Scores of Palestinians have left a camp in eastern Jordan in recent days, opting to return to the frequent bombings and tension in Baghdad rather than spend another day hoping for a solution to their plight. In the last week, 46 Palestinians who fled Iraq during last year’s US-led war to topple Saddam Hussein have left Jordan’s barren Ruweished refugee camp for the Iraqi capital. Twenty more are expected to follow on Wednesday night, while another 30 have indicated a willingness to leave for Baghdad in the coming days. The Palestinians were among more than 1,500 people who have been living in camps assisted by the UN refugee agency in eastern Jordan’s desert. Read more about Palestinians leave desert camp for Baghdad 

This week, Israeli forces killed 19 Palestinians, including 5 children. One of the victims was killed in another extrajudicial execution in Qalqilya. In Rafah, Israeli forces killed 10 Palestinians, including 2 children. Israel demolished 255 homes, leaving hundreds of Palestinians homeless. Israel razed at least 700 donums of land. Israeli forces invaded a number of areas in the occupied Palestinian territories. Israeli forces raided homes and arrested Palestinians. Israel continued the construction of the Separation Barrier as more Palestinian land was confiscated and razed. Israel continue to impose a total siege on the occupied Palestinian territories. Read more about Weekly report on human rights violations 

Today, May 23, a group of 27 writers, pilots, academics, including Shulamit Aloni, Michael Ben-Yair and law professor S.Z. Feller, and the organizations Yesh Gvul and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel appealed for an interim injunction to the High Court demanding the Court to prohibit the appointment of Major General Dan Halutz as Deputy IDF Chief of Staff. The appeal is based on Haluz’s role in the assassination of Salah Shehadeh, during which a one-ton bomb was dropped on a residential neighborhood in Gaza killing 15 Palestinians, mostly children, and wounding dozens. The petitioners claim that Dan Halutz is not worthy of a senior command position in the IDF. Read more about Pilots, writers, human rights activists appeal High Court to stop appointment of Deputy IDF Chief of Staff 

A new report by Oxfam International calls for the protection of civilians to be put at the top of the international agenda. The report calls for the Quartet, Israel and the Palestinian Authority to act urgently to reduce the impact of conflict on civilians. “The international community has a legal obligation to ensure respect for international humanitarian law,” the aid agency said. It also calls for end to the culture of impunity - with those who commit inhuman and criminal acts being brought to justice. “The international community is a like a rabbit caught in the headlights, paralysed by events as they unfold. It can and must do more to protect people on both sides - and start to ease the suffering.” Read more about Oxfam calls for protection of civilians 

On Sunday 23 May, at about 10am, Israeli tanks stormed the Brazil neighborhood. They took control of the main streets and opened fire on the area before they proceeded to demolish Palestinian homes. Israeli officials confirmed that the military operation in Rafah would go on for several days. Israeli forces continue to block the streets leading to Tel Al Sultan and the main road between Rafah and Khan Yunis. They pulled out of some areas. Israeli forces killed at least 44 Palestinians since the beginning of “Operation Rainbow” on May 18. Israeli forces killed another 15 Palestinians during an invasion on May 14 and May 15, after an Israeli APC exploded in Rafah. This brings the death toll in Rafah to 59 over the past ten days. Read more about Rafah Daily Update, 9.00pm 

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) today handed over 86 new homes to refugee families from Rafah and Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip whose shelters have been destroyed by Israeli forces. The new shelters, which will house 93 families, or 475 refugees, are the concrete expression of UNRWA’s pledge to re-house all those refugees whose homes have been destroyed in the strife and who have no alternative accommodation. According to the Agency’s figures, by 10 May 2004 a total of 2,018 buildings, home to over 18,300 refugee and non-refugee Palestinians, had been destroyed or damaged beyond repair in the Gaza Strip since the start of the conflict in 2000. Read more about UNRWA provides new shelters for Gaza homeless 

The Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders, the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, and the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, echo the concerns expressed by the Security Council of the United Nations in its resolution 1544 and by the Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights about violence and loss of life during the peaceful demonstration in the Rafah refugee camp of the Gaza Strip on 19 May 2004. The experts said they received credible information that demonstrators were engaged in peaceful activities in exercise their right to protest. Read more about UN human rights experts echo concerns about events in Rafah and Gaza Strip 

In the early morning hours of 20 May, Israeli military forces broke into and occupied UNRWA’s Jenin Camp Reconstruction Project Office near Jenin camp in the West Bank. A shot was fired in the direction of UNRWA’s senior project manager, Mr. Paul Wolstenholme, as he attempted to gain access to the office, but fortunately he remained unharmed. Mr. Wolstenholme, who attempted to convince the soldiers to leave the UNRWA installation, was not only detained for over three hours and threatened with physical violence, but was handcuffed and blindfolded as well. Wolstenholme’s predecessor, Iain Hook was shot and killed by an Israeli soldier in November 2002. Read more about UNRWA protests Israeli incursion into Jenin Camp 

Today, Israeli forces continued military operations in Rafah. Israeli tanks are still blocking the streets leading to Tel Al Sultan and are present in Brazil neighborhood, as well as on the main road between Rafah and Khan Yunis. Israeli officials said that Israeli forces will continue their operations. Israeli forces killed at least 44 Palestinians and wounded more than 120 Palestinians. The humanitarian situation deteriorates. Water networks and other infrastructure has been destroyed. There are reports about health risks due to mixed sewage and water in Tel Al Sultan. Israeli forces continue demolishing Palestinian homes. Read more about Rafah Daily Update, 3.00pm 

The Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights, Bertrand Ramcharan, today called on Israel to respect international law and end its use of disproportionate force in the Gaza Strip, saying that even under security-related matters there was no “license to kill.” Mr. Ramcharan “is deeply disturbed about the consequences of Israel’s recent military operation in the Gaza strip, in particular in Rafah, and its disproportionate use of force in densely populated areas,” José Luis Díaz, spokesman for the High Commissioner’s Office, said in a statement issued in Geneva. Read more about UN rights chief deeply disturbed by recent Israeli actions in Gaza 

Israeli forces entered the western outskirts of Rafah at around 11:30 yesterday. Loudspeakers ordered all men over the age of 16 to leave their homes and gather in one place in the Abu Halweh neighborhood. Israeli forces are still in the area carrying out house-to-house searches. Today, operation “Rainbow” entered its fifth day. Israeli tanks are still blocking the streets leading to Tel Al Sultan and Brazil as well as the main road between Rafah and Khan Yunis. Israeli officials confirmed that military activity will continue and expansion is expected. At least 43 Palestinians have been killed in Rafah since the beginning of the military assault on Rafah. At least 112 people have been wounded. Read more about Rafah Daily Update, 3.00pm 

Briefing the Security Council this morning on the situation in the Middle East, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast said he regretted to have had to deliver such a melancholy briefing, full of death and destruction and human misery, adding that surely the people of Israel and Palestine deserved better news. The statistics were grim, he reported, noting that over the last month, 128 Palestinians and 19 Israelis had been killed and hundreds more injured. The Israeli army had demolished hundreds of Palestinian homes, in breach of its international obligations. Economic conditions continued to worsen still further, bringing yet more suffering and deepening the prevailing despair. Read more about Under-Secretary-General briefs Security Council on death and destruction in Rafah 

Israeli forces raided a march in Rafah, killing 8 Palestinians, most of them children. This brings the death toll in the twon to 32 since the beginning of the Israeli assault. At midday on Wednesday, 19 May, approximately 100 were also reported injured. Ambulance movement services were still obstructed. Al Mezan Center for Human Rights documented several cases of bulldozing of streets and numerous cases of destruction and damage of homes in Tel Al Sultan neighborhoodd. Israeli helicopters and tanks fired shells into a crowd of protestors who marched in Rafah. Read more about Rafah Daily Update, 11.00pm 

