---

HR organisations letter to the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention

---

Al Mezan Center for Human Rights	Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 1:10 AM
Gaza
9 January 2009 Dear High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, As local, regional and international human rights organisations concerned with respect for international humanitarian law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), and in all situations of armed conflict, it is in both desperation and hope that we write to call for the urgent reconvening of the Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention. The past two weeks have witnessed the heaviest aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip since 1967, and the situation of the protected civilian population there is more critical than ever before. At approximately 11:30 am on 27 December 2008 Israel launched “Operation Cast Lead,” a large-scale aerial offensive in the Gaza Strip. The continuing air strikes have been followed by Israeli ground troops, which invaded the Gaza Strip on the night of 3 January 2009. To date, these attacks have resulted in the death of at least 729 Palestinians, 603 of whom were civilians, including 173 children, and the further wounding of over 3,200 more. In addition, the Israeli military attacks have resulted in the widespread destruction of civilian property such as homes, schools and mosques. While Palestinian armed groups have acted in violation of international humanitarian law in launching indiscriminate weapons towards Israel, these unlawful attacks do not justify equally unlawful attacks by the Israeli occupying forces. Israeli Foreign Minister Livni’s comments that such groups “don’t make a distinction, and neither should we,” show disregard for the law and reveal a criminal intent to target civilians. In keeping with this statement, “Operation Case Lead” has displayed a disproportionate and often indiscriminate use of force against densely populated civilian areas throughout the Gaza Strip. A full analysis of Israel’s violations of the international humanitarian law principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attack, and of grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention committed, can be found in the attached Al-Haq legal brief. In December 2001, the Conference of High Contracting Parties convened and called upon Israel, “to fully and effectively respect the Fourth Geneva Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” Such political dialogue, however, void of any concrete measures of action by the High Contracting Parties to ensure respect for the Convention, inevitably failed to induce Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law. In August 2004, the UN General Assembly invited Switzerland, in its capacity as the depository of the Geneva Conventions, “to conduct consultations and to report to the General Assembly […] with regard to the possibility of resuming the Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention.” Having done so, Switzerland reported back to the General Assembly in June 2005, explaining that informal consultations with the High Contracting Parties had resulted in the opinion that reconvening the Conference was “not the course to be pursued” at that moment. Hopes raised by “encouraging political developments” such as Israel’s so-called ‘disengagement’ from the Gaza Strip, and the need to place faith in an apparently nascent ‘peace process’ were cited as the basis for that opinion. In the three and a half years that have since passed, the peace process has been shown to be a mere façade, while Israel’s intensification of attacks and collective punishment against the occupied civilian population of the Gaza Strip has precipitated a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented proportions. The failure of the High Contracting Parties to effectively engage their own clearly defined legal obligations to ensure respect for the Fourth Geneva Convention amounts to tacit acquiescence to Israel’s calculated and systematic disregard for international humanitarian law. Further inaction at this time would not only betray any hope that the civilians of the Gaza Strip have left in the ability of international humanitarian law to provide protection and alleviate their suffering, but would leave broader question marks as to the basic commitment of the High Contracting Parties to invest in the future relevance of international humanitarian law. There is no longer any possible justification for the Conference of the High Contracting Parties not to be resumed. Thus, in the interests of respect for both international humanitarian law and the notion that informs and underpins it—basic humanity—we urge the High Contracting Parties to reconvene with a view to establishing consensus on immediate and concrete collective measures that can be taken under the framework of the UN, in order to ensure Israel’s compliance with its legal obligations and to bring to an end the violations of international humanitarian law currently being committed with impunity in the Gaza Strip. We further urge individual initiatives by High Contracting Parties aimed at ensuring respect for the Fourth Geneva Convention under Article 1, and at holding perpetrators of grave breaches responsible under Article 146. We look forward to receiving your response and remain at your disposal for any questions, comments or requests for further information that you might have. Sincerely, Al-Haq The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) The Arab Association for Human Rights Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel Addameer, Priosners’ Support and Human Rights Association Ad-Dameer Association for Human Rights Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies Defence for Children International/Palestine Section (DCI/PS) Democracy and Workers’ Rights Center (DWRC) Ensan Center for Democracy & Human Rights Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) Jerusalem Legal Aid & Human Rights Center (JLAC) Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession, Musawa Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies (RCHRS) The Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations‘ Network - PNGO Women‘s Center for Legal Aid and Counseling (WCLAC)

http://www.imemc.org/article/58397

Gaza officials: Massive sewage flood imminent

Saturday January 10, 2009 10:41
by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

Due to the ongoing Israeli invasion of Gaza, nearly 700,000 Palestinians have gone without water for days, and sewage pumping systems have stopped. In many places, raw sewage is running through the streets, and officials have warned that a massive sewage flood, like the one in 2007 that killed 5 people, could occur at any time.

