IOF offensive on the Gaza
Strip is still ongoing
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Have
Continued Their War on the Gaza for the 2nd Consecutive Week under
International Silence
IOF Offensive on the Gaza Strip
· 698
Palestinians have been killed.
· The
victims include 433 civilians and 165 civil police officers.
· The
civilian victims include 158 children and 40 women.
· Dr.
Nizar Rayan, a senior leader of Hamas, was assassinated together with his 4
wives and 11 of his children.
· IOF
bombarded a mosque in the northern Gaza Strip, killing 15 Palestinian civilians,
including 4 children, and wounding dozens of others.
· IOF
attacked medical and civil defense crews, killing 6 medical personnel.
· IOF
bombarded 2 UNRWA schools, 2 public ones and a private one.
· 2354
Palestinians, mostly civilians, including 622 children and 252 women, have been
wounded.
· 1597
houses have been destroyed and hundreds of houses and flats have been damaged.
· 13
mosques have been destroyed.
· 37
workshops and industrial facilities have been destroyed.
· 67
security sites and training sites of resistance groups have been destroyed.
· 34
buildings of public buildings have been destroyed, including those of
ministries, governorates, municipalities, the Palestinian Legislative Council,
and educational institutions.
· A
state of compulsory mass displacement of civilians has prevailed in border
areas as a result of continuous air strikes.
· Gaza
City and the northern Gaza Strip have been cut off from other areas in the Gaza
Strip.
· Access
to food and medicines is extremely difficult, and electricity is completely cut
off in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip.
Daily Violations of Human Rights
· A
Palestinian civilian was killed by IOF in Qalqilya.
· 25
Palestinian civilians, including 12 children, and a human rights defender, were
wounded by IOF in the West Bank.
· IOF
conducted 17 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank.
· IOF
arrested 42 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, including 4 children, a
member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, a former minister and 2 mayors.
· 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 6
Palestinian civilians, including 2 women.
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 (1 – 7
January 2009):
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.
For the 2nd consecutive day, Israeli
Occupation Forces (IOF) have continue its open offensive on the Gaza Strip.
Using their most powerful destructive arsenal, IOF have continued to target
civilian facilities, mosques, schools and houses, with disregard to the lives
of the Palestinian civilians. During the reporting, the most brutal crime
committed by IOF in the Gaza Strip was the extra-judicial execution of Dr.
Nizar Rayan, a senior leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas),
together with his 4 wives and 11 of his children. This heinous crime reminds of
the extra-judicial execution of Sheikh Salah Shehada at al-Daraj Neighborhood
in Gaza City on 23 July 2002, that resulted in the killing of Shehada, his
wife, his child and more than 15 civilians, mostly children. In both crimes,
IOF were aware of the presence of large numbers of civilians in the targeted
populated houses. Such attacks constitute war crimes, whose perpetrators and
their military and political leaders must be prosecuted. Another horrible crime
was the bombardment of an UNRWA school in Jabalya refugee camp, as a result of
which 37 Palestinian civilians were killed and 40 others were wounded. The
victims include 10 members of one same family, including 5 children and a
woman. Another horrible crime was also the bombardment of a mosque in the
northern Gaza Strip, as a result of which 15 Palestinian civilians, including 4
children, were killed and 27 others were wounded. several houses were also
bombarded and families were trapped under the debris.
According to
PCHR’s documentation, IOF have launched at least hundreds of air and sea
strikes against the Gaza Strip. These strikes have targeted, security and
training sites, workshops, public and private institutions, mosques, educational
institutions and many other civilian facilities..
According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at least 90% of the Palestinian
who have been killed during the reporting period are civilians, many of whom
are children. IOF have employed their full-fledged arsenal to attack
Palestinian populated areas.
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:
698
Palestinians, including 433 civilians, have been killed throughout the Gaza
Strip. The victims include 158 children and 40 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: 222 Palestinians, including 198 civilians, have been
killed. The victims include 37 children and 14 women. Additionally, 1,096
Palestinians, including 380 children and at least 1,000 women, have been
wounded.
Gaza
City: 288
Palestinians, including 148 civilians, have been killed. The victims include 56
children and 23 women. Additionally, 550 Palestinians, including 56 children
and 23 women, have been wounded.
Central
Gaza Strip: 116
Palestinians, including 38 civilians, have been killed. The victims
include children and an old man.
Additionally, 236 Palestinians, including 41 children and 21 women, have been
wounded.
Khan
Yunis: 42 Palestinians,
including 26 civilians, have been killed. The victims include 9 children.
Additionally, 150 Palestinians, including 37 children and 17 women, have been
wounded.
Rafah: 30 Palestinians, including 23 civilians, have been killed. The victims
include 12 children and a woman. Additionally, 312 Palestinians, mostly
civilians, including 61
children and 58 women, have been
wounded.
Other
Daily Violations of Human Rights
Shooting: During the reporting period, IOF killed a Palestinian
civilian and wounded 26 others, including 10 children, and an Israeli human
rights defender in the West Bank.
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, a Palestinian civilian was killed and 13 others,
including 6 children, were wounded.
During the reporting period, 12 Palestinian civilians,
including 6 children, and an Israeli human rights defender, were wounded when
IOF used force against peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to the
construction of the Annexation Wall west of Ramallah.
Incursions: During
the reporting period, IOF conducted at least 17 military incursions into
Palestinian communities in the West Bank. IOF arrested 42 Palestinian civilians,
including 4 children, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, a former
minister and 2 mayors.
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 6 Palestinian civilians, including 2 women, at
various checkpoints in the West Bank.
Israeli
Violations Documented during the Reporting Period (1 – 7 January 2009):
