Mr. Chairperson and distinguished members of the Committee, I present this statement on behalf of Defence for Children International, Palestine Section. I would like to start first by thanking you for the exceptional opportunity to discuss violations of the rights of Palestinian children during your forty-third session. I recognize that the children of many of the other states reporting during this period also face grave challenges in the realization of their rights. I must therefore express my deep gratitude for the fact that you have made time for Palestinian children on your agenda.
You are all well aware of the broad trajectory of recent events in the Middle East . On the 25 th of June, Israel launched 'Operation Summer Rain' in the Gaza Strip, and days later, opened a second front in Lebanon . Following devastating civilian losses among the Lebanese people, hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel ended with the conclusion of the 14th of August ceasefire .
Investigations into violations of the laws of war have been opened concerning the conduct of both parties. Concerning Israel , there are allegations of disproportionate use of force not justified by military necessity, as well as the deliberate targeting of civilians.
To this end, the Human Rights Council has called for the dispatch of a commission of inquiry into Israeli actions in Lebanon . A separate mission composed of the Special Rapporteurs on Health, Housing, Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions and IDPs just completed a joint mission examining BOTH Israeli and Hezbollah conduct during this war.
The situations in Lebanon and Israel and the related resolutions to dispatch UN missions to these areas seem to have overshadowed the earlier Human Rights Council resolution of the 6 th of July to dispatch John Dugard, the Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), to the OPT on a fact-finding mission to investigate events since the 25th of June. In fact, TODAY , just down the road, John Dugard will report to the Human Rights Council that like so many requests made before his by other UN mandate-holders, Israel has refused to grant permission for his mission.
You may also be aware that, Philip Alston, the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Execution requested permission from the Israelis to visit OPT in late June for an individual mission to consider the extrajudicial killing of Palestinians by the Israelis as well as the killing of Israelis as a result of Palestinian-launched qassam rockets. Mr. Allston has not yet received Israeli permission for this visit. However,in a statement issued on the 12 th of July, Mr. Alston stressed the need for accountability " even in the midst of crisis" and indeed, he said, "especially in times of crisis", in order to ensure that the applicable rules of international human rights and humanitarian law are respected.
I am here today to remind the Committee that the unlike the Israeli military campaign in Lebanon, the Israeli campaign in Gaza, is continuing as I now speak, AND it is continuing to devastating effect for Palestinian children.
Further, if Israel's military campaign in Gaza is allowed to continue unchecked by ANY United Nations body, 2006 risks being the bloodiest year yet for Palestinian children since the beginning of the current intifada in September 2000.
The Situation of Gaza Children
In the past three months 56 Palestinian children from the Gaza Strip have died as a result of Israeli military actions.
Defence for Children International is collecting information on the circumstances in which these children died and estimates that in 48 of these cases, or 86%, the children killed could not have been seen to be participating in hostilities in any way. In none of these cases, did the children pose a mortal threat to the lives of Israeli soldiers or civilians yet they were killed.
In at least 56% of these cases where children were killed while not in any way posing a threat, they were killed in places where Israeli forces were engaged in fighting with Palestinians or when Israel was carrying out targeted, extrajudicial assassinations.
It is noteworthy that in over half of all cases of children killed in Gaza since the beginning of 'Operation Summer Rain', the children were killed by aerial launched weaponry. Indeed we are witnessing an observable pattern of Israeli use of missiles with apparently very high accuracy rates per a specific target being launched from Israeli unmanned drone aircraft. In the case of missiles launched from these drones, it is believed that Israel can tell exactly what and who it is targeting.
Case Study:
Take, for example, the case of 15 year old Kifah and 17 year old A'mar , a sister and brother from the Rafah area of the Gaza Strip close to the Egyptian border. After midnight on the 5 th of August, clashes were taking place in the Attanour neighborhood of Rafah between the Israeli army and Palestinian fighters. One and a half kilometers away from the place where active engagements were occurring, the children's 59 year old mother, Mrs. Huda , decided to join other frightened civilians and take her children west in the neighborhood, leading them away from the direction of the fighting. When interviewed by Defence for Children International, a neighbor of Mrs. Huda , also fleeing with his children, explained that at fifteen minutes past midnight he saw an Israeli drone aircraft launch a missile that hit Mrs. Huda and her children. Kifah and A'mar died instantly and Mrs. Huda and her remaining child, 13 year old Na'il , were seriously wounded.