2007 sewage flood in Um Al-Nasser village

One million people in Gaza remain without electricity for nearly two full weeks. The Deputy Director of the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, Maher Najjar, told Israeli reporter Amira Hass that between 40 and 50 % of the Gazan population are now without access to water.

There are 37 sewage pumping stations in Gaza. Due to the lack of electricity, 5 of them are completely out of operation, and the remaining 32 are only partially operational.

In March 2007, Um Al Nasser village in northern Gaza was completely flooded with sewage when a 6.5 acre septic cesspool containing 20,0000 cubic meters of sewage water collapsed, killing five people and causing hundreds to be made homeless.

Now, a similar disaster may be about to occur, on top of the military assault that has left nearly 800 people dead in the last two weeks. Local officials report that both fresh-water pumping systems that provide water to the residents of Gaza, and sewage pumping systems, pumping out human wastewater, are on the verge of collapse in many areas. The biggest wastewater treatment plant, in northern Gaza, was supposed to have been emptied a month ago due to the potential for flooding. Now, the risk of breakage and flooding has reached a crisis, with 10,000 people at risk if a flood does occur.

According to Maher Najjar of the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, a major water pipe providing clean water to 30,000 residents in central Gaza was damaged by an Israeli air strike, and a sewage pumping station in Beit Lahiya stopped working after its generator was destroyed by an Israeli missile, causing sewage to flood the street.

In Beit Hanoun, sewage has been flowing through the street for a full week, after an intake pipe to the sewage treatment plant was hit by an Israeli missile.

And in Gaza City, four out of seven sewage pumping stations have run out of diesel fuel for their generators, and are pumping sewage directly into the sea. The remaining three are dumping raw sewage onto farmland near Gaza City. Soon this sewage will be on the streets of Gaza City, unless pumping is restored.

FW: The United States Promotes Israeli Genocide Against the Palestinians‏

From:	Boyle, Francis (FBOYLE@LAW.UIUC.EDU)
Sent:	Saturday, 10 January 2009 10:05:49 AM
To:	Benjamin Merhav (benjaminmerhav@hotmail.com)

Francis A. Boyle

Law Building

504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.

Champaign, IL 61820 USA

217-333-7954 (Voice)

217-244-1478 (Fax)

(personal comments only)

---

The United States Promotes Israeli Genocide Against the Palestinians

Professor Francis A. Boyle

(from “Tackling America’s Toughest Questions,” now at Amazon.com)

As long ago as October 19, 2000, the then United Nations Human Rights Commission (now Council) condemned Israel for inflicting “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” upon the Palestinian people, most of whom are Muslims. The reader has a general idea of what a war crime is, so I am not going to elaborate upon that term here. But there are different degrees of heinousness for war crimes. In particular are the more serious war crimes denominated “grave breaches” of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Since the outbreak of the first Intifada in 1987, the world has seen those heinous war crimes inflicted every day by Israel against the Palestinian people living in occupied Palestine: e.g., willful killing of Palestinian civilians by the Israeli army and by Israel’s illegal paramilitary settlers. These Israeli “grave breaches” of the Fourth Geneva Convention mandate universal prosecution for the perpetrators and their commanders, whether military or civilian, including and especially Israel’s political leaders.

But I want to focus for a moment on Israel’s “crimes against humanity” against the Palestinian people—as determined by the U.N. Human Rights Commission itself, set up pursuant to the requirements of the United Nations Charter. What are “crimes against humanity”? This concept goes all the way back to the Nuremberg Charter of 1945 for the trial of the major Nazi war criminals in Europe. In the Nuremberg Charter of 1945, drafted by the United States Government, there was created and inserted a new type of international crime specifically intended to deal with the Nazi persecution of the Jewish people:

Crimes against humanity: namely, murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war, or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, whether or not in violation of the domestic law of the country where perpetrated.

