others
have been heavily damaged. .

· IOF have destroyed 4 public
facilities.

· IOF have destroyed 2 private
facilities.

· IOF have destroyed 85 industrial and
commercial workshops.

· IOF have destroyed offices of 2
charitable societies.

· IOF have destroyed 6 security
buildings. 

· IOF have destroyed 7 educational
institutions completely or partially.

· IOF have destroyed 10 mosques and
damaged 6 others.

· IOF have razed at least 1,000 donums
of agricultural.

· IOF have destroyed 150 cars and 200
agricultural tools.

 

Gaza City

 

· IOF have destroyed 1,100 houses,
including 80 ones by air strikes. According to initial estimations, hundreds of
others houses have been partially destroyed and hundreds of others were heavily
damaged. 

· IOF have destroyed 5 public
facilities, including buildings of ministries and the Palestinian Legislative
Council. 

· IOF have destroyed 8 hotels
completely or partially.

· IOF have destroyed 8 private
enterprises, including cafeterias and wedding halls.

· IOF have destroyed 5 media
institutions, 7 educational ones, 2 health ones and 3 charitable ones.

· IOF have destroyed 18 industrial and
commercial workshops.

· IOF have destroyed 10 security
buildings.

· IOF have 10 mosques completely or
partially.

· IOF have razed hundreds of donums of
agricultural land (under documentation).

 

Central Gaza Strip

 

· IOF have destroyed 220 houses,
including 52 ones by air strikes. 

· IOF have destroyed 2 public
facilities (building of municipalities. 

· IOF have 6 mosques completely or
partially.

· IOF have destroyed 2 workshops.

· IOF have destroyed 19 security
buildings.

· IOF have razed at least 200 donums
of agricultural land.

· IOF have damaged dozens of houses. 

 

Khan Yunis

 

· IOF have destroyed at least 230
houses, including 28 by air strikes. 

· IOF have destroyed 4 public
facilities.

· IOF have destroyed offices of 4
charitable societies

· IOF have destroyed 10 industrial and
commercial workshops.

· IOF have destroyed 15 security
buildings.

· IOF have destroyed 2 mosques and
damaged 5 others

· IOF have razed at least 150 donums
of agricultural land. 

· IOF have damaged 8 educational
institutions. 

 

Rafah

 

· IOF have destroyed 160 houses,
including 80 ones by air strikes. At least 300 houses have been also
damaged. 

· IOF have destroyed 12 public
facilities.

· IOF have destroyed 2 private
enterprises.

· IOF have destroyed 2 mosques and
heavily damaged another 4 ones.

· IOF have destroyed 6 industrial and
commercial workshops and damaged 15 stores.

· IOF have heavily damaged 7
educational institutions.

· IOF have destroyed offices of a
charitable society. 

· IOF have destroyed 10 security
buildings.

· IOF have razed at least 300 donums
of agricultural land. 

 

Other Daily Violations of Human Rights

 

Shooting: During the reporting period, IOF killed
a Palestinian civilian and wounded 36 others, including 17 children, in the
West Bank.

 

On Friday, 16 January
2009, IOF killed a Palestinian civilian in Hebron when they fired at a Palestinian
civilians who demonstrated in protest to the IOF offensive on the Gaza Strip.

 

IOF used excessive
force against peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to the IOF offensive
on the Gaza Strip. As a result, 7 Palestinian civilians, including a child,
were wounded.

 

During the reporting period, 28
Palestinian civilians, including 15 children and a journalist, were wounded
when IOF used force against peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to the
construction of the Annexation Wall west of Ramallah.

 

Incursions: During the reporting period, IOF
conducted at least 34 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the
West Bank. IOF arrested 46 Palestinian civilians, including 14 children.

 

Restrictions on Movement: IOF have continued to impose a tightened siege on the OPT
and imposed severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians in the
Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.

 

 

 

Gaza Strip

 

IOF have continued to close all border crossings to the Gaza
Strip for more than two years. The IOF siege of Gaza, which has steadily
tightened since June 2007, has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and
economic situation in the Gaza Strip.

 

· 1.5 million people are being denied their basic rights, including
freedom of movement, and their rights to appropriate living conditions, work,
health and education.

 

Under the IOF offensive on the Gaza
Strip, the Gaza civilian population are suffering serious deterioration in the
humanitarian situation. The resulting acute humanitarian crisis is increasingly
and seriously impacting living conditions of Palestinian civilians, which have
been already deteriorating due to the tightened siege imposed by IOF on the
Gaza Strip from the land, air and sea for more than 18 months. Due to this
siege, Palestinian civilians have been denied their economic, social, cultural,
civil and political rights.

