Field Update

Today afternoon, unknown persons detonated a bomb near a convoy of
vehicles belonging to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) near
Beit Hanoun town in the northern Gaza Strip.  A vehicle was damaged,
but no casualties were reported.  This latest attack is part of the
state of security chaos and proliferation of weapons plaguing the Occupied
Palestinian Territory.  

According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Center
for Human Rights (PCHR), at approximately 14:15 on Thursday, 04 February
2010, a bomb planted by unknown persons exploded near a convoy of 4
vehicles belonging to the ICRC while traveling on Saladin Road opposite to
al-Shawa fuel station near Beit Hanoun town in the northern Gaza
Strip.  The explosion of the bomb, which had been planted two meters
to the east of the road, resulted in smashing the front and side windows and
damaging the front of the last vehicle in the convoy, which holds a plate
number (900441-13759).  No casulaties were reported.  Mr.
Eyad Nasser, Spokesman of the ICRC in Gaza, stated that the vhicles
were transporting 8 international staff members of the ICRC towards Beit Hanoun
(Erez) crossing.

The Palestinian police arrived at the area immediately and opened an
investigation into the attack. An officer in the expolsives
engineering unit in the Palestinian police, Midhat Ebrash, stated that the
bomb was planted two meters away from the tract on which the convoy was
traveling, and that shrapnel from the bomb spread over the area.  He
added that his unit was still checking the shrapnel to identify the kind of the
bomb.

PCHR strongly condemns this attack on the ICRC’s convoy by
unknown persons, and calls upon the Attorney-General’s office to genuinely
investigate it and bring the perpetrators to justice.