The paradigmatic example of “crimes against humanity” is what Hitler and the Nazis did to the Jewish people. This is where the concept of “crimes against humanity” came from. And this is what the U.N. Human Rights Commission determined that Israel is currently doing to the Palestinian people: crimes against humanity. Expressed in legal terms, this is just like what Hitler and the Nazis did to the Jews. That is the significance of the formal determination by the U.N. Human Rights Commission that Israel has inflicted “crimes against humanity” upon the Palestinian people. The Commission chose this well-known and long-standing legal term of art quite carefully and deliberately based upon the evidence it had compiled.

Furthermore, the Nuremberg “crimes against humanity” are the historical and legal precursor to the international crime of genocide as defined by the 1948 Genocide Convention. The theory here was that what Hitler and the Nazis did to the Jewish people was so horrific that it required a special international treaty that would codify and universalize the Nuremberg concept of “crimes against humanity.” And that treaty ultimately became the 1948 Genocide Convention.

Article II of the Genocide Convention defines the international crime of genocide in relevant part as follows:

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

….

As documented by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe in his seminal book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2006), Israel’s genocidal policy against the Palestinians has been unremitting, extending from before the very foundation of the State of Israel in 1948, and is ongoing and even intensifying against the 1.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza. Zionism’s “final solution” to Israel’s much touted “demographic threat” allegedly posed by the very existence of the Palestinians has always been genocide.

Certainly, Israel and its predecessors-in-law—the Zionist agencies, forces, and terrorist gangs—have committed genocide against the Palestinian people that actually started on or about 1948 and has continued apace until today in violation of Genocide Convention Articles II(a), (b), and (c). For at least the past six decades, the Israeli government and its predecessors-in-law—the Zionist agencies, forces, and terrorist gangs—have ruthlessly implemented a systematic and comprehensive military, political, and economic campaign with the intent to destroy in substantial part the national, ethnical, racial, and different religious (Jews versus Muslims and Christians) group constituting the Palestinian people. This Zionist/Israeli campaign has consisted of killing members of the Palestinian people in violation of Genocide Convention Article II(a). This Zionist/Israeli campaign has also caused serious bodily and mental harm to the Palestinian people in violation of Genocide Convention Article II(b). This Zionist/Israeli campaign has also deliberately inflicted on the Palestinian people conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction in substantial part in violation of Article II(c) of the Genocide Convention.

Article I of the Genocide Convention requires all contracting parties such as the United States “to prevent and to punish” genocide. Yet to the contrary, historically the “Jewish” state’s criminal conduct against the Palestinians has been financed, armed, equipped, supplied and politically supported by the “Christian” United States. Although the United States is a founding sponsor of, and a contracting party to, both the Nuremberg Charter and the Genocide Convention, as well as the United Nations Charter, these legal facts have never made any difference to the United States when it comes to its blank-check support for Israel and their joint and severable criminal mistreatment of the Palestinians—truly the wretched of the earth!

The world has not yet heard even one word uttered by the United States and its NATO allies in favor of “humanitarian intervention” against Israel in order to protect the Palestinian people, let alone a “responsibility to protect” the Palestinians from Zionist/Israeli genocide. The United States, its NATO allies, and the Great Powers on the U.N. Security Council would not even dispatch a U.N. Charter Chapter 6 monitoring force to help protect the Palestinians, let alone even contemplate any type of U.N. Charter Chapter 7 enforcement actions against Israel – shudder the thought!. The doctrine of “humanitarian intervention” so readily espoused elsewhere when U.S. foreign policy goals are allegedly at stake has been clearly proved to be a joke and a fraud when it comes to stopping the ongoing and accelerating Israeli campaign of genocide against the Palestinian people.

Rather than rein in the Israelis—which would be possible just by turning off the funding pipeline—the United States government, the U.S. Congress, and U.S. taxpayers instead support the “Jewish” state to the tune of about 4 billion dollars per year, without whose munificence this instance of genocide – and indeed conceivably the State of Israel itself – would not be possible. What the world witnesses here is (yet another) case of “dishumanitarian intervention” or “humanitarian extermination” by the United States and Israel against the Palestinians and Palestine. In today’s world genocide pays so long as it is done at the behest of the United States and its de jure or de facto allies such as Israel.

