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Occupying army kills 18 civilians in the shelling of Beit Hanoun

8 November 2006


In a serious escalation in crimes they commit in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), on Wednesday morning, 8 November 2006, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) shelled a residential area in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun, killing 18 Palestinian civilians, including 17 members of the al-‘Athamna family, and wounding 55 others. Most of the victims were sleeping in their homes when the attack took place. IOF fired at least 10 artillery shells at the area. This crime has come only one day after the IOF redeployment from the town, following a 7-day incursion, during which IOF committed a series of crimes. 

Letter: Switzerland must act on Gaza even as others choose silence

Ali Abunimah 8 November 2006


EI co-founder Ali Abunimah writes to the Swiss foreign minister: “I am not an ambassador, a minister, or an elected official. I have no standing to appeal to your conscience except as a human being. I do so now with all the will I can muster to urge your government immediately to reconvene the Conference of the High Contracting Parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention urgently to consider measures to enforce this Convention and end the grave and mounting breaches being perpetrated by Israel, the Occupying Power, in the Gaza Strip.” The letter followed the morning of an Israeli massacre in Beit Hanoun which killed 19 civilians, including 11 from a single family. 

Israeli bombardment of Beit Hanoun kills at least 18, including 11 from one family

7 November 2006


Israel has renewed its assault on the Gaza Strip, killing at least 18 Palestinians on Wednesday morning. Palestinian medical sources reported that dozens of Palestinian citizens had been killed or injured in an Israeli artillery bombardment of Beit Hanoun in the north of Gaza Strip. A large number of women and children were also injured in the shelling. The sources said the preliminary number of the citizens killed is 18, but rising. In addition, more than 35 were injured. Many of the dead arrived at the hospital fragmented in pieces. 

Three killed in strike against PLC member's residence

7 November 2006


Five Palestinians were killed on Tuesday morning, including two in an armed clash between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters. The other three were killed in an air strike that targeted the house of Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) member Jamila Shanti in Jabalia refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. She survived, but her sister-in-law was killed. Medical sources said that the medical crews were finally able to reach the bodies of Hamdi Batsh and Raed Qarm after seven hours of obstruction by the Israeli troops who prevented anybody approach the dead bodies. Batsh and Qarm were killed in an armed clash with the Israeli soldiers. 

IOF redeploy around Beit Hanoun, leaving serious damage

7 November 2006


The IOF began redeploying their troops around the town of Beit Hanoun at 1am this morning, 7 November 2006. They left the town at 2am after inflicting serious damage against human life and property during their seven-day incursion. Initial field reports from Al Mezan’s fieldworkers who were deployed in the town state that IOF caused large damage to the town’s streets, water, sewage and electricity lines. The main bridge in the town was also destroyed. It was also reported that at least 200 homes were at least partially destroyed or damaged. 

Palestinian women demand UN action in letter to Annan

4 November 2006


We, women of Palestine, are appalled by the perpetration of the Israeli onslaught against our people which has culminated recently in the criminal aerial bombardment of Israel of innocent Palestinians in Beit Hanon - Gaza, and of several civil infrastructures in Palestine. Millions of Arab women wonder when the United Nations would assume its responsibility in securing and safe guarding human lives in our area. They wonder why the UN and the International Community remain silent and helpless in the face of the present destruction and massacres perpetrated by the State of Israel with the blessing of its staunch American ally and why they continue to allow the state of Israel to contravene International law and to violate with impunity all UN resolutions and international human rights conventions. 

Protecting Palestinian females: HRW misses the mark

Helena Cobban 7 November 2006


I truly do not understand some of the decisions that my colleagues and friends at Human Rights Watch have been making. This week, to much fanfare, they rolled out a very well-funded study about domestic violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, in which their main order of business is to blame the Palestinian Authority for having, “failed to establish an effective framework to respond to violence against women and girls.” As a woman, as someone who survived some long-ago domestic violence, as the mother of two daughters, and as quite simply a member of the human race I am deeply concerned about the question of domestic violence. But this study seems wrongly conceived and wrongly focused for a number of reasons. 

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator: End use of cluster munitions

7 November 2006


“As a matter of urgency, I call on all States to implement an immediate freeze on the use of cluster munitions. This freeze is essential until the international community puts in place effective legal instruments to address urgent humanitarian concerns about their use,” said Jan Egeland, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator ahead of the convening of the Third Review Conference on the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), which opened today in Geneva. “I welcome the entry into force of Protocol V to the Convention. I call upon all States to ratify and implement it in order to help us in the humanitarian community address the challenges posed by cluster munitions in post-conflict settings,” added Mr. Egeland. 

UN agency reports significant damage in Beit Hanoun after Israeli withdrawal

7 November 2006


Israeli military forces withdrew from the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun today, leaving behind significant damage to roads and houses, destroyed phone and electricity lines and shortage of food and water, the main United Nations refugee agency caring for Palestinians reported. The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said Israeli forces were still present in other parts of Gaza. Since last Friday, a joint humanitarian convoy of UNRWA and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been in Beit Hanoun delivering food, water, milk, blankets and mattresses to the hospital there. Additional convoys entered over the weekend and yesterday. 

Visa regime splits Palestinian families

7 November 2006


A thousand West Bank Palestinians holding foreign passports have been expelled from their homes and thousands more face a similar fate after Israel tightened its visa regime, according to Palestinian campaigners. “After being married for 31 years, I face today a compulsory divorce as the Israeli government has refused to renew the visit visa of my wife who holds a US passport,” said Dr Adel Samara from Ramallah. Under the new policy, tourist visas are no longer being issued to foreigners. Up until March this year, Palestinians holding foreign passports had previously been renewing their three-month tourist visas, rather than go through the long and uncertain process of applying for residency permits from the Israeli government.