The total number of Palestinians who killed in the town of Rafah since Tuesday is at least 41, including 14 children. Some 103 people have been injured; more than half of them are children. The movement of ambulance services is still obstructed by the IOF. Al Mezan Center for Human Rights has documented dozens of cases of bulldozing of streets and houses in Tel Al Sultan, As-Salam and Al Brazil neighborhoods. Demolitions were carried out without warning in the majority of the documented cases. One day after the UN Security Council condemned Israeli actions, the effects of the international community’s condemnation appears limited. Read more about Rafah Daily Update, 11:00pm 

Four Israeli human rights organizations submitted an urgent petition this morning to the Supreme Court against the IDF Commander of the Gaza Strip, which contained a series of humanitarian demands on behalf of the residents of Rafah. They demand that the IDF: allow the unconditional evacuation of the injured from Rafah, even if there is no advanced coordination; allow the unobstructed passage of ambulances and medical equipment between Rafah and the hospitals located outside the city; prevent injury or threat to medical teams and citizens evacuating the injured or corpses; renew the supply of electricity, water, food and medical supplies to the residents of the village of Tel a-Sultan, that has been subject to total closure for more than three days. Read more about Israeli human rights groups submit humanitarian access demand to Supreme Court 

The Israeli military’s use of tanks and helicopters yesterday to fire on non-violent demonstrators in the southern Gaza Strip constituted an unlawful and unnecessary use of force, Human Rights Watch said today. At least eight people were killed and dozens were injured. “It’s outrageous that Israeli forces used battlefield weaponry to block peaceful marchers,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division. “By using heavy weapons against non-violent demonstrators, Israel has violated not only international law, but also its own open-fire regulations.” Read more about End unlawful use of force against civilians in Gaza 

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today strongly condemned the killing and injury of Palestinian demonstrators in southern Gaza, and called on Israel to immediately end its military operations there. “The killing of peaceful demonstrators, many of them women and children, has distressed the Secretary-General, who sends his deepest condolences and sympathies to the families of the victims,” his spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said in a statement. Meanwhile, the UNICEF said it was deeply concerned about the effect of the ongoing military operation in the Gaza Strip on children, particularly a missile strike Wednesday that claimed the lives of at least 10 Palestinians, many of them youngsters. Read more about Annan strongly condemns killing of Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza 

Concerned by the recent demolition of homes in the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations Security Council today called on Israel to respect its obligations under international humanitarian law and insisted on its obligation not to destroy homes contrary to that law. The Council voted 14 in favour, with the United States abstaining, to adopt a resolution expressing its grave concern regarding the humanitarian situation of Palestinians made homeless in the Rafah area, and calling for the provision of emergency assistance. Earlier this week, UNRWA reported that nearly 2,200 people have been left without shelter and 191 homes have been demolished throughout Gaza since the beginning of May. Read more about Security Council calls on Israel to stop demolition of Palestinian homes 

IDF forces launched an incursion into the Rafah Refugee Camp early this morning. Israeli officials describe the incursion as the largest military operation since Operation Defensive Shield in the Spring of 2002. Throughout the day B’Tselem has received reports of severe harm to the civilian population, including deaths, injury to medical teams, obstruction of medical care, house demolitions, and damage to infrastructure including roads, water and electricity. Read more about Today's Events in Rafah 

Israeli forces are preventing medical teams from accessing the dead and injured in Rafah. The hospital is overflowing with casualties that ambulances were able to reach, but those they could not lie dying in homes and streets. Said Lemghayer from the Tel El Sultan neighborhood in Rafah, died instantly when Israeli snipers shot him whilst he was standing outside his house. His family tried to transfer him to a hospital but Israeli forces prevented the ambulance from reaching him. Read more about Medical teams in Rafah prevented from access to dead and injured Palestinians 