Of course miracles can always happen. But I anticipate no fundamental change in America’s support for the Israeli campaign of genocide against the Palestinians during the tenure of the Obama/Clinton administration.

(Emphasis added - B.M.)

IOF Continue Targeting Civilians and Houses in Gaza: Death Toll Rises to 771; Including 189 Children and 58 Women

Al Mezan Center for Human Rights


Reference: 10/2009

Date: 9 January 2009



1:30PM GMT Gaza Time (+2hrs GMT)


Press Release
IOF Continue Targeting Civilians and Houses in Gaza: Death Toll Rises to 771; Including 189 Children and 58 Women



The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) continued its war crimes in the Gaza Strip by targeting civilians and civilian premises deliberately. The IOF escalated its destruction of houses, mosques and other premises with civilian character. Attacks also targeted United Nations personnel and property. The IOF's ground invasion continues under artillery and machinegun shelling of neighborhoods, particularly in the south and east parts of Gaza City, North Gaza as well as all the border areas along border between Gaza and Israel. Under continued failure of the international community to uphold its obligations, the Israeli operations in Gaza have killed 771 people, most of whom civilian non-combatants. Al Mezan Center has so far verified the killing of 189 children and 58 women; however, it believes their number is higher. The bodies of civilians continue to be found under the rubble of their bombard houses.



Since 1pm yesterday, Al Mezan Center's field workers have confirmed that 55 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip. Of whom, 18 were children and 5 women. The IOF destroyed 52 houses, a few of which were bulldozed within areas that IOF had invaded. The rest were destroyed in air raids.



Owing to increasing difficulties, Al Mezan could not finalize its daily detailed update. This release reports on the overall consequences of the IOF's operations. The daily update will be issued tomorrow morning.



Al Mezan has also received information regarding the deteriorated humanitarian situation around the Gaza Strip. The IOF's operations continue to prevent civilians' access to water, food and other necessities. The conditions of tens of thousands of displaced civilians has particularly grown dire under inability of the UN to provide for them due to Israeli attacks and operations, in which many UN staff members and properties were targeted.



Al Mezan warns from the continued failure, which is the result of unwilling, of the international community to bring the Israeli serious breaches of international law to an end. According to the information collected and reproduced by Al Mezan, the civilian population of the Gaza Strip has borne the brunt of the Israeli attacks. The number of casualties and damages, coupled with the humanitarian crisis, call for effective intervention, which must go beyond a non-binding Security Council resolution; itself has taken thirteen days to be adopted. The international community is under an obligation to stop the killing of civilians; including women and children, and to ensure their access to essential goods, especially water, food and other life necessities.



Al Mezan reiterates it calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to uphold their obligations under article 1 of the Convention and ensure respect of its provisions. Civilians must be protected and those who deliberately target them must be held accountable in accord with international law.



END

---

Civilians Found On the Verge of Death; Children Stay by Their Dead Mother for Days Starving at Sight of IOF Soldiers

