Web pages about "Israel ~ Occupied Territories"

Army’s so-called inquiry into cameraman's killing in Gaza a scandal

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:31:53 +0100

Amnesty International has described as scandalous the Israeli army's account of firing a tank shell that killed Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana as a "sound" decision. The army reached the conclusion as part of a so-called investigation into the killing of the journalist and three other unarmed civilians, including 2 children, on 16 April 2008.

The army’s so-called investigation lacked any semblance of impartiality and Amnesty International called for an independent and impartial investigation into the killing. The organization said that the army's conclusion can only reinforce the culture of impunity that has led to so many reckless and disproportionate killings of children and other unarmed civilians by Israeli forces in Gaza.

Fadel Shana worked for Reuters press agency and was in a car clearly marked as Press. He and his colleague left the car, wearing visible Press flak-jackets and he was killed by an Israeli tank he was filming. The tank fired a shell at Shana, which also hit the civilians, including children, and injured his colleague and others around him.

Shana and two children, Ahmad Farajallah and Ghassan Khaled Abu ‘Ataiwi, were killed by flechettes. Amnesty International has said that that flechette shells, which are notoriously imprecise and filled with up to 5,000 5cm-long steel darts or flechettes that spread over an area as big as a football pitch and are lethal, should never be used in or around populated areas.

The letter sent to Reuters by the Israeli Military Advocate General says that the tank crew did not spot any markings on the car and thought Fadel Shana was a militant aiming a rocket.

"Given the sophisticated optical systems in the two Israeli tanks less than a mile away, and the fact that the area is open and visibility was very good in full day light, it is extremely difficult to believe that the soldiers would not have seen the clear TV-Press marking on both Fadel Shana’s blue flak-jacket and the Reuter Mitsubishi Truck nearby " said Donatella Rovera of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Programme.

Independent investigations into killings of unarmed civilians by Israeli forces are virtually never carried out. Even in cases where international outcry forces the Military Advocate General’s office to look into the cases, the process is limited and lacks any independence and impartiality. In this case, as in virtually all such cases, witnesses were not interviewed.

No proper investigation was carried out into the cases of the 13 other unarmed civilians, including eight children, killed that day after Palestinians had ambushed and killed three Israeli soldiers.

The failure to investigate and to hold accountable those responsible for unlawful killings denies justice to victims and encourages further abuses. It ultimately also impedes prospects for a peaceful solution to the conflict, as it gives a message to Palestinians that there is no justice for them. .

“The need for a fully independent and impartial investigation into this killing is beyond question.” said Donatella Rovera

Amnesty International has repeatedly condemned and called for an end to rocket and other attacks on Israeli civilians by Palestinian armed groups, and for those who commit such attacks to be brought to justice. However, the organization has pointed out that these attacks by armed groups cannot justify the culture of impunity towards the killing of Palestinian civilians in the Israeli army.

In the first six months of 2008, some 400 Palestinians, including more than 50 children, were killed by Israeli forces. Most were killed in Gaza and at least half of them were unarmed civilians.

In the same period, 25 Israelis, including 17 civilians, were killed in attacks by Palestinian armed groups.

Trapped – collective punishment in Gaza

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:52:48 +0100

"The Israeli siege has turned Gaza into a big prison. We cannot leave, not even for medical care or to study abroad, and most of what we need is not available in Gaza. We are not living really; we are barely surviving and the outlook for the future is bleak." – Fathi, a Gaza resident

The blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip over a year ago has left the entire population of 1.5 million Palestinians trapped with dwindling resources and an economy in ruins. Some 80 per cent of the population now depend on the trickle of international aid that the Israeli army allows in. This humanitarian crisis is man-made and entirely avoidable.

Even patients in dire need of medical treatment not available in Gaza are often prevented from leaving and scores of them have died. Students who have scholarships in universities abroad are likewise trapped in Gaza, denied the opportunity to build a future.

The Israeli authorities argue that the blockade on Gaza is in response to Palestinian attacks, especially the indiscriminate rockets fired from Gaza at the nearby Israeli town of Sderot. These and other Palestinian attacks killed 25 Israelis in the first half of this year; in the same period Israeli forces killed 400 Palestinians.

However, the Israeli blockade does not target the Palestinian armed groups responsible for attacks – it collectively punishes the entire population of Gaza.

