Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Continue
Systematic Attacks against Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory (OPT)

 

 

· Israeli settlers killed a Palestinian civilian in near Nablus.

 

· 16 Palestinian civilians, including four children, and a
Scottish human rights defender, were wounded by the IOF gunfire.

 

· Nine of the wounded were wounded during peaceful
demonstrations against the construction of the Annexation Wall.

 

· IOF conducted 38 incursions into Palestinian communities in
the West Bank.

 

· IOF arrested 59 Palestinian civilians, including 13 children
and a woman.

 

· IOF violently assaulted a number of Palestinian civilians
during house raids.

 

· IOF arrested 2 Palestinian civilians near the border between
the Gaza Strip and Israel.

 

· IOF have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT and
have isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world.

 

· IOF imposed a comprehensive closure on the OPT for the
Jewish Kipurim festival.

 

· IOF troops positioned at various checkpoints in the West Bank
arrested 2 Palestinian civilians.

 

· IOF held a number of journalists near a settlement in the
West Bank.

 

· IOF have continued settlement activities in the West Bank
and Israeli settlers have continued to attacks Palestinian civilians and
property.

 

· Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian civilians and property.

 

· Four Palestinian civilians and two human rights defenders
were injured.

 

· Israeli settlers deliberately set fire to dozens of olive
trees.

 

 

 

 

The Intifada Enters Its Ninth Year

 

This report on Israeli human rights violations in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory (OPT) coincides with the 8^th anniversary of
the al-Aqsa Intifada, which erupted following the former Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon’s provocative visit to the al-Aqsa Mosque (the Holy
Sanctuary) in occupied Jerusalem.  Over the last 8 years, the Israeli
Occupation Forces (IOF) have perpetrated grave breaches of international law,
including war crimes, against Palestinian civilians, in a manner unprecedented
since 1967. The international community has remained silent and the High
Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 have failed to meet
their obligations to ensure respect for the Convention in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory (OPT) and provide protection for Palestinian
civilians.  The international silence has served to encourage the Israeli
government and its occupation forces to perpetrate more war crimes with
impunity against Palestinian civilians. 

 

Justice is absolutely absent in the Israeli
judiciary, especially regarding the Israeli military, regarding cases related
to Palestinians in the OPT. The Palestinian centre for Human Rights (PCHR) has
monitored human rights violations in the OPT since 1995, and has concluded that
the Israeli judiciary is used to in order to provide legal cover for IOF to
commit war crimes against Palestinian civilians.

 

In light of these facts, PCHR, in cooperation with a
number of international legal and human rights organizations, has resorted to
international legal means in order to prosecute Israeli war criminals, and
those suspected of having committed war crimes. In this context, over the past three
years, PCHR, in cooperation with human rights organizations, has sought to
prosecute Israeli war criminals before international courts in order to achieve
justice for victims of crimes committed by IOF. Cases have been filed against
Israeli war criminals in Switzerland, USA, UK, Netherlands, New Zealand and
Spain. One of the most recent cases was presented in Madrid against 6 Israeli
officials who committed war crimes against Palestinian civilians, and the
supreme judicial body in Spain accepted the case and declared that it will give
it full consideration.  

 

One of the cases pursued by PCHR was issued before
the British judiciary against retired Major General Doron Almog, who served as GOC
Southern Commander of the Israeli military from 8 December 2000 to 7 July 2003.
Almog was forced to avoid arrest by British police officers under an arrest
warrant issued by Chief London Magistrate Timothy Workman. In the most recent case,
an application has been submitted by a torture victim to the Dutch authorities
to arrest Ami Ayalon,
who served as the Director of Shin Bet (the Israeli General Security Services –
GSS) after the Dutch prosecution authorities failed to arrest him while he was
visiting the Netherlands in May 2008.

 

Statistics of the
al-Aqsa Intifada (29 September 2000 – 29 September 2008)

 

§ 3,731 Palestinian
civilians have been killed by IOF in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

§ 1,114 Palestinians
were killed by IOF in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in armed clashes.

§ A total of 4,845
Palestinians have been killed by IOF in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (this
number does not include deaths at military checkpoints, deaths of patients as a
result of the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip, and deaths resulting from
bombings inside Israel). 

 

 

 

 

 

Some Categories of Palestinian
Civilians Killed by IOF in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip

 

 

Palestinians Extra-Judicially
Executed by IOF

 

 

§ At least 25,000 Palestinians have been wounded by IOF in the
OPT, including 12,261 in the Gaza Strip.

 

Houses Demolished in the Gaza Strip
by IOF

 

 

§ IOF have razed at least 40,485 donumms[1] of
land in the Gaza Strip, and have confiscated thousands of donumms in the West
Bank for settlement activities and the construction of the Annexation Wall.