Since the early morning Physicians for Human Rights-Israel has received complaints concerning obstruction of medical teams from aiding the wounded in Rafah Refugee Camp. The road from Rafah to Khan Younis has been closed by the Israeli army. Therefore, as of now, 12wounded persons cannot be evacuated to the European Hospital- an advanced medical center. This leaves Yousef Al Najar Hospital – which does not have an intensive care unit and is lacking needed equipment – to deal alone with all the people and the enormous load. Israeli forces did not allow two ambulances to reach 8 wounded and 3 dead people; it also did not allow them to return to the hospital. Read more about Israel obstructs medical aid 

The Geneva-based human rights organisation the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) condemns the lifting of a temporary injunction banning the demolition of Palestinian homes in Gaza by the Israeli Supreme Court. “The decision of the Court to lift the injunction yesterday paves the way for further illegal demolitions to be carried out by the Israeli military. These demolitions constitute a war crime under the Geneva Conventions of 1949. This decision clearly shows Israel’s total disregard for international human rights and humanitarian law. If the highest Israeli judicial body sanctions such crimes, it is clear that Palestinians have no recourse to any form of justice,” said Scott Leckie, the Executive Director of COHRE. Read more about "These demolitions constitute a war crime" 

On Monday, Israeli forces reinvaded Rafah. This Israeli military operation has so far resulted in the death of seventeen Palestinians and more than thirty injuries. PRCS ambulances were subjected to direct Israeli gunfire, severely restricting their ability to evacuate injuries from the area. Two Israeli Army tanks coming towards it cornered one of the ambulances. Unable to leave the area, the medics in the ambulance were forced to flee for their safety. Read more about Palestinian medics forced to flee for their safety 

Israel’s unjustified destruction of thousands of Palestinian and Arab Israeli homes as well as vast areas of agricultural land has reached an unprecedented level and must stop immediately, Amnesty International said today. In its latest report “Under the rubble”, Amnesty International notes that over the last three and a half years, Israeli armed forces have demolished more than 3,000 homes, leaving tens of thousands of men, women and children homeless or without a livelihood. Read more about Amnesty: "Evictions and demolitions must stop" 

Today ICCO, a Dutch development agency, launched the “Made in Israel?” campaign, aimed against the unlawful import of products from Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Products produced in the illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are exported and marketed as “Made in Israel”. This is a violation of the trade agreement between Israel and the European Union. The agreement exempts Israeli products - but not settlement products – from import duty. In practice settlement products profit of European trade preferences. So far, the EU has failed to take measures. Read more about EU supports settlements economically, misleads consumers 

On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property During Times of War and its Protocol, Al-Haq calls on the international community to uphold their obligations to ensure the protection of cultural heritage in the occupied Palestinian territories. The last two years have seen a grave escalation in damage to cultural heritage in the OPT and the scale of destruction has been unprecedented.  During April 2002, Israeli occupying forces destroyed large sections of the historic Old City of Nablus as well as parts of Bethlehem and Hebron during “Operation Defensive Shield.” Read more about Al-Haq: World must stop destruction of cultural heritage in OPT 

Supreme Court justices yesterday criticized the IDF procedures governing the opening of access points in the separation barrier to allow the supervised passage of Palestinian residents whose access to agricultural land, workplaces, educational institutions, health services, family and a long list of other vital services is prevented by the barrier. The criticism was voiced during the second hearing of the petition that was initially submitted last December by ACRI Attorney Fatmeh El-A’jou on behalf of five residents of four villages of the area between Tulkarm and Qalqilya. The residents were cut off from their source of livelihood and other vital services. Read more about Supreme Court: "If you cannot provide solutions – the barrier must be moved" 

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) has strongly urged the United Nation Security Council to establish a peacekeeping mission in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem. In a nine-point communique released after the one-day meeting today, the Ministerial Meeting called for compliance with all relevant Security Council resolutions and stressed the importance and usefulness of a comprehensive Security Council resolution in view of the current circumstances. They called on the Security Council to fulfill its responsibility under the UN Charter with regard to the violation of international law. Read more about NAM urges UN to send peacekeeping force to Palestine 

