Situation in the OPT/Settlements – Letter from Jordan

DOCUMENT S/19537*

Letter dated 24 February 1988 from the representative

of Jordan to the Secretary-General

[Original: Arabic]

[25 February 1988]

I am sending you a report containing the most recent information on the measures taken by the Israeli occupation authorities during the month of January 1988 in the Arab territories occupied by them since 1967. These measures comprise Israeli settlement operations, the confiscation of land and acts of aggression against Arab citizens and their property.

At a time when the international community, both inside and outside the framework of the United Nations, is preoccupied by the deteriorating situation in the Arab territories occupied by Israel, as a result of the repressive measures being carried out by the Israeli occupation authorities to counter the Arab population's rejection of that occupation, the annexed report clearly demonstrates that Israel remains determined to carry out its plans for the expansion of Israeli settlement, the confiscation of land and the perpetration of acts of aggression against Arab citizens, which in each case violate the principles of international law relating to military occupation and, in particular, the Hague Convention of 1907 1/ and the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949. 2/

During the period reviewed in the annexed report, Israel confiscated 800 dunums of occupied Arab land, bringing the total confiscated between the time when the Arab territories were first occupied in 1967 and the month of January 1988 to 2,755,276 dunums. During that same month, 27 Arab male and female citizens were killed by the Israeli occupation forces and Israeli settlers, some 950 Arabs were hurt or injured and about 5,000 were arrested.

By setting forth in the annex the details of these attacks and practices, I should like to emphasize to you, and through you to the international community, the danger which the continuation of such a policy and such practices represent for international peace and security and for peace efforts and prospects in the region.

I should be grateful if you would have this letter and its annex circulated as an official document of the General Assembly and of the Security Council.

(Signed) Abdullah SALAH

Permanent Representative of Jordan

to the United Nation

* Circulated under the double symbol A/43/166-S/19537

ANNEX

Monthly report on Israeli settlement operations and acts of aggression against Arab citizens

and their property during January 1988

During the period under review in this report, the occupied Arab territories saw the popular uprising of Arab citizens under Israeli occupation enter its second month, while the Israeli occupation authorities employed abhorrent methods in an attempt to suppress and stifle that uprising.

One of the methods used by the Israeli occupation authorities during the period was that of laying siege to the Palestinian refugee camps for a period in excess of 12 days and of preventing the 300,000 residents of those camps (200,000 of them in the Gaza Strip and 100,000 in the West Bank) from leaving the camps to obtain food, which ran out during the first days of the siege. Furthermore, no permission was granted for their needs to be met from outside.

The Israeli army authorities also deliberately pursued a policy of "beating and breaking" against Arab citizens in the cities, villages and camps of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. On 18 January Israeli Minister of Defence Yitzhak Rabin ordered soldiers of the Israeli army operating in the occupied territories to use their truncheons to beat citizens and deliberately to inflict fractures and severe bruises. These Israeli policies and practices led, inter alia, to the killing of 27 male and female citizens and the wounding and injury of hundreds more. With regard to the victims of the "beating and breaking" policy, sources in the occupied territories indicated that 600 Arab citizens of the Gaza Strip were taken to hospital for the treatment of fractures in various parts of their bodies (mostly in the head, hands and legs), while some 200 male and female citizens of the West Bank were admitted to hospitals for the same reasons. It is to be noted that these numbers include only those of the injured who went to hospital and exclude those who preferred to be treated in their homes, their number being estimated at 150 male and female citizens.

The number of Palestinians arrested during the period, against the backdrop of the events in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, is estimated at some 5,000. A senior official in the Israeli army admired that most of the detainees had been arrested without sufficient justification because the Israeli soldiers did not know which individuals had actually been involved in the "disturbances" and were therefore arresting anyone who happened to be on the spot at the time of demonstrations or stone-throwing incidents.

Meanwhile, the occupation authorities' determination to suppress the Arab uprising did not prevent them from persisting in their daily pattern of aggression against Arab territory and the Arab population. The authorities issued orders for the confiscation of 800 dunums of Arab land and continued their attempts to increase Jewish settlement in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and to draw up plans to attract and encourage Jews, particularly new immigrants, to take up residence in those settlements which have already been established in the occupied West Bank.

