A Special Issue on the 6^th Anniversary of the
al-Aqsa Intifada

 

Six Years of Israeli Aggression on the OPT; IOF Commit
Unprecedented War Crimes against Palestinian Civilians and Property

 

This report
coincides with the 6^th anniversary of the eruption of the al-Aqsa
Intifada, which broke out following the former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon’s provocative visit to al-Aqsa Mosque (the Holy Sanctuary) in
occupied Jerusalem. Over the last 6
years, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have perpetrated grave breaches of
international law, including war crimes, against Palestinian civilians, in a
manner unprecedented since 1967.  The 6^th year of the Intifada
witnessed an increasing escalation in Israeli war crimes as the international
community remained silent and the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva
Convention of 1949 failed to meet their obligations to ensure respect for the
Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and provide protection
for Palestinian civilians.  The international silence has served to
encourage the Israeli government and its occupation forces to perpetrate more
war crimes with impunity against Palestinian civilians.  Over the last 12
months, IOF have stepped up illegal operations in the OPT, especially in the
Gaza Strip. The number of Palestinian civilians killed by IOF in the Gaza Strip
in the second half of the year reminds of the numbers of civilians killed by
IOF in the West Bank during the Operation Defensive Shield in spring 2002.

 

In the 6^th
year of the Intifada, 504 Palestinians, including 398 civilians (79%) have
killed by IOF. The number of civilian victims includes 93 children (23%) and 14
women (3.5%). According to PCHR’s documentation, 138 Palestinians have been extra-judicially
executed by IOF (34.5% of the total number of civilian victims). This number
includes 90 targeted persons and 48 civilian bystanders, including 23 children.

 

By the end of the 6^th
year of the al-Aqsa Intifada, 3859 Palestinians, including 3069 civilians
(79.5%), have been killed. According to PCHR’s documentation, 585 Palestinians
have been extra-judicially executed by IOF (19% of the total number of civilian
victims). This number includes 376 targeted persons and 209 civilian
bystanders, including 71 children.

 

Contrary to claims
by IOF that they withdrew from the Gaza Strip in September 2005, which PCHR
viewed as a form of redeployment, IOF waged an open war on the Gaza Strip after
Palestinian resistance activists had killed two IOF soldiers and captured a
third on 25 June 2006. This wide scale military campaign named “Operation
Summer Rains” is still ongoing. Since the beginning of this campaign, 237
Palestinian, including 147 civilians, have been killed by IOF in the Gaza
Strip. The number of civilian victims includes 53 children and 13 women. In
addition, 821 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including 220 children and 35
women, have been wounded.

 

According to
PCHR’s documentation, IOF have fired at least 260 air-to-surface missiles and
hundreds of artillery shells at targets, mostly civilian ones, in the Gaza
Strip. Buildings of the Palestinian
Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of
National economy, the office of the Palestinian Prime Minister and a number of
educational institutions have been destroyed. The electricity generation plant,
providing 45% of the electricity of the Gaza Strip, was destroyed, and
electricity networks and transmitters have been repeatedly attacked. Six
bridges linking Gaza City with the central Gaza Strip and a number of roads
have been destroyed. IOF have also destroyed hundreds of donums[1] of
agricultural land and dozens of houses have been destroyed. The Palestinian governmental compound in
Nablus has been destroyed. Many families in the Gaza Strip have been forced to
leave their houses. IOF warplanes have destroyed 44 houses belonging to
activists of Palestinian factions.

 

In the 6^th
year of the Intifada, IOF continued to shell Palestinian residential
areas. Complete families were killed or
wounded by the IOF shelling. For instance, on 9 June 2006, IOF killed ‘Alai
Ghalia, his wife and 5 of the their children. On 12 July 2006, IOF killed
Nabeel Abu Silmiya, his wife and 7 of their children. IOF have employed
warplanes to extra-judicially executed Palestinian in densely populated areas,
rendering casualties among Palestinian civilians, especially children.
Furthermore, IOF have adopted a new policy since 23 July 2006, under which they
warn Palestinian civilians that their houses would be attacked, a very short
period that does not exceed an hour prior to the actual attack. IOF often claim
that weapons are stored in these houses or that tunnels are dug under them to
smuggle weapons.

 

In the West Bank,
IOF continued to construct the annexation wall inside the West Bank territory,
in violation of international law and humanitarian law, and the advisory
opinion issued by the International Court of Justice in Hague, which considered
the construction of the wall illegal and called for its dismantlement. 

 

In an attempt to
undermine the results of the Palestinian elections, which were held on 25
January 2006, IOF waged an arrest campaign against members of the Palestinian
Legislative Council (PLC) representing the Change and Reform Bloc affiliated to
Hamas and cabinet ministers. IOF arrested 31 PLC members, including the
Speaker, Deputy Speaker and the Secretary. The PLC Deputy Speaker was released
later. In addition, IOF arrested 8 ministers, including the Deputy Prime
Minister. Three ministers, including the Deputy Prime Minister, were released
later, while the others have been kept in custody.

