In the Bloodiest Week since the Beginning of the Israeli
Occupation, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Launch a Wide Scale Offensive on
the Gaza Strip Killing and Wounding Hundreds of Palestinians
IOF Offensive on the Gaza Strip
· At least 300 air and sea raids have been
launched by IOF on the Gaza Strip.
· 334 Palestinians have been killed.
· The victims include 121 civilians and 165 civil
police officers.
· The civilian victims include 33 children and 11
women.
· The children include 5 sisters and 3 brothers
who were killed while sleeping at home, and 2 sisters and their brothers who
were near their houses.
· The victims include: 3 brothers; 2 physicians; a
paramedic; a lawyer; a preacher; a man and his two children; 9 students of an
UNRWA vocational training center; and an UNRWA school guard.
· 996 Palestinians, including 218 children and 113
women, have been wounded (this is only the number of the wounded who have been
listed on the records of hospitals).
· 37 houses have been destroyed and hundreds of
houses and flats have been damaged.
· 7 mosques have been destroyed.
· 20 smith workshops have been destroyed.
· 4 money exchange shops and a clinic have been
destroyed.
· 3 fishing harbors have been destroyed.
· 67 security sites and training sites of
resistance groups have been destroyed.
· 25 buildings of public buildings have been
destroyed, including those of ministries, governorates, municipalities, the
Palestinian Legislative Council, and 3 educational institutions.
· A state of compulsory mass displacement of
civilians has prevailed in border areas as a result of continuous air strikes.
Daily Violations of Human Rights
· 4
Palestinians, including a child, were killed by IOF in the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip.
· A
child died from a previous wound in Rafah.
· 25
Palestinian civilians, including 6 children and a journalist, were wounded by
IOF in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
· 21
of these civilians were wounded when IOF used force to disperse demonstrations
organized in protest to the IOF offensive on the Gaza Strip.
· IOF
conducted 40 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank.
· IOF
arrested 39 Palestinian civilians, including 9 children, in the West Bank.
· IOF
have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT.
· The
Gaza Strip is completely isolated from the outside world.
· IOF
troops positioned at various checkpoints in the West Bank arrested 3
Palestinian civilians.
· IOF
have continued to take measures aiming at the Judaization of Jerusalem.
· A
house was demolished in Beit Hanina village near Jerusalem.
Summary
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have continued to wage the
bloodiest and most brutal war against the Gaza Strip since its occupation in
1967, under an international and Arab conspiracy of silence. IOF have launched
a series of surprising air strikes against security and governmental many
civilian facilities, including workshops, houses, medical warehouses and even
mosques in a grave precedent. IOF warplanes have so far continued to fly over
the Gaza Strip terrifying the Palestinian civilian population. Many Palestinian
families have received phone calls from the Israeli intelligence, which ordered
them to vacate their houses as they would be bombarded. Such phone calls confused
Palestinian civilians. PCHR believes that this declared war target Palestinian
civilians and their property, and statements of Israeli political and military
officials herald a humanitarian catastrophe and a persistent war at all levels.
The international community is required more than ever before to immediately
act to stop this gravest offensive since the Gaza Strip was first occupied by
IOF. According to what PCHR field workers have been able to document so far,
the number of civilian victims in the first ten minutes of the offensive on the
Gaza Strip is the highest since the beginning of this offensive. PCHR
reiterates its condemnation in the strongest terms for this bloody war, and
calls upon the international community, particularly the Fourth Geneva
Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, and
international organizations to immediately act to stop such grave and
unprecedented deterioration in the human rights situation and humanitarian
conditions in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law
escalated in the OPT during the reporting period (24 – 31 December 2008):
IOF Offensive on the Gaza Strip
IOF have continued their offensive on the Gaza Strip.
They have increasingly bombarded civilian facilities, mosques and houses,
without paying attention to the lives and safety of Palestinian civilians.
Israel claims that such civilian facilities, mosques and houses were related to
Hamas, but investigations conducted by PCHR indicate that IOF have used
excessive lethal force and that the majority of the facilities that have been
targeted are public and private property located in densely populated areas,
making Palestinian civilians pay a heavy price from their lives and property.
All of the victims of recent attacks are civilians, and dozens of houses have
been heavily damaged. Due to the current siege imposed on the Gaza Strip, the
reconstruction or reparation of the houses that have been destroyed or damaged
is extremely difficult. IOF warplanes have destroyed most buildings of the
Palestinian government in the Gaza Strip, including those of ministries and
security services. The first wave of air strike was surprising and left many
deaths and casualties.