---

Al Mezan Center for Human Rights ,Gaza	Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 4:25 AM
Reference: 8/2009 Date: 8 January 2009 Press Release Civilians Found On the Verge of Death; Children Stay by Their Dead Mother for Days Starving at Sight of IOF Soldiers Israeli War on Gaza Continues Raising the Death Toll to 716, Including 139 Children and 53 Women The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) continued its destruction of the Gaza Strip, systematically targeting civilians and civilian objects. Air raids and artillery attacks targeted homes, schools and medical teams. A unilateral ceasefire lasted for three hours yesterday; however, IOF's attacks were resumed more fiercely after 4pm. Tens of thousands of civilians whose areas had been threatened of bombardment left their homes seeking safety. Civilians also left their homes seeking food and other essentials. Nevertheless, IOF carried out four attacks during the ceasefire, including an attack on a car in Jabalia refugee camp, and shelling with heavy machineguns of a group of women carrying food to their homes in Ezbet Abed-Rabu eastern Jabalia, injuring three of them. IOF also threw leaflets warning the residents of Rafah who live along the border from heavy bombardment and ordering them to leave the area. Between 30,000 and 40,000 people left their homes, as a result. Civilians are made to stay in open areas and schools in Rafah, all of which are not prepared for sheltering civilians. Four days after submitting a request to the IOF, teams from the International Committee of the Red Cross and ambulances from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society were allowed yesterday to enter the eastern Gaza City of Az-Zeitoun. In one of the houses they entered, they found four children next to their dead mother and a young man, too weak to stand up. Twelve corpses were lying on mattresses in the house. They also found 15 survivors from the IOF attack, including injured people. In another house, the rescue team found 3 corpses. IOF were positioned only 80 meters from these people; however, has left them to stay with the unburied corpses of their family members and to reach the brink of starving to death. The ambulances were not permitted to reach the wounded people, who had been left for four days without help. The rescue team had to evacuate them on donkey cart. As the ICRC and human rights organizations continue to receive reports about similar cases in this neighborhood, ICRC has not yet received information from the IOF concerning its request to search for the dead and survivors. See ICRC's press release at http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/palestine-news-080109?opendocument. Despite the global plight protesting Israel's campaign against the Gaza Strip, the IOF has continued perpetrating war crimes under a failure by the UN Security Council and the international community to live up to their legal and moral responsibilities and bring such outrageous acts to an end. Al Mezan Center has continued its monitoring activities of the consequences of IFO's attacks on the humanitarian and human rights situation in Gaza. The following sections provide accounts of the developments in the Gaza Strip's five districts between 1pm yesterday and 1pm today. 1. North Gaza District: At approximately 11:45am yesterday, Wednesday, 7 January 2009, IOF fired artillery shells at the Ezbet Abed-Rabu eastern Jabalia, destroying the house and killing three child sisters. They were identified as: - 3-year-old Amal Khalid Abed-Rabu; - 4-year-old Samar Khalid Abed-Rabu; and - 7-year-old Su'ad Khalid Abed-Rabu. At the same time, IOF troops opened fire at an ambulance in the same neighborhood when its crew was trying to collect the body of a civilian; 42-year-old Samir Rashid Mohammed. Yesterday, medical sources announced the death of six people who had been injured previously in North Gaza, including two children, an old man and two women. They were identified as: - 15-year-old Adham Ismail Matar; - 16-year-old Islam Abdul-Dayim; - 20-year-old Ahmad Ijneed; - 21-year-old Ibrahim Salman; - 23-year-old Wafa' Abu Jarad; and - 87-year-old Mohammed Abu Rukba. Moreover, medical teams found the dead bodies of twommen and a woman: - 31-year-old Wojoud Rajab Abu Darabee; - 55-year-old Mohammed Ali Al-Sultan; and - Musbah Ayioub, whose age has not yet been verified. At approximately 4:40pm on Wednesday, Israeli aircrafts raided the house of Jasser Al-Batsh in Jabalia, destroying it and injuring one person. At approximately 6pm yesterday, also Wednesday, Israeli aircrafts fired a missile at a civilian car, killing five people: the driver, his three children and a relative. They were identified as: - 44-year-old Khalid Ismail Al-Kahlout; - 15-year-old Mohammed Khalid Al-Kahlout; - 12-year-old Habeeb Khalid Al-Kahlout (who was handicapped); - 10-year-old Tawfeek