 

On 14 March 2006, IOF completed initiated a
large-scale military operation that imed to apprehend Ahmad Sa’adat, the
Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)
and the elected member of the PLC, a number of PFLP activists charged with
assassinating Rehavam Ze’vi (Israeli ex-Minister of Tourism), and Major General
Fuad al-Shobaki, a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council who is charged
with smuggling the Karen A arms shipment. This operation was initiated 15
minutes after the sudden withdrawal of American and British monitors charged
with guarding Sa;adat, in accordance with an agreement, drafted mainly by the
United States. Israeli, American, and British officials attempted to deny any
prior coordination between them. However, the Israeli Defense Minister, Shaul
Mofaz, said in statements to Haaretz newspaper after the operation that Israel
knew before hand about the time of the monitors’ withdrawal from Jericho
prison. Further, he stated that the army had been preparing for over a week to
storm the prison and kidnap the prisoners. PCHR had previously stressed that no
party, whether the IOF, Palestinian National Authority, or international
community, has the right to formulate an agreement that violates International
Humanitarian Law. This position was stated in reference to the agreement
regarding Sa’adat’s detention in Jericho prison (refer to the PCHR’s press
release dated 4 June 2002). Thus, PCHR raises question over the international
community’s role in enforcing past and future agreements to which Israel is a
party.

 

Israeli military
actions have violated the political, civil, economic, social and cultural
rights of Palestinian civilians. 

 

The six years of
the al-Aqsa Intifada have been characterized by the following Israeli military
attacks: 

  

· Prolonged Incursions and redeployment into
Palestinian Authority controlled areas.

· Massive
killings and destruction of houses and civilian property.

· Extra-judicial
executions against Palestinian activists and political leaders, the most
significant of which targeted Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder and leader of
Hamas, and his successor, Dr. ‘Abdul ‘Aziz al-Rantissi.

· Destruction
of the Palestinian economy and the structure of the Palestinian Authority
through the destruction of civil and security facilities.

· Using  Palestinian civilians as human
shields during military operations in the OPT.

· Closing Rafah International Crossing Point and
other border crossings of the Gaza Strip.

· Chasing
fishermen and depriving them of their sources of income.

· Storming
Jericho Prison and arresting senior political leaders.

· Humiliation
of Palestinian at military checkpoints.

· Deportation
of a number of Palestinian activists.

· Continued construction of the annexation wall
inside the West Bank territory, in a challenge for the advisory opinion issued
by the International Court of Justice, which considered the construction of the
wall illegal.

· Wilful killing of Palestinian civilians.

· Indiscriminate shelling of Palestinian civilian
residential areas using various forms of weaponry, including warplanes, tanks
and machine guns.

· Collective
punishment of Palestinian civilians, denying them their basic human rights,
including the rights of health, education, freedom of movement and work,
through imposing a tightened siege on the OPT.

· Transformation
of Qalandya checkpoint into an international border crossing between the West
Bank and Israel.

· Arbitrary
arrests and placing Palestinians in administrative detention.

· Closure
of a number of charitable societies in the West Bank.

· Systematic
attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians.

A table showing
those killed during the al-Aqsa Intifada from

29 September 2000
to 28 September 2006  

 

 

 

A table showing those injured during the al-Aqsa
Intifada from

29 September 2000 to 28 September 2006[2]

 

 

A table showing
land levelling, house demolitions and destruction to industrial and educational
facilities in the Gaza Strip during the al-Aqsa Intifada,

from 29 September 2000
to 28 September 2006 

 

 

 

 

 

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Escalate
Attacks on Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian
Territory (OPT)

 

 

· 6
Palestinian civilians, including 4 children and one woman, were killed by IOF
in the Gaza Strip.

 

· IOF
shot the woman from a zero range.

 

· IOF
conducted 33 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, and 4 others
into the Gaza Strip.

 

· IOF
arrested 16 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, and 9 others in the Gaza
Strip.

 

· IOF
demolished 13 houses in Um al-Nasser village in the southern Gaza Strip.

 

· IOF
transformed two houses in Hebron into military sites.

 

· IOF
have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT; IOF have imposed a tightened
siege on the Gaza Strip; and IOF positioned at a various checkpoints in the
West Bank arrested 8 Palestinian civilians, including a child.

 

 

Summary

 

Israeli violations of international law continued in
the OPT during the reported period (21 – 27 September 2006):

 

Killing: During
the reported period, IOF killed 6 Palestinian civilians, including 4 children
and a woman, in the Gaza Strip.  