I am compelled to make sure that each one of you is clear that despite the evacuation of Israeli settlers from Gaza and the initial withdrawal of Israeli soldiers to the Gaza/Israel border, Israeli military actions in Gaza did not end last year with the so-called 'disengagement'. Indeed, Israel 's pattern of leaving unacceptable levels of civilian casualties in the wake of its military activities did not begin this summer with 'Operation Summer Rain'. The 9 th of June killing by Israeli shells of 8 civilians on a Gaza beach, including 4 children under the age of six from the Ghalia family, is one of the better known recent incidents that occurred before 'Operation Summer Rain' began. These blasts also injured forty civilians, including 12 children.
Israel claimed that the blasts were caused by a bomb planted at the beach deliberately by Palestinians to injure Israeli soldiers.
However, an independent investigation by Human Rights Watch which concluded that all 8 civilians were killed by shrapnel from Israeli military shelling of the beach.
Mr. Chairperson and members of the Committee, the material point I would like you to take away from this presentation related to child deaths in Gaza is that the circumstances in which many of these children have been killed are alarming.
Most of these children posed no threat and yet they were killed .
The Israeli military is likely to have the best remote sensing, surveillance and targeting capabilities in the world and yet these children were killed .
Bombing of Civilian Infrastructure
In addition to Israel's apparent violation of the prohibition under international humanitarian law against direct attacks on civilians, Israel has also violated the prohibition on direct attacks on civilian infrastructure (GCIV, Articles 48 and 51(4)) , and the destruction of property not justified by military necessity (GCIV, Article 53).
Electricity
On the 28 th of June, the Israeli air force bombed and destroyed the only domestic power plant in Gaza . The plant supplies 43% of Gaza 's electricity needs, with the remaining 57% supplied by Israel . 700,000 out of Gaza 's 1.4 million residents were left without electricity after the initial destruction. At present, the Gaza power company must rely on Israel for electricity for all residents and households now only have electricity for a few hours per day.
Water
Israeli military operations also destroyed the main water and sewage pipelines. Related to damage and lack of power, all three of the waste water treatment centers in Gaza are now functioning to reduced capacity and Gaza 's water utility is dumping 60,000 cubic meters of raw sewage into the sea each day.
Due to the fact that most of Gaza 's water wells were powered by the destroyed power plant, households now have severely reduced access to clean water.
These conditions have lead to an increase in disease. Fore example, there has been a 200% increase in children consultations with diarrhea in Northern Gaza and Rafah Districts over this time last year.
Fuel
Even after disengagement, Israel maintained control over the only fuel pipeline coming into Gaza and since June it is only intermittently opened. Yet, fuel is required to power the back up generators which are required in light of the destruction of the power plant. The effects of limited electricity and limited fuel have been particularly severe for the health care sector in Gaza . All Gaza hospitals and 50% of primary health care facilities are now operating on generators. One example of a practical result for children is that Gaza 's Shifa Hospital can only administer two out of three required kidney dialysis treatments per week for some of the 19 children whose only hope for dialysis treatment is Shifa Hospital .
Terrorizing the Civilian Population: Sonic Booms
As regards the psychosocial heath of Gaza children, Israel has always used various forms of psychological warfare against the Palestinian people.
200-250 Israeli shells have landed in Gaza every day since June, and there have been hundreds of aerial bombardments and launchings of air-to-surface missiles.
To add to this cacophony of terrifying sounds, the children are allowed very few moments of calm because even when live bombs, missiles or shells are not landing within earshot, Israeli F-16 fighter aircraft have repeatedly flown low in the Gaza skies to produce sonic booms to terrorize the people.
This technique is also not new to 'Operation Summer Rain' and has been a regular feature of life in Gaza throughout 2006. Spreading terror among the civilian population is of course a violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Siege Warfare: One of many forms of collective punishment
One of the other dominant features of Israel 's current operation is Siege Warfare . This is just one of many forms of collective punishment in violation of both the Hague Regulations and the Fourth Geneva Convention systematically practiced by the Israelis.
The Committee must recall that following the September 2005 Israeli disengagement, Israel never relinquished control over Gaza land borders, airspace or territorial sea. We can now see very clearly that the Israeli occupation of Gaza did not end last summer despite this highly orchestrated political maneuver by the Israeli government.