As regards attacks on the liberties and human rights of the Arab population, the Israeli authorities continued to pursue their inhuman policy and to impose harsh individual and collective punishments. These included the sentencing of 227 citizens of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip who appeared before the military courts. The sentences ranged from imprisonment for many years or several months to the imposition of heavy fines. The occupation authorities placed 86 citizens under administrative detention for a period of six months, placed two citizens under house arrest, ordered the expulsion of nine Arab citizens, including four to southern Lebanon, demolished 22 Arab houses, imposed a curfew in most major cities of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and in all the Gaza Strip camps and ordered the closure of all Arab schools and five universities.

Details of these acts of aggression follow.

1.  CONFISCATION OF LAND

The Israeli occupation authorities confiscated 800 dunums of land belonging to the villages of Sanniryah and Qarawa Bani Hassan, south-east of the city of Qalqilyah (Nablus governorate). The area of land confiscated by the Israeli authorities between June 1967 and January 1988 thus reached a total of 2,755,276 dunums.

During the course of 1987, the occupation authorities confiscated a total of 13,693 dunums of land in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. A table showing all the confiscations which took place during the past year in each separate district, the location of the confiscated land and the date of its confiscation is set forth below.

Also during January 1988, the Israeli authorities – in the form of the Supreme Administration Council announced the launching of the settlement project known as "Regional Road No. 60". Work is to begin in early February 1988. This project will cause great damage to the fund of a number of Arab villages, including Al-Khadr (near Bethlehem), as the intention is to divide the village into two separate halves and to allow the road to pass between them. It is also intended that 50 per cent of the villages fund should be confiscated, that 2,000 dunums of cultivated land should be destroyed and that 20 houses should be demolished. The village council of Al-Khadr and its citizens presented as many as 69 complaints about the project, but the Israeli authorities rejected the complaints on the grounds that there was no alternative. The proposed road will be 8 kilometres long and 50 metres wide and will be flanked by a 75-metre-wide shoulder on either side in which construction will be prohibited over the entire length of the road.

II.  SETTLEMENT

On 12 January Israeli Minister of Housing David Levi laid the foundation-stone of a new Jewish settlement called Levna south of the city of Hebron. Twenty-three Jewish families are supposed to move and take up permanent residence in the new settlement in the near future. The settlement is reported to be one of the colonies whose construction was agreed in 1984 in the context of the agreement concluded between Labour and Likud on the formation of a coalition Government.

During the ceremony in which the foundation-stone was laid, the Minister of Housing said that the settlement process in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip would not be halted despite what he called the recent disturbances and incidents. It was planned that 2,000 new residential units should be erected in the West Bank settlements and occupied by Jews during the course of the year, compared with 1,500 new residential units constructed during 1987.

With regard to the increasing level of right-wing extremism and fanaticism among the population of the Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, a number of Jewish settlers raised their voices to call for imposition of the harshest collective and individual punishments on Arabs in response to the escalation of the tremendous popular uprising, which is referred to by the Israelis in such terms as "acts of violence" and "violations of security and order". The calls include the urging of Shilo Gal, head of the Jewish Settlements Council in the occupied West Bank that the Israeli Government should extend Israeli law to parts of the occupied territories, because such a measure – which in effect means annexation – was the only means of convincing the Arab population that Israel would not bow to pressure and did not intend to give up the West Bank.

On 15 January, at the first meeting of the Jewish Settlements Council in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of the uprising, the Council decided to step up efforts to "support and expand the Israeli presence in the territories". Those attending the meeting sharply criticized Israeli leftist movements, peace movements and other voices calling for an end to the occupation or a relaxation of the iron fist policy and the repression and maltreatment of Arab citizens. The statement issued by the Council accused these movements of reducing the ability of the Israeli forces to respond to the "violence and disturbances". The statement expressed satisfaction with the Israeli measures of repression against Arab citizens and support for the policy of expulsion, use of live ammunition, siege of the camps and other methods used by the occupying Power in putting down the uprising.

