Illegal Israeli actions in OPT/Military operations in the Gaza Strip – Letter from Palestine

    Identical letters dated 3 March 2008 from the Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council

  I regret to inform you that, since my last letter to you and the convening of the emergency meeting of the Security Council on Saturday, 1 March 2008, the Palestinian death toll has continued to rise as a result of the military onslaught unleashed by Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip.

  Recovery efforts in the town of Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip have revealed that, on Saturday, 1 March 2008, alone a total of 70 Palestinians were killed by Israel, the occupying Power, including 16 children and 8 women, many of them members of the same families. Moreover, Israel continued its military attacks on Sunday and today killing another 17 Palestinians, including another six children and one woman. A shocking indication of the indiscriminate, excessive and lethal force being used by Israel against the Palestinian civilian population is the total number of children killed in just three days, 22 children, in addition to other innocent civilians killed by the occupying forces.

  Among the innocent children killed by the Israeli occupying forces during the three-day Israeli military rampage were Abdallah Nabeel Abed Rabbou, age 4, Abdel Ra’ouf Abdel Kareem Odeh, age 10, Nirmeen Ra’ed Ali Abu Saif, age 12, Iyad Mohammed Abu Shibak, age 14, Jackleen Mohammad Abu Shibak, age 16, Mahmoud Bassam Obaid, age 15, Hassan Rashad Safi, age 16, Ghada Al-Abed Saleh, age 16, Waheed Saleh, age 16, Ahmad Al-Batsh, age 16, Samah Zidan Asaliyya, age 17, Na’el Zuhair Abu Awn, age 17, Abdel Raheem Ahmad Saleh, age 17, Sari Abu Obaid, age 18, Ahmad Abu Salama, age 16, and Mohammad Abu Hajar, age 17.

  As we stated at the Security Council’s emergency meeting and reiterate once more, and will continue to state: There is no justification whatsoever for the killing of innocent children and their mothers. We reiterate that when the slaughter of innocent children and women has become acceptable or is somehow justified under the pretext of promoting security or “counter-terror”, we know for certain that we have sunken into the dark abyss, where there is a total absence of the law, absence of logic or reason, absence of morality, absence of conscience and absence of humanity.

  International humanitarian law and human rights law were created for the purpose of protecting human life and dignity everywhere and preventing such reckless and condemnable abandon of morality and conscience. Regrettably, however, the occupying Power has never respected international law and continues to commit systematic violations and grave breaches of the law. The lethal military assaults carried out by the occupying forces by warplane and helicopter missile strikes and tank shelling and gunfire by troops on the ground have caused massive human carnage and widespread destruction of property in the area and the entire civilian population remains in a state of fear, panic and trauma. Emergency rescue personnel are still sifting through the rubble of destroyed homes, searching for bodies amid the charred flesh and scattered limbs left behind by the Israeli attacks. All of this is being endured by the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip, in addition to their continuing imprisonment by the occupying Power, which continues its siege of the Territory and continues to obstruct the access of the people to vital humanitarian aid and supplies and necessary fuel.

  The enormity of these crimes being committed by Israel against the Palestinian people cannot be denied, and the many short and long-term consequences on the ground are harrowing, as is the impact of these negative developments on the peace process. Israel, the occupying Power, must be held accountable for such grave breaches of the law and cannot continue to be allowed to act with such flagrant and vicious impunity. In this regard, we echo the call made by the Secretary-General before the Security Council on 1 March 2008 for incidents in which civilians have been killed or injured to be investigated and accountability to be ensured.

  Moreover, we reiterate our call upon the international community, including the Security Council, to act immediately to help to bring about a cessation of all violence and hostilities and ensure respect for international law. The Council cannot continue to remain on the sidelines as the conflict escalates with the fierce refueling of the cycle of violence and the continued steep deterioration of the humanitarian situation on the ground in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Tangible measures must be taken to address this crisis and to avert its further dangerous decline; to aid the Palestinian civilian population, including by providing them with the necessary protection and assistance to help them cope with the humanitarian crisis they are facing; and to promote the calm needed to help the parties resume peace process negotiations towards ultimately ending this tragic and prolonged conflict that has destroyed and claimed far too many lives.

  This letter is in follow-up to our previous 310 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 1 March 2008 (A/ES-10/413-S/2008/144), constitute a basic record of the crimes being committed by Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian people since September 2000. For all of these war crimes, acts of 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.

  In follow-up to the above-mentioned letters, I regret to inform you that, since my last letter to you, 38 more Palestinians are reported to have been killed by the Israeli occupying forces, raising the total number of martyrs killed since September 2000 to 5,103 people. (The names of the martyrs killed by the occupying Power from 29 February to 3 March 2008 are included in the annex to the present letter.)