According to PCHR’s documentation, IOF have launched at
least 300 air and sea strikes against the Gaza Strip. These strikes have
targeted 37 houses; 67 security and training sites; 20 workshops; 25 public and
private institutions; 7 mosques; and 3 educational institutions. The public
institutions that have been bombarded are: the compound of ministries, the
building of the Palestinian Legislative Council, the building of the cabinet in
Gaza City; the buildings of the agricultural control department and the
Municipality of Bani Suhaila in Khan Yunis; the buildings of Rafah Municipality
and Governorate. The air strikes have targeted also 4 money exchange shops, a
clinic, 3 fishing harbors, the Islamic University and 2 schools.
Thousands of civilians, mainly those who reside in areas
close to the Palestinian- Egyptian border, have fled from their houses in the
wake of several raids launched by IOF on the southern Gaza Strip. A state of
compulsory mass displacement of civilians has prevailed in the area. The United
Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) was forced to
open its schools to shelter the civilians and provide their basic needs, amidst
a climate of fear and bitter cold. In addition, thousands of Palestinian
civilians throughout the Gaza Strip have been forced to flee of their homes and
look for safe shelters because their homes were completely or partially
destroyed by IOF air strikes, amidst the lack of minimum components of human
life.
According to what PCHR field workers have been able to
document the IOF offensive has resulted in the following deaths and
casualties:
334 Palestinians, including 121 civilians, have been killed
throughout the Gaza Strip. The victims include 33 children and 11 women.
Additionally, 996 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including 218 children and
113 women, have been wounded. The number of civilian deaths does not include at
least 165 civil police officers who were killed on the first day of the IOF
offensive, when they were not engaged in any hostilities. The victims are
distributed as follows:
Northern Gaza Strip: 46 Palestinians,
including 27 civilians, have been killed. The victims include 11 children and 3
women. The victims include also 5 sisters and another 2 sisters and their
brother. Additionally, 322 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been
wounded.
Gaza City: 153 Palestinians,
including 45 civilians, have been killed. The victims include 10 children and 7
women. The victims also 9 students of an UNRWA vocational training center, 3
brothers, a physician, a paramedic and a man and his two children.
Additionally, 250 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been wounded.
Central Gaza Strip: 88 Palestinians,
including 20 civilians, have been killed. The victims include 4 children and an
old man. Additionally, 134 Palestinians, including 22 children and 11 women,
have been wounded.
Khan Yunis: 28 Palestinians,
including 17 civilians, have been killed. The victims include 3 children and 2
brothers. Additionally, 125 Palestinians, including 22 children and 9 women,
have been wounded.
Rafah: 18 Palestinians, including 13
civilians, have been killed. The victims include 5 children and a woman. The
victims include 3 brothers, a preacher, a physician, a nurse and a lawyer.
Additionally, 165 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including 45 children and 23
women, have been wounded. The wounded include 48 civilians, including 15
children and 15 women, who were wounded in one air strike against al-Shaboura
refugee camp in Rafah.
Other Daily Violations of Human Rights
Shooting: During the reporting period, IOF killed 3
Palestinian civilians, including a child, in the West Bank and an activist of
the Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip. A Palestinian child also died
from a previous wound in the Gaza Strip. Additionally, IOF wounded 25
Palestinians, mostly civilians, including 4 children and a journalist, in the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
In the West Bank, IOF used excessive force against peaceful
demonstrations organized in protest to the IOF offensive on the Gaza Strip. As
a result, 3 Palestinian civilians were killed and 21 others were wounded.
During the reporting period, 2 Palestinian civilians were
wounded when IOF used force against peaceful demonstrations organized in
protest to the construction of the Annexation Wall west of Ramallah.
In the Gaza Strip, on 24 December 2008, IOF helicopter
gunships fired 3 missiles at a number of activists of the ‘Izziddin al-Qassam
Brigades of Hamas, who were firing mortars at IOF military posts and Israeli
territory from al-Shouka village, southeast of Rafah. An activist was killed
and 2 others were wounded.
On 27 December 2008, a Palestinian child from Rafah died
from a previous wound he had sustained on 2 December 2008.
Incursions: During the reporting period, IOF conducted at
least 40 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. IOF
arrested 39 Palestinian civilians, including 9 children. Thus, the number of
Palestinian civilians arrested by IOF in the West Bank since the beginning of
2008 has mounted to 2,368.
Restrictions on Movement: IOF have continued to impose a
tightened siege on the OPT and imposed severe restrictions on the movement of
Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including occupied
East Jerusalem.
Gaza Strip
IOF have continued to close all border crossings to the Gaza
Strip for more than two years. The IOF siege of Gaza, which has steadily
tightened since June 2007, has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and
economic situation in the Gaza Strip.
