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Press Release

One Palestinian killed and eight injured in retaliatory actions by Israeli occupation forces

 Ref: 53/2001

Date: 26 September 2001

 In a disproportionate retaliation for the injury of a number of Israeli soldiers during a bombing near the Egyptian border this morning at approximately 04:00, Israeli occupation forces intensively fired artillery shells and heavy, medium and light caliber bullets at Palestinian houses adjacent to the border, south of Rafah.  The gunfire has been focused on Block “O” area and Qeshta neighborhood.  A 16-year-old Palestinian civilian, Mahmoud Jalal Sa’id Qeshta, was killed by a live bullet in the head that fractured the skull.  His body was taken to Al-Joneina Hospital in Rafah, together with eight civilians who were injured by live bullets and shrapnel from artillery shells and a ninth civilian who suffered from a severe nervous breakdown.  Five children, one 2 years old and another dumb, were among those injured:

1)    Ahmed Riad Abu Taha, 2, injured by shrapnel in the head;

2)    Yousef Ibrahim Nejem, 12, critically injured by a live bullet in the neck;

3)    Faraj Sa’id Abu El-Naja, 16, critically injured by shrapnel in the chest;

4)     Mohammed Hussein El-Sha’er, 14, injured by shrapnel in the face, chest and abdomen;

5)     Mohammed ‘Abdel-Majid El-Mughari, 15, injured by shrapnel in the back;

6)     Mohammed Fadhel ‘Othman, 13, dumb, injured by a live bullet in the left thigh;

7)     Ismail ‘Abdel-Rahman Abu Lebdeh, 23, injured by shrapnel in the head and the chest;

8)     Mousa Jom’a Abu Jazar, 40, critically injured by a live bullet in the abdomen; and

9)     Farid Hassan Qeshta, 30, suffered from a severe nervous breakdown.

PCHR strongly condemns this attack which is part of a clear pattern of war crimes perpetrated by Israeli occupying forces against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.  PCHR draws attention to the fact that such retaliatory acts against civilians violate Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 (relative to the protection of civilians in war), which provides that “reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.”  PCHR reiterates its call for the High Contracting Parties to the Convention to take immediate necessary steps to provide protection for Palestinian civilians and their property, in the face of continued violations of the Convention and international humanitarian law by Israeli forces in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.