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PALESTINIAN CENTRE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
PRESS RELEASE
Ref: 32/2004
Date: 28 February 2004
Time: 09:00 GMT
11:00 Palestine Time
Israeli Occupying Forces Break into al-Aqsa Mosque Yards and Injure at Least 20 Worshippers
PCHR strongly condemns the Israeli military raid on the yards of al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem on Friday 27 February 2004, in which at least 20 Palestinians attending prayer were injured. PCHR reminds the international community of a similar raid on al-Aqsa Mosque in September 2000, which left dead 5 Palestinian civilians and injured dozens of others, and subsequently led to the outbreak of the current Intifada. PCHR calls upon the international community to condemn this act and immediately intervene to provide protection for Palestinian civilians.
According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 12:50 on Friday, after thousands of Palestinian worshippers had finished the Friday Prayer, hundreds of Israeli soldiers surprised the them by breaking into the mosque’s yard through al-Maghareba and al-Silsila gates. Immediately, Israeli soldiers fired dozens of rubber-coated metal bullets, sound bombs, and tear gas canisters at the worshippers while disregarding the presence of thousands of women, children, and elderly. As result of the surprise attack, 24 worshippers were injured. Israeli soldiers then called on the worshippers through megaphones to leave the mosque. Many Israeli soldiers were deployed in the mosque’s yards and at entrances to the old town of Jerusalem.
PCHR believes that this latest attack on al-Aqsa Mosque constitutes a violation of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949. In the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol 1), article 53 prohibit any acts of hostility directed against places of worship and the use of such areas as objects in support of the military effort. PCHR calls upon the international community, particularly the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions to immediately intervene to ensure protection for Palestinian civilians and property.
Public Document
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For more information please call PCHR office in Gaza, Gaza Strip, on +972 8 2824776 – 2825893
PCHR, 29 Omer El Mukhtar St., El Remal, PO Box 1328 Gaza, Gaza Strip. E-mail:pchr@pchrgaza.org, Webpage http://www.pchrgaza.org
