Rafah - Palestine

The Rafah border, the Gaza Strip’s crucial gateway to the outside world, was formally opened by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on November 25, nearly four months after it was closed by Israel in the wake of the Israeli army’s departure from Gaza.

Abbas called the opening of a “free crossing” a “dream come true” to an audience of international dignitaries. This is the first time Palestine has controlled its own international border since Israel signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979.

Negotiations on how the border would be overseen and controlled had stalled for months, until US Secretary of State Condileezza Rice overstayed a planned visit to the region and, in all-night talks, persuaded Israel to drop some of its more onerous demands.

The final agreement puts in place a team of international inspectors from the EU to oversee and advise the Palestinian and Egyptian border authorities. In a surprising — but to Palestinians, very welcome — compromise, Dr. Rice persuaded Israeli to drop its insistence on final veto power on who may enter and exit Gaza. The Israeli Army can observe via a closed-circuit TV system and communicate any concerns to the PA border officials, but final decisions will be made by the Palestinian Authority.

After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, President Abbas said, "This is an excellent step that gives our people back part of their freedom. We hope it will lead to the country's freedom and the creation of an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital," he added. Freedom of movement for Gaza’s 1.3 million citizens is a crucial first step in rebuilding the devastated Gaza economy. Education, trade, and medical treatment have all been crippled by the frequent extended border closures and the tight restrictions Israel imposed.

After Friday’s ceremony, the border was open to normal travelers for four hours on Saturday. At the moment, only 20 of the planned 70-person international inspection team have arrived,. Within two weeks, all the inspectors will be in place and the border will be open, they say, around the clock, seven days a week.

A Palestinian woman, Um Jamal, 44, commented: "We will have to wait and see how the Rafah border crossing will really function and if it will help our economies."

Dr. Rice and the EU continue to urge Israel to finalize an agreement that would enable Gaza to build a seaport and to repair and reopen its international airport.

Israeli jets have launched different false raids last month around the Gaza Strip, causing gross damages to civilians' properties as well as killing and wounding many of them.

Meanwhile, Israeli tanks stationed near the northern and southern borders of Gaza continued bombarding different parts of the Strip.

Children and adults examine a car whose occupants have been
extrajudicially assassinated by missile strike.

In northern West Bank, Israeli forces arrested early this morning two children from the city of Tulkarem, after raiding and searching their home.

Eyewitnisses said that Israeli troops surrounded a house in Tulkarem and raided it, before arresting Ahmad Hattab, 16, and his brother Mohammed, 14, and leading them to an undisclosed location.

In the meantime, Israeli forces also arrested a civilian from the town of Taqqoua, south of Bethlehem province. Eyewitnesses stated that Saoud Al Badan, 43, was arrested after Israeli soldiers raided and thoroughly searched his house early this morning.

Furthermore, Israeli forces set up two mobile roadblocks at the southern entrance of Jenin City this morning.

Local sources said Israeli soldiers started pulling over a number of vehicles, and forced the passengers to step out in the cold weather at gun point, then checked their ID cards and searched them.

The residents of the towns and villages south of Jenin affirmed that these arbitrary measures have curbed their movement and hindered many of them while on their way to work or to their homes.

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Ref: 142/2005
Date: 16 November 2005
Time: 13:30 GMT

Israeli Military Court Acquits Israeli Officer of All Charges
Relating to the Killing of a Palestinian Girl

On Tuesday, 15 November 2005, the Israeli military southern command court acquitted an officer in the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) of charges relating to the killing of 13-year-old Iman al-Hams; the illegal use of his weapon; and the obstruction of court proceedings.

Iman al-Hams, 13, from Rafah, was killed on 5 October 2004, when IOF positioned in a military post on the Egyptian border, south of Rafah, opened fire at her, as she was walking with her schoolbag. The case received wide-spread attention when an Israeli soldier, working in the aforementioned post, confessed that his officer had "confirmed the kill" and shot the girl multiple times from a close range, after she had already been hit by IOF gunfire and was lying on the ground. Consequently, the Israeli military prosecutor initiated an investigation into the case. Moshe Ya'lon, the former Israeli military Chief of Staff supported the officer's claim that the shooting of the girl had coincided with shooting at the military post by Palestinian gunmen. As the Israeli newspapers published more details about the case, however, the officer was arrested under charges of providing false testimonies. On 22 November 2004, the Israeli military prosecutor presented a bill of indictment against the officer and the military court and extended his detention for two months in an open military post. On 23 November 2004, the Israeli media showed a video tape in which the officer was seen moving towards the child, who was lying on the ground, and shooting at her multiple times. On 9 December 2004, the officer was charged with the illegal use of his weapon. The Israeli military court released the officer on 6 February 2005, when the witness and other soldiers held back their testimonies, which had stated that they saw the officer shooting at the child. The witnesses and other soldiers claimed that they had lied during the investigation in order to get rid of this officer.

This latest Israeli court ruling strongly evidences the lack of justice in the Israeli judiciary system, especially the military judiciary. Investigations are usually conducted by IOF and cases are referred then to the military judiciary, thus undermining the credibility of investigations and court rulings on them. Since the outset of the current Palestinian Intifada in September 2000, 2908 Palestinians, including 651 children, have been killed by IOF. Hundreds of complaints submitted to the Israeli courts by human rights organizations, including PCHR, on behalf of victims have been ignored, and only a few cases have been seriously investigated. In this context, B'Tselem, the Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, published on 27 June 2005 statistics which demonstrated that the Israeli police conducted investigations into 108 cases of killing and injuring Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) out of thousands of similar cases, and that bills of indictments were submitted in just 19 cases, which led to only two soldiers being convicted of killing Palestinians.

One of the significant examples that prove the non-seriousness of investigations in cases of killing or injuring civilians in the OPT by IOF was a decision taken by an Israeli military judge in April 2005, acquitting an Israeli soldier of charges relating to the killing of James Miller, a British journalist, claiming that there was not "enough evidence to prove his connection to the killing." Miller was killed by IOF in May 2003 in Rafah, while he was working in the area.

In 2003, an Israeli soldier was acquitted of charges related to the killing of Rachel Corrie, an American peace activist, who was run down by an IOF bulldozer in Rafah in March 2003, while she was attempting to stop the demolition of Palestinian homes by IOF. The investigation into the incident conducted by IOF concluded that Corrie was killed "when she obstructed the operations of bulldozers" and that she was hit "when she attempted to climb the bulldozer." The investigation also concluded that Corrie's death "was not a result of a direct action by the bulldozer rather because of a hill of sand pushed by the bulldozer, which covered her, so there is no reason to take disciplinary measures against the soldiers who were involved in the incident."

These cases are a clear indicator of the impunity afforded to Israeli soldiers in the OPT, which encourages them to perpetrate more crimes against Palestinian civilians and property and to act freely, without being accountable.

The latest of such crimes took place in Jenin on 3 November 2005, when IOF fired at 11-year-old Ahmed al-Khatib when was playing with his friends on the first day of the Eid al-Futr. He was wounded by two live bullets to the head and the abdomen. The child died from his injuries in an Israeli Hospital on 5 November. IOF claimed that the child was killed by mistake, as the soldiers thought that a toy gun he was holding was a real gun, and so they shot him. The child's father refuted this claim and asserted that his child was not holding a toy gun. There is no indication that IOF have initiated a serious investigation into this case.

Earlier, 13-year-old 'Adli Tantawi, from 'Askar refugee camp in Nablus, was shot dead by IOF on 2 October 2005, while he was near his home. IOF claimed that they shot him because they suspected him of shooting at them. However, preliminary investigations conducted by IOF proved that the shooting was in violation of instructions, which had stated that that the child was not armed and did not pose any threat to the lives of Israeli soldiers (according to the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, 2 October 2005). The Israeli "Civil Administration" phoned the family and apologized for the death of the child, promising to initiate an investigation into his death. However, there has been no indication that IOF have initiated an investigation into the child's death.

It is worth noting that the most severe sentence issued against an Israeli soldier, convicted of killing civilians during the Intifada, was that issued against a soldier who was convicted of killing Thomas Hurndall in Rafah in April 2003; the soldier was sentenced to 8 years in prison. Sentences against soldiers are very rare in these cases.

PCHR strongly condemns this latest court ruling to acquit the IOF officer of charges relating to the killing Iman al-Hams:

1. PCHR calls for conducting fair investigations into all crimes committed by IOF against Palestinian civilians and property, some of which amount to war crimes under international humanitarian law.

2. PCHR believes that this latest court ruling proves the inadequacy of the Israeli judiciary in relation to such cases, as it is impossible to achieve justice when IOF constitute the judge and the accused together.

3. PCHR believes that a judiciary that provides a legal cover for torture, unlawful transfer, collective punishment and extra-judicial executions can never be credible and trustable.

4. Through its long experience, PCHR asserts that the Israeli military judiciary is used to provide a legal cover for crimes committed by IOF against Palestinian civilians.

5. PCHR asserts that the impunity afforded to Israeli soldiers encourages them to commit more serious crimes against protected Palestinian civilians.

For more information please call: +972 (0)- 8 - 2824776 – 2825893.
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Two leaders were assassinated and eleven people have been injured during an air strike by Israeli helicopters in the Northern Gaza Strip.

The attack targeted two leaders, one of them is a Hamas leader and the other is a Fateh leader. Many people were passing by and there were many children among them.

The Gaza Strip has turned into a hell where people are suffering from the horror of helicopters and F16 warplanes.

A child holds a sign demanding that Israel stop terrorizing the people of the Gaza Strip.

Concussion grenades, bombing, shelling, missile strikes, charred bodies in the streets, sealed borders, Israeli forces massing tanks and artillery batteries — this is what the much-touted Israeli disengagement from Gaza has become in a matter of weeks.

The cease-fire on which Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister shook hands back in February was always fragile, with each side accusing the other of violations, but all the Palestinian armed factions promised — and delivered — total peace and quiet while the Israelis evacuated their Gaza settlements and the occupying army withdrew.

Where the current crisis began depends on who you ask. Predictably, each side says the other struck the first blow. But the fact is that throughout the West Bank, the Israeli army, despite urging by even the US to show restraint and ease conditions for Palestinian civilians, escalated its mass arrest raids and assassinations of known militants. Most recently, Shadi Muhannah was killed in a car bombing in Gaza and in retaliation, militants in north Gaza fired homemade rockets across the border — hitting nothing, as is usually the case. But the Israelis retaliated with aerial bombing against civilian targets, destroying a community center run by Fatah in Gaza City and shelling the Al Ehsan Charity Association in Rafah, a building housing a free clinic and other refugee aid programs run by the unarmed community-service branch of Islamic Jihad. In the Rafah bombing, five were injured by flying shrapnel, including a four-month-old infant and three women.

A man cleaning up after the Israeli helicopter bombings in the Gaza Strip.
His house in the Northern Gaza Strip was shelled.

On October 25, in the West Bank, Loay al Sady of Islamic Jihad was killed by the Israeli army and the following afternoon, Hasan Abu Zaid from a small village near Jenin, carried out attack in the northern Israeli city of Al Khidera. He joined a group at a busy felafel stand in the outdoor market and detonated his explosives, killing himself and five Israeli civilians and injuring thirty. How Abu Zaid bypassed the apartheid wall — illegal under international law — that completely surrounds the nearby Palestinian towns and villages remains a mystery, but argues against the wall's effectiveness as a security measure.

The Sharon government blamed the Palestinian Authority for "not reining in militants" while President Abbas condemned the attack. The Israeli army imposed a total closure on the West Bank and Gaza, closed all military checkpoints in the West Bank, thus paralyzing normal activities, and upped its use of concussion grenades over Gaza. These sound-bombs are literally ear-splitting, and not only destroy sleep, but can cause long-term, even permanent hearing loss, especially in children. Hospitals throughout the Gaza Strip have reported dozens of children admitted as a result of the constant concussion bombing.

On October 28, Israel launched three major airstrikes in Gaza against, they said, potential Qassam launch areas. KhanYounis and northern Gaza have been heavily targeted, with a missile strike against a car carrying two Islamic Jihad leaders in Beit Lahiya, north of Gaza City. Three missiles totally destroyed the car, as well as killing six civilians passing by. Among those killed were four boys, ages 10, 14, 15, and 16, an old man of 65 and a man of 48. The streets were crowded since people were leaving Friday evening prayers, especially well-attended during the holy month of Ramadan.

A crowd of people surrounds a car destroyed by an Israeli
extrajudicial assassination missile strike.

Through northern Gaza, Israeli army planes started dropping leaflets to recruit collaborators, giving a mobile number and urging Palestinians to report the names and whereabouts of those launching Qassam rockets. The militant factions countered with their own leaflets promising any informants discovered would face "serious consequences." Over the weekend, missile strikes continued, including another targeted killing of a militant in Beit Hanoun. President Abbas contacted US President Bush, asking him to use his influence with Sharon to end the massive Israeli escalation of violence, while the Israeli authorities announced a plan to establish missile bases aimed at Gaza right outside the border. As many analysts have pointed out, Bush has his own serious domestic problems at the moment, and his approval rating among American citizens is currently lower than President Clinton's during the worst of his scandals. Sharon's long history of being cordiality itself to everyone in the Bush administration, while completely ignoring their advice and cautions, is hardly likely to change when the American government is so preoccupied.

Answering the militants' rockets with a huge show of force, including the possibility of new ground incursions, is like trying to put out a fire by pouring on gasoline. Throughout the Gaza Strip, as the fasting month of Ramadan draws to a close, people attempt to celebrate at a time of more threat than promise, more tragedy than joy. The festival of Eid this year, despite the visiting, new clothes, and gifts for the children, would be bittersweet in any case, as so many families gather in circles made smaller by the casualties of the Intifada. This week, however, on the nights that should be joyous with the cries of "Eid Mubarak!" (Blessed Eid!) children weep yet again in terror at the explosions while their elders try to comfort them. A Moslem tradition has it that toward the end of Ramadan, God reviews the deeds of all humanity and decides the fate of the world for the coming months. What, you cannot help wondering, does He think of a planet where the powerful feel free to slaughter the powerless?

In Rafah, at least 5 people were injured by the Israeli shelling when the F16s shelled Al Ihsan Charity Association.

LATER UPDATE — In Rafah around 3 o'clock in the morning, Israeli helicopters and F16s invaded a clinic in Al Shabura Camp.

A 4-month old infant was injured as well as three women. One of the women was an elderly woman named Aminah. She was seriously injured and transferred to Al Najjar hospital in Rafah.

The Israeli bombing by F16s targeted the buildings of Al Ehsan Charity Association, which includes a free clinic that aims to offer medical services for the refugees in Rafah.

The F16 bombings are taking place in all parts of the Gaza Strip and have resulted in many children being transferred to hospitals because of the loud explosions.

The shelling comes after the Gaza disengagement, while the media attention all over the world focuses on a free Gaza. The fact still is: Gaza is still under occupation!

World without hearts, the majority of them have lost their feelings, lost the meaning of humanity … no values nor principles … my brother ... killed in cold blood, amidst international silence. He was in the house when the Israeli bulldozers and tanks attacked the area and invaded the houses of our neighbors. The street was completely different and the only choices were two: either to get demolished with the house and be killed under the rubble, or to get out of the house and get killed from the shelling and shooting that doesn’t differentiate between child, old women or old man. All are targeted …

Hussam

My brother Hussam, 17 years old, was a secondary school student. He was one of those people who chose not to get killed by demolishing with his body in the rubble of the house, so he went out of the house trying to find shelter or a safe area where he could go to. He went out of the house and immediately got killed by 7 evil bullets (from the bullets of those countries who support Israeli army against children ... all Americans bullets as the doctors said in the hospital). In that moment when they killed him with 7 American bullets, Wedad Al Ajrami, a 33 years old women, tried to help my brother and get him to the hospital, but they killed her also. And now both of them have fallen.

Wedad's husband tried to help her but he was injured in his neck and all his body and now he is at the hospital seriously injured. Wedad's son tried to help his mother but they shot him and he also is at the hospital right now. Also the brother of Wedad's husband tried to help but he also got injured by the bullets of the Israeli army. Five of them fell to the ground one after the other. The ground was full of the blood of all of the 5 people were bleeding. The voice of one of the injured people was crying for help but no one heard him because of the shelling from everywhere, even with F16s and Apaches. The ambulance driver just came and it was the same situation: they tried to shoot him and after a very long time the ambulance driver was able to carry the body of the my brother and the women in addition to three injured people, two of them were seriously.

The moments can't be described when my mother got the news of the murder of my brother. They were the worst in my whole life ... when I see my brother who was speaking with me a few hours ago, and now his face cold in the refrigerator of the hospital. I tried to talk to him but he wasn’t able to answer me. When I touched his face I began to understand things that I hate very much …

Wedad … what did she do to get killed by Israeli bullets? And now she left behind 4 children, one of them who is baby child. My brother got killed with 7 evil bullets ... why? Those trees that were demolished ... those houses … why?

The drivers of the bulldozers and those iron machines didn’t answer the people who were asking the driver of the bulldozer to wait till they get out of their houses. The answer was more shelling - the bulldozers' drivers were in challenges, all of them trying to demolish and kill as much as they can … are there any people who hear this call? Are there any people who knows about this? Are there any people who care? Are there human rights in Palestine? The questions are so many but they need answers that are not found in this world … In this world, the strong eats the weak ... the same as living jungles … fingers just writing condolences, tongues just pronouncing all the words to express about sympathy to me WHILE hands still supporting Israel in the latest inventions of F16s, F15s, bulldozers and tanks .. so Is That The Justice that Peace Makers Talk About?!

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