Illegal Israeli actions in OPT – Letter from Palestine

Identical letters dated 7 July 2004 from the Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council

The Palestinian death toll continues to rise as Israel, the occupying Power, continues to invade Palestinian towns and villages and to use excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate force against the Palestinian civilian population. In less than one month’s time, the Israeli occupying forces have brutally killed at least 55 Palestinians, including 12 children. The tragic and continuous climb in the number of casualties is reflective of Israel’s ongoing onslaught against the Palestinian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, in complete disregard and violation of all norms and rules of international humanitarian law and human rights law.

This callous disregard for human life by the occupying Power has destroyed thousands of families, with dire short and long-term social and psychological consequences for the Palestinian society. The Israeli occupying forces claim to be fighting “militants”, but the list of martyrs and the accounts of their deaths reflect a very different story: that of innocent civilians killed while trying to live their lives as normally as possible under such a vicious military occupation. Among the dozens of Palestinian tragedies as a result of recent raids and attacks by the Israeli occupying forces was the killing of a father and a son in the city of Nablus yesterday. Dr. Khaled Saleh, a professor from Al-Najah University, and his 15-year-old son, Mohammed, were killed by Israeli fire while trapped in their home in the Ein Beit Ilma refugee camp in Nablus. Also, this past week, the Israeli occupying forces shot dead a Palestinian man, Yasser Mohammed Al-Arjeh, a scrap dealer from the Brazil refugee camp in Rafah, as he was picking through rubble in the area. In addition, among the many children killed during recent Israeli assaults were a 9-year-old boy, Omar Mohammed Zara’an, who was shot in the head and killed by machine-gunfire from an Israeli tank while he was playing soccer with other youths in the Rafah refugee camp on 1 July 2004, and a 14-year-old boy from Nablus, Hani Khamis Mahmoud Qandil, who was also shot in the head and killed by the occupying forces during a raid on 10 June 2004.

Using tanks, bulldozers and helicopter gunships, the Israeli occupying forces have also continued to raid and attack the Rafah area in the Gaza Strip, killing and injuring a number of Palestinian civilians. The occupying forces also continued to deliberately cause the extensive destruction of property, including several homes, and uprooted hundreds of olive trees in the vicinity of the town of Beit Hanoun, compounding the devastation inflicted by the occupying Power on these areas in recent months. All such illegal actions have been carried out by Israel, the occupying Power, in flagrant violation of international law and in total contempt and disregard for the recent resolution adopted by the Security Council with regard to this matter, namely resolution 1544 (2004), in which the Council, inter alia, called upon Israel to respect its obligations under international humanitarian law.

This letter is in follow-up to our previous 194 letters to you regarding the ongoing crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, since 28 September 2000. These letters, dated from 29 September 2000 (A/55/432-S/2000/921) to 21 June 2004 (A/ES-10/271-S/2004/506), constitute a basic record of the crimes committed by the Israeli occupying forces against the Palestinian people since September 2000. For all of these war crimes, State terrorism and systematic human rights violations committed against the Palestinian people, Israel, the occupying Power, must be held accountable and the perpetrators must be brought to justice.

Accordingly, in follow-up to the above-mentioned letters, it is my deepest regret to inform you that, since my letter to you on 10 June 2004, at least 55 more Palestinians, including several children, have been killed by the Israeli occupying forces, raising the total number of martyrs killed since September 2000 to 3,103 Palestinians. (The names of the martyrs that have been identified are contained in the annex to the present letter.)

I would be grateful if you would arrange to have the text of the present letter distributed as a document of the tenth emergency special session of the General Assembly, under agenda item 5, and of the Security Council.

(Signed) Nasser Al-Kidwa

Ambassador

Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations

Annex to the identical letters dated 7 July 2004 from the Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council

Names of martyrs killed by the Israeli occupying forces in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem*

(Thursday, 10 June 2004 to Wednesday, 7 July 2004)

Thursday, 10 June 2004

1. Mohammed Yussef Abed Alyan Al-Je’awi

2. Hani Khamis Mahmoud Qandil (14 years old)

3. Shaher Awni Ahmed Moussa Tiqtaqeh

Monday, 14 June 2004

1. Khalil Mohammed Zuhdi Aryashi Marshood

2. Awad Hassan Ahmed Abu Zeid

3. Salah Saleh Ibrahim Al-Lahwani

Wednesday, 16 June 2004

1. Majed Mohammed Said Al-Saidi

2. Mahmoud Mustafa Ahmed Kamil

Tuesday, 22 June 2004

1. Khaled Jamal Ayoub Al-Shanbari

2. Ibrahim Abdelrahman Mohammed Salheh

Wednesday, 23 June 2004

Ibrahim Mohammed Ahmed Abu Sa’deh

Thursday, 24 June 2004

1. Mu’men Nafez Al-Maflooh

2. Hosni Bsheer Al-Hisi

Friday, 25 June 2004

1. Ehab Maher Ali Selim

2. Mohammed Haytham Fiqha

3. Abdel Salam Mahmoud Mohammed Abu Eiyadeh (sustained wounds from  19 May 2004)

Saturday, 26 June 2004

1. Nidal Said Ali Al-Wawi

2. Samer Tarek Selim Akubeh

3. Wajdi Al-Kadoummi

4. Omar Musmar

5. Nayef Fathi Abu Sharkh

6. Fadi Bassam Mahomud Bihti

Monday, 28 June 2004

1. Ashraf Ayoub Al-Sabagh

2. Mohammed Hasan Rizq Al-Shorbagi (11 years old)

3. Musleh Salem Abdel A’al

4. Ibrahim Sabah Abu Al-Bateekh

Tuesday, 29 June 2004

1. Mohammed Fathi Abu Azab (17 years old, died from wounds sustained on

20 June 2004)

2. Rasem Khalil Edwan

3. Ahmed Salem Abu Eid (14 years old)

Thursday, 1 July 2004

1. Ismail Ahmed Nabhan

2. Omar Mohammed Zara’an (9 years old)

Friday, 2 July 2004

1. Mohammed Ahmed Deif Alah

2. Mohammed Ahmed Kerim

3. Yasser Mohammed Al-Arjeh

4. Hamzeh Nahed Haboush (15 years old)

Saturday, 3 July 2004

1. Ehab Abdelkareem Shitat (8 years old)

2. Tarek Jamal Hasan Asa’d Ghanam (9 years old, died from wounds sustained on 28 June 2004)

3. Mahmoud Saleh Al-Lahwani

4. Yussef Fayad Hussein Nasr Allah (died from wounds sustained on

5 November 2003)

5. Esahaq Muin Abu Taleb (14 years old)

Sunday, 4 July 2004

1. Mohammed Nassar Mohammed Al-Shawaheen

2. Adnan Hasan Mansoor

3. Thae’r Hilmi Ramadan

4. Rifa’at Omar Salameh Abu Amreh

Monday, 5 July 2004

1. Hana’ Hasan Al-Sha’er (4 years old, sustained wounds from 1 July 2004)

2. Khaled Mohammed Yussef Al-Hawi

Tuesday, 6 July 2004

1. Khaled Moussa Saleh

2.. Mohammed Khaled Moussa Saleh (15 years old)

3. Yamen Tayeb Ali Faraj

4. Amjad Arar Amlitat

5. Hamada Zu’ereb (14 years old)

6. Ibrahim Rafiq Abdelhadi

7. Ammar Abdelghaffar Al-Jadbeh

8. Wael Suleiman Araysheh

Wednesday, 7 July 2004

Issam Ali Saeed Mahamied

* The total number of Palestinian martyrs killed by the Israeli occupying forces since 28 September 2000 is 3,103.