[News] Year end statistics: Israeli forces killed 742 Palestinians, injured 3, 735 and arrested 5, 671

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Year end statistics: Israeli forces killed 742 Palestinians, injured 
3,735 and arrested 5,671
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1362

(Gaza City) Wisam Afifeh
Wednesday, 03 January 2007

Official Palestinian health statistics, compared against human rights 
organizations data and press reports were submitted for the final 
report for the year 2006. The report was issued from Gaza this 
afternoon and indicates that Israeli forces killed 742 Palestinians, 
injured 3,735 and arrested 5,671 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 
the year 2006. Two hundred and ten were killed in targeted 
assassinations, and 588 of the total number of Palestinians killed 
were in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli forces killed 154 Palestinians in the West Bank. The Israelis 
killed 144 children, the youngest being three days old. Israeli 
forces killed 52 women, including pregnant women, mothers, the 
elderly and five women with special needs. Palestinians killed 23 
Israelis, as reported by the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem.

July was the worst month with Israeli forces killing 188 
Palestinians, while November came in second for death with Israeli 
forces killing 140 Palestinians, most of them in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli forces launched psychological campaigns with threatening 
radio broadcasts, holding families hostage if "wanted" family members 
did not give themselves to Israeli forces, and the frequent use of 
air raids and sound bombs, one of which caused a woman to die of a 
heart attack in the West Bank. Israeli forces targeted the 
infrastructure: schools, homes, the water and electrical supplies, 
and roads, particularly in the northeastern Gaza Strip.

Entire families were targeted this year, such as the Ghalia family 
blown away by a mortar shell from an Israeli warship while they sat 
on the Gaza beach, leaving a young girl Huda as the only survivor. 
Israeli forces also bombed a northern Gaza Strip house with an 
extended family sleeping inside, killing 18 people, mostly women and 
children, in a matter of moments.

Israeli forces conducted air attacks on 45 houses in the Gaza Strip 
by claiming they belonged to members of the armed resistance. Some of 
them did, however in 2006 it was still legal under international law 
to resist occupation. The practice of air destruction ended only when 
thousands of Gazans covered the roof tops and yards of targeted 
houses with their own bodies, refusing to allow the bombs to drop 
without causing major deaths and problems for Israeli forces.

Israeli forces destroyed 24 East Jerusalem homes under the pretext of 
"non-licensing" while continuing to overtake the city. Of the 5,671 
Palestinians arrested in 2006, 5,425 were in the West Bank. Israeli 
forces arrested 300 children in 2006, 140 of whom are still in 
custody as the year 2007 begins. A total of 368 Palestinian children 
are in Israeli prisons. And Israeli forces arrested dozens of elected 
officials for being members of the Hamas party, and continue to hold 
several, including Legislative Council Speaker, Dr. Azziz Dweik.

Deliveries of gas were stopped, checkpoints were closed, and the 
Israeli government stopped paying the taxes it owes for Palestinian 
trade as it all must pass through the Israelis, causing havoc to 
ensue in the Palestinian economy. The public transportation, fishing 
and farming industries were all nearly destroyed due to fuel 
shortages, closures, and Wall and settlement expansion and the 
ensuing land confiscation in 2006.


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