Khalid Al-Kahlout; and - 20-year-old Hassan Khalil Al-Kahlout. Two other passersby were injured in this attack. Al Mezan's investigations indicated that Al-Kahlout was going to buy bread for his family. Later, at approximately 7:40pm on Wednesday, IOF stopped an ambulance that belongs to Al-Falah Charity in Ezbet Abed-Rabu and confiscated it. IOF also shelled the Sheikh Zayid apartment compound at 9:15pm, causing damage to numerous apartments and forced its residents to evacuate their homes. At approximately 8pm yesterday, also Wednesday, Israeli aircrafts fired missiles at the house of 42-year-old Taysir Mohammed Zomlut, killing him, his 10-year-old son, Mohammed, and his mother, 88-year-old Khadeeja. The house was destroyed completely and two neighboring houses were damaged. At approximately 12:05am today, Thursday 8 January 2009, Israeli aircrafts raided the house of Mahmoud Rwishid, which is located in the middle of Jabalia refugee camp. The house and five neighboring houses were completely destroyed. Israeli aircrafts also raided six houses in Jabalia and Beit Lahia between 12:05am and 12:50pm today. As a result, the six houses and 11 other houses were completely destroyed. Another 26 houses were severely damaged. IOF also raided the Anan Mosque in Jabalia and destroyed it. 18 people were injured as a result of the bombardment of these houses. At approximately 9:30pm today, the IOF fired missiles into a crowd near the Kamal Udwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, killing three passersby and injuring two. The victims were identified as: - 25-year-old Mohammed Al-Hindi; - 24-year-old Anwar Jaber Abu Salem; and - 27-year-old Abdul-Nasser Odeh. At 10:50am today, medical teams found the body of 30-year-old Bassam Shaban Kouta in the vicinity of Erez Crossing. The victim was a driver at UNRWA and was killed from IOF fire as he was on his way to lift humanitarian aid. Two hours later, IOF artillery shelling of the Sheikh Zayid apartment compound killed a 5-year-old girl, Basma Yasser Al-Jilawi. 2. Gaza City District: The Shifa Hospital has continued to receive the bodies of people killed as a result of the ongoing Israeli attacks. Some of those were collected a few days after they were killed. Others died of their injuries some days later. At approximately 1.20pm, on 7 January 2009, the bodies of 12-year-old Radwan Mohammed Ashour, and his 11-year-old brother Abdul-Rahman were admitted at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The two brothers were killed while in their house at approximately 8am on the same day as a result of IOF artillery shelling close to their house in Az Zeitoun neighborhood, in eastern Gaza City. The bodies of following people were also received at the hospital on the same day: - 21-year-old Ahmed Hasan Abu Zour; - 20-year-old Ahmed Salah Mousa; - 20-year-old Azmi Diab; - 21-year-old Majed Sobhi Moshtaha; and - 20-year-old ALaa Mas'oud Arafat. At approximately 11.50pm, on the same day, medical sources at Al-Quds Hospital announced the death of 16-year-old Mohammed Samir Hajji as a result of injuries he had sustained on 12 December 2008. In the late hours of the same day, IOF aircrafts raided and completely destroyed the At-Taqwa and the An-Nour Al-Mohammadi mosques which are located in Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City. At approximately 2am, on 8 January 2008, IOF aircrafts bombarded the two-story house of 52-year-old Mohmoud Mohammed Al-Huwwari, in Az-Zeitoun neighborhood. The attack destroyed the targeted house and the house of Khader Rajab completely, and caused damages to four nearby houses. The attack also killed 22-year-old Omar Khader Rajab, and injured six others. At approximately 2am, on the same day, the corpse of a 50-year-old woman, Fadwa Khalil Kheil, was admitted at the Shifa Hospital. She was blown to pieces as a result of the IOF artillery shelling that targeted her house in Az-Zeitoun neighborhood on 5 January 2009. At approximately 3am that same day, medial sources at Shifa Hospital announced the death of 7-year-old Ahmed Jaber Huweij from wounds he had sustained on 27 December 2008 following IOF shelling that targeted the house of Hmeid's family. Jaber's father and two of his brothers were killed in the same attack. At the same time, the body of 42-year-old Hatem Waleed Ghazal was also admitted at Shifa hospital. He was killed by a live bullet fired by IOF sniper in Yafa Street in At-Tuffah neighborhood, in eastern Gaza City. At approximately 6am, on the same day, medical sources at Al-Quds Hospital announced the death of a 30-year-old woman; Rawia Rajan Awad, as a result of injuries she had sustained earlier. Moreover, medical sources announced the death of 14-year-old A'ed Ammar Kheira from wounds he had sustained on 4 January 2009. 