 

On Thursday morning, 21 September 2006, IOF killed
two Palestinian civilians, including a woman in Um al-Nasser village, northeast
of Rafah. IOF killed the woman from a zero range when she protested against IOF
soldier who beat her deaf husband. The woman was left bleeding until for
several hours. The other civilian was killed in the same area by the
indiscriminate IOF gunfire. On the same day, IOF killed 3 children in Jabalya
town in the northern Gaza Strip, while they were herding sheep. On 27 September
2006, a
child was killed when IOF dropped a bomb at a neighboring house. In addition,
21 Palestinian civilians, including 8 children, were wounded by the IOF
shelling in Rafah.

 

Thus, the number of Palestinians killed by IOF in the
Gaza Strip since 25 June 2006 has increased to 237, including 53 children and 13
women. In addition, 821 others, mostly civilians, including 220 children, 35
women, 4 paramedics and 6 journalists, have been wounded. 

 

In the west Bank, 6 Palestinian civilians, including two
children, were wounded by IOF gunfire throughout the West Bank.

 

Incursions:
During the reported period, IOF
conducted at least 33 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the
West Bank, during which they raided dozens of houses and arrested 16 Palestinian
civilians, including a child. IOF also transformed two houses into military
sites. In an act of piracy, IOF broke into the Jordanian National Bank and 11
money exchange shops in the West Bank. They arrested 7 money exchangers and
confiscated big amounts of money. Israeli sources estimated the confiscated
money at 6 million NIS (US$ 1.3 million), and claimed that these money exchange
shop transferred amounts of money that were used to finance attacks on Israeli
targets. In the Gaza Strip, IOF conducted 4 incursions in the southern Gaza
Strip villages of Um al-Nasser and al-Foukhari, and into the northern Gaza
Strip town of Beit Lahia. During these incursions IOF arrested 11 Palestinian
civilians and demolished at least 14 houses. 

 

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
imposed a strict siege on the Gaza Strip. They have closed its border crossings
as a form of collective punishment against Palestinian civilians.

 

IOF have
closed Rafah International Crossing Point since 25 June 2006, even though they
do not directly control it. During the
reported period, the crossing point was reopened for 3 days and thousands of
Palestinians were able to travel from and to the Gaza Strip. IOF have closed
commercial crossings of the Gaza Strip, especially al-Mentar (Karni) crossing. As
a consequence, the economic situation inside the Gaza Strip has further
deteriorated and many goods have been lacked in markets. During the reported
period, IOF partially reopened al-Mentar (Karni) crossing, east of Gaza City,
and Sofa and Kerem Shalom crossings near Rafah. IOF have also continued to
close Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip. Hundreds of thousands of
Palestinians from the Gaza Strip had been prevented from traveling through this
crossing.  IOF have allowed international workers to pass through the
crossing.  With this closure, only few Palestinian patients have been able
to travel to hospitals in Israel and the West Bank. In addition, IOF
have prevented Palestinian fishermen from fishing for 3 months.

 

West Bank

 

IOF have tightened the siege imposed on Palestinian
communities in the West Bank. They have isolated Jerusalem from the rest
of the West Bank. IOF positioned at various checkpoints in the West Bank have
continued to impose severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians.
 IOF have continued to separate between the north and south of the West
Bank. During the reported period, IOF positioned at various checkpoints around
imposed severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians. During
the reported period, IOF positioned at various checkpoints in the West Bank
arrested 8 Palestinian civilians, including a child.

 

The
outcome of crimes committed by IOF since 25 June 2006:

 

o 273
Palestinians, mostly civilians, including 56 children and 13 women, have been killed
by IOF.

o At
least 1020 Palestinian civilians, including 294 children and 41 women, have
been wounded by the IOF gunfire.

o At
least 261 air-to-surface missiles and hundreds of artillery shells have been
fired at Palestinian civilian and military targets in the Gaza Strip.

o Buildings
of the Palestinian Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
the Ministry of National economy, the office of the Palestinian Prime Minister
and a number of educational institutions have been destroyed. 

o The
electricity generation plant, providing 45% of the electricity of the Gaza
Strip, was destroyed, and electricity networks and transmitters have been
repeatedly attacked.

o 6
bridges linking Gaza City with the central Gaza Strip and a number of roads
have been destroyed. 

o Hundreds
of donums of agricultural land and dozens of houses have been destroyed. 

o Hundreds
of Palestinian civilians, including 9 ministers and 31 members of the Palestinian
Legislative Council (PLC), including the Speaker, Deputy Speaker and Secretary,
have been arrested. Minster of Prisoners’ Affairs, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister
of Labor and Second Deputy Speaker of the PLC were released.

o The
Palestinian governmental compound in Nablus has been destroyed.

o Many
families in Rafah, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia have been forced to leave their
houses.

o IOF
intelligence has warned some Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip by phone
to evacuate their houses, which would be attacked.

o 44
houses belonging to activists of Palestinian factions were destroyed by IOF
warplanes.

o IOF
have imposed a strict siege on the OPT, and have isolated the Gaza Strip from
the outside world.

 

Israeli Violations Documented during the Reporting Period (21 – 27 September
2006)

 

Download the full
report here.