At a meeting of leading members of the Herut movement, Israeli Minister of Industry and Trade Ariel Sharon called for an increase in settlement activities in the occupied territories. He referred to Israeli expectations that the number of Jewish settlers in the occupied territories would increase during the current year by about 10,000. With respect to the Jewish settlement budget, the Israeli Minister of Economics and Planning, Gad Y'acobi said in a statement published on 27 January that the funds spent on the construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories during the past 20 years of occupation amounted to a total of $20 billion.

III.  ACTS OF AGGRESSION AGAINST ARAB CITIZENS AND THEIR PROPERTY

The Israeli occupation authorities carried out a number of acts of aggression during January. In doing so, they acted alternately with Jewish settlers and with other Jewish extremists and racists.

Details of acts of aggression which resulted in damage to the person, property or land of citizens follows.

(a) Aggression against Arab land

1. On 17 January the Israeli military authorities ploughed up eight dunums of fund plumed with citrus trees belonging to the village of Bayt Hanun in the Gaza Strip, alleging that the site had been used by demonstrators. The authorities also put up a barrier made of sand on the road west of Bayt Hanun and another barrier on the eastern side of the village.

2. On 20 January "unidentified persons" carried out, for the fifth time, an act of aggression against fund owned by the citizen Muhammad Ibrahim Hamid in the village of Azzun, near Nablus. They cut down and destroyed 50 cultivated olive trees. This land is located close to an Israeli settlement called Ma'aleh Shomron.

3. On 20 January "unidentified persons" destroyed 200 olive trees on privately owned land in an area known as Wadi al-Hamam, near the village of Bayt Ula (Hebron governorate). The damage was estimated at some 2,000 Jordanian dinars.

(b) Aggression against Arab citizens and their property

1. Israeli army forces several times during the month confiscated copies of Arab newspapers published in Jerusalem which were sent for distribution in cities of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The confiscations took place without any orders being issued or any reasons being given. On one occasion, Israeli soldiers severely beat up the representative of the newspaper Al-Fajr in Khan Younis.

2. On 2 January a number of Israeli soldiers raided the centre of the Arab city of Jerusalem and beat up a number of citizens, including a 64-year-old Arab woman.

3. On 5 January a group of Israeli Border Guard soldiers fired random shots in the Bab al-Sahirab area of the Old City of Jerusalem. They caused terror and confusion among Arab citizens in the area.

4. On 7 January a number of residents of the village of Al-Rashaydah (Bethlehem) complained of constant harassment by the Israeli authorities and so-called administrators, who were preventing them from grazing their animals on land belonging to their village on the pretext that it was a closed military zone. The citizens said that three residents of the village had recently been detained and tried on charges of grazing animals in the forbidden zone. Heavy fines amounting to 3,000 shekels had been imposed on each one of them.

5. On 14 January two Jewish settlers killed an Arab youth from the village of Battin (Ramallah). The two settlers were members of the extremist Gush Emunim settler movement: Valar Stein, the chairman of one of the settlement councils in the occupied West Bank; and Shay Ben-Joseph, the Council's official in charge of security. The two settlers fired at a group of Palestinian youths, killing one 17-year-old and injuring two others.

6. On 15 January Israeli Border Guard soldiers assigned to guard the house of the terrorist Sharon in the Muslim quarter of Arab Jerusalem attacked a group of Arabs living in that quarter and prevented them from entering their homes. They beat them and sprayed them with tear-gas. Many incidents have occurred in which Arab citizens have complained of repeated attacks against them by Sharon's guards and constant harassment of the population, including body searches each time they enter or leave their houses and a ban on their receiving visitors.

7. After the Friday prayer on 15 January Israeli police and army forces intercepted Arab worshippers in the courtyard of the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque and chased them through the alley-ways of the Arab city of Jerusalem. The Israeli forces' use of barbaric methods of repression resulted in 52 citizens receiving fractures in the hands and another 80 cases of various bruises or choking which required treatment in hospital.

8. On 15 January Israeli customs agents confiscated the cargoes of Arab vehicles which were transporting citrus fruits form the city of Nablus to Bethlehem. The customs agents detained two Arab drivers and confiscated the cargoes of their vehicles on the grounds that they had committed a violation and were transporting citrus fruits from the West Bank through the streets of Jerusalem without permission.

9. On 17 January members of the right-wing racist Kach movement attacked an Arab quarter in the Jabal al-Mukabbir area of the city of Jerusalem. They smashed the windscreens of a number of vehicles parked in the quarter and slashed their tyres, besides smashing a number of windows of Arab houses.

10. On 18 January large numbers of Israeli army forces broke the locks on a number of stores in the city of Nablus and forced them open in the absence of their proprietors. The military authorities also forced many owners of businesses in Qalqilyah to go to their stores after they had broken the locks and forced open their doors. These Israeli practices came in the context of the occupation authorities' attempt to break the general strike being conducted by residents of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

11. On 19 January large numbers of occupation army soldiers stormed the Nablus municipality building, where they beat up citizens who were inside, severely injuring many of them, including seven women who suffered fractures and various other injuries.

12. On 14 January the Israeli authorities confiscated 240 sheep and goats belonging to four Arab citizens from the village of Kisan (Bethlehem). During the confiscation, one of the victims resisted the Israeli authorities in an attempt to prevent them from confiscating his possessions. The occupation soldiers responded by shooting him dead. The authorities subsequently imposed exorbitant fines amounting to 6,279 shekels on the three citizens who owned the confiscated sheep and goats.

13. A group of settlers from Anatot, east of Jerusalem, attacked the nearby village of West Hazma after midnight on 22 January. The settlers attacked a number of Arab houses, smashed their windows and fired shots into the air.

14. On 27 January a group of Israeli army soldiers raided the Nuseirat Palestinian refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. The soldiers used truncheons and stones to smash the windows of houses and the façades of stores. Heavy military vehicles also rammed a number of simple houses in the camp and demolished parts of them.

15. On 24 January Israeli army soldiers attacked the home of Ibrahim Al-Khuri, the Greek Orthodox priest in the occupied West Bank town of Bayt Sahur. The planned attack resulted in Mr. Al-Khuri's elderly mother (58) and his wife and son being overcome after tear-gas canisters were thrown into the house. The object of the attack was to terrorize the Arab priest and to "punish him" for holding funeral and memorial services for those killed in the uprising.

16. Israeli army soldiers raided the Nuseirat refugee camp after midnight on 26 January and forced male residents aged between 15 and 40 to gather in one of the open spaces inside the camp. There, soldiers beat up residents, using truncheons and rifle-butts. They forced them to stand naked in the rain and bitter cold for a period of five hours.

17. A group of heavily armed settlers from the two settlements of Eilon Moreh and Kadumim in the Nablus area stormed into the city of Nablus in the early hours of the morning of 25 January and began to spray bullets in every direction. The windows of dozens of Arab houses were shattered and vehicles parked in the city's streets were damaged. Army and Border Guard forces in Nablus did not lift a finger to deter or halt the actions of the settlers.

18. On 25 January a number of Jewish settlers chased dozens of children from villages in the Qalqilyah area on the pretext that the children had been throwing stones. The settlers fired on the children and captured four of them. They beat them viciously, with the result that the children suffered various fractures.

19. On 25 January a group of armed settlers from the Ofra settlement raided a school in the village of Ayn Yabrud and fired bursts of bullets inside the school, with the intention of spreading fear and terror amongst the teachers and students. They also beat up a number of teachers and students, who suffered fractures and other injuries.

20. On 29 January three Israelis attacked an Arab youth from Gaza in the city of Tel Aviv. The 16-year-old youth said that he was approached by three Israelis dressed in civilian clothes while he was strolling near his place of work in Tel Aviv. They said that they were policemen and asked him to present proof of his identity and "show his permit to stay". They then gave him a severe beating and took him to another place where they continued to beat him although he more than once lost consciousness.