· 1.5
million people are being denied their basic rights, including freedom of
movement, and their rights to appropriate living conditions, work, health and
education.
Under the IOF offensive on the Gaza Strip, the Gaza civilian
population are suffering serious deterioration in the humanitarian situation.
The resulting acute humanitarian crisis is increasingly and seriously impacting
living conditions of Palestinian civilians, which have been already
deteriorating due to the tightened siege imposed by IOF on the Gaza Strip from
the land, air and sea for more than 18 months. Due to this siege, Palestinian
civilians have been denied their economic, social, cultural, civil and
political rights.
The deterioration taking place in health conditions in the
Gaza Strip exacerbated due to the high number of the dead and the wounded who
fell due to IOF raids. This exacerbating deterioration comes along with the
tightened total siege that has been imposed on the Gaza Strip, including the
closure of Gaza border crossings for more than 18 months. The siege has
impacted all medical institutions in the Gaza Strip, including hospitals and
primary healthcare centers that have become unable to meet the needs of the
civilian population and, as a result, have been unable to ensure physical and
mental healthcare. This situation has impacted the capacity of Gaza medical
institutions to provide medical services to the Gaza civilian population. The
state of fear and horror caused by IOF barbarian raids affected the standard of
civilians’ enjoyment of their right to health, including inability to access
medical institutions due the gravity of the security conditions, or due to
medical institutions’ incapacity to respond to the needs of hundreds of wounded
persons and thousands of patients. Medical sources in the MOH in Gaza and at
Shifa Hospital, the main treatment provider in the Gaza strip, stated the
following:
· Gaza
hospitals suffer severe shortage in beds that are required to receive hundreds
of victims of IOF raids. There are approximately 1,200 beds in all Gaza
hospitals. At Shifa Hospital, there are 530 beds, including 135 beds used for
primary healthcare provision. Medical crews at Gaza hospitals and clinics have
been unable to provide beds to treat and hospitalize the wounded persons, due
to the high numbers of the wounded who arrived at hospitals and clinics in the
wake of IOF air raids. Approximately 319 dead persons and more than 1,000
wounded persons have been admitted into Gaza hospitals within the past four
days. The wounded who have been admitted into hospitals are being treated and
hospitalized under severe shortages in medicines and medical supplies. Medical
crews are also bearing utmost suffering due to continued electricity cutoffs.
· The
different units at Shifa Hospital and other hospitals in the Gaza Strip are
still suffering incapacity to provide treatment and medical services to
approximately 390 persons who have been wounded in IOF ongoing military
operation, due to unavailability of material capacities and medical apparatuses
that are required for their treatment. These 390 wounded persons need to be
urgently and promptly referred to treatment abroad for their serious injuries.
The MOH has managed to refer approximately 60 of them to Egyptian hospitals
during the past two days.
· The
continued air striking has created a state of confusion, fear and horror
amongst medical crews at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The gravity of the
security conditions at the Hospital exacerbated following the heavy damages
that had been caused to the Hospital when IOF warplanes bombarded al-Burno
Mosque that is adjacent to the Hospital. Due to bombardment of the mosque, the
windows and doors of the burns and surgery unit and the administration offices
were crashed. Also the water network at the surgery unit in building no. 8 was
destroyed. This created extreme difficulty that impeded the work of the medical
crews at the Hospital.
· Eng.
Bassam al-Hamarin, director of Engineering and Maintenance Department in the
MOH, stated that the continued electric cutoffs and the shortage of spare parts
required for the maintenance of many medical apparatuses and tools have
impacted the efficiency and work of these apparatuses and tools. He added that
this resulted in:
– Disruption
and poor efficiency of 17 central oxygen stations in Gaza hospitals, including
3 stations at Shifa Hospital that provide oxygen to internal diseases unit,
chest diseases unit and the artificial kidney unit.
– The
pumps of water wells at Shifa Hospital were disrupted after sustaining heavy
damages.
– The
members of the medical crews at Gaza hospitals are suffering shortages in
wireless communication devices. This coincides with defectiveness in the
Palestinian mobile communication network (Jawwal), increasing the gravity that
faced the work of the Palestinian ambulances crews.
– Many
medicines, vaccinations and foods at Gaza hospitals are subject to decay due to
continued electric cutoffs while the power generated by power generators is not
sufficient to face the power shortage.
– Shifa
Hospital is suffering the continued disruption of its only cardiac
catheterization apparatus. The Hospital is also suffering the disruption of the
sterilization apparatuses and milk pasteurization and decontamination
apparatuses that are necessary for immature neonates.