Exercising its effective control over the OPT, Israel has maintained an almost total lockdown on the Gaza Strip since June.
The main commercial and civilian crossings into Gaza have remained almost completely shut. In addition to the import of needed supplies for repair of Gaza's infrastructure, humanitarian aid, including urgent medical supplies have been blocked, very few patients can obtain permission from Israel to cross the border to Israel or Egypt and beyond for urgent medical care, and food waiting for import as well as Palestinian food marked for export parishes while it waits at Israeli checkpoints.
With no possibility of exporting goods, or leaving to find work outside the fences of the Gaza Strip, and the non-Payment of salaries to PNA civil servants for 6 months AND Israel's withholding of VAT that it owes to the PNA, the poverty rate now stands at 75% in Gaza.
In the context of poverty, it is important to remember that 53% of the Palestinian population are children.
As you can see, these movement restrictions impact the realization of many other rights, and particularly, the social and economic rights of Palestinian children in Gaza .
Mr. Chairperson and members of the Committee, although no thorough investigation has yet taken place, there is clear pattern of gross violations of human rights and humanitarian law. What we are observing is not isolated incidents of rogue soldiers; we are talking about policies which can only have been endorsed by the State at the highest levels and which are being carried out by soldiers on the ground. Many of these violations may amount to grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and if so, they should give rise to individual criminal responsibility.
Sanctions imposed on the Palestinian people
What I have just described are the most blatant violations of the rights of Palestinian children in Gaza . However, there are other more insidious ways in which the rights of Palestinian children in both the West Bank and Gaza are being violated.
First, I must explain that the Israeli military operation in Gaza is simply compounding the many ways in which the rights of Palestinian children were already compromised. They like their counterparts in the West Bank have been suffering as a result of the de facto economic sanctions which have been imposed by the international community on the Palestinian people since the democratic election of a Hamas -led government in the OPT.
As John Dugard, astutely noted, '[subjecting the Palestinian people to economic sanctions marks] the first time an occupied people have been so treated'.
With the drastic reduction in donor aid from foreign governments who have fueled the Palestinian economy since 1994 and Israel's non payment of VAT that it collects for an owes to the PNA, 4 out of 10 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza now live under the official poverty line of less than $2.10 per day.
The non-payment of salaries to civil servants for at least the last 6 months has left 1 million Palestinians who rely on the salaries of 152,000 civil servants in a dire economic situation .
These civil servants run 70% of the schools in the OPT and 60% of the health care services. Therefore, the non-payment of the salaries of these people has the potential to devastate development and human rights indicators for the whole of the country.
I implore you to imagine what it means for the future of the Palestinian people and indeed for the stability of the region as a whole if sanctions are not lifted when all teachers who work in governmental schools are now on strike, and have been since the beginning of the school year in order to protest the non-payment of their salaries ?
This means that at present there are approximately 1,250,000 Palestinian young minds being denied the right to education as the 2006-2007 school year simply never started. In the case of Gaza children, even refugees who attend schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency which have opened this school year, are being kept home by their parents because they are afraid to let children out on the streets because of Israeli military activity.
Related to the CRC's Concluding Observations:
To all this I must add that the Committee's 2002 Concluding Observations from Israel 's initial report to the Committee have remained unheaded by the Israeli government.
The differential application of law to Palestinian children versus Israeli children remains in violation of Article 2 of the CRC
817 children have been killed as a result of Israeli military activity in the OPT since September 2000;
Thousands of children have been injured since September 2000 and hundreds have been permanently disabled
More than 4,000 children have been arrested since the beginning of the intifada in 2000 and currently 430 children, including 5 girl children, are being held in Israeli detention centres or prisons. More are arrested every day as a matter of first resort by the Israeli military despite the fact that the most common charge against children is that of stone throwing.
