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Press Release
What is coming after the deployment of F-16 Fighter?!
Ref: 27/2001
Date: May 19/2001
On one of the bloodiest days in the Occupied Palestinian Territories since the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Intifada, and in an unprecedented escalation in the use of excessive forces, on Friday, May 18, 2001, the Israeli occupation forces used F-16 Fighters for the first time to shell Palestinian targets. A number of Palestinian security posts and buildings inside Palestinian cities and villages were shelled by F-16 Fighters and Apatche combat helicopters. The most brutal shelling targeted Nablus. F-16 Fighters shelled a post of the Palestinian civil police and completely destroyed it, killing 11 policemen (see photos). In Ramallah, air raids targeted a post of the Palestinian President’s Guard (Force 17), killing one of its members. Air raids also targeted the cities of Tulkarm, Gaza and Beit Lahia. A number of Palestinian security posts in these cities were destroyed. Dozens of Palestinians, including some civilians living near the targeted posts or bystanders, were also injured.
War crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces since the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Intifada at the end of last September peaked as these forces used F-16 Fighters to shell Palestinian cities. Escalation in the use of excessive force by the Israeli occupation forces started with willful shooting at demonstrations organized by Palestinian civilians aiming at causing a maximum number of casualties among those civilians. Very soon, the Israeli occupation forces resorted in early stages of the incidents to the use of combat helicopters against Palestinian demonstrators. A number of Palestinian civilians were killed with rockets and heavy and medium caliber bullets fired by combat helicopters. These actions were accompanied with indiscriminate shelling of Palestinian areas with artillery shells and heavy and medium caliber bullets. Many Palestinian civilians were victims of such shelling, and hundreds of houses were destroyed with their residents became homeless.
Then, the Israeli occupation forces raised the level of escalation in the use of excessive force, when they used combat helicopters to shell Palestinian cities and villages. They also deployed launchers of surface-to-surface missiles along the border of the Gaza Strip. Surface-to-surface missiles hit Palestinian targets.
During all these stages of escalation, the Israeli occupation forces committed some officially declared crimes of political assassination that targeted a number of Palestinian activists. In addition to those activists, a number of Palestinian civilians who were not targeted were killed.
In its aggression against the Palestinian people, the Israeli occupation forces razed thousands of donums of Palestinian agricultural land and demolished hundreds of greenhouses and agricultural facilities. They also imposed a total siege on the Occupied Palestinian Territories and isolated Palestinian cities from one another. Furthermore, they adopted a policy of economic and social suffocation against the Palestinian people.
War crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, which increased upon the coming of war criminal Ariel Sharon into power in Israel in last February and peaked with the employment of F-16 Fighters, necessitate an immediate international intervention to put an end to such crimes. PCHR sees that these crimes would not have taken place if the international community had taken a crucial position towards Israel. The conspiracy of silence by the international community, especially the USA and Europe, encourages Israel to commit more crimes against the Palestinian people. What is the price that the Palestinian people have to pay in order to push the international community to intervene? does the world wait for large-scaled massacres in order to take a positive position towards providing protection for the Palestinian people, or are developments in the Occupied Palestinian Territories during the past eight months, accompanied with systematic escalation in the use of excessive force by the Israeli occupation forces, not enough for the international convention to consider immediate intervention to stop massacres and crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces, which will inevitably continue in light of the continued international conspiracy of silence?
PCHR calls for:
1) An immediate international protection for the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territories must be provided.
2) The ICRC should enhance its presence, expand its activities and intensify its field observation throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
3) The High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 should reconvene in order to take effective measures to protect Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
4) The European Union should activate Article 2 of the Euro-Israeli Association Agreement, which provides that Israel must respect human rights.
5) The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights should visit the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the Resolution adopted by the UN High Commission on Human Rights in April 2001 must be implemented.