In April 2008, Robert Serry, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the UN Secretary General, called on Israel to restore fuel supplies to Gaza and allow the passage of humanitarian assistance and commercial supplies.

"The collective punishment of the population of Gaza, which has been instituted for months now, has failed," he said.

Though a ceasefire between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups has held in Gaza since 19 June 2008, the Israeli blockade remains in place.

Economic collapse and poverty
Israel has banned exports from Gaza altogether and has reduced entry of fuel and goods to a trickle – mostly humanitarian aid, foodstuff and medical supplies. Basic necessities are in short supply or not available at all in Gaza. The shortages have pushed up food prices at a time when people can least afford to pay more. A growing number of Gazans have been pushed into extreme poverty and suffer from malnutrition.

Some 80 per cent of the population now depends on international aid, compared to 10 per cent a decade ago. The restrictions imposed by Israel have resulted in higher operational costs for UN aid agencies and humanitarian organizations. Food assistance costs the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) US$20 per person per day compared to less than US$8 in 2004.

Gaza’s fragile economy, already battered by years of restrictions and destruction, has collapsed. Unable to import raw materials and to export produce and without fuel to operate machinery and electricity generators, some 90 per cent of industry has shut down.

Essential services jeopardized
The fuel shortage has affected every aspect of life in Gaza. Patients’ hospital attendance has dropped because of lack of transport and universities were forced to shut down before the end of the school year as students and teachers could not continue to travel to them. Fuel-powered pumps for wells and water distribution networks are often not working.

Medical facilities in Gaza lack the specialized staff and equipment to treat a range of conditions, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. In addition, hospitals are now under ever greater pressure, as they face shortages of equipment, spare parts and other necessary supplies as a result of the blockade.

With the ceasefire holding, the suffering in Gaza has fallen off the international news agenda. However, Amnesty International members continue to campaign, calling:

on the Israeli authorities to immediately lift the blockade, allow unhindered passage into Gaza of sufficient quantities of fuel, electricity and other necessities; and allow those who want to leave Gaza to do so, notably patients in need of medical treatment not available in Gaza and students enrolled in universities abroad, and also to allow them later to return.
on Palestinian armed groups not to resume rockets and other attacks on Israeli civilians.

Israel: Knesset should reject draft law which would put asylum-seekers at grave risk

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:40:26 +0100

In a Memorandum sent to the Internal Affairs and Environment Committee of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) Amnesty International urged legislators to reject a proposed law that imposes lengthy prison sentences on asylum-seekers and irregular migrants, disregarding their reasons for entering the country, and allowing for their immediate deportation, without regard for their possible ill-treatment or persecution to which they may be subject upon their return. The Committee is meeting on 24 June to discuss the draft “Prevention of Infiltration Law – 2008”.

The proposed law provides for the automatic detention pending deportation within 72 hours of anyone who enters the country at any point other than an authorized border crossing, and individuals who cannot be immediately deported would be sentenced to five years’ imprisonment “without distinction as to their identity or their intention when infiltrating.” Residents and citizens of ten listed states or territories, including refugee-producing countries such as Sudan and Iraq, would face up to seven years of imprisonment. The bill makes no provision for asylum-seekers fleeing from violence or persecution.

Amnesty International recognizes Israel’s right to secure its borders and regulate the entry of foreigners into its territory, but it is concerned about the potential impact of the proposed law on the rights of asylum seekers and other non-nationals. The criminalization of irregular entry, without taking into account the reasons for entry or the risk of removal, effectively bars individuals coming into Israel from seeking asylum. The proposed law would potentially criminalize those who seek protection from persecution.

The detention and removal process set out in the draft law, especially the high level of discretion granted to officers to remove individuals within 72 hours, are inconsistent with Israel’s obligations under international treaties, including the Refugee Convention, to prevent the return of individuals to countries where they may be at risk of serious human rights violations.

The draft law fails to take into account the particularly vulnerable situation of asylum seekers and refugees. Such procedures would effectively deny individuals fleeing persecution access to refugee status determination procedures, and fall far short of Israel’s international legal obligations as a state party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol.

Amnesty International urged the Knesset members to ensure that any immigration or national security provisions fully respect Israel’s international human rights obligations, including ensuring the protection of all individuals within its jurisdiction, regardless of their immigration status, and ensuring that individuals are not returned to states where they would be at risk of serious human rights abuses.

