The ICRC has been particularly active in Rafah since a large-scale Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operation began there on 17 May. The organization formed a special operational unit to help to ensure availability of health care and water and to respond to other needs arising from the destruction of houses. The ICRC is coordinating the safe passage of Palestine Red Crescent Society ambulances through various Rafah military checkpoints with the IDF around the clock. In addition, following an assessment of all hospitals serving the Rafah area on 17 and 18 May, an ICRC medical team delivered surgery kits for 200 war-wounded patients while the Palestine Red Crescent set up an advanced medical post near Al Najjar Hospital. Read more about ICRC responds to needs in Rafah
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
Israel has destroyed three times as many Palestinian homes in the past 12 months as it did during the first 31 months of the Intifada, according to UNRWA. Over the four-year period up to 15 May 2004, Israel demolished or damaged beyond repair over 3,000 Palestinian homes. Of those, more than 2,000 have been in the Gaza Strip. The humanitarian crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is stretching the limits of the Palestinian people as well as of humanitarian aid organizations working in the region, including UNRWA, explained Maher Nasser, the Chief of UNRWA’s Liaison Office in New York. Nasser was speaking at a 20 May 2004 briefing at the DC-based Palestine Center. Read more about Gaza Humanitarian Crisis Stretches Limits of Aid Organizations
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
UNICEF said today it is deeply concerned about the impact on children of the ongoing military operation in the Gaza Strip, particularly a missile strike Wednesday that claimed the lives of at least 10 Palestinians, many of them children. “Palestinian children have a right to be protected against all acts of violence in the midst of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” said David S. Bassiouni, UNICEF Special Representative in Jerusalem. With the recent military actions in Rafah – and Wednesday’s missile strike – at least 10 children have already lost their lives, including Asma and Ahmed, a 16 and 13-year-old girl and boy, respectively, shot in their home in Rafah on Tuesday morning. Read more about UNICEF calls for the protection of children in Rafah
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
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
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
Rafah, Wednesday, 19 May 2004 (2:00pm) — An estimated 1000 Palestinians were attacked by Israeli Army tank fire and helicopter shelling during a peaceful march in solidarity with the residents of Tal as-Sultan, which has been under Israeli military siege and curfew for the past three days. The PRCS Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Gaza has reported fourteen deaths and tens of injuries, several are in critical condition. According to eyewitnesses and live television reports, an Israeli Army tank fired two missiles towards the marchers and immediately after that, Apache helicopters began to fire missiles, directly hitting the marchers. Read more about PCRS: Israeli Army attacks peaceful solidarity march in Rafah