The non-derogable right to be free from torture , cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment continues to be routinely violated by the Israeli army when it arrests and interrogates children
The conditions of imprisonment of Palestinian children fall well below international standards, and include prolonged administrative detention , of which there are now 5 child cases
The imprisonment of children is not in any way oriented towards rehabilitation and integration of children according to international standards for the administration of juvenile justice
The so-called trials of these children are conducted by military courts rather than civilian courts wherein the rules of procedure do not meet the minimum standards for due process, thereby violating another non-derogable right
Between the 1 st of January 2002 and the 12 th of September 2006, 5,580 Palestinian homes were either partially or totally demolished . These were the homes of some 25,942 children. The demolition of these homes violates the prohibition under international humanitarian law on the destruction of homes not justified by military necessity and violates the right of Palestinian children to an adequate standard of living under the CRC.
Neither Israel nor the international community have abided by the 2004 Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of the Wall . At present 76% of the over 400,000 illegal Israeli settlers who reside in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, are or will be absorbed on the Israeli side of the Wall when it is finished even though the Wall and the settlements themselves reach deep into the West Bank as defined by the 1967 Green Line. Meanwhile, an estimated 60,500 Palestinians will also find themselves on the Israel side of the Wall, in what will be for them, a closed military zone between the Wall and the 1967 Green Line. A further 500,000 Palestinians have homes that are now on what is the Palestinian side of the Wall, yet their farm lands, businesses, schools or family members are in the closed zone on the Israeli side of the wall. The Wall therefore has severe long-term implications on the rights of Palestinian children to health, education and family life.
There remains over 500 checkpoints preventing internal movement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and between the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the outside world--the main purpose of which is to humiliate Palestinian civilians and remind them of the control that Israel maintains over their lives
Targeted assassinations of adults have continued despite the duty under international humanitarian law to arrest rather than assassinate persons who are thought to have taken direct part in hostilities. So far in 2006, Palestinian children have been the associated 'collateral damage' of these attacks in 20 cases. 81 children have been the collateral damage of targeted extrajudicial assassinations in the last five years.
The Israeli High Court recently upheld the legality of the 2003 Nationality and Entry into Israel Law which has striped thousands of Palestinian children from their right to family life which is guaranteed under international human rights and humanitarian law.
Finally, the Committee called upon Israel in its concluding observations to investigate , in particular, allegations of unlawful killing of Palestinian children as well as cases of torture, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The Committee also called upon Israel to provide opportunities for adequate compensation in the event that unlawful conduct is proven.
Israel still systematically fails to investigate unlawful killings or treatment of Palestinian children. In the few cases where Israel has launched investigations , the independence and impartiality of those conducting the investigations have been suspect.
Related to your request for compensation, the 2005 Amendment to the 1952 Israeli Civil Wrongs Law has strengthened the culture of impunity among the ranks of the Israeli army. According to this law, no Palestinian can every seek civil compensation for damages inflicted by the Israeli army whether during combat or not and the law is retroactive to the exact date of the start of the current intifada in 2000.
The Committee will recall that when Israel submitted its initial report to the CRC seven years late, it neglected Israel 's obligations towards the rights of Palestinian children. When the Committee requested that Israel address the implementation of its obligations under the treaty towards all children under its jurisdiction, and specifically, Palestinian children, Israel produced a complimentary report which denied any Israeli responsibility for the rights of Palestinian children. What I have just described is evidence that despite the Committees concluding observations, Israel 's position has not changed.
In conclusion, I would like to say that the plight of Palestinian children has been overshadowed in the media and in governmental and intergovernmental bodies by the devastation in Lebanon and Israel . While I appreciate this Committee's exceptional 3 rd of August statement calling for respect for international humanitarian law relating to the protection of children and for an immediate cessation of hostilities, Palestinian children need more from this Committee.
Other bodies of the United Nations have tried and failed to investigate Israel 's conduct. We hope that we can discuss now with you what possible follow-up measures the Committee on the Rights of the Child might take.
One possible action the Committee might take is a country visit to assess Israel 's implementation of the Committees concluding observations with a particular emphasis on the Committees recommendations to Israel concerning Special Measures of Protection during armed conflict. Such a mission would help to ensure accountability for unlawful acts, but more importantly, it might actually have a chance of saving the lives and preventing the suffering of children through publicity from such a visit.
Alternatively, Defence for Children International could work with the Committee to draft a communication to the government of Israel asking specific questions about Israel's implementation of convention rights related to Palestinian children within the interim period between Israel's initial and first periodic reports to the CRC.
We are confident that the Committee will take suitable actions within its mandate to end Israel 's impunity for violations of the rights of Palestinian children under international law, and especially the CRC.