  I should be grateful if you would arrange to have the text of 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) Riyad Mansour

Ambassador

Permanent Observer

    Annex to the identical letters dated 3 March 2008 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 * 

(from Friday, 29 February 2008 to Monday, 3 March 2008)

   Friday, 29 February 2008

1.  Mohammad Shamiyya 

2.  Khalil Ahel

3.  Alaa’ Al-Bornou (17) 

4.  Fatma Al-Qar’aawi 

   Saturday, 1 March 2008

5.   Jackleen Mohammad Abu Shibak (16)

6.  Iyad Mohammad Abu Shibak (14)

7.  Bassam Mohammad Obaid

8.   Mahmoud Bassam Obaid (15)

9.  Hamza Mohammad Al-Jamal

10.  Hassan Rashad Safi (16)

11.  Abdallah Abu Sho’aira 

12.   Mohammad Hani Al-Mabhouh (18)

13.  Ghada Al-Abed Saleh (16)

14.  Hamada Al-Abed Saleh

15.  Mosleh Mohammad Mosleh

16.   Mosleh Mohammad Abu Ali

17.  Abdallah Nabeel Abed Rabbou (4)

18.  Mostafa Sa’eed Abu Jalala

19.   Mostafa Saleh Zaghloul

20.  Abdel Rahman Mohammad Shihab

21.  Iyad Abdel Kareem Al-Ashram

22.   Abdel Hameed Hamed Hamada

23.  Ibrahim Shaa’ban Al-Zain

24.  Sa’eed Al-Hasheem

25.  Ahmad Al-Batsh (16)

26.  Mo’tasim Faraj Abed Rabbou

27.   Thabet Fat’hi Junaid

28.  Mahmoud Abdel Mo’ti Saleem

29.  Hussain Sami Al-Batsh 

30.  Tal’aat Dardona

31.  Samah Zidan Asaliyya (17)

32.  Salwa Zidan Asaliyya

33.   Mahmoud Faraj Asaliyya

34.  Jihad Abu Haleel

35.  Sa’ed Al-Dabbour

36.  Abdel Ra’ouf Abdel Kareem Odeh (10)

37.  Na’el Zuhair Abu Awn (17)

38.   Yasser Ismail Abu Odeh

39.  Hassan Kamal

40.   Tamer Wishah

41.   Mahmoud Monzer Rayyan

42.  Ahmad Rayyan

43.   Ali Jabr Al-Kitnani

44.   Mahmoud Na’eem Al-Attar

45.  Abdel Mo’ti Saa’d Ahad

46.  Abdel Rahman Attallah 

47.  So’ad Attallah

48.  Khaled Abdel Rahman Attallah

49.   Ibrahim Abdel Rahman Attallah

50.  Rajaa’ Abdel Rahman Attallah

51.  Ibtissam Abdel Rahman Attallah

52.   Nirmeen Ra’ed Ali Abu Saif (12)

53.  Ahmad Abdel Rahman Saleh

54.   Mohammad Abdel Qader Aqilan

55.  Muhannad Omar Al-Anshasi

56.  Bilal Al-Jammal

57.  Raa’fat Abdel Aziz Hamad

58.   Hassan Ibrahim Abu Al-Naja

59.  Sadeq Youssef Al-Baleeshi

60.  Sameer Hamad Asfour

61.  Mohammad Omar Abu Ni’ma

62.   Emad Ibrahim Al-Tallaa’

63.  Subhi Mofeed Awadallah

64.  Abdel Kareem Hosni Al-Aww

65.  Mahmoud Honaidaq (16) 

66.  Waheed Saleh (16)

67.  Mohammad Abdel Mo’ti Saleem

68.   Mostafa Nasser Mannoun

69.  Sultan Al-Zain

70.  Sari Abu Obaid (18)

71.  Khaled Abu Eiada

72.  Hamada Al-Abed Saleh

73.  Abdel Raheem Ahmad Saleh (17)

74.  Mohammad Zaqqout

   Sunday, 2 March 2008

75.  Khalil Ezz El-Din 

76.   Loai Jamal Abed Rabbou

77.  Mahmoud Bahar (14)

78.  Youssef Mohammad Madi Abu Warda

79.  Wisam Fayez Abde Rabbou 

80.   Mahmoud Abdel Khaleq Abu Eita

81.  Mahmoud Mohammad Al-Mosalma (13)

82.  Na’eem Abdallah Abu Al-Hosni

83.  Ra’ed Junaid

84.  Ramzi Khwaiter

   Monday, 3 March 2008

85.  Mohammad Saleh Shreita (18)

86.   Ghassan Abed Rabbou

87.   Aref Deghmesh

88.   Waleed Abu Youssef

89.   Ahmad Na’eem Abu Salama (16)

90.  Mohammad Abu Hajar (17)

91.  Hassan Ziyada Abu Jasser (18)

*   The total number of Palestinian martyrs killed by the Israeli occupying forces since 28 September 2000 is 5,103.

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