Today, Thursday, 13 May 2004, Israeli forces killed 12 Palestinian civilians, including a child, and injured at least 20 others in Rafah. Eleven of the victims were killed by shrapnel from missiles launched by Israeli helicopter gunships.  According to Palestinian medical sources in Rafah, most of the wounded are in a serious condition.  This Israeli military escalation followed the destruction of an Israeli military vehicle near Salah al-Din Gate on the Egyptian border, south of Rafah, which left 5 Israeli soldiers dead.  The Israeli offensive on Rafah is still ongoing at the time this report. Read more about Israeli forces kill 12 Palestinians and wound at least 20 in Rafah 

A group of 14 trade unionists from seven European countries visited the region last week in order to investigate the labor situation of the Palestinians, both those in Israel and those from the Occupied Territories. At a public meeting organized by WAC in Haifa, a spokesperson of the European trade unionists declared that the group was shocked by the grave and humiliating situation confronting Palestinian and migrant workers. They will bring their findings before the ICFTU, the WCL and the ILO. Read more about European trade unionists shocked by labor situation of Palestinians in Israel 

The 191-member United Nations General Assembly today overwhelmingly affirmed the need to enable the Palestinian people “to exercise sovereignty and to achieve independence in their State, Palestine.” By a vote of 140 in favour to 6 against (Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and the United States), with 11 abstentions, the Assembly adopted a resolution that also affirmed that “the status of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, remains one of military occupation.” The text also affirmed that “the Palestinian people have the right to self-determination and to sovereignty over this territory.” Read more about General Assembly overwhelmingly affirms Palestinians' right to sovereignty 

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon claims that his pullout from Gaza will end Israel’s responsibility for the Palestinian population. However, Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies pointed out that under international law the besieging power has the same responsibilities for the population it is besieging as an occupying power has for a population living under occupation. Bennis spoke at the Palestine Center on Monday April 26th, having just returned from a fact-finding mission to the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Read more about Sharon's Plan: A Shift from Occupation to Siege 

On Tuesday, 5 May at 2.30pm, for the fourth time in as many weeks, an Israeli Army jeep pulled up to the Western Gate entrance of Birzeit University. Provoked by their presence, a couple of students began to throw stones at the jeep and the soldiers immediately fired back with rubber bullets. At the sound of the shots more students started to gather and throw stones and the jeep fired back rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowd of students assembled. Three cars parked at the gate were damaged in the process. The jeep descended to the Eastern Gate where it continued to fire shots and tear gas from a distance at university buildings. Read more about Soldiers Fire Tear Gas and Rubber Bullets at Birzeit University 

Meeting today at United Nations Headquarters in New York, the so-called Quartet issued a positive reaction to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to withdraw all Israeli settlements from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, calling it a “rare moment of opportunity” and a possible restart to its Road Map peace plan for the Middle East. In a communiqué read by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan after their meeting, the UN, EU, Russia and United States said they “took positive note” of Prime Minister Sharon’s announced intention to withdraw Israeli settlements, a plan that Israel’s Likud party rejected in a referendum Sunday. Read more about Annan hosts meeting of "Quartet" to discuss Middle East peace 

In another blatant disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians, on Saturday evening, 1 May 2004, Israeli occupying forces killed a Palestinian child and injured 9 other civilians, including 5 children in the Khan Yunis refugee camp.  Preliminary investigations conducted by PCHR concluded that Israeli forces used excessive force when no threat was posed to the lives of Israeli soldiers, while disregarding the lives of Palestinian civilians, especially children. Since the beginning of the current Intifada in September 2000, 493 Palestinian children under 18 have been killed by Israeli occupying forces. Read more about Israeli forces kill Palestinian child in Khan Yunis