Press Release

In an unprecedented escalation:

The Israeli combat helicopters and gunboats bombard Ramallah and Gaza

Ref: 128/2000

Date: October 12, 2000

Time: 15:00 GMT

The Palestinian Centre for Human Right calls for an immediate international intervention to halt the Israeli occupation forces’ bombardment of the occupied Palestinian territories. The Israeli occupation forces’ bombardment has so far targeted the cities of Ramallah and Gaza. In Gaza, it was reported that Israeli gunboats bombarded a harbor of fishers, and the headquarters of Civil Defense and the President’s Guard Forces (Force 17). They bombarded also the headquarters of civil police and Fatah Movement in the town of Beit Lahia. In Ramallah, Israeli combat helicopters shelled the headquarters of civil police and a number of buildings, have not been identified so far. The result of these military actions against the Palestinian people, which seemed to be targeting the headquarters of the Palestinian National Authority as well as Palestinian civilians. It was reported that more than 30 people were injured as a result of the Israeli bombardment, most of them are civilians.

The Israeli occupation forces pretend that such escalation came in response to killing two Israeli soldiers by Palestinian demonstrators in Ramallah, after they lost their way and entered the Palestinian city. However, field reports from Ramallah indicated that the two soldiers did not lose their way, but they were members of a special unit of the Israeli army known as Al-Mosta’rebin” (Arabaianizers). The members of such unit disguise in Palestinian uniforms and pass through Palestinian communities to kill, assassinate and terrify civilians. The Palestinian people has a painful experience with such unit, which was established after the breakthrough of the Intefada in December 1987; it killed tens of Palestinians.

It is clear now that discovering members of such armed unit in the center of Ramallah is an assertion of PCHR’s previous warnings of using such units to kill Palestinians. Two soldiers of that unit were killed after Palestinian police lost control of angry Palestinian demonstrators, in light of the killings committed by the Israeli occupation forces against Palestinian civilians, which took the lives of 89 Palestinians in less than 2 weeks.

This morning, an Israeli combat helicopter shot at Palestinian civilians in Khan Younis, and injured the child Kefah Mohammed El-Aa’raj, 14 years old, by a bullet to her back. PCHR’s field officers in the area reported that the child was inside home when she was shot. Yesterday evening, the Israeli occupation forces bombed 4 houses to the north of Khan Younis near the junction leading to Gush Qatif settlement block. This morning, the Israeli occupation force’ bulldozers swept agricultural land near the mentioned junction.

PCHR condemns state terror which is carried out by the Israeli government and occupation forces against Palestinian civilians. PCHR also reiterates its call for an immediate international intervention to halt the dangerous and unprecedented escalation, and for immediate international protection for Palestinian civilians in the occupied Palestinian territory.