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PALESTINIAN CENTRE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

PRESS RELEASE

Ref: 33/2004

Date: 28 February  2004

Time: 09:00 GMT

11:00 Palestine Time

Israeli Occupying Forces Destroy Dozens of Shops in Northern Gaza Strip Town of Beit Hanoun

 In the latest Israeli violation of international law directed against Palestinian civilians and property, Israeli occupying forces destroyed 84 shops in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun on Friday evening, 27 February 2004. 

 According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 14:00 on Friday, 27 February 2004, Israeli occupying forces moved into the route devoted to Palestinian workers at the Palestinian side of Erez Crossing in the northern Gaza Strip.  They raided Palestinian shops on both sides of the route, broke their entrances, and searched them.  At approximately 18:00, more reinforcements of Israeli occupying forces, including military bulldozers, arrived at the area.  Until 21:00, Israeli occupying forces destroyed 84 shops, which employed 250 people, providing income to dozens of Palestinian families.  These shops were selling foodstuffs and were built in 1995 to serve Palestinian workers on their way to their workplaces in Israel. 

 PCHR is concerned that this destruction may be a part of a wider Israeli plan to destroy the remaining commercial facilities in the area for the purpose of expanding the buffer zone near Erez crossing, in complete disregard for the large losses which would be incurred to Palestinian civilians. 

 PCHR strongly condemns these daily Israeli war crimes against Palestinian civilians and their properties in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.  PCHR asserts that the systematic destruction of Palestinian economic infrastructure by Israeli occupying forces has left disastrous impacts on thousands of Palestinian civilians who have lost their sources of income and livelihood.  From the beginning of the current Intifada until the end of 2003, Israeli occupying forces destroyed 333 Palestinian economic facilities; destruction of civilian property is a gross violation of international humanitarian law. PCHR calls upon the international community, particularly the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, to immediately provide international protection for Palestinian civilians and property and take concrete steps to stop Israeli violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.  

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:[email protected], Webpage http://www.pchrgaza.org