 

The deterioration taking place in
health conditions in the Gaza Strip exacerbated due to the high number of the
dead and the wounded who fell due to IOF raids. This exacerbating deterioration
comes along with the tightened total siege that has been imposed on the Gaza
Strip, including the closure of Gaza border crossings for more than 18 months.
The siege has impacted all medical institutions in the Gaza Strip, including
hospitals and primary healthcare centers that have become unable to meet the
needs of the civilian population and, as a result, have been unable to ensure
physical and mental healthcare. This situation has impacted the capacity of
Gaza medical institutions to provide medical services to the Gaza civilian
population. The state of fear and horror caused by IOF barbarian raids affected
the standard of civilians’ enjoyment of their right to health, including inability
to access medical institutions due the gravity of the security conditions, or
due to medical institutions’ incapacity to respond to the needs of hundreds of
wounded persons and thousands of patients. Medical sources in the MOH in Gaza
and at Shifa Hospital, the main treatment provider in the Gaza strip, stated
the following:

 

· Gaza hospitals suffer severe shortage in beds that are
required to receive hundreds of victims of IOF raids. There are approximately
1,200 beds in all Gaza hospitals. At Shifa Hospital, there are 530 beds,
including 135 beds used for primary healthcare provision. Medical crews at Gaza
hospitals and clinics have been unable to provide beds to treat and hospitalize
the wounded persons, due to the high numbers of the wounded who arrived at
hospitals and clinics in the wake of IOF air raids. Approximately 319 dead
persons and more than 1,000 wounded persons have been admitted into Gaza
hospitals within the past four days. The wounded who have been admitted into
hospitals are being treated and hospitalized under severe shortages in
medicines and medical supplies. Medical crews are also bearing utmost suffering
due to continued electricity cutoffs.

· The different units at Shifa Hospital and other hospitals in
the Gaza Strip are still suffering incapacity to provide treatment and medical
services to approximately 390 persons who have been wounded in IOF ongoing
military operation, due to unavailability of material capacities and medical
apparatuses that are required for their treatment. These 390 wounded persons
need to be urgently and promptly referred to treatment abroad for their serious
injuries. The MOH has managed to refer approximately 60 of them to Egyptian
hospitals during the past two days.

· The continued air striking has created a state of confusion,
fear and horror amongst medical crews at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The
gravity of the security conditions at the Hospital exacerbated following the
heavy damages that had been caused to the Hospital when IOF warplanes bombarded
al-Burno Mosque that is adjacent to the Hospital. Due to bombardment of the
mosque, the windows and doors of the burns and surgery unit and the
administration offices were crashed. Also the water network at the surgery unit
in building no. 8 was destroyed. This created extreme difficulty that impeded
the work of the medical crews at the Hospital.

· Eng. Bassam al-Hamarin, director of Engineering and
Maintenance Department in the MOH, stated that the continued electric cutoffs
and the shortage of spare parts required for the maintenance of many medical
apparatuses and tools have impacted the efficiency and work of these
apparatuses and tools. He added that this resulted in:

– Disruption and poor efficiency of 17 central oxygen stations
in Gaza hospitals, including 3 stations at Shifa Hospital that provide oxygen
to internal diseases unit, chest diseases unit and the artificial kidney unit.

– The pumps of water wells at Shifa Hospital were disrupted
after sustaining heavy damages.

– The members of the medical crews at Gaza hospitals are
suffering shortages in wireless communication devices. This coincides with
defectiveness in the Palestinian mobile communication network (Jawwal),
increasing the gravity that faced the work of the Palestinian ambulances crews. 

– Many medicines, vaccinations and foods at Gaza hospitals are
subject to decay due to continued electric cutoffs while the power generated by
power generators is not sufficient to face the power shortage.

– Shifa Hospital is suffering the continued disruption of its
only cardiac catheterization apparatus. The Hospital is also suffering the
disruption of the sterilization apparatuses and milk pasteurization and
decontamination apparatuses that are necessary for immature neonates.

– All hospitals in the Gaza strip are suffering shortages in
spare parts required for power generators, on which Gaza hospitals mainly
depend in view of continued electric cutoffs. The MOH Engineering and
Maintenance Department lacks many spare parts required for the maintenance of
power generators, including air filters, oil filter and filters required to
separate kerosene and oil.

– The MOH is suffering a shortage of spare parts required for
its vehicles and ambulances. Due to the emergency situation in the Gaza Strip,
50% of the MOH ambulances are exceptionally operating although they lack
maintenance.