Background
The proposed Prevention of Infiltration Law – 2008 is intended to replace a 1954 law enacted under Israel’s emergency legislation. The draft law was submitted to the Knesset by Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai on behalf of the government and passed its preliminary reading on 19 May 2008. It was then submitted on 3 June 2008 to the Knesset’s Internal Affairs and Environment Committee, to be prepared for second and third readings. Laws are enacted on passing the third reading.

Since 2005, up to 8,000 Eritreans, Sudanese, and other nationals who have entered Israel via the Egyptian border have subsequently sought asylum. Under the proposed law, if it had been in force, all such individuals would have been considered to be “infiltrators” and would have been liable to immediate deportation back to Egypt, irrespective of whether they would be at risk of persecution there.

In August 2007, 48 nationals of African countries, most of them Sudanese, were forcibly returned to Egypt by Israeli forces shortly after they had crossed from Egypt into Israel through the Sinai border. They were detained incommunicado for months in Egypt and some 20 of them were forcibly returned to Sudan, including seven or eight who had refugee status in Egypt. The fate and whereabouts of the 28 others remain unknown. In June 2008 the Egyptian authorities forcibly returned up to 1,000 asylum seekers to Eritrea, despite guidelines issued by the UNHCR opposing the return of rejected Eritrean asylum-seekers on the grounds of the record of serious human rights violations in Eritrea, and further deportation are expected at the time of writing. Those deported were not given access to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Egypt to assess their protection needs. Since January 2008, some 14 nationals of African countries, including potential asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea were reportedly shot dead by Egyptian border forces while attempting to cross from Egypt into Israel via the Sinai border. Those reportedly killed while trying to cross into Israel include two men believed to be from Côte d'Ivoire, a Sudanese man and an Eritrean woman who were shot dead by Egyptian security forces in March 2008, Amnesty International, Two more migrants killed at Egypt/Israel border (News, 28 March 2008) http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/two-more-migrants-killed-egypt-israel-border-20080328 and six African migrants, some of them from Sudan, were shot dead in similar circumstances in February 2008.

Since 2006 an increasing number of Sudanese and other asylum seekers have been detained for long periods after they crossed into Israel from Egypt and those – including children - held at the Ketziot detention centre, in the southern Israeli desert, have often been held in inadequate conditions.

Call for investigation into killing of cameraman and other civilians

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:01:51 +0100

At least 18 Palestinians, including children and other unarmed civilians, were killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. More than 30 others were injured in attacks by Israeli planes and by ground forces using tanks in the Gaza Strip.

Those killed included Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana, who was struck by fire from an Israeli tank. He had travelled to the scene in a car clearly marked "TV-Press". He was killed as he started to film the tank.

Amnesty International has called on the Israeli government to immediately order a full and independent investigation into the killings of Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.

"Yesterday’s strikes, which the Israeli army launched after the killing of three soldiers in combat, appear to have been carried out with disregard for civilian life,” said Amnesty International. "There seems to be a culture of impunity within the Israeli forces which is contributing to routine use of reckless and disproportionate force."

Fadel Shana’s autopsy report and an investigation on the site of Fadel Shana’s death carried out by the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem showed that Fadel Shana had been killed by a flechette fired from a tank shell.

In 2003, the Israeli Supreme Court rejected a petition calling for a ban on their use in the Gaza Strip. Amnesty International believes that flechette shells, which are filled with up to 5,000 five-centimetre-long steel darts or flechettes, each one potentially lethal, should never be used in populated areas.

"Fadel Shana appears to have been killed deliberately although he was a civilian taking no part in attacks on Israel’s forces," said Amnesty International.

"We condemn all attacks on civilians, including that by Islamic Jihad which killed two Israeli civilians at the Nahal Oz fuel terminal on 9 April. The continuing conflict between Israeli and Palestinian forces is having a disproportionate – and totally unacceptable – impact on civilians, in particular Palestinians in the Gaza Strip."

Amnesty International has repeatedly condemned and called for an end to rocket and other attacks on Israeli civilians by Palestinian armed groups, and for those who commit such attacks to be brought to justice.

Since the beginning of this year, 312 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces. Most of them have been in the Gaza Strip. In the same period, 21 Israelis were killed by Palestinian armed groups.

Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories: Full investigation needed into Israeli army killing of civilians

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:06:48 +0100

The Israeli government should immediately order a full and independent investigation into yesterday’s killings of Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, Amnesty International said today.

“Yesterday’s strikes, which the Israeli army launched after the killing of its soldiers in combat, appear to have been carried out with disregard for civilian life,” said Amnesty International. “There seems to be a culture of impunity within the Israeli forces which is contributing to routine use of reckless and disproportionate force.”

At least 18 Palestinians, including children and other unarmed civilians, were killed. More than 30 others were injured in attacks by Israeli planes and by ground forces using tanks in the Gaza Strip yesterday. Three Israeli soldiers were killed in confrontation with Palestinian militants during an Israeli army attack within the Gaza Strip.

Those killed included Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana, who was struck by fire from an Israeli tank which he was filming. He had travelled to the scene in a car clearly marked “TV-Press”. He was killed as he started to film the tank.

“Fadel Shana appears to have been killed deliberately although he was a civilian taking no part in attacks on Israel’s forces,” said Amnesty International.

Amnesty International has repeatedly condemned and called for an end to rocket and other attacks on Israeli civilians by Palestinian armed groups, and for those who commit such attacks to be brought to justice.

“We condemn all attacks on civilians, including that by Islamic Jihad which killed two Israeli civilians at the Nahal Oz fuel terminal on 9 April,” said Amnesty International. “The continuing conflict between Israeli and Palestinian forces is having a disproportionate – and totally unacceptable – impact on civilians, in particular Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”

Unlawful homes for Israeli settlers, demolitions for Palestinians

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:42:53 +0100

Mobile homes for an illegal Israeli settlement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) got the go-ahead within a week of Israeli bulldozers demolishing Palestinian homes and property in the area. It emerged last Wednesday (26 March) that Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has approved the transfer of five mobile homes to the Israeli settlement of Teneh Omarim in the region.

Only the week before, Israeli army bulldozers demolished nine homes and two livestock enclosures in several Palestinian villages in the southern occupied West Bank. The demolitions were carried out on 19 March in the hamlets of Qawawis, Imneizil, al-Dairat and Umm Lasafa in the South Hebron Hills.

Those whose homes were demolished included families with children. In the villages of al-Dairat and Umm Lasafa, the Israeli army destroyed the homes of brothers Yasser and Jihad Mohammed al-'Adra, and Ismail al-'Adra. As a result, Yasser al-'Adra, his wife and six children, Jihad al-'Adra, his wife and their five children, and Ismail al-'Adra, his wife and their three children, were left homeless.

Expansion of Teneh Omarim and other illegal settlements in the OPT continues, in violation of international law that forbids an occupying power from transferring its civilian population into the territory that it occupies.

The Israeli settlements include neat, modern houses with electricity and water distribution systems. Palestinians have lived in the area for generations but none of their hamlets in the area are "recognized" by the Israeli authorities. This means they do not receive any services – light, water, sewage, education or health – and the homes and other structures may be demolished at any time.

Palestinian villagers are also prohibited for the most part from building new homes or building rain water harvesting cisterns to cater for a growing population or to assist development. No new structures can be built unless permits have first been obtained from the Israeli army, but such permits are invariably refused.

The South Hebron Hills, or Masafer Yatta as it is known to Palestinians, is an area in the southernmost area of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Apart from small stone-built villages in the west of the area, many of the people live in tents and large caves.

Most of the Palestinians in the area are shepherds, but, in recent years, the scarcity of rain water has reduced the availability of grazing land for their flocks and their ability to cultivate their land. In addition, the frequent attacks by Israeli settlers and the increased restrictions imposed by the Israeli army on their movements have further reduced their access to grazing land and their ability to cultivate their land.

Israeli settlers, in contrast, have been allowed to appropriate more and more land. Palestinians have lived in the area since long before the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, though some Palestinians moved to the area when they were forced to leave their lands further south in 1948.

When Palestinian homes are demolished, other means of livelihood such as animal pens are also destroyed. Currently, the mosque in the village of al-Tuwani is under a demolition order, as is a schoolroom in the remote village of Dqaiqa.

Palestinian villagers are frequently harassed by Israeli settlers and Palestinian shepherds fear to graze their flocks near Israeli settlements.