– All
hospitals in the Gaza strip are suffering shortages in spare parts required for
power generators, on which Gaza hospitals mainly depend in view of continued
electric cutoffs. The MOH Engineering and Maintenance Department lacks many
spare parts required for the maintenance of power generators, including air
filters, oil filter and filters required to separate kerosene and oil.
– The
MOH is suffering a shortage of spare parts required for its vehicles and
ambulances. Due to the emergency situation in the Gaza Strip, 50% of the MOH
ambulances are exceptionally operating although they lack maintenance.
· Central
medical laboratories at Shifa Hospital are suffering a severe shortage in
medical apparatuses, including 30 apparatuses used in blood analysis. This
shortage of blood analysis apparatuses has impeded the blood transformation for
the wounded. The lives of the wounded persons would be threatened in case of
blood transformation without making the necessary tests.
· Gaza
hospitals are suffering a shortage in medical disposables in surgery rooms,
including surgical operation torches, surgical operations tables, laboratorial
apparatuses, ray apparatuses and extensive care apparatuses.
· Gaza
hospitals and healthcare centers are still suffering a shortage in medicines.
105 items of main medical tools and 255 of medical disposables have run out or
are in short quantities. These medical supplies include the majority of
medicines required for cancer patients and medicines required for sick children
who are suffering from cystic fibrosis, and the health conditions of these
children are seriously threatened .
· More than
half a million of Palestinian students at primary, preparatory and secondary
schools have been denied access to their schools. On the first day of IOF
indiscriminate air raids, more than 5,000 students were subject to trauma or
were injured, while attending their classes or while on their way to afternoon
schools. These children are still denied access to necessary physical treatment
services, due to the severe shortage in that service.
· Dr. Samir
Qouta, a psychology professor at the Islamic University in Gaza City, says that
there has been an increasing number of parents who visit mental health centers
in the Gaza Strip to inquire how to treat the symptoms of the psychological
deterioration in their children, that resulted from the terrible explosions
that trembled the entire Gaza Strip. Dr. Qouta says that the symptoms of the
psychological disorders caused by fear and horror of IOF incessant bombardments
include bedwetting, nail-biting, fear of night, frightening nightmares,
physical pains of unknown causes, crying and introversion. Dr. Qouta expects
that the symptoms of the psychological deterioration in the Palestinian
children would develop to include a form of violence in dealing with their
peers, inability to concentrate and deterioration of educational levels. He
also indicated that Palestinian children, who are subject to traumatic
experience caused by IOF bombardments, become less obedient to their parents
and lose the ability to deal openly with them. Dr. Qouta expects that the
psychological deterioration in the Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip would
aggravate due to IOF ongoing raids.
West Bank
IOF have continued to impose severe restrictions on the
movement of Palestinian civilians throughout the West Bank, including occupied
East Jerusalem. Thousands of Palestinian civilians from the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip continue to be denied access to Jerusalem.
· IOF
have established checkpoints in and around Jerusalem, severely restricting
Palestinian access to the city. Civilians are frequently prevented from praying
at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
· There
are approximately permanent 630 roadblocks, manned and unmanned checkpoints
across the West Bank. In addition, there are some 60-80 ‘flying’ or temporary
checkpoints erected across the West Bank by IOF every week.
· When
complete, the illegal Annexation Wall will stretch for 724 kilometers around
the West Bank, further isolating the entire population. 350 kilometers of the
Wall has already been constructed. Approximately 99% of the Wall has been
constructed inside the West Bank itself, further confiscating Palestinian land.
· At
least 65% of the main roads that leads to 18 Palestinian communities in the
West Bank are closed or fully controlled by IOF (47 out of 72 roads).
· There
are around 500 kilometers of restricted roads across the West Bank. In
addition, approximately one third of the West Bank, including occupied East
Jerusalem, is inaccessible to Palestinians without a permit issued by the IOF. These
permits are extremely difficult to obtain.
· IOF
continue to harass, and assault demonstrators who hold peaceful protests
against the construction of the Annexation Wall.
· Palestinian
civilians continue to be harassed by IOF in Jerusalem, and across the West
Bank, including being regularly stopped and searched in the streets by IOF.
· During
the reporting period, IOF arrested 3 Palestinian civilians at various
checkpoints in the West Bank.
Judaization of Jerusalem: IOF have escalated arbitrary
measures against Palestinian civilians in East Jerusalem to force them to leave
the city. During the reporting period, IOF demolished a house in Beit Hanina
village near East Jerusalem.
Israeli Violations Documented during the Reporting Period (24
– 31 December 2008)
The full report is available PDF format.
