Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Continue Systematic Attacks against Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and Continue to Impose a Total Closure on the Gaza Strip
- 9 Palestinians, including 4 civilians, were killed by IOF.
- Two of these civilians were killed when IOF attacked border tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip, a third one was willfully killed and a child was run down by an Israeli military jeep/
- 14 Palestinian civilians, including two children, were wounded by IOF gunfire in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
- IOF used excessive force against Palestinian civilians in the al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem.
- IOF used force against peaceful demonstrations organized to protest the construction of the Annexation Wall in the West Bank.
- IOF conducted 31 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and 3 ones into the Gaza Strip.
- IOF arrested 45 Palestinian civilians, including 6 children, in the West Bank, and 5 fishermen in the Gaza Strip.
- Israeli naval troops continued to attack Palestinian fishers and boats in the Gaza Strip.
- IOF have continued to impose a total closure on the OPT and have isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world.
- IOF troops positioned at military checkpoints and border crossings in the West Bank arrested 8 Palestinian civilians, including 4 children.
- IOF have continued settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property.
- Israeli settlers demolished an agricultural facility in Hebron and uprooted 120 olive trees in Nablus.
Summary
This report on Israeli human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) coincides with the 9th 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. In the intervening nine years, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have perpetrated grave breaches of international humanitarian law, including war crimes, against Palestinian civilians. They have continued to killed innocent civilians, destroy and confiscate civilian property and agricultural land from the purposes of settlement expansion and the construction of the Annexation Wall, arrest Palestinian civilians and establish military checkpoint, in violation of international human rights and humanitarian law. Additionally, IOF have continued to impose a tightened closure on the OPT, especially the Gaza Strip. Economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip have deteriorated. 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 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.
According to PCHR's documentation, 6,426 Palestinians have been killed by IOF (4,497 in the Gaza Strip and 1,929 in the West Bank). This figure includes a total of 4,959 civilians (3,248 in the Gaza Strip and 1,711 in the West Bank). The civilian victims include 1,210 children (875 in the Gaza Strip and 335 in the West Bank). They also include 274 women (209 in the Gaza Strip and 65 in the West Bank).
In the 9th year of the Intifada, IOF waged a full-scale offensive against the Gaza Strip, during which they killed hundreds of Palestinians and wounded thousands of others. They also destroyed thousands of houses and civilians facilities. In the nine months following the end of this offensive, IOF have continued to prevent the entry of raw materials needed for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. PCHR believes that the international community, which pledged to contribute to the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, has failed to take any serious actions to obligate Israel to comply with international law and to open Gaza's border crossing and allow the free passage of materials needs for reconstruction.
In spite of attempts by the Israeli government to free itself of responsibility for war crimes perpetrated by IOF in the Gaza Strip and provide false statistics of victims, the report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, headed by Justice Richard Goldstone, which was issued on 15 September 2009, confirms the findings and reports of many Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights organizations, and strongly refutes Israeli claims that its military and political operations were conducted in accordance with international law. Investigations conducted by the Fact Finding Mission confirmed that Israel was responsible for the perpetration of grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, war crimes, and serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. The Fact Finding Mission also found sufficient evidence to indicate that crimes against humanity may have been committed. In particular, the Mission noted that, "While the Israeli Government has sought to portray its operations as essentially a response to rocket attacks in the exercise of its right to self defence, the Mission considers the plan to have been directed, at least in part, at a different target: the people of Gaza as a whole."
Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law continued in the OPT during the reporting period (17 – 30 September 2009):
Shooting: During the reporting period, IOF killed 9 Palestinians and wounded 14 others in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Nine Palestinians also suffered from suffocation when a tunnel collapsed as IOF attacked border tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip.
In the Gaza Strip, IOF killed 7 Palestinians, including two civilians, and wounded two children and an activist of the Palestinian resistance.
On 20 September 2009, IOF killed two members of the Palestinian resistance in Jabalya town in the northern Gaza Strip with Flechette shells.
On 25 September 2009, an Israeli aircraft fired a missile that killed 3 activists of the Palestinian resistance in the east of Gaza City.
On 29 September 2009, two Palestinian civilians were killed when Israeli fighter jets bombarded tunnels along the Egyptian border, south of Rafah.
On 28 September 2009, two Palestinian children were wounded when IOF fired a number of artillery shells at al-Musaddar village in the central Gaza Strip.
On 29 September 2009, an activist of the Palestinian resistance was wounded by shrapnel from an artillery shell fired by IOF in al-Shouka village near Rafah.
In the West Bank, IOF killed two Palestinian civilians, including a child, and wounded 11 others, including a child and an old man.
On 22 September 2009, IOF shot dead a Palestinian civilian while traveling in his car to the west of Bethlehem. They claimed that he did not obey orders to stop, but investigations conducted by PCHR refute this claim and indicate that IOF willfully killed the victim.
On 30 September 2009, an Israeli military jeep chased and ran down a Palestinian school child in Ya'bad village, southwest of Jenin.
On 25 September 2009, a Palestinian civilian was wounded when IOF fired at dozens of Palestinian civilians and international and Israeli human rights defenders who demonstrated to protest settlement expansion in Iraq Bourin village, south of Nablus.
On 27 September 2009, 3 Palestinian civilians were wounded when IOF fired at dozens of Palestinian civilians who gathered in the al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem to prevent Israeli settlers from storming its yards.
IOF also used force against peaceful demonstrations organized by Palestinian civilians and international and Israeli human rights defenders to protest the construction of the Annexation Wall in the West Bank. As a result, 7 Palestinian civilians, including a child, were wounded.
Incursions: During the reporting period, IOF conducted at least 31 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. IOF arrested 45 Palestinian civilians, including 6 children.
In the Gaza Strip, IOF conducted 3 limited incursions into Palestinian communities, during which they leveled areas of Palestinian land they had already razed. They also arrested 5 Palestinian fishers for several hours.
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.