International volunteers from the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) and Operation Dove have had a presence in al-Tuwani, the largest village in the area, since 2004 in order to help protect the villagers and to record acts of violence and harassment against them. Israeli peace activists also visit frequently.

During March 2008, at least six attacks on Palestinian shepherds by Israeli settlers or police were reported, with violence and threats of arrest being used against the shepherds to force them to move them away from what they were told was a "closed military zone".

Following many settler attacks on Palestinian children going to school and their international escorts, the Israeli army now sends a military jeep to escort the schoolchildren. Sometimes, however, this escort arrives too late or fails to deter attacks.

On 19 March 2008, for example, two international observers were attacked by Israeli settlers while they were attempting to monitor the military escort of Palestinian schoolchildren. On 29 March, settlers were reported to have thrown stones at children making their way to school but the military escort failed to intervene.

Amnesty International is urging the Israeli authorities to cease demolishing Palestinian homes in the occupied Palestinian territories, cancel all demolition orders and take steps to prevent and punish settler attacks on Palestinians and on international observers seeking to protect them. The organisation is calling also for an immediate end to the construction or expansion of Israeli settlements in breach of international humanitarian law.

Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories: Israeli army denying cancer patient vital treatment

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:16:41 +0000

The Israeli army must allow chronically ill cancer patient Karima Abu Dalal to leave the Gaza Strip and obtain desperately needed medical care in Israel, Amnesty International said today.

“Karima Abu Dalal's life now hangs in the balance because of the Israeli army's failure to allow her a permit to leave Gaza to obtain specialist cancer treatment not available there," said Amnesty International. "The Israeli authorities should immediately allow her to access the treatment she needs."

More than 40 people are reported to have died in the Gaza Strip in recent months because they were refused passage out of the area in order to obtain urgent medical treatment that could not be provided to them there.

Karima Abu Dalal, 34, suffers from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a form of cancer which can be cured if appropriate treatment is provided in time. Her condition has deteriorated recently and she now has difficulty breathing and walking. Her doctors in Gaza consider that her survival depends on her being removed urgently to Israel for treatment at an advanced medical centre.

Since the Israeli authorities tightened their blockade on the Gaza Strip in June 2007, closing the border between Gaza and Egypt, each of the 1.5 million Palestinian inhabitants has to obtain the permission of the Israeli military authorities to leave the Gaza Strip for Israel. This is almost always refused. While some exceptions are made on a 'humanitarian' basis, the Israeli military has denied permits for scores of ill patients saying they cannot allow them to leave the Gaza Strip because of unspecified "security" reasons.

Medical facilities in Gaza lack the specialized staff and equipment to treat a range of conditions, such as some forms of cancer and cardiovascular illnesses. Hospitals and medical facilities are also increasingly short of drugs, disposable supplies and functioning medical equipment.

Despite repeated requests since last November, the Israeli army has refused to issue a permit allowing Karima Abu Dalal to leave Gaza for medical treatment. A request made to the Israeli army last Sunday is still awaiting a response.

“Denying passage to patients in desperate need of medical care serves no legitimate security purpose, as all patients undergo strict security checks at the crossing, and are generally gravely ill,” said Amnesty International. "Israel, as the occupying power, is responsible for the right to health and access to health care for Karima Abu Dalal and all 1.5 million residents of the Gaza Strip."

Background information:

mKarima Abu Dalal received a bone marrow transplant, chemotherapy and radiotherapy in Egypt before the Israeli authorities closed the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt in June 2007. This treatment was apparently successful. The Israeli army issued Karima Abu Dalal with a permit allowing her to leave the Gaza Strip in August 2007 to undergo courses of chemotherapy in Nablus in the West Bank. She responded positively to these and was due to return to Nablus in November 2007 for further treatment, but her requests to do so were rejected by the Israeli military authorities for unspecified “security reasons”. The Israeli High Court of Justice also refused a petition against this decision stating that they saw “no grounds for intervention”.

Karima Abu Dalal has been treated at the Shifa Hospital in Gaza. But doctors there say she now needs more specialist care at an advanced medical centre in Israel if she is to have any chance of survival.

Palestinian homes demolished without warning

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:46:11 +0000

The Israeli army demolished more homes in Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday morning. The homes and property of Palestinian families in the villages of Hadidiya, Jiftlik and Furush Beit Dajan, in the Jordan Valley area of the occupied West Bank, were demolished.