21. A report presented by two Knesset members from the Ratz Party on 31 January stated that Israeli soldiers had raided a house in the Jabalia Palestinian refugee camp (Gaza Strip) at 10 a.m. Inside the house, the 75-year-old citizen Muhajir al-Wahidi was eating his breakfast. The Israeli soldiers gave him a severe beating, using their truncheons, with the result that he suffered fractures in the hand and various bruises on his back and head.

22. The Israeli parliamentarians' report also stated that Israeli army soldiers smashed the windows of dozens of houses in the Nuseirat camp, following orders issued to them by higher political authorities, and that armoured vehicles deliberately inflicted damage on houses as they passed beside them.

23. On the evening of 31 January a large group of Jewish settlers stormed into the town of Anabta (Tulkarm). The armed settlers, who were estimated to number about 750, conducted a provocative procession through the streets of the town, sounding their car-horns and smashing the windscreens of a number of vehicles belonging to Arab citizens which were parked in the streets of the town.

IV.  ISRAELI PRACTICES AND VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS

IN THE OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES

During the period under review in this report, the Israeli authorities persisted in those daily practices which, taken as a whole, constitute a violation of the rights of Arab citizens, as prescribed and upheld by international covenants and treaties and the resolutions of international bodies and their affiliated agencies. Details of the violations and of punishments imposed by the occupation authorities on Arab citizens in the occupied Arab territories during the month of January are as follows.

1.  Arrests

(a) Collective arrests

Sources in the occupied territories estimated the number of those arrested during January at 5,000. Senior officials in the Israeli army admired that the number of detainees was very high because the occupation soldiers were unable to determine who was really taking part in actions which warranted arrest. They were therefore arresting all youths and men found in an area where a demonstration or stone-throwing was taking place. The officials also admired that Israeli detention centres and prisons were extremely overcrowded as a result of the large number of arrests and that they were therefore planning to construct new detention centers to hold large numbers of detainees.

Most of the detainees were not brought to trial or charged with any specific crime. They spent periods ranging from a few hours to 48 hours in the detention centres and police stations, where they were subjected to beating and abuse before being released.

The occupation soldiers used extremely inhumane methods when they arrested Arab youths. These included the incident, as reported by the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv, in which a number of Israeli soldiers operating in the Gaza Strip strapped Arab detainees to the front of their military vehicles and then drove them through parts of the city of Rafah. In another incident, soldiers extinguished their lighted cigarettes on the skin of Arab detainees. An Israeli officer admired that most Arab detainees reached interrogation centres "bruised" as a result of the severe beating to which they had been subjected, and in such a bad state that it was difficult for the interrogators to question them. Another Israeli officer admitted that the soldiers of his unit had harshly beaten Arab youths after arresting and handcuffing them and that every soldier who passed through the area where Arab detainees were held readily aimed punches and blows at the handcuffed youths.

Details of collective arrests carried out during January 1988 follow.

1. On 1 January Israeli army forces stormed dozens of houses in the Gaza Strip and arrested about 70 youths on the pretext that they were subject to preventive detention.

2. On 7 January 15 youths from the Nuseirat camp in the Gaza Strip were arrested for investigation of their alleged participation in a demonstration in that camp.

3. On 7 January Israeli police forces in Jerusalem arrested 20 Arab girls who had taken part in a protest march.

4. On 7 January army forces stormed the Shufat Palestinian refugee camp and detained five youths for questioning.

5. On 10 January Israeli police forces arrested 8 women and 11 youths in Jerusalem after a demonstration in the city.

6. On 13 January the Israeli police carried out a sweep operation in the Jabal al-Mukabbir area of Jerusalem. They detained a number of youths who were in the area at the time.

7. On 15 January dozens of Arab worshippers were detained after the Friday prayer at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

8. On 20 January Israeli army forces arrested 15 youths in the Al-Ram area of Jerusalem without giving any reasons.

9. On 20 January the occupation forces stormed the Dheisheh Palestinian refugee camp and detained a number of youths, who were taken to the new detention camp at Al-Zahiriyyah.

10. On 30 January during the siege of the village of Sair (Hebron governorate), Israeli army forces stormed houses in the village and detained 20 citizens.

