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Press Release 3 October 2001 |
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Six Palestinians Killed During Israeli Attacks in Gaza |
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Six Palestinians were killed this morning, October 3, 2001, and many more were injured during
an Israeli incursion into Palestinian controlled areas near Beit Lahia, which is in the North of the
Gaza Strip. The Israeli security cabinet authorized the incursion. This attack was part of a
broader response by Israeli forces that began at 5:00 am to the killing of two Israeli’s during a
raid by several Palestinians on a settlement near Beit Lahia. The men who attacked the
settlement were members of Hamas, and were killed during the attack. According to information received by al-Haq, following the late night assault on the Alei Sinai settlement Israeli forces responded by shelling areas across the Gaza Strip. Reports indicate that Israel forces using gunboats, tanks and machine guns fired at and shelled security posts and other civilian locations throughout Gaza. Israeli tanks and bulldozers supported by attack helicopters also entered approximately one and a half to two and a half kilometers deep into a seven kilometer wide strip of Palestinian controlled land (area A) around the village of Beit Lahia to raze farmland close to the settlement. Additionally, seven security installations in and around Beit Lahia were destroyed, and many more security and civilian properties were damaged. Shelling also caused extensive damage to homes and security installations in the Rafah and Khan Younis Refugee camps. One home in Khan Younis was completely destroyed when it caught fire after being shelled. It was during this incursion that the six Palestinians were killed. According to information given to al-Haq by the al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, three Palestinian police officers in Beit Lahia were killed when the police station in which they were working was shelled. A civilian passing nearby the building was also killed. The other two Palestinians who were killed were farmers who died from shrapnel wounds after shells fell near where they were working. Many more Palestinians from locations across the Gaza Strip were injured during the attacks. This Israeli attack, justified as a response to last nights raid upon the Alei Sinai settlement, violates the basic legal principles of proportionality and discrimination. Although the individuals directly responsible for the raid had already been killed, were not connected with the Palestinian National Authority, and President Arafat and the Palestinian National Authority publicly condemned the raid, the Israeli security cabinet still determined that reprisals against Palestinian targets were warranted. These reprisals failed to target those responsible, but hit a broad range of other targets, some of them far from the location of the raid. The main focus of the Israeli assault was the Palestinian security infrastructure, despite the fact that the raid on the settlement had no connection with any of the Palestinian Security Services. It is Israel’s contention that the Palestinian Security Forces have not done enough to halt attacks upon Israeli targets, and can therefore be considered as complicit in the attacks. However, indiscriminate strikes against security locations cannot be justified. The destruction of large areas of privately held Palestinian agricultural land is also not only indiscriminate, but constitutes collective punishment. An Israeli military source who attempted to justify the army’s actions was quoted in Ha’aretz as say that, “we have begun a clearing operation to see where and how the terrorists got into the (Jewish) settlement of Alei Sinai. We are leveling Palestinian police posts and ‘shaving’ some areas.” The idea that clearing land constitutes investigation, and that destroying private and government property will in some way enhance the security of the illegal Israeli settlements in the area does not hold up. Such actions do not affect the parties responsible for the attack. Instead, those who suffer from these actions are innocents who played no part in the attacks upon Alei Sinai. Furthermore, at least two of the Palestinians who were killed were civilians who died due to indiscriminately fired tank shells. Israel’s random acts of retaliation fail to discriminate between those who are guilty of carrying out attacks upon Israel and innocent bystanders. Finally, the destruction of property, broad attacks against the security infrastructure near Beit Lahia, and attacks upon both civilian areas and security locations throughout Gaza is clearly disproportionate to the threat posed by the attack on the Alei Sinai settlement. Unfocused retaliation is both unjustifiable and illegal. The unwarranted destruction of property is also clearly prohibited under international law. Article 53 of the Forth Geneva Convention states that, “Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or to other public authorities, or to social or cooperative organizations, is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered necessary by military operations.” Today’s actions cannot be viewed as having been carried out for reasons of military necessity, and are therefore illegal. The willful nature of the Israeli acts, their lack of necessity, and the extent of the damage done qualify these actions as grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention under Articles 146 and 147, which constitute war crimes. According to Article 147 “extensive destruction and appropriation of property” is a grave breach of the convention. Destruction of property is also prohibited under Article 23 (g) of the Hague Convention of 1907. However, the destruction of property should not overshadow the continued Israeli attacks upon the Palestinian people and the deaths that occurred yesterday. Israel must be held to account for its continued illegal occupation and daily violations against the Palestinian people. If after repeated requests for assistance no action is taken by the international community, despite the well-documented violations of Palestinians’ human rights and of the Fourth Geneva Convention occurring in the Occupied Territories, moral and ethical responsibility for continued violations must rest on the shoulders of those who refuse to take action. Al-Haq therefore requests that its friends, supporters and the international public put pressure on their governments to act to ensure respect for International human rights and humanitarian law in the Occupied Territories and to provide protection for the Palestinian people who continue to live under Occupation. |
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