arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

On this day, Palestinian Independence Day, al-Haq is appealing to the international community with a sense of urgency regarding the fate of the Palestinian people under Israeli Military Occupation.
Acts of aggression perpetrated by the Israeli Occupation Forces continue unabated - including the excessive use of force, willful killing, arbitrary and summary execution and collective punishment.
Israeli settlers continue to conduct their rampage of violence with the support of the Israeli Occupying Forces. Despite the unprecedented number of Israeli soldiers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, it appears that the Israeli Occupying Forces have made no real attempt to stop settler violence. This indicates a double standard that is carried out by the Israeli Occupying Forces in implementing their duties in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Palestinians live under the constant threat of terror from Israeli settlers as a result of the Israeli Occupying Power's failure to provide the necessary protection in accordance with its legal commitments under international law.

Today five more Palestinians were killed. Jaddou' Badiy'a Jaddou' Abu Ikbash, 16 from Hebron/ Al-Samoa Village was shot from live ammunition to the heart by Israeli Occupying Forces.
Abdelhafez Mohammad Ghrouf, 20 from Jericho. Ahmad Sameer Basal, 20 from Gaza. Fathi Odeh Obeid, 18, from Tulkarem Refugee Camp and Samer Sabri Ahmad Khader, 29 Palestinian National Police from Kufr Romman/Tulkarem.

Yesterday, Mustafa Mahmoud I'lian, 50 from Askar Camp near Nablus was stoned to death on the road to Nablus by Israeli settlers from Kowkab Assabah Settlement. His son Ala'a, aged 22, and their friend Hussein Msallam, were also injured. Jamal Ibrahim Elwan 34 from Sinjel suffocated to
death as a result of tear gas on the entrance of his village (this case is still under investigation by
al-Haq fieldworkers). In Gaza, Mahmoud Khater al-Ijleh, 13 was shot and killed from a live ammunition wound to the head. Raed Fihmi Shaqfeh, 23 from Rafah was shot in the abdomen and died from his injuries. Saber Idriss, 14 from Amari Camp in Ramallah was shot in the chest by live
ammunition and died.

Yesterday, the Israeli Occupation Forces implemented an even tighter siege on the Palestinian Occupied Territories. The lives of Palestinians living under this siege their social, economic and cultural life has been severely obstructed, even halted. Palestinian children have been denied their right to education as the H2 area in Hebron remains under military curfew virtually imprisoning
35,000 Palestinians and denying over 12,000 Palestinian children their right to an education.
Palestinians remain cut-off from primary hospitals and health-care centers. Commercial life continues
to deteriorate and the movement of goods and produce restricted. Government Ministries are operating at a diminished capacity. Freedom of movement has been denied to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Al-Haq reiterates its call to all High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to signal to the Israeli Occupation Authorities that it will not tolerate grave breaches of the Convention. Al-Haq urges the international community to pressure the Israeli abide by the numerous international instruments that Israel has willingly ratified such as the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms if Racial Discrimination; the
Covenant on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In light of ongoing settler violence, and the continuing failure of the Israeli Occupying Forces to ensure the safety of the Palestinians, al-Haq again calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to provide and/or guarantee protection for Palestinians living under
Israeli Military Occupation.