Palestinian Center for Human Rights 15 April 2005
Israel continues to impose severe restrictions on movement of people and goods in the occupied territories. (Laurens den Dulk)
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) have launched more attacks on Palestinian civilians and property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). This week, human rights violations perpetrated by IOF included shooting at Palestinian civilians, incursions into Palestinian areas, house raids and arbitrary arrests. This week, IOF killed 3 Palestinian children in Rafah and injured a number of other civilians. In violation of international law and humanitarian law, IOF have also continued to construct the annexation wall inside the West Bank territory and confiscated more areas of Palestinian land for this purpose. They have also continued to impose severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians.
In the Gaza Strip, on 9 April 2005, IOF willfully killed 3 Palestinian children near the Egyptian border, south of Rafah. These children did not pose any threat to the lives of Israeli soldiers. PCHR believes that whatever the reason for the presence of the victims near the border, it does not justify their killing. On the same day, IOF opened fire at residential areas in Khan Yunis, injuring five Palestinian civilians, including three children. On 8 April 2005, a Palestinian civilian was injured when IOF opened fire at residential areas in Rafah.
This week, IOF conducted 23 military incursions into Palestinian areas in the West Bank, the largest of which was into Nablus on 11 April 2005. IOF raided and searched a number of houses and opened fire at Palestinian civilians. As a result, 10 Palestinian civilians, including eight children, were wounded, and 11 other civilians were arrested. This week, IOF arrested 44 Palestinian civilians, including seven children, in the West Bank. IOF also seized two houses in Hebron and transformed them into military sites. They also raided two schools and a kindergarten.
IOF have continued to construct the annexation wall inside the West Bank territory. For this purpose, they confiscated more areas of Palestinian land. At the beginning of this week, IOF completed the construction of a section of the wall to the west of al-Ram village, north of East Jerusalem. The construction of this section of the wall has impacted on commercial transactions in the area. It has also isolated nearly 60,000 Palestinian civilians in al-Ram village and isolated the village and the neighboring Dahiat al-Barid area from their surroundings. This week, IOF issued a number of military orders confiscating 2691 donums[1] in the villages of Yatta, al-Zahiriya and al-Biurj, southwest of Hebron; al-Khader village, southwest of Bethlehem; and Deir Ebzei’ village, southwest of Ramallah. In addition, IOF used force to disperse peaceful demonstrations organized by Palestinian civilians in protest to the construction of the wall. A number of Palestinian civilians and international solidarity activists suffered from tear gas inhalation.
Israeli settlers living in the OPT in violation of international humanitarian law have launched a series of attacks against Palestinian civilians and property. This week, IOF issued a number of military orders confiscating 116 donums of Palestinian land in Hebron for the purposes of settlement expansion. They also confiscated for more areas of Palestinian land to the east of Hebron to establish a fence around “Ennab” settlement.
IOF have continued to impose a tightened siege on the OPT, including Jerusalem. In the Gaza Strip, IOF have continued to completely or partially close all border crossings of the Gaza Strip, and impose severe restrictions on the internal movement of Palestinian civilians. They have also continued to close a number of roads and crossings in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the current Intifada. IOF have continued to impose a strict siege on Palestinian communities near Israeli settlements, causing more suffering to Palestinian civilians.
In the West Bank, IOF have continued to impose a strict siege on Palestinian communities. They have also imposed severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians to prevent them from reaching Jerusalem to protect al-Aqsa Mosque as extremist Jewish groups declared that they would break into the mosque. IOF also erected a number of sudden military checkpoints. They stopped and checked Palestinian civilians and arrested 12 of them, including two children. IOF arrested Sheikh Hassan Yousef, Spokesman of Hamas, when he was traveling back to Ramallah from al-Aqsa Mosque.
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