Amnesty International's researcher on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories witnessed the demolitions. Donatella Rovera described the scene:

"In all the places, most of the people are children. These homes mostly have three generations – the grandparents, parents and children. In Hadidiya, there were four families, in Furush Beit Dajan, five families.

"All of the people have had homes demolished before, but this time they had no warning. The people were very, very upset. They were running to get their things out of their homes, but the bulldozer just went on demolishing."

Soldiers of the Israeli army arrived early in the morning in jeeps accompanied by a bulldozer and then demolished the buildings where the four families were living. The destroyed properties belonged to Mohammed Fahed Bani Odeh, Mohammed Ali Shaikh Bani Odeh, Ali Shaikh Musleh Bani Odeh and Omar 'Arif Mohammed Bisharat and their families – at least 34 people, including some 26 children.

After destroying these homes, the soldiers moved on to destroy homes and livelihoods in Jiftlik and Furush Beit Dajan, where homes have previously been demolished in recent months.

"In Jiftlik, they are destroying a farm – it is one of the rare farms here and there is otherwise not much livelihood for the people. They first bulldozed the vegetable area a couple of months ago; then they bulldozed the home last month," said Donatella Rovera.

"The family of Mahmud Mat'ab Da'ish, his wife and seven children were given a tent by the Red Cross and they started planting vegetables again. Today, the army has been bulldozing the green plants.

"In all three locations the soldiers haven't allowed us to get near, I don't even know if they have a military order to destroy everything - we asked them but they didn't show us anything."

The families in Hadidiya have lived in the same area for generations, herding sheep and goats and cultivating land on the Jordan hills. They have come under increasing pressure from the Israeli army to leave the area. The same four families had their homes destroyed in February this year and other homes were demolished several times by the Israeli army in 2007.

The demolitions are part of intensified efforts by the Israeli army to expel Palestinians from the area of the Jordan Valley. Much of the Jordan Valley, including the Hadidiya area, has been designated by the Israeli authorities as a "closed military area" and the army has been exerting increased pressure on local Palestinian villagers to force them to out of the area.

For years, the Israeli authorities have pursued a policy of discriminatory house demolition, on the one hand allowing scores of Israeli settlements to be built on occupied Palestinian land, in breach of international law, while simultaneously confiscating Palestinian lands, refusing building permits for Palestinians and destroying their homes. The land vacated has often been used to build illegal Israeli settlements. International law forbids occupying powers from settling their own citizens in the territories they occupy.

The demolitions come one day after the Israeli government came under international criticism for approving the construction of hundreds of new houses for Israelis in the Givat Ze'ev settlement north of Jerusalem. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the government to "halt settlement expansion" in the West Bank. Javier Solana, the European Union (EU)'s foreign policy chief, said the EU opposed the move to expand the settlement.

Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) : Amnesty International condemns killings of Israeli civilians

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 11:26:08 +0000

Amnesty International today condemned the killing of eight Israeli civilians, four of them children, in a shooting attack by a Palestinian on a Yeshiva school in Jerusalem.

“We absolutely condemn this deliberate attack on Israeli civilians as a gross abuse of international humanitarian law,” said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's Director for the Middle East and North Africa. “We demand that all armed groups immediately cease the targeting of civilians.”

The eight students were killed in the library of the religious school in Jerusalem by a Palestinian from East Jerusalem, who was killed while carrying out the shootings. According to Hizbullah's al-Manar television station in Lebanon, the attack was carried out by a gunman belonging to a previously unknown group calling itself the "Phalange of Free Men of Galilee - Groups of the Martyr Imad Mughniya and the Gaza Martyrs” but this has not been verified. To date, none of the Palestinian armed groups operating in the OPT have claimed responsibility for the attack.

Amnesty International also called on the Israeli Government to refrain from carrying out attacks that endanger Palestinian civilians in response to these killings of Israeli civilians in Jerusalem.

"The lives of Palestinian civilians, who bear no responsibility for yesterday's attack in Jerusalem, should not be put in jeopardy as a result, and the population of the Occupied Palestinian Territories should not be subjected to further collective punishment by Israeli forces," said Smart.

"The Israeli authorities must adhere to international humanitarian law and human rights standards in any action they take in response to last night's attack, even though that attack demonstrated a disregard for the most fundamental principles of international humanitarian law."

"Abuses by one side, no matter how serious, cannot ever justify abuses by the other side," said Smart.

Background Information
Imad Mughniya, a Hizbullah commander allegedly involved in bombings of Israel's embassy and a Jewish cultural centre in Argentina, the hijacking of a TWA aeroplane in 1985 and a number of kidnappings, was killed by a car bomb in Damascus on 12 February. His killers remain unknown. The Israeli government has denied any role in his killing.

More than 100 Palestinians, at least half of them civilians taking no part in the fighting, have been killed in Gaza since 27 February 2008 as a result of Israeli military attacks. Palestinian armed groups, meanwhile, continue to fire rockets into southern Israel, deliberately endangering the lives of Israeli civilians in Sderot, Ashkelon and elsewhere.

In a statement on 2 March 2008, Amnesty International said: "It is high time that the leaders of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority took effective steps to prevent and punish attacks on civilians in Israel, but their failure to do so does not make it legitimate for the Israeli authorities to launch reckless air and artillery strikes that wreak such death and destruction among Palestinian civilians.”

Children and civilian bystanders in Gaza death toll

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:06:57 +0000

Israeli military air strikes and artillery attacks on the Gaza Strip during the last few days have killed over 100 Palestinians, including dozens of children and other civilian bystanders. Three Israelis – a civilian killed by a rocket fired by a Palestinian armed group on 27 February and two soldiers – were also killed.

Many of the Palestinians killed were militants involved in attacks on Israel, but others were unarmed civilians taking no part in the hostilities, including some 25 children. The precise number of civilians killed is unclear and difficult to establish.

The Israeli chief of staff is reported to have claimed that 90 percent of those killed were militants, but the UN and other sources, including those in Gaza, suggest that as many as half of the dead were civilians. More than 250 other people, including scores of unarmed civilians, have been injured.

Israeli forces also destroyed houses and property across the Gaza Strip, including at least two medical facilities, before withdrawing on 3 March.

Amnesty International said on Sunday that the Israeli military air strikes and artillery attacks on the Gaza Strip were being carried out with reckless disregard for civilian life, and called on Israel to put an immediate end to such disproportionate and reckless attacks.

"Israel has a legal obligation to protect the civilian population of Gaza,” said Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Programme. “These attacks are disproportionate and go beyond lawful measures which Israeli forces may take in response to rocket attacks by Palestinian armed groups."

This latest cycle of killings and destruction comes at a time when the 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza are confronting a humanitarian crisis as a result of the increasingly stringent blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza.

Hospitals and medical facilities, already facing severe difficulties in coping with shortages of electricity, fuel, equipment and spare parts due to the Israeli blockade, are struggling to cope with the new influx of casualties caused by Israeli attacks in the last few days.

With Gaza's borders sealed, many patients in dire need of medical care that is not available in Gaza cannot be transferred to hospitals abroad and risk losing their lives.

In the past two months, Israeli forces have killed more than 230 Palestinians in Gaza, including scores of unarmed civilians, and wounded and maimed many others. During the same period, Palestinian armed groups have continued to fire qassam and other rockets indiscriminately at Israel from the Gaza Strip, mostly towards the town of Sderot but also, last week, the more distant town of Ashkelon.

One Israeli civilian has been killed and several injured by such rockets fired from Gaza into Sderot and other areas by Palestinian armed groups.

Amnesty International has again called on Hamas and the Palestinian Authority to ensure that Palestinian armed groups cease immediately from carrying out indiscriminate attacks against Israel, and for those responsible to be held to account.

"It is high time that the leaders of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) took effective steps to prevent and punish attacks on civilians in Israel," said Malcolm Smart, "but their failure to do so does not make it legitimate for the Israeli authorities to launch reckless air and artillery strikes which wreak such death and destruction among Palestinian civilians.

"At the same time, the Palestinian armed groups who launch frequent rocket attacks from Gaza into nearby Israeli towns not only show a callous disregard for the lives of Israeli civilians but also expose the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip to the danger of Israeli attacks."

Malcolm Smart said that Amnesty International condemned all attacks on civilians, but that "unlawful attacks by one side cannot justify violations by the other."