This week, Israeli forces killed four Palestinians, including a woman and her son. One of the victims was extra-judicially executed in Jenin. Israeli forces wounded 18 Palestinian civilians, including ten children. Israeli forces conducted 54 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. Houses were raided and 94 Palestinian civilians, including 11 children, were arrested. Israel turned six homes and a ship into military sites. An Israeli army dog bit an elderly woman in Kufor al-Dik near Nablus. Israel has continued to impose a total siege on the occupied territories. Israel imposed severe restrictions on movement and has disrupted the election campagns. Read more about Weekly report on human rights violations
This week, Israeli forces killed five Palestinians. Two of the victims were assassinated. Israeli forces wounded 29 Palestinians, including 19 children. Israeli forces conducted 25 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. Palestinian homes were raided and 30 Palestinians, including 9 children and a girl were arrested by Israeli armed forces. Israeli forces turned seven Palestinian homes into military outposts. Israeli forces shelled a civilian facility in Khan Yunis. Israeli forces continued to impose a total siege on the occupied Palestinian territories. Israel continues to construct the Separation Barrier in the West Bank and razed Palestinian land near settlements and uprooted 400 olive trees. Read more about Weekly report on human rights violations
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights is deeply concerned over the future of the electoral process in light of threats of resignation by members of the Central Elections Committee (CEC) as a result of continuous interference in their work by the Cabinet and Ministry of Interior. A number of CEC members asked President Mahmoud Abbas to relieve them of their duties. The move came in protest against the Palestinian Cabinet’s decision regarding voting procedures for members of Palestinian security forces. On Wednesday, 4 January 2006, the Palestinian Cabinet issued a decision allowing members of the Palestinian security forces to vote. Read more about PA accused of obstructing Palestinian elections
On Monday evening, 2 January 2006, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) extra-judicially executed a member of the al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad, and a taxi driver. Another member of the al-Quds Brigades was critically injured. Three civilian bystanders were also injured. In the meantime, IOF have continued to shell areas in the Gaza Strip, especially in the north. On Friday, 31 December 2005, two Palestinian civilians were killed by the IOF shelling that targeted Beit Lahia. At approximately 21:15 on Monday, 2 January 2006, an IOF aircraft launched a missile at a taxi that was traveling on the Sea road near the Municipality of Jabalya. On Friday, IOF killed two Palestinian civilians and injured a third one seriously when they were sitting on a field in Beit Lahia. Read more about Two Palestinians killed in Israeli air attack on Gaza
On Sunday morning, 1 January 2006, unknown armed persons blew up UNRWA Beach Club in Gaza City. The club and a nearby site of the Palestinian Civil Defense were severely damaged. A few hours later, another armed group kidnapped a member of a European Parliament delegation visiting Khan Yunis. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights is concerned that the ultimate goal of such crimes is to convulse the internal security and security to cancel or interrupt the upcoming elections or hold them under unfair conditions. The UN club, which was established in the 1950s, servers UNRWA international and local staff. International staff no longer visited the club at night due to the current security situation. Read more about Unidentified armed men target UN club in Gaza
On Thursday morning, 22 December 2005, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) extra-judicially executed three Palestinians in Nablus. This attack was the second of its kind in less than 24 hours, as IOF extra-judicially executed a Palestinian in Jenin on Wednesday afternoon. According to preliminary investigations conducted by PCHR Israeli troops moved into Rafidya neighborhood in Nablus. They besieged a 4-storey, under-construction building. The gunfire continued until six. A Palestinian ambulance arrived in the area, but Israeli troops did not allow the crew to enter the building until 8.30. The crew then found three bodies and moved them to Rafifya Hospital. Read more about Israeli troops assassinate three Palestinians in Nablus
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have continued air strikes on the Gaza Strip, especially on its north. They have attacked a number of civilian facilities and agricultural areas. This escalation has come in the context of a plan made by the Israeli Ministry of Defense to respond to launching locally made rockets at Israeli towns located to the east of the Gaza Strip. PCHR is concerned that such attacks may endanger the lives of Palestinian civilians and destroy their property. On Sunday morning, 18 December 2005, IOF war planes launched 6 mock air raids on the same areas. They also attacked agricultural areas to the east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis. Read more about Israeli warplanes strike on northern Gaza Strip
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) brought a class action lawsuit today against Avi Dichter, the former Director of Israel�s General Security Service (GSS), on behalf of the Palestinians who were killed or injured in a 2002 air strike in Gaza. The attack occurred just before midnight on July 22, 2002, when the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) dropped a one-ton bomb on al-Daraj, a residential neighborhood in Gaza City in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The attack killed seven adults and eight children, including plaintiff Ra�ed Matar�s wife and their three young children and plaintiff Mahmoud Al Huweiti�s wife and two of their young sons. It injured over 150 others, including plaintiff Marwan Zeino, whose spinal vertebrae were crushed. Read more about Former director of Israel's General Security Service sued in New York for death and injury of over 165 in Gaza
On Thursday, November 17, an undercover unit of the Israeli occupying forces moved into Jenin and extra-judicially executed two activists of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the Fatah movement, in Jenin. This is the third extra-judicial execution committed by Israel in the northern West Bank in five days. Israeli occuping forces claimed that they ordered the victims to stop, and then fired at the two men when they did not obey the order. However, preliminary investigations by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights refute this claim and confirm that the Israeli army unit could have arrested the two men or used non-lethal force. Read more about Israeli forces execute third assassination in five days
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) extra-judicially executed two Palestinians in Jenin and Nablus during the last 24 hours — a member of the military wing of Fatah and the leader of the military wing of Hamas. These latest assassinations came just days after the Israeli Prime Minster Ariel Sharon and the Israeli Military Chief of Staff Dan Halutz vowed, at a meeting of the Committee of Foreign and Defence Affairs at the Israeli Knesset on Tuesday, 8 November 2005, to continue with the policy of carrying out “targeted killing [the term used by Israel to describe extra-judicial executions against Palestinians] and military pressure on terrorist organizations.” Read more about Israeli forces assassinate two Palestinians