January 28, 2002
Israeli Army Distorts Circumstances of Mass House Demolitions in Rafah; PCHR Calls for International Investigation
Israeli Army Distorts Circumstances of Mass House Demolitions in Rafah; PCHR Calls for International Investigation

 

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Press Release

 

Israeli Army Distorts Circumstances of Mass House Demolitions in Rafah; PCHR Calls for International Investigation

 

 

Date: 28 January 2002

Ref: 10/2002

 

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights rejects comments reportedly made by Israeli Southern Commander Major General Doron Almog that houses demolished by Israeli occupying forces in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza strip on 10 January were uninhabited. PCHR reiterates the need for an impartial, thorough, and effective international investigation into the incident and for the international community to ensure judicial accountability for those found to be responsible. Furthermore, PCHR condemns Israel’s systematic and widespread policy of destroying houses and agricultural areas in the Gaza strip, of which this incident was only one particularly egregious example.

 

On 10 January Israeli forces destroyed some 59 houses in the Block O area of Rafah along the border with Egypt in the greatest single act of house demolition since the start of the al-Aqsa Intifada on 29 September 2000. Two days later, Israeli forces destroyed another 40 houses in the adjacent Block J area and rendered another 41 uninhabitable. Some 1,700 Palestinian civilians were left homeless.

 

According to a story posted on the website of the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz on 28 January, Maj. Gen. Almog claimed that the army had planned to demolish 21 structures but that a larger number of homes were ultimately destroyed “due to navigation and identification problems.” Maj. Gen. Almog also repeated the Israeli army’s previous claims that the houses were uninhabited and that the alleged existence of underground tunnels used for arms smuggling made the operation “imperative.”

 

Both of these claims – that the houses were uninhabited and that they served as cover for underground tunnels – are false. PCHR has collected numerous eyewitness testimonies which confirm that the houses were indeed inhabited. This finding has been corroborated by Palestinian and Israeli human rights organisations, as well as numerous journalists who witnessed and photographed families attempting to recover their belongings from the remains of the demolished houses and who documented their firsthand accounts of the attack. PCHR has also released a list of the owners of the destroyed homes in its weekly report covering the period 10-16 January. Furthermore, the mass house demolition failed to reveal any of the alleged underground tunnels at the site and the Israeli army has failed to produce any evidence to substantiate this allegation.

 

Moreover, whether or not the demolished houses were actually inhabited on the night in question is irrelevant. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, the destruction of private property is illegal unless “rendered absolutely necessary by military operations” (Article 53). Such military necessity clearly did not exist in this case, making it more likely that the mass demolition was an act of collective punishment, which is clearly prohibited under Article 33 of the Convention. The destroyed houses were in an entirely residential area and no shooting by Palestinian gunmen had been reported in the area prior to the attack for many days. It must also be noted that even if some of the families living in the area had previously sought temporary shelter elsewhere, this would most likely be due to routine and indiscriminate shooting by Israeli forces in the area, which has lead to a number of deaths and injuries of civilians.

 

The mass house demolitions in Rafah were not the first operations of their kind, nor does PCHR expect that they will be the last. The Block O area of Rafah has witnessed several major house demolitions over the past 16 months, which have rendered the neighbourhood to a fraction of its previous size. During the al-Aqsa Intifada, Israeli occupying forces have destroyed some 500 houses and razed approximately 15 million square meters of land (approximately 16% of the available agricultural land) in the Gaza strip, mostly to create “buffer zones” along Israeli settlements (which are all illegal under Article 49 of the Convention), military bases, and bypass roads (which are reserved exclusively for Israeli use). Several high-ranking Israeli political and military officials have indicated publicly that house demolitions are part of a broad long-term policy of clearing entire areas of their inhabitants or agricultural land in the Gaza strip and are not responses to specific armed attacks by Palestinians.

 

PCHR asserts that the Israeli military’s investigation into the incident fails to meet basic minimum standards of thoroughness and objectivity. The fact that Maj. Gen. Almog’s comments apparently pertained only to the house demolitions of 10 January and not to those of 12 January (in which 40 homes were destroyed and 41 rendered uninhabitable) is an obvious limitation to the scope of the investigation, in addition to the lack of any evidence substantiated the existence of underground tunnels. Furthermore, the Israeli military has consistently failed to investigate possible violations of international humanitarian law by its own personnel. In the approximately 800 cases of Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli forces during the al-Aqsa Intifada, no Israeli military personnel or settlers have been indicted or arrested for such killings, and in no cases of killing or property destruction has compensation been paid.

 

Due to the inadequacy of the Israeli military’s investigation and the past pattern of similarly unsatisfactory enquiries, PCHR reiterates its demand for an impartial, thorough, and effective international investigation into the mass house demolitions in Rafah, as well as other possible violations and grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention by Israeli forces in the OPT during the al-Aqsa Intifada. PCHR also reminds the High Contracting Parties to the Convention of their obligation under Articles 146 and 147 of the Convention to arrest and effectively prosecute anyone in their jurisdiction suspected of having committed or ordered to have committed war crimes. PCHR will continue to monitor the destruction of houses and agricultural land by Israeli forces in the Gaza strip and to advocate for international protection for Palestinian civilians in the OPT.