PRESS RELEASE

The Israeli Occupation Authority threatens to Evacuate Seventy Palestinian Families from their Homes.

Ref: 79/99

Date: 25 August 1999

 

On 23 August 1999, a representative from the Israeli Occupation Authority (Government Property section) with an Israeli military escort, circulated evacuation notices to many Palestinian homes located on Block 88, parcel 17, west of Khan Younis refugee camp, to the east of Neve Degalim settlement. The notices set the deadline of 7 September 1999 for evacuation of the land.

According to eyewitnesses, representatives of the Israeli Occupation Authority, escorted by one of the Israeli soldiers began to put the notices on the doors of the Palestinian homes in that area. They then took many photographs of the homes. Almost 70 families have lived in that area since the beginning of 1999. They then tried to put evacuation notices on other homes but were confronted by the people and prevented from doing so.

According to PCHR information, from the Palestinian military liaison office of the southern area, the Israelis have raised the issue of these homes many times during the Israeli-Palestinian military co-ordination committee meetings. In the last meeting in mid-August the Israelis threatened to destroy these homes if the Palestinians did not. The Israeli justification is that these homes are located in an area under Israeli security control according to the Oslo accords.

This new and dramatic step comes at the same time that Israeli bulldozers have, since Sunday 22 August 1999, begun paving a new settlement road. The new road is near the road connecting Gush Qatif settlements from the east, with Gan Or, Gadid and Bedolah settlements from the west. At this stage almost seven hundred metres have been paved with clay. This is an attempt to confiscate hundreds of dunams of land located between this road and the latter three settlements in order to expand the settlements from the western side.

PCHR expresses its deep concern at the expansion of Israeli settlements in Gaza, which is illegitimate according to international law and UN resolutions. We call upon the international community, especially the High Contracting Parties of the IVth Geneva Convention, to take a stand against these grave breaches of the Convention. And we call on them to take the necessary legal and practical steps to protect Palestinian civilians and their properties.

Attached: a sample of the notices posted by the Israeli Occupation Authority (Hebrew/Arabic).

For More Information Contact:

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights

Tel/Fax: 972 7 2823725 / 2825893

E-mail: [email protected], Web Page: www.pchrgaza.org