During the last two days, the Israeli Occupation Forces carried out incursions and launched air strikes on different areas in the Gaza Strip.
Three people were killed and tens of homes demolished, as a result.
In the early morning hours of Friday, January 24, 2003, the IOF entered az-Zaytun area, west of Gaza City, and destroyed a house with explosives.
The house is owned by the family of Mas’ud Ayad, who was assassinated by the Israeli military in 2000.
Also, the IOF arrested four Palestinians; three of them are from the Ayad family.
About twenty homes were damaged in the area due to the explosion.
The same night Israeli helicopters shelled a metal shop in Gaza with five missiles.
One of the missiles struck Saint Philips Church, which is located inside the Al Ahly Hospital, while a second missile hit a house directly, destroying it.
One elderly woman died from a heart attack and three other people were injured.
At approximately 9 am Friday, January 24, 2003, the IOF attacked the town of Beit Hanun, in the north of the Gaza Strip.
They destroyed four bridges at the entrances of the town isolating the town completely.
Israeli tanks and helicopters then shelled the town until 3 am killing 18-year-old Hasan Yusif Fayad, and injuring 20 others.
In addition, numerous homes were damaged from the shelling, which also damaged electricity and phone lines.
Meanwhile, on the same day, the IOF murdered 24-year-old Muhammad al-Musadar, who was mentally disabled, from the refugee camp of Al-Maghazi.
Moreover, the Israeli military carried out an incursion into Block (O) in the refugee camp of Rafah destroying 21 homes.
The attack took place at approximately 5:30 pm the same day.
Three people were wounded in this attack.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights condemns Israel’s aggression against Palestinian civilians in the OPTs.
The Center believes that this escalation coincides with the Israeli elections, due on January 28.
Al Mezan fears that Israel would take full advantage of the international community’s focus on the Iraqi cause to perpetrate more crimes against Palestinian civilians in the OPTs.
As such, the Center calls upon the international community to urgently intervene and put an end to continued Israeli violations of Palestinians human rights.
Al Mezan calls on the High Contracting Parties to the 4th Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 1949, to reconvene their conference on the OPTs and consider Israel’s violations of the Convention.
It is the international community’s obligation to bring those who are responsible for ordering or perpetrating these crimes to justice.
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