11. On 30 January 11 youths were arrested in the Shufat camp without any reasons being given.

(b) Penalties imposed on Arab detainees

Two hundred and seventy-seven male and female Arab citizens appeared before Israeli military courts in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip during January. Various charges were brought against them, including those of demonstrating and throwing stones, which were described by the Israeli military authorities as "violations of security and order". Others were tried on charges of belonging to Palestinian organizations or of bearing arms. The sentences imposed on the accused ranged from three to six months' imprisonment with a further suspended sentence to imprisonment for several years.

Most of those tried during the month were people facing contrived charges of demonstrating and throwing stones. All of them were sentenced to imprisonment and fines averaging between 1,000 and 1,500 shekels in each case. The total amount of fines imposed by military courts during the month was estimated at approximately 175,000 shekels and 200 diners, i.e. the equivalent of $116,500.

With regard to the nature of the trials of Arab detainees, all were sham trials carried out in haste. In spite of the provision that trials must be public, the occupation soldiers prevented citizens from attending them, to the extent that even the family and relatives of the person on trial were prevented from entering the courtroom.

The farcical character of Israeli justice was emphasized by a delegation of Greek lawyers which visited the occupied territories. It issued a statement noting that "trials are held under unacceptable conditions which constitute an insult to all democratic peoples … trials of Palestinian youths accused of security violations are held hastily and in an authoritarian atmosphere, with Palestinian lawyers rarely being able to perform their duties as defence lawyers as a result of the many ways in which the occupation authorities impede contact between the lawyer and his client and obstruct trial procedures".

(c)  Administrative detention

The Israeli occupation authorities placed 86 citizens from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip under administrative detention during the month, for periods ranging between three and six months.

Israeli sources reported that 129 Palestinians had been placed under administrative detention since the beginning of the uprising on 8 December 1987. Most of them are prominent figures, including trades-unionists, journalists, academics and students from the Palestinian universities.

2.  Restrictions on freedom of movement

(a) House arrest

The occupation authorities placed Hashim Muhammad Said Abu Hasan, from the village of Arrabunah (Jenin), and Umar Abd al-Latif, from the village of Battir (Bethlehem), under house arrest.

(b) Curfew

The Israeli occupation authorities imposed a curfew in most cities and villages of the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip and in all the camps of the Gaza Strip. The curfew in the Gaza Strip camps was extended for long periods, coinciding with a total siege and designation of the camps as closed military zones.

The areas in which a curfew was imposed included the cities of Nablus, Tulkarm, Qalqilyah, Ramallah and Rafah, the towns of Salfit, Qabatiyah and Anabta, the villages of Sa'ir, Dayr Ammar, Bayt Ur al-Tabta, Idna, Bani Na'im and Bani Suhaylah, the camps of Tulkarm, Balata, Askar, Ayn Bayt al-Ma, Al-Azzah, Am'ari, Jalazone, Arroub, Far'a and Dheisheh and all the camps in the Gaza Strip.

Reports from the occupied Arab territories indicated that the occupation soldiers had in their possession forms containing orders for the imposition of curfews and the military closure of zones and that they were filling in these forms with the names of cities and zones where they wished to impose a curfew if they suspected that protests or demonstrations were likely to take place there or if foreign journalists were in the area.

(c) Travel restrictions

The occupation authorities prohibited travel by any residents of certain areas, including the village of Idna, the city of Bethlehem and the city of Nablus, without giving any reasons. Occupation soldiers also fumed back all Gaza Strip residents from the Rafah crossing-point and the King Hussein Bridge, telling them that they would be prevented from travelling for an unspecified period. The authorities also prevented Palestinian students attending courses at Jordanian universities from returning to their universities after the vacation, holding them up for a week before they could rejoin their classes.

3.  Expulsions

The Israeli authorities issued military orders for the expulsion of nine citizens from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, of whom four were expelled on 13 January. The four were Jibril al-Rajub, from Hebron, employed as an editor by a literary magazine; Jamal Jabbarah, from Qalqilyah, employed as a dental technician; Bashir Ahmad al-Khayri, a lawyer from Ramallah; and Husam Khadr, from the Balata camp. Neither relatives nor lawyers were informed when the four were expelled to the security zone in southern Lebanon.

