Prison for Palestinians
“Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into a prison for Palestinians
and have thrown away the key...life in Gaza has turned to be
intolerable, appalling and tragic. Israel violates international
law as expounded by the Security Council and the International
Court of Justice and goes unpunished.... In other countries
this process might be described as ethnic cleansing.”(1)
- John Dugard, Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights
in the Palestinian Territories Occupied Since 1967.
“Operation Summer Rains”
The Israeli operation, code-named “Operation Summer Rains” began in 28 June, 2006 and is ongoing.
According to the Israeli Defense Force (IDF)
website, the IDF “will
continue to operate in all available ways to help establish
conditions leading to the safe return of the kidnapped soldier,
Corporal Gilad Shalit, and to bring an end to terror attacks
and rocket fire against the citizens of the State of
Israel.” Senior security analyst Alex Fishman reported that
the army had been preparing for an attack for months,
with the goal of destroying the Hamas government.(2)
Israel Refuses UN Mission to the OPT On 6 July 2006, the Human
Rights Council passed resolution S-1/Res entitled “Human rights
situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” in its First
Special Session. The resolution urged “to dispatch an urgent
fact-finding mission headed by the Special Rapporteur.” John Dugard
then submitted a memorandum of the proposed mission for the
approval of the Israeli Government. Israel however, never responded
to the request of the President of the Human Rights Council and the
mission never took place.(3)
Civilian Casualties
The daily killing of
Palestinians in Gaza according to the Palestinian Center for Human
Rights (PCHR) from the months of June 25 until
October 18 alone have mounted to 333 Palestinians, including 71
children, and approximately 935 injured and maimed. Since the
beginning of the second Intifada at least 2,300 Gazans have been
killed.
Internally Displaced
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
estimates that the military operation in the Gaza Strip in
June-July 2006 has created at least 5,100 internally displaced
persons(4) of which 3,400 were
sheltered at UNRWA schools in Rafah and Jabalia.(5)
Economic-Humanitarian Disaster
The poverty level in the Gaza Strip is 75%.(6) Humanitarian organizations have an obligation to
continue to transport aid despite the restrictions of access to the
Gaza Strip. Severely adding to the economic crisis is the total ban
on fishing imposed by Israel on 25 June, which have emptied fish
markets. At least 35,000 people reliant on the industry are
suffering a devastating loss of income. The fishing industry was
already in a steep decline before the invasion due to restrictions
placed by Israel on Palestinian fishermen, and pollution.
Palestinian IDPs
14 Summer 2006 Freedom of
Movement All entry and exit points to Gaza have been virtually
sealed by Israel since June 25. Air strikes from the Israeli army
destroyed the bridges that connect the north, central and
southern sections of the Strip.
Health
According to WHO, UNRWA and the Ministry of Health, they are facing
increasing difficulties in meeting the food needs of the population
who, prior to June 28, depended heavily on fishing for protein
intake. According to the UN, between 45% and 60% of the population
of the Gaza Strip is food insecure.(7)
Additionally, hundreds of chronically ill patients, including
cancer and heart patients requiring essential life-saving medical
treatment unavailable in Gaza, have been unable to travel. The
Israeli army has attacked the new emergency hospital in Beit Hanoun
while elsewhere generators are being used as a result of the
destruction of the power plant. Essential drugs are also in short
supply.
Unconventional Weapons?
Doctors in Gaza have reported previously unseen injuries from
Israeli weapons that have caused severe burning and leave deep
internal wounds, often resulting in amputations or
death.(8)
Destruction of Essential Civilian Utilities
On
28 June the destruction of the main power plant transformers left
around 700,000 Gazans (50% of the population) without electricity.
They now have an average of between 6-8 hours of electricity per
day. On 19 July, the Israeli army bombed power transformers in the
el-Maghazi refugee camp, cutting off power to the whole of the
central Gaza Strip. The water distribution dependent on the
electrical supply has led to a water shortage across Gaza,
with urban areas receiving as little as two to three hours of water
supply per day. The effects of not having electricity include: no
sewage, no lights, no refrigeration, no food, no cooking, no radio,
no internet, no gasoline, and no work. The military operation has
also led to the destruction of thousands of hectares of
agricultural land containing almond, olive and citrus trees,
hundreds of shelters(9) and several
dozen Palestinian structures including governmental buildings and
shops.
Sonic Booms
The entire population is terrorized by Israeli war planes, which
fly at low altitudes above the civilian population and break the
sound barrier.
The “booms” traumatize children(10)
and cause infrastructural damage. In November 2005, the petition
filed by Physicians for Human Rights and the Gaza Community
Mental Health Programme reported an increase in miscarriages and
heart problems from sonic booms. The Special Rapporteur to the OPT,
John Dugard, wrote “if terrorism has any meaning, then it is surely
this.”(11) During the present
operation, “the air force has caused three or four sonic-boom
sorties a night.”(12)
Sources
(1) Statement to the
Human Rights Council by Prof. Dugard, Special Rapporteur on the
situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied
since 1967, Second Session of the Human Rights Council, Geneva, 26
September 2006.
(2) Alex Fishman, “Who
is for the elimination of Hamas”, Yediot Aharonot, Saturday
Supplement, June 30, 2006. See also Alex Fishman, “The safety-catch
released,” Yediot Aharonot , June 21, 2006 (Hebrew) and Aluf Benn,
“An operation with two goals,” Ha`aretz, June 29 2006.
(3) Statement to the
Human Rights Council by Prof. Dugard, Special Rapporteur on the
situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied
since 1967, Second Session of the Human Rights Council, Geneva, 29
September 2006.
(4) UNOCHA,
Humanitarian Update on the oPt, June/July 2006. Available at:
http://www.reliefweb.int/library/documents/2006/ocha-opt-31jul2.pdf
(5) Report of the
Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the
Palestinian Territories Occupied Since 1967, Human Rights Council,
Second session, A/HRC/2/5, 5 September 2006, para. 22.
(6) Ibid, para. 32.
(7) See: OCHA, Map of
Food Insecurity in the occupied Palestinian territory, CAP 2006
-Revised Emergency Appeal, May 2006. Available
at:
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/fullMaps_Sa.nsf/luFullMap/07AAD0787DC5A25C8525720D004B807B/$File/ocha_FFS_opt060706.
pdf?OpenElement
(8) “2006 Gaza doctors
say patients suffering mystery injuries after Israeli attacks”, The
Guardian by Rory McCarthy, 18 October 2006.
(9) Report of the Special Rapporteur on the
Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied
Since 1967, Human Rights Council, Second session, A/HRC/2/5, 5
September 2006, para. 22.
(10) Donald
Macintyre, “Palestinians ‘terrorised’ by sonic boom flights”,
Independent Online, November 2005.
(11) Report of the
Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the
Palestinian Territories Occupied Since 1967, Human Rights Council,
Second session, A/HRC/2/5, 5 Sept. 2006, para. 25.
(12) B’Tselem, Sonic
booms constitute collective punishment, 3 July 2006.