3. Middle Gaza District: At approximately 7pm yesterday Wednesday, 7 January 2009, Israeli aircrafts raided a blacksmith workshop owned by Mahmoud At-Taweel in the Al-Bureij refugee camp. The workshop was completely destroyed. 30 minutes later, Israeli aircrafts raided a house and a blacksmith workshop owned by Abdul-Hamid Fadil, also in Al-Bureij refugee camp. The four-story house, the workshop and three neighboring houses were completely destroyed. Another 10 houses were damaged. Moreover, two men were killed in the attack. They were identified as: - 27-year-old Hammam Mohammed Issa; and - 22-year-old Ahmed Yousef Hussein. At approximately 8pm also Wednesday, Israeli aircrafts raided the house of Abdul-Raziq Al-Nadi. Three heavy missiles destroyed the two-story house, which was inhabited by 20 people. At approximately 8:55pm Wednesday, Israeli aircrafts raided the police station and the neighboring municipality building, destroying them and three other houses completely. Several other houses and an NGO office were also damaged. 4. Khan Younis District: At approximately 11pm, on 7 January 2009, IOF aircrafts targeted a group of youths who were close to At-Tatouri factory in Al-Amal neighborhood, west of Khan Younis, killing 22-year-old Salem Hmeid Abu Mousa, 22-year-old Hassan Rateb Sam'an, and injuring other bystanders. At approximately 11.50pm, on the same day, IOF aircrafts bombarded the police station which is located on Salah Ad-Din Street in Ma'an area, east of Khan Younis, destroying it completely. At approximately 4.30pm that same day, IOF aircraft bombarded the police station in Bani Suhaila destroying it completely. At approximately 1.15, on 8 January 2009, the IOF penetrated the vicinity of Abu Al-Alaa Al-Ma'ary School in northeast Al Qarara town, northeast of Khan Younis, and opened gunfire and missiles at agricultural and open areas. The shelling resulted in the killing of 60-year-old Atwi Awwad Abu Nazeef. At approximately 12pm, on the same day, IOF aircraft raided a group of women, killing 22-year-old Ma'ather Mohammed Hmeid, and 32-year-old Faten Sneid. The death toll in Khan Younis district between 1pm yesterday and 1o today reached has reached 5, including two women. 5. Rafah District: At approximately 9.50pm, on 7 January 2009, IOF aircraft fired two missiles at the three-story house of Ahmed Mohsen Hasan Fuju, which is located in Al-Jnina neighborhood in Rafah, destroying it completely. The house was inhabited by four families, a total of 20 persons. The attack also destroyed totally the adjacent two-story house of Hmeid Mohammed Mohsen Fuju, which was inhabited by 3 families, a total of 11 persons. The number of people killed in Rafah since the beginning of the Israeli operation till 7 January 2009 has reached 39, including 13 children and a woman, while the number of people injured has reached 320, including 203 men, 61 women, and 65 children. Al Mezan Center for Human Rights condemns the conducts of the IOF in Gaza, many of which represent war crimes and crimes against humanity by intentionally targeting civilians by killing and starvation. The Center also deplores the IOF's targeting of civilians during a unilaterally declared ceasefire yesterday. Al Mezan strongly condemns IOF's escalation of its use of excessive force, which the IOF has been allowed to employ against the Gaza Strip since 27 December 2008, under continuous failure to take urgent action by the international community. The Center is particularly outraged by the inaction of the UN Security Council, which has allowed for the killing of hundreds of civilians and for a severe humanitarian crisis in defiance of the rules of international law and the UN Charter. The Council is called on to set aside political differences and provide immediate protection for uninvolved civilians. Al Mezan also calls on the Un Secretary General to show clearer commitment to the UN purposes and values and intensify the efforts to ensure the protection of civilians in the Gaza Strip from the Israeli disproportionate, indiscriminate attacks, which have also targeted UN personnel and property. Al Mezan Center calls the Human Rights Council to initiate prompt, objective investigation in the violations of human rights and IHL by the Israeli army since the start of the current operations in Gaza. The Council is also called to take all the necessary measures to ensure the due respect and protection of human rights, and to set up mechanisms to pursue and bring to justice all those who have ordered or committed gross human rights violations and war crimes. Under continued occurrence of grave breaches of IHL, Al Mezan Center calls on the UN General Assembly to request the convention of the conference of the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War, of 1949. States Parties to the Convention are under an obligation, under Common Article 1, to ensure respect of the Convection. Under the ongoing military campaign, acting in accordance with this obligation is extremely urgent. END

