Terrible Events in the Middle-East

The follow text is an example of the terrible events that happen in the Middle-East, in this territory on the borders of reality…

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3 April 2003

Al-Haq and Al-Mezan condemn Israel’s continuous killing of civilians, incursions, mass arbitrary arrests, and house demolitions, and call for international action

Yesterday evening, 2 April 2003, Israeli forces invaded the Brazil Neighborhood of Rafah in Gaza killing four civilians, injuring ten, arresting three and completely destroying four homes. Three Palestinians were also killed in the West Bank yesterday, and Israeli forces entered the Tulkarem Refugee Camp, detaining between 1,000 and 2,000 men, and arresting many.

According to information gathered by the Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza, approximately 20 tanks, using live fire, and accompanied by three bulldozers entered into the Brazil Neighborhood of Rafah yesterday night at 10:15 pm. The Israeli ground forces were supported by two attack helicopters that circled overhead firing their heavy machineguns and rockets into the neighborhood as the tanks advanced. This neighborhood is located on the southern edge of Rafah Town near the Egyptian border. The incursion continued until approximately 5:00 am on 3 April 2003.

At approximately 11:15 pm one of the helicopters flying overhead fired a missile into the center of a crowd of civilians. Three men were killed and six more wounded. Shortly thereafter one of the tanks fired a shell into the residential neighborhood killing one and injuring four. The men killed were,

Walid Tawfiq al-Ledawy (19)

Ibrahim Abdul Nur Abu Shaluf (18)

Wisam Abdel Karim Sha’ir (24)

Mahmoud Nafith Sha’ath (25)

According to our information the first three men killed were unarmed civilians, while the last one may have been armed. An additional three men were arrested during the incursion, four homes were completely destroyed by the Israeli bulldozers, and five were partially demolished during the incursion. The Israeli military announced to the Israeli press that the demolished homes were empty and that they were demolished in order to stop them from being used to construct tunnels under the border to Egypt. However, according to information gathered by Al-Mezan, the buildings were home to 62 people.

Yesterday in Tulkarem Israeli soldiers accompanied by tanks, bulldozers, and backhoes invaded the Tulkarem Refugee Camp, which is home to 17,000 people. The Israeli forces imposed a curfew over the camp and ordered all men between the ages of 15 and 40 to leave their homes and gather at the UNRWA school in the northern part of the camp. No finalized number on how many men have been detained at the school is available, but estimates range from 1,000 to 2,000. At the school the men had their ID’s checked, and some have been sent out of the camp while others have been arrested.

The men ordered out of the camp have been forbidden from returning to their homes for three days. Al-Haq and Al-Mezan would like to highlight this new development. The temporary mass displacement of the men of the Camp through the forced blocking of their return to their homes for three days cannot be justified. This action is a clear form of collective punishment and may amount to a violation of articles 49 and 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which ban the forcible displacement of a protected civilian population without imperative military necessity. The men displaced from the camp have already been detained and released, and the Israeli military has complete control of the camp. It is Al-Haq and Al-Mezan’s opinion that the Israeli military' refusal to allow the men home cannot be justified under the rubric of military necessity and is therefore illegal. After the men had gathered at the school, Israeli forces began carrying out searches through homes in the camp. One home was also destroyed in the camp.

In addition to the incursion into Tulkarem Refugee Camp, two Palestinian children and one man died yesterday. The dead include a fourteen-year-old boy who was killed by Israeli gunfire while standing outside his home in Qalqilya. Another fourteen-year-old boy died of the wounds he sustained on Friday when he was shot near the Qalandia refugee camp by Israeli soldiers during a protest against the war in Iraq. In Nablus a man was also killed during an exchange of fire with Israeli forces who were in the city.

Al-Haq and Al-Mezan are concerned by Israel’s continued attacks upon Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps, and the growing number of civilian deaths resulting from these attacks. Last nights raids in Gaza and the West Bank are but two examples of the attacks witnessed daily in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. In order to perpetuate its illegal occupation, the Israeli government continues to allow its military to act without restraint in the Occupied Territories.

Israel must therefore be held to account for its continued illegal occupation and daily violations against the Palestinian people. As the Israeli government is itself unwilling to act, protection must be afforded by the International Community. If after repeated requests for assistance no action is taken by the international community, despite the well-documented violations of Palestinians’ human rights and of the Fourth Geneva Convention occurring in the Occupied Territories, moral and ethical responsibility for continued violations must rest on the shoulders of those who refuse to take action.

Al-Haq and Al-Mezan therefore request immediate action by the States Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to hold Israel responsible for "grave breaches" of the convention committed against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. We also call upon States Parties to fulfill their legal obligations as High Contracting Parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention under Article 1 of the Convention, which says that States must act "to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances".

Finally, Al-Haq and Al-Mezan ask their friends, supporters and the international public to put pressure on their governments to act to ensure respect for International human rights and humanitarian law in the Occupied Territories and to provide protection for the Palestinian people who continue to live under Israeli military occupation…