Nine Israeli human rights organizations issued an unprecedented joint call to the international community to ensure human rights in the Gaza Strip. The statement comes in light of the dire humanitarian situation there: Some 80% of the population is extremely poor, living on less than $2 a day. A majority of the population is dependant on food aid from international donors. In the past four months, the Israeli military has killed over 300 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Over half of those killed were unarmed civilians who did not participate in the fighting. Among the dead, 61 were children. About 70% of Gaza’s potential workforce is out of work or without pay. Read more about Nine Israeli human rights organizations speak out about Gaza
The third special session of the Human Rights Council concluded its work this afternoon after adopting a resolution in which it expressed its shock at the horror of Israeli killing of Palestinian civilians in Beit Hanoun and called for bringing the perpetrators thereof to justice; expressed its alarm at the gross and systematic violations of human rights of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory by the occupying power, Israel, and called for urgent international action to put an immediate end to these violations; and decided to dispatch urgently a high-level fact-finding mission to be appointed by the President of the Council to travel to Beit Hanoun. Read more about Human Rights Council decides to urgently dispatch a high-level fact finding mission to Beit Hanoun
On Monday, 13 November 2006, two women from Juha clan were killed and a child from the same clan was injured by gunmen in the town of Beit Lahia in the north of the Gaza Strip, in yet another incident of security chaos. PCHR’s preliminary investigation indicates that at approximately 16:30 on Monday, three gunmen got out of a car and stormed the house of Zeinat Faris Juha (45) located near the compound of the Preventive Security Apparatus in the Mansheyya area in Beit Lahia. At gunpoint, the gunmen requested that the woman accompany them. The household confronted the gunmen, who fired at the people in the house, and fled. Read more about In Beit Lahia, 2 women killed in an armed clan dispute
During the early hours of Wednesday, November 8, Israeli soldiers killed five Palestinians in the village of Al-Yamun , in the Jenin district. B’Tselem’s investigation into the killing of two of the men reveals a very different picture than that suggested by the Spokesperson. Salim Abu al-Heijah and Mahmoud Abu Hassan, who were wanted by Israeli security forces, were wounded, but managed to escape from the initial encounter with the soldiers, and sought refuge in the home of the Kabala family. While they awaited an ambulance, three soldiers arrived in a jeep. The soldiers ordered the family to gather in the courtyard. Read more about Grave suspicion of extrajudicial execution of two wounded Palestinians
The Human Rights Council will hold its third special session on Wednesday, 15 November, to consider and take action on the gross human rights violations emanating from Israeli military incursions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the recent one in Northern Gaza and the assault on Beit Hanoun. The special session is being convened following a request by the Ambassador of Bahrain on behalf of the Group of Arab States and the Ambassador of Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The first special session of the Human Rights Council was held in July on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory. Read more about Human Rights Council to hold special session on Israeli attacks
As Israeli, Palestinian and international women leaders and activists, members of the International Women’s Commission dedicated to the goal of ending the occupation and achieving a just and sustainable Palestinian-Israeli peace based on a two-state solution, committed to the respect of international law, including relevant UN resolutions, human rights, and equality, we are outraged at the horrifying Israeli carnage against the Beit Hanoun civilians in Gaza Strip. The dawn bombardment of houses on November 8 in Beit Hanoun cost the lives of 19 civilians, among them 7 children and 6 women, and left dozens of innocents injured. Since the end of June, Israeli military assaults on civilians in Gaza have resulted in the killing of 383 Palestinians, including 68 children and 14 women. Read more about Women demand an end to attacks on Gaza civilians
As Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, I condemn in the strongest possible terms the artillery shelling of Palestinian homes by the Israeli defence force in Beit Hanoun that killed 19 innocent civilians and injured 60, including women and children. The explanation by Israeli authorities that this wantonly criminal act was a mistake is unacceptable. The shelling and subsequent killing of civilians indicates a premeditated military tactic constituting a form of collective punishment against the Palestinian people. Since 25 June 2006, the most recent Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip, I continue to receive alarming reports about deliberate attacks by Israeli forces… Read more about UN expert urges Israel to stop destruction in Gaza, calls for military sanctions
The emergent doctrine of the “responsibility to protect” locates primary responsibility squarely with the government of the state in question. But it also stresses the collective responsibility of other states for protecting civilians of any state facing genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing or crimes against humanity. This response should be the exercise of first peaceful and then, if necessary, coercive (including forceful) steps to protect civilians. Considering the inability of the Israel to protect Palestinian civilians, the international community shares a collective responsibility to protect civilians by getting Israel - through persuasion or otherwise - to abide by the Geneva Conventions. Read more about R2P could prove solution for protection failure in Gaza
IOF have escalated attacks on Palestinian civilians and their property in the OPT. Israeli political and military officials have implemented their threats to launch a wide scale military campaign on the Gaza Strip. IOF invaded the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun and committed a series of crimes. During the reported period, IOF killed 86 Palestinians, 52 of whom including 16 children, 10 women and two paramedics , are civilians. This increase in the number of casualties has followed orders by Israeli political and military officials to expand military operations in the Gaza Strip. In the Gaza Strip, IOF killed 77 Palestinians, 48 of them, including 16 children, 10 women and two paramedics, are civilians. Read more about Weekly Report of Human Rights Violations
In a day-long meeting of the Security Council today, called jointly by the Arab League, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the Non-Aligned Movement in light of intensifying Israeli military operations in Gaza, fuelled yesterday by the deaths of at least 18 civilians in Beit Hanoun, more than 40 speakers expressed grave concern at the mounting humanitarian toll, with many demanding an immediate ceasefire and deployment of United Nations observers. “The incident that occurred in Beit Hanoun on Wednesday is shocking,” Angela Kane, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, said as she opened the meeting. “Men, women and children, who posed no threat, were killed as they slept in their home.” Read more about Gaza violence, mounting death toll, provoke grave concern in Security Council