· Central medical laboratories at Shifa Hospital are suffering
a severe shortage in medical apparatuses, including 30 apparatuses used in
blood analysis. This shortage of blood analysis apparatuses has impeded the
blood transformation for the wounded. The lives of the wounded persons would be
threatened in case of blood transformation without making the necessary tests.

· Gaza hospitals are suffering a shortage in medical
disposables in surgery rooms, including surgical operation torches, surgical
operations tables, laboratorial apparatuses, ray apparatuses and extensive care
apparatuses.

· Gaza hospitals and healthcare centers are still suffering a
shortage in medicines. 105 items of main medical tools and 255 of medical
disposables have run out or are in short quantities. These medical supplies
include the majority of medicines required for cancer patients and medicines
required for sick children who are suffering from cystic fibrosis, and the
health conditions of these children are seriously threatened .

· More than half a million of Palestinian students at primary,
preparatory and secondary schools have been denied access to their schools. On
the first day of IOF indiscriminate air raids, more than 5,000 students were
subject to trauma or were injured, while attending their classes or while on
their way to afternoon schools. These children are still denied access to
necessary physical treatment services, due to the severe shortage in that
service. 

· Dr. Samir Qouta, a psychology professor at the Islamic
University in Gaza City, says that there has been an increasing number of
parents who visit mental health centers in the Gaza Strip to inquire how to
treat the symptoms of the psychological deterioration in their children, that
resulted from the terrible explosions that trembled the entire Gaza Strip. Dr.
Qouta says that the symptoms of the psychological disorders caused by fear and
horror of IOF incessant bombardments include bedwetting, nail-biting, fear of night,
frightening nightmares, physical pains of unknown causes, crying and
introversion. Dr. Qouta expects that the symptoms of the psychological
deterioration in the Palestinian children would develop to include a form of
violence in dealing with their peers, inability to concentrate and
deterioration of educational levels. He also indicated that Palestinian
children, who are subject to traumatic experience caused by IOF bombardments,
become less obedient to their parents and lose the ability to deal openly with them. Dr. Qouta
expects that the psychological deterioration in the Palestinian children in the
Gaza Strip would aggravate due to IOF ongoing raids.

 

West Bank

 

IOF have continued to impose severe restrictions on the
movement of Palestinian civilians throughout the West Bank, including occupied
East Jerusalem. Thousands of Palestinian civilians from the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip continue to be denied access to Jerusalem.

 

· IOF have established checkpoints in and around Jerusalem,
severely restricting Palestinian access to the city. Civilians are frequently
prevented from praying at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

 

· There are approximately permanent 630 roadblocks, manned and
unmanned checkpoints across the West Bank. In addition, there are some 60-80
‘flying’ or temporary checkpoints erected across the West Bank by IOF every
week.

 

· When complete, the illegal Annexation Wall will stretch for
724 kilometers around the West Bank, further isolating the entire population.
350 kilometers of the Wall has already been constructed. Approximately 99% of
the Wall has been constructed inside the West Bank itself, further confiscating
Palestinian land.

 

· At least 65% of the main roads that leads to 18 Palestinian
communities in the West Bank are closed or fully controlled by IOF (47 out of
72 roads).

 

· There are around 500 kilometers of restricted roads across
the West Bank. In addition, approximately one third of the West Bank, including
occupied East Jerusalem, is inaccessible to Palestinians without a permit issued
by the IOF. These permits are extremely difficult to obtain.

 

· IOF continue to harass, and assault demonstrators who hold
peaceful protests against the construction of the Annexation Wall.

 

· Palestinian civilians continue to be harassed by IOF in Jerusalem,
and across the West Bank, including being regularly stopped and searched in the
streets by IOF.

 

· During the reporting period, IOF arrested 6 Palestinian
civilians, including one girl, at various checkpoints in the West Bank.

 

Judaization of Jerusalem: IOF have escalated arbitrary
measures against Palestinian civilians in East Jerusalem to force them to leave
the city. During the reporting period, IOF closed 4 flats belonging to Abu
Duhaim family in Jerusalem using concrete. IOF also confiscated 500 donums of
land in Abu Dis town for the purpose of the construction of the Annexation
Wall.

 

Settlement
Activities: IOF
have continued settlement activities and Israeli settlers living in the
OPT in violation of international humanitarian law have continued to attack
Palestinian civilians and property. During the reporting period, IOF
confiscated at least 3,000 donums of land in Yatta village, south of Hebron,
and 13.4 donums of land in Housan village, west of Bethlehem, for the purpose
of settlement expansion.

 

Israeli Violations Documented during the Reporting Period (15 – 21 January
2009):

The full report is available PDF format.