[News] Palestinian human rights groups denounce Beit Hanoun massacre

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Palestinian human rights groups denounce Beit Hanoun massacre
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5990.shtml


Statement, Palestinian human rights organizations, 8 November 2006

[]

Palestinian man mourns after all of his family were killed in Israeli 
shelling of a residential area in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza 
Strip, November 8, 2006. (<http://www.maanimages.com>MaanImages/Wesam Saleh)

Palestinian human rights NGOs condemn Beit Hanoun Massacre; call for 
international investigation

The Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) have committed an appalling act of 
mass murder in the town of Beit Hanoun today, one day after they 
redeployed around it. At dawn, the IOF fired eleven artillery shells 
on six homes in the town killing 18 civilians; seven of whom are 
children and six of whom are women. 53 others were wounded; of whom 
25 are children and 12 are women. With this, the number of 
Palestinians who have been killed since the commencement of the IOF 
operation in Beit hanoun on 1 November 2006 has reached 77.

Field reports by the undersigned organizations indicate that at app. 
5.30am today, Wednesday 8 November 2006, IOF fired eleven artillery 
shells, striking six houses while their inhabitants were sleeping. 
The houses were identified as owned by Mas'oud, Sa'ad, Akram, Hussein 
and Ashraf Al Athamneh; all five brothers, Abdul-Hadi and Jamal Al 
Kafarneh; also two brothers, and Saqer Udwan. All of the houses were 
located in Hamad Street in Beit Hanoun. It is also worth mentioning 
that sixteen of the victims are from one family; the Al Athamneh family.

Palestinian human rights organizations strongly condemn this 
outrageous crime and stress that it is but another example of the 
continued excessive use of force and the targeting of civilians and 
civilian objects that is carried out by IOF. Moreover, the human 
rights organizations stress that this brutality is directed without 
the observance of the principles of discrimination, proportionality 
or military necessity. This crime again illustrates the extent to 
which the IOF disregards the prohibition by international 
humanitarian law (IHL) of targeting civilians and civilian objects 
and the obligation to protect them.

The undersigned organizations emphasize that the state of silence on 
the part of the international community, when such crimes have 
occurred in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) in the past, 
has only encouraged the IOF to show even more disregard to its 
obligations as enshrined in IHL and civilian life, as manifested in this crime.

The undersigned organizations also emphasize that the IOF's conduct 
in Beit Hanoun today constitutes a war crime according to the 
provisions of IHL and, as such, warns of Israeli attempts to 
manipulate the international community and public to avoid 
accountability. Hence, the undersigned organizations call on:

The UN Security Council to convene an emergency session to look into 
the situation in OPT, and dispatch an investigation commission on the 
IOF crimes since the start of its military operations in Beit Hanoun;
The UN General Assembly to uphold its legal and moral 
responsibilities and take effective action to ensure protection for 
the Palestinian people in OPT;
The Human Rights Council to dispatch a team to inspect this massacre 
and the breaches by IOF of human rights and IHL; to dispatch the 
relevant special procedures to the OPT to investigate the recent 
human rights violations without delay;
The international community, particularly the High Contracting 
Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, to condemn this crime and to 
undertake effective action to end the IOF's violations of Palestinian 
civilians' human rights; to provide effective protection for this 
population; and to call for an emergency meeting of the High 
Contracting Parties to the Convention to look into the mechanisms of 
full implementation of the Convention in OPT;
The United Nations' High Commissioner for Human Rights to end its 
silence and take actions towards ending the gross violations of human 
rights in OPT;
International human rights organizations to condemn this crime, 
investigate it fully, and also call upon the international community 
to fulfill its obligations.


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