 

 

Houses Demolished by IOF in the West
Bank from 2001 to 2007 (Statistics from the Applied Research Institute –
Jerusalem)

 

 

 

Summary

 

Israeli violations of
international law and humanitarian law continued in the OPT during the reporting
period (25 September – 8 October 2008):

 

Shooting: During the reporting period, Israeli
settlers killed a Palestinian civilian, and IOF wounded 16 civilians, including
four children. They also wounded a Scottish human rights defender.

 

On Saturday evening, 27
September, Israeli settlers shot dead a Palestinian civilian from ‘Aqraba
village, southeast of Nablus, with at least 20 gunshots to the neck, the chest
and the legs. His body was found almost one kilometer from “Jetit” settlement,
an area which is prohibited for Palestinians. Apparently, Israeli settlers
kidnapped the victim and took him to the area.

 

During the reporting
period, IOF wounded 15 Palestinian civilians and a human rights defender.

 

On 27 September, a
Palestinian child was wounded when IOF troops fired at Palestinian civilians who
got out of their houses in Kufor al-Dik village, west of Salfit, in order to stop dozens of Israeli settlers
who stormed the village.

 

On 4 October, five
Palestinian civilians were wounded when IOF troops fired at Palestinian
civilians who demonstrated in Kufor al-Dik village, west of Salfit.

 

On 7 October, a
Palestinian civilian was wounded in al-Far’a refugee camp, south of Tubas, when
an IOF undercover unit stormed his house and fired at him. According to
eyewitnesses, IOF troops stormed the house by mistake as the attack targeted
the victim’s neighbor.   

 

During the reporting
period, eight Palestinian civilians, including 2 children, and a Scottish human
rights defender, were wounded when IOF used force against peaceful demonstrations
organized in protest at the construction of the Annexation Wall in N’elin and
Bal’ein villages, west of Ramallah.

 

In the Gaza Strip, a
Palestinian fisherman was wounded by a heavy-caliber gunshot when IOF naval
troops opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats opposite to the seashore of the
southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah.

 

Incursions: During the reporting period, IOF
conducted at least 38 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the
West Bank. During these incursions, IOF arrested 59 Palestinian civilians,
including 13 children and a woman. The number of Palestinian civilians arrested
by IOF in the West Bank since the beginning of this year stands at 2,033. During
house raids, IOF troops violently assaulted a number of Palestinian civilians,
and a number of Palestinian families stated they subsequently lost jewelry and
money.

 

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. On Wednesday
evening, 8 October 2008, IOF imposed a comprehensive closure on the OPT for the
Jewish Kipurim Festival.

 

 

 

 

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.

 

· The Egypt-brokered ‘Tahdiya’
or truce between Palestinian resistance groups and Israel began on 19 June;
however, there have been no major changes regarding the movements of civilians
and goods through the six Gaza Strip border crossings.

 

· Rafah International Crossing Point, the only border crossing
from the Gaza Strip to the outside world via a country other than Israel,
remains closed.

 

· Health services continue to be severely affected by the
siege, with healthcare facilities also registering a 25% drop in clients due to
continuing chronic fuel shortages. Critically ill patients are still being
denied permits to access vital health services in the West Bank, Israel and
abroad. .

 

· Water facilities, including access to clean drinking water,
and the treatment of raw sewage continue to be severely disrupted by fuel
shortages. 50-60 million liters of untreated and partially treated sewage are
being dumped into the Gaza Strip Mediterranean Sea daily, posing a public
health risk.

 

· Hundreds of Gazan students are currently unable to resume
their university studies abroad as they cannot exit the Gaza Strip. In
addition, up to 1,200 school leavers are in the process of applying to study at
foreign universities, and are dependent on being issued exit permits by the
IOF.

 

· There are at least 900 Palestinian prisoners incarcerated in
jails in Israel who have been denied all visitation rights since 6 June 2007.

 

· Continuing chronic shortages of construction materials,
including cement, aggregate and iron, have led to the collapse of the Gaza
construction industry. Thousands of construction workers have been laid off,
and vital infrastructure projects have been forcibly suspended.  

 

· IOF have repeatedly closed border crossings of the Gaza
Strip claiming that home-made rockets have been launched at Israeli towns.

 

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 kilometres 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 troops positioned at various
checkpoints arrested 2 Palestinian civilians.

 

Settlement Activities: IOF have continued settlement
activities and Israeli settlers living in the OPT have, in violation of
international humanitarian law, continued to attack Palestinian civilians and
property. In addition to killing a Palestinian civilian (see above), during the
reporting period, Israeli settlers launched seven attacks against Palestinian
civilians and property in the West Bank, especially in Hebron. Four Palestinian
civilians, including a woman, and two Israeli peace activists were injured.
Israeli settlers also deliberately set fire to dozens of olive trees.

 

 

Israeli Violations Documented during
the Reporting Period (25 September – 8 October 2008)

The full report is available PDF format.