End Israeli Crimes against the Palestinian People

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End Israeli Crimes against the Palestinian People

Conference on the Right of Return for Palestinian Refugees and Launch of Report on Palestinian Refugees

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has condemned Israel’s demolition of three residential tower blocks in the Gaza Strip after more than 2,000 Palestinians were rendered homeless. The buildings consisted of 144 apartments in al-Zahra.

In an attempt to prevent the demolition of the three buildings, at approximately 23:50 on Saturday, October 25, PCHR (The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights) submitted a petition to the Israeli High Court.  As they have numerous times in the past, the Israeli prosecution claimed that the three buildings were to be demolished on grounds of security necessities.

At approximately 02:00 on Sunday, October 26, the Israeli High Court rejected PCHR's petition, permitting the demolition of the three buildings and at approximately 02:20, Israeli occupying forces demolished the three buildings. The rejection of the petition against illegal Israeli military actions is the latest in an ongoing policy of blanket acceptance of "security" as a justification for unlawful measures taken by the Israeli military.

Earlier in the evening on October 25, Israeli occupying forces fired approximately 15 tank shells at the three buildings.  Israeli military vehicles then moved from "Netzarim" settlement, south of Gaza City, into al-Zahra town, taking control of the area. Israeli soldiers planted explosives inside a Palestinian police station and destroyed it.  Soon after, Israeli soldiers ordered residents of the area to vacate their houses and go to the nearby Nusseirat refugee camp. Once the evacuation of the area was complete, Israeli soldiers planted explosives inside the three buildings and destroyed them. 

According to information available to PCHR, the three buildings were owned by al-Zhafer Contracting Company.  They were in the final stages of construction.  Each building was composed of 12 floors, each of which had four apartments.  A number of neighbouring houses and buildings were also damaged in the explosion. 

Israel has been consistently levelling homes to the ground in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and international law. Article 53 of the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention forbids "any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons". According to UNRWA, close to 12,000 Palestinians have been made homeless by these demolitions in the Gaza Strip alone since the outbreak of the Intifada.

A few days earlier, following three aerial attacks on Monday, October 20, Israeli occupying forces conducted a further two aerial attacks in the Gaza Strip. In the fourth aerial attack in 24 hours, seven Palestinian civilians, including a child and an on-duty doctor, were killed in Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. The attack was an assassination attempt by Israeli occupying forces targeting two members of the Palestinian resistance. The two targeted individuals escaped but 50 Palestinians civilians were wounded in the attack, including 11 children.

According preliminary investigations of the PCHR, at approximately 21:15 on Monday, October 20, Israeli helicopter gunships launched a missile at a civilian car travelling to the east of Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. The missile reportedly hit the front of the car, but the passengers managed to flee the vehicle. As Palestinian civilians gathered around the scene of the attack, Israeli helicopter gunships launched another missile towards the car, sending shrapnel into the crowd. Seven Palestinian civilians were killed instantly, including a 12-year-old child and a doctor from the Nusseirat Medical Centre who was tending to those wounded by the first missile. Fifty civilians were wounded, including ten seriously.

In the fifth aerial attack, at approximately 22:20, Israeli F-16 fighter jets fired missiles at a building in al-Shojaeya neighbourhood in the east of Gaza City, for the second time in less than 24 hours. The building was totally destroyed and eight Palestinian civilians were wounded, including a child. The building had been hit in an attack earlier on Monday, severely damaging it and wounding 21 civilians, including seven children. Israeli occupying forces claimed that the building served as a weapons store.

In total, Israeli occupying forces conducted five aerial attacks in the Gaza Strip on October 20. Ten Palestinians were killed, an additional two Palestinians were declared clinically dead and over 80 Palestinians were wounded.

Israel’s aerial attacks on the Gaza Strip have been escalating. Such aerial attacks in densely populated civilian areas demonstrate the Israeli occupying forces’ increasing disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians. WDIE condemns the wilful killings and injuries of Palestinian civilians and other grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention perpetrated by the Israeli military in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. These crimes against humanity backed by US imperialism, about which the British government does nothing, must end.