PROJECTS • PALESTINE SOLIDARITY • ACTION ALERT

UA – 2/08

Urgent Appeal:
Defence for Children International – Palestine Section

 

Gaza under attack – hundreds killed

 

Location of incident: Gaza Strip, Occupied Palestinian Territory

Nature of incident: Aerial bombardment of densely populated areas

Date of incident: 27 December 2008 and continuing

Number of fatalities: As at 14 January: around 970

Number of injuries: As at 14 January: more than 4300

 

Photo courtesy of RIFAT ODEH KASSIS, Defence for Children International

On the morning of Saturday, 27 December 2008, Israeli aircraft started bombing targets in the densely populated Gaza Strip. This stage was followed by land operations, sea attacks and the deployment of troops throughout the Strip.

As of Wednesday, 14 January, local NGOs and media outlets are reporting at least 970 killed, of which more than 280 were children, and as many as 4300 injured

Background information

Israel has occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip (the Occupied Palestinian Territory) since 1967. There are currently more than 462,000 illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem,1 in contravention of article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and UN Security Council Resolutions.2 These settlements are a constant source of friction and provocation throughout the region. In September 2005 Israel removed its illegal settlements from Gaza under its ‘disengagement plan’ but remains in occupation as it effectively controls the entry and exit points, the airspace, the surrounding sea and even tax collection and the civil registry.

Following the Hamas victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections of January 2006, Israel allowed only basic humanitarian goods and supplies to enter the Gaza Strip, despite its total dependence on Israel. This policy intensified following Hamas’s takeover of Gaza in June 2007. Since then, Israel has kept the border crossings between Israel and the Gaza closed, with minor exceptions. In September 2007, Israel officially declared Gaza a ‘hostile entity’, a categorisation unknown to international law, and introduced a policy severely limiting supplies of food, fuel and electricity, interspersed with periods of total blockade. The restrictions on Gaza were further tightened on 5 November 2008 and in December 2008, the UN body responsible for distributing aid to refugees, UNRWA, was no longer able to distribute food aid to 750,000 dependent men, women and children.

Israel justifies its siege of Gaza on the basis of the unlawful firing of rockets on Israeli population centres by Palestinian armed groups, and relies on the principle of self-defence to justify the current attacks.

Since September 2001, 22 Israelis have been killed by rockets and mortars fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel. Four of those fatalities occurred after Israel started bombing Gaza on Saturday, 27 December.3 During the same period, more than 4,200 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by Israeli forces.4 This amounts to a ratio of 190 Palestinians killed for every one Israeli, suggesting that the current Israeli attacks are a wholly disproportionate response.

In another disturbing development, on 14 December 2008, the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Professor Richard Falk, was denied entry into Israel when he tried to visit in his official UN capacity. Professor Falk intended to travel to the West Bank and Gaza Strip in order to assess the situation for himself, in advance of preparing a report on the humanitarian situation to the UN Human Rights Council. In a recent statement describing his deportation, Professor Falk said: ‘By attacking the observer rather than what is observed, Israel plays a clever mind game. It directs attention away from the realities of the occupation, practising effectively a politics of distraction.’

Legal position

In exercising effective control over Gaza, Israel is still regarded by all reputable international lawyers as the Occupying Power under the Geneva Conventions. Israel is currently in violation of a number of obligations it owes as Occupying Power, and obligations imposed on it under the laws of war, including prohibitions against:

• Collective punishment:
  Israel is not justified in collectively punishing 1.5 million Gazans for the actions of a few militants.
• Targeting civilians:
  Israel is not justified in conducting airstrikes in one of the most densely populated areas in the world, whereby high civilian casualties are not only foreseeable, but inevitable.
• Disproportionate military response:
  Israel is not justified in destroying every police and security office of Gaza’s elected government, and killing and injuring hundreds of civilians, in circumstances where the illegal firing of rockets from Gaza has killed 22 Israelis in the last eight years.

This year marks the 41st anniversary of Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip.

Recommended action

Please send Urgent Appeals asking for:

1. An immediate end to Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip and a ceasefire by all parties.
2. The immediate provision of urgent humanitarian and medical assistance to the Gaza Strip.
3. The immediate lifting of Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip to allow the free flow of goods and services in and out of the territory.

Appeals to:

European Union

HE Mr. Hans-Gert Poettering

President of the European Parliament

European Parliament

Rue Wiertz, PHS 11BO11

Brussels 1042, Belgium

Fax: +33 3 88 179769

Email: hpoetteringeuroparl.eu.int

 

Mr. Bernard Kouchner

(French foreign minister – France currently holds EU Presidency)

Ministre des Affaires Etrangères

Ministère des Affaires Etrangères français

37, quai d’Orsay, 75 007 Paris, France

Email: bernard.kouchnerdiplomatie.gouv.fr

 

UK

Rt Hon David Miliband MP

Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

Email: milibanddparliament.uk

Salutation: Dear Minister

 

US

H.E. Mr. Jake Walles

Consul General

Consulate General of the United States of America

27 Nablus Road

PO Box 290, East Jerusalem

Email: WallesJstate.gov

 

Israel

Prime Minister

Office of the Prime Minister

3 Kaplan Street, PO Box 187, Kiryat Ben-Gurion, Jerusalem 91919, Israel

Fax: +972- 2-651 2631

Email: rohmpmo.gov.il, pm_engpmo.gov.il

Salutation: Dear Prime Minister

 

Tzipi Livni

Minister of Foreign Affairs

9 Yitzhak Rabin Blvd., Kiryat Ben-Gurion, Jerusalem 91035, Israel

Email: sarmfa.gov.il

Salutation: Dear Minister

 

Ehud Barak

Minister of Defence

37 Kaplan Street, Hakirya, Tel Aviv 61909, Israel

Fax: +972 3 691 6940

Email: ministermod.gov.il

Salutation: Dear Minister

 

Please inform DCI-Palestine about your letters and let us know if you receive any response to your appeals; quote the UA number at the top of this document –
riadci-pal.org

 

Notes:

 

1  B’Tselem, Land Expropriation and Settlements – Statistics, 2007. Figures based on Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics as of September 2007. See www.btselem.org/english/Settlements/Statistics.asp.

2  Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that ‘the Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into territory it occupies.’ UN Security Council Resoloution 465 (1980) states that ‘…All measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, or any part thereof, have no legal validity and… Israel’s policy and practices of settling parts of its population and new immigrants in those territories constitute a flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.’

3  Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs website - www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism...

4  Sources: Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights (2000-2007 – 2782 Palestinian fatalities) – www.mezan.org/site_en/statistics/index.php; OCHA (Jan-Oct 2008 – 389 Palestinian fatalities) - www.ochaopt.org/documents/POC_Monthly_Tables_October_2008.pdf; Aljazeera English (27 December - 30 December 2008 – around 350 Palestinian fatalities) – http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/12/200812306307620900.html

 

 

REFERENCE:

 

Rifat Kassis

President, DCI

International Secretariat

Rue Varembé 1, P.O. Box 88, 1211 Genève 20, Switzerland

Tel. +41 22 7340558; Fax +41 22 7401145

 

Director, DCI-Palestine

Al-Sartawi Building, Second Floor, Al-Khoulafa’ Street, Al-Bireh, Ramallah

Tel: +972 2 242 7530; Fax: +972 2 242 7018

Email: presidentdci-is.org