4.  Demolition of houses

The Israeli occupation authorities demolished 22 Arab houses, mostly on the grounds that they lacked the necessary permits and that it was necessary to widen the streets in order to facilitate the passage of motorized units of the Israeli army. The names of the Arab citizens whose families suffered as a result of the demolition of their houses, and of the places where such demolition took place, are: Daud Ali Husatn, at Umm Tubar/Arab al-Ta'amirah; Ali Abu Zur, at Balata camp; Ali Sulayman Abu Iyash , at Bayt Immar (Hebron); Al-Hajj Ahmad Sultan, at Al-Buwayrah; Misbah Hamdan al-Hawadin, at Al-Zahiriyyah (Hebron); Sami Tim, at Al-Zahiriyyah (Hebron); Hasan Mahmud al-Qaysiyyah, at Al-Zahiriyyah (Hebron); and Hasan al-Abiyyat, at Kisan (Bethlehem).

The authorities also demolished 12 houses in the Nuseirat Palestinian refugee camp, alleging that they needed to facilitate the passage of motorized units of the Israeli army to all parts of the camp. Israeli bulldozers rammed two other houses in the Nuseirat camp, destroying essential parts of the two homes and rendering them unfit for habitation.

5.  Martyrs

Twenty-seven male and female citizens were killed by bullets fired at them by occupation soldiers and Jewish settlers in the occupied Arab territories or as a result of asphyxiation due to the heavy use of tear-gas canisters during the month by soldiers of the Israeli army. The soldiers often fired between five and seven such canisters in the narrow alley-ways of the camps and inside Arab houses, causing people to die of asphyxiation. Press sources in the occupied Arab territories indicated that a number of elderly people afflicted with heart and respiratory conditions died as a result of ailments directly caused by air pollution and, in particular, the deteriorating sanitary conditions in the camps.

6. Wounded

The number of Palestinians hurt and injured during the month was estimated at approximately 1,000, most of whom suffered fractures as a result of application of the "breaking bones" policy. A number of others were wounded by live ammunition or rubber bullets.

The number of male and female citizens in the Gaza Strip alone who suffered fractures as a result of beatings with truncheons, according to the statements of Arab hospital officials published in the newspaper Al-Quds on 29 January, was estimated at approximately 600. Meanwhile, officers of the Israeli army insisted that the number of those who had suffered fractures in Gaza was 323. The falseness of the Israeli claims was demonstrated in a report presented by two Israeli Knesset members, which included a statement that on 18 January 57 people in the Jabalia camp alone required treatment after having been beaten with truncheons and that most of them required one or more plaster casts. On the next day, 43 more citizens were wounded in the same camp. In the Nuseirat camp, more than 32 people required treatment for fractures on 18 and 19 January. The report stated that during those two days there were about 200 people who suffered fractures as a result of application of the "beating and breaking" policy and that most of the beating incidents occurred after careful prior planning, without being preceded by any provocative acts on the part of the Arabs.

7.  Closure of commercial premises

The Israeli authorities closed four brick-making businesses in the Dheisheh camp, alleging that their stones had been used in demonstrations. They also closed seven stores in the city of Jericho and five in the city of Nablus. In the city of Ramallah they closed six stores and in Bethlehem eight. The Israeli army also used an oxy-acetylene welder to close stores in various areas.

8.  Closure of school and universities

In the context of Israel's policy of denying education to citizens, the authorities issued orders for the closure of a number of schools, colleges and universities. The institutions closed included the following: the Islamic University (Gaza), for 10 days; Palestine Religious Institute (Gaza), for 11 days; Al-Rawdah College (Nablus), for 5 days; Bir Zeit University, for 1 month, Hebron University (Hebron), for 5 days; Hebron Engineering College (Hebron), for 8 days; Polytechnic Institute (Hebron), for an unspecified period; and Al-Zahra Girls' School (Gaza), until further notice.

Notes

1/ See Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, The Hague Conventions and Declarations of 1899 and 1907 (New York, Oxford University Press, 1915).

2/ Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949 (United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, No. 973).