Beit Hanina, Palestine 19 July 2002
The current Israeli military incursion and complete re-occupation of the West Bank is about to enter its fifth week. The whole Palestinian population is affected by this Israeli initiated crisis as all the major cities are placed under curfew and all movement within the West Bank is obstructed.
Israel is currently threatening with new illegal actions against the Palestinians, as the Israeli government aims to exile family members of Palestinians who carried out operations against Israel and also family members of “wanted” Palestinians. This morning Israeli troops arrested at least 20 civilians in the Nablus area and they are currently in danger of being exiled. These are innocent people that are being punished for things they never committed. The transfer or deportation of members of the occupied population is prohibited by international humanitarian law. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that
“individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive”. Such unlawful deportation is also specified as a “grave breach” of the Fourth Geneva Convention in article 147 thereof and as such amounts to a war crime.The Israeli military presence inside Palestinian cities and civilian neighbourhoods poses an acute security threat to the Palestinian population. This week two children were killed when an explosive device left by the Israeli army, detonated just outside the Al-Ama‚ari camp, Ramallah. In Gaza, 5 Palestinian were injured when the Israeli army attacked a 3-storey building in Khan Younis with F-16 fighter jets.
The Israeli targeted attacks on Palestinian civil society and civil infrastructure took a new form this week when Israeli troops invaded the offices of Palnet, the main internet provider in the occupied territories. The damage caused resulted in several sites being off line for the day, including various ministries such as the ministry of health.
The Palestinian population is feeling increasingly desperate and humiliated trapped in the current humanitarian crisis. Poverty and unemployment has already reached alarming levels, 75 % and 65 % respectively, and the socio-economic conditions are to continue to degenerate if this collective punishment will continue for much longer.
Number of Palestinians killed this week: 15
Total number of Palestinians killed: more than 1,750
