Illegal Israeli actions in OPT – Letter from Palestine

Identical letters dated 6 February 2003 from the Permanent Observer

of Palestine to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

and the President of the Security Council

  In blatant violation of all norms of international law, international humanitarian law, human rights law and United Nations resolutions, Israel, the occupying Power, continues relentlessly to carry out its bloody military campaign against the Palestinian people. This vicious campaign has been the cause of thousands of deaths, vast destruction, the crippling of the Palestinian Authority and the untold suffering for the Palestinian civilian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. Not a single day passes in which the Palestinian people do not suffer from the wrath and brutality of the Israeli occupying forces. Not a single aspect of Palestinian life has remained unaffected by this military campaign. Indeed, every sector and every generation of Palestinian society have been severely impacted by the war crimes, State terrorism and systematic human rights violations being committed by Israel, the occupying Power, on a daily basis.

  Since my last letter to you one week ago, I regret to inform you that at least 15 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli occupying forces. These human lives, ended by the brute and excessive force used by the occupying forces against the civilian population under occupation, included men, women and children. In a tragic incident yesterday in the Gaza Strip, the occupying forces killed a 65-year old Palestinian woman, Kamila Suleiman Sa’eed, when they demolished her home and crushed her to death. According to reports, the woman was partly deaf and did not hear the occupying forces’ orders to leave the home. This is not the first time that this illegal Israeli measure of collective punishment, namely the demolition of Palestinian homes, has also caused the death of Palestinian civilians. Such killings and demolitions are among the countless compound war crimes being committed by the occupying Power against the civilian population under its occupation.

  Also, late yesterday, the occupying forces killed two Palestinian paramedics at Al-Wafa Hospital for the Elderly in Gaza City. The occupying forces shot through a window of the hospital, killing Abdelkarim Anwar Libid, age 22, and Omar Saad al-Din Hassan, age 21, as they were working in the hospital. The killing of these two young men represents one of many attacks by the Israeli occupying forces on medical personnel, vehicles and institutions over the course of the past 28 months. Clearly, there is no Israeli respect for the protection accorded to such persons and facilities by international humanitarian law.

  As noted above, in addition to the killings of these three Palestinians, the Israeli occupying forces have killed several other Palestinians in other raids and assaults in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, over the past week, including in the cities of Tulkarem, Nablus, Qalqilya, Jenin and Gaza. Throughout this week, dozens of Palestinians have also been wounded in attacks by the occupying forces, using machine gunfire, tank fire and helicopter missile fire. Moreover, the occupying forces continue to abduct and detain Palestinians, many of them arrested during overnight raids.

  At the same time, the Israeli occupying forces have continued their destructive rampage throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, bulldozing homes and roads and raiding and ransacking homes and offices. Just today, the Israeli occupying forces raided two office buildings in the city of Ramallah, containing mainly medical and law offices, destroying doors, furniture and files. Further, in Al-Khalil, in addition to the destruction of homes, the occupying forces have blockaded all the main thoroughfares in the city and have subjected the television and radio stations, at least three police stations and two Palestinian universities in the city to indefinite closures. These illegal closures are being imposed by the occupying forces in conjunction with the imposition of a curfew on the city of Al-Khalil as a whole. Such round-the-clock curfews also continue to be imposed on other Palestinian cities and towns, in addition to the constant and severe restrictions on the freedom of movement of persons and goods being imposed by the occupying Power throughout the entire Occupied Palestinian Territory.

  The international community cannot continue to stand idly by while the Palestinian people continue to be subjected to the inhumane policies and practices of this foreign occupation by Israel. The United Nations Security Council in particular, in upholding its duties and responsibilities under the Charter, must undertake the necessary measures to bring this tragic and constantly deteriorating situation to and end.

  This letter is in follow-up to my previous 115 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 30 January 2003 (A/ES-10/213-S/2003/119), 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, I once again regret to inform you that, since my last letter to you, the Israeli occupying forces have killed at least 15 Palestinians, including children, raising the total number of martyrs to 2,115 Palestinians. (The names of the martyrs that have been identified thus far are contained in the annex to the present letter.)

 I would be grateful if you would arrange to have the present letter and its annex 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 6 February 2003 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 Israeli occupying forces

in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem*

(Thursday, 30 January 2003, through Thursday, 6 February 2003)

    Thursday, 30 January 2003 (in addition to the martyrs in the letter of 30 January)

  Ahmed Rasheed Baniouda

   Friday, 31 January 2003

1.  Hassan Ahmed Hassan Saleh

2.  Eyad Khalil Mohammed Musa

3.   Tamer Majdi Abdelhady Khudeir (17 years old)

   Sunday, 2 February 2003

  Abdelrahman Harb Al-Huraini

   Monday, 3 February 2003

1.  Salem Suleiman Al-Abed Qudeih

2.  Rami Atta Ali Abu Shab 

    Wednesday, 5 February 2003

1.  Rida Ahmed Hussein Ghanim

2.  Kamila Suleiman Sa’eed

3.   Samer Khalid Fuad Al-Zurba (17 years old)

    Thursday, 6 February 2003

1.  Omar Saad al-Din Hassan 

2.   Abdelkarim Anwar Libid

3.  Ahmed Abdelkarim Hamad 

4.   Ala’a Mahmoud Hunani

5.   Abdelbaki Mohammed Abdelbaki Muslim

_________

 *   The total number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli occupying forces since 28 September 2000 is 2,115 martyrs.

__________