ICRC Press Release - Gaza

Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 12:44 AM

Following is the ICRC press release.

MEDIA RELATIONS UNIT
International Committee of the Red Cross
19, avenue de la Paix
1202 Geneva
Switzerland
Phone: +41 22 730 3443
Fax: +41 22 734 8280
press.gva@icrc.org
http://www.icrc.org


ICRC News Release No. 09/04
8 January 2009

Gaza: ICRC demands urgent access to wounded as Israeli army fails to assist wounded Palestinians
Geneva/Jerusalem/Tel Aviv (ICRC) -

On the afternoon of 7 January, four Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) ambulances and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) managed to obtain access for the first time to several houses in the Zaytun neighbourhood of Gaza City that had been affected by Israeli shelling. The ICRC had requested safe passage for ambulances to access this neighbourhood since 3 January but it only received permission to do so from the Israeli Defence Forces during the afternoon of 7 January.

The ICRC/PRCS team found four small children next to their dead mothers in one of the houses. They were too weak to stand up on their own. One man was also found alive, too weak to stand up. In all there were at least 12 corpses lying on mattresses.
In another house, the ICRC/PRCS rescue team found 15 other survivors of this attack including several wounded. In yet another house, they found an additional three corpses. Israeli soldiers posted at a military position some 80 meters away from this house ordered the rescue team to leave the area which they refused to do. There were several other positions of the Israeli Defence Forces nearby as well as two tanks.

"This is a shocking incident," said Pierre Wettach, the ICRC's Head of Delegation for Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. "The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded. Neither did they make it possible for us or the Palestine Red Crescent to assist the wounded."

Large earth walls erected by the Israeli army had made it impossible to bring ambulances into the neighbourhood. Therefore, the children and the wounded had to be taken to the ambulances on a donkey cart. In total, the ICRC/PRCS rescue team evacuated 18 wounded and 12 others who were extremely exhausted. Two corpses were also evacuated. The ICRC/PRCS will recover the remaining corpses on Thursday.

The ICRC was informed that there are more wounded sheltering in other destroyed houses in this neighbourhood. It demands that the Israeli military grant it and PRCS ambulances safe passage and access immediately to search for any other wounded. Until now, the ICRC has still not received confirmation from the Israeli authorities that this will be allowed.

The ICRC believes that in this instance the Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded. It considers the delay in allowing rescue services access unacceptable.

For further information, please contact:
Florian Westphal, ICRC Geneva, tel.: +41 22 730 22 82 or +41 79 217 32 80
Anne-Sophie Bonefeld, ICRC Jerusalem, tel +972 2 582 88 45 or +972 52 601 91 50
Iyad Nasr, ICRC Gaza, tel: +972 8 282 8884 (Arabic)
Yael Segev-Eytan, ICRC Tel Aviv, tel: +972 3 524 52 86 or +972 52 275 75 17 (Hebrew)
Nadia Dibsy, ICRC Jerusalem, tel: +972 5917900 or +972 52 601 91 48 (Arabic)
or visit our website at www.icrc.org

http://www.imemc.org/article/58356

12th day under attack: death toll in Gaza reaches 700

Wednesday January 07, 2009 18:33
by Gaza office - IMEMC News

Palestinian local sources in Gaza reported that the Israeli army killed five Palestinian civilians on Wednesday evening.

children injured by the Israeli shelling on Gaza this week-photo by PCHR

The five, from the same family which includes a father and his three children, were killed when Israeli tanks invading the Gaza strip shelled homes located in Beit Lahyia town in the northern part of the Gaza strip.

With those five killed this evening medical sources in Gaza said that the death toll now has reached 700, at least half of them children and women. Additionally more than 2,900 have been injured and 200 are in critical condition.

The Israeli army embarked on its military offensive on Saturday December 27, 2008. Israeli warplanes started by shelling all the Palestinian security posts there. In the following days the shelling was expanded.

Hospitals, homes, blacksmith workshops, schools, and mosques where targeted. Day and night all the Palestinian coastal region was under attack. On Saturday January 3, 2009 Israeli ground forces entered the Gaza strip and divided it into two sections.

The latest civilian target was hit on Tuesday January 3, 2009, the Israeli troops launched an attack on a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency UNRWA in the northern Gaza town of Jabaliya. The attack left 43 Palestinians dead and around 100 wounded.

Doctors said all the dead were either people seeking shelter in the school or residents of the nearby Jabaliya refugee camp.