The Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) have committed an appalling act of mass murder in the town of Beit Hanoun today, one day after they redeployed around it. At dawn, the IOF fired eleven artillery shells on six homes in the town killing 18 civilians; seven of whom are children and six of whom are women. 53 others were wounded; of whom 25 are children and 12 are women. With this, the number of Palestinians who have been killed since the commencement of the IOF operation in Beit hanoun on 1 November 2006 has reached 77.

Field reports by the undersigned organizations indicate that at app. 5.30am today, Wednesday 8 November 2006, IOF fired eleven artillery shells, striking six houses while their inhabitants were sleeping. The houses were identified as owned by Mas’oud, Sa’ad, Akram, Hussein and Ashraf Al Athamneh; all five brothers, Abdul-Hadi and Jamal Al Kafarneh; also two brothers, and Saqer Udwan. All of the houses were located in Hamad Street in Beit Hanoun. It is also worth mentioning that sixteen of the victims are from one family; the Al Athamneh family.

Palestinian human rights organizations strongly condemn this outrageous crime and stress that it is but another example of the continued excessive use of force and the targeting of civilians and civilian objects that is carried out by IOF. Moreover, the human rights organizations stress that this brutality is directed without the observance of the principles of discrimination, proportionality or military necessity. This crime again illustrates the extent to which the IOF disregards the prohibition by international humanitarian law (IHL) of targeting civilians and civilian objects and the obligation to protect them.

The undersigned organizations emphasize that the state of silence on the part of the international community, when such crimes have occurred in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) in the past, has only encouraged the IOF to show even more disregard to its obligations as enshrined in IHL and civilian life, as manifested in this crime.

The undersigned organizations also emphasize that the IOF’s conduct in Beit Hanoun today constitutes a war crime according to the provisions of IHL and, as such, warns of Israeli attempts to manipulate the international community and public to avoid accountability. Hence, the undersigned organizations call on: