In an escalating military action that is being waged by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in Gaza, the IOF have killed 44 Palestinians, injured 176, and destroyed numerous homes and properties in the Gaza Strip between 1 November 2006 and 4 November.
39 of the killed are from the town of Beit Hanoun alone.
The IOF has expanded its incursion in the north-Gaza towns of Beit Hanoun, Jabalia and Beit Lahia, carried out four extra-judicial assassinations, and killed three medics in an attack near their ambulance.
In addition, the IOF killed and wounded numerous women as they protested the siege onto their neighborhood in Beit Hanoun.
According to Al Mezan's initial documentation, 44 have been killed, including seven children and three women, while 176 were wounded, including 30 children and 43 women.
16 have been admitted to hospitals with critical wounds.
These casualties occurred between the dawn of Wednesday 1 November 2006 and today.
IOF incursion continues: In its previous press release, Al Mezan reported that the IOF had started a wide-scaled incursion into north Gaza on 1 November.
This incursion has since been expanded to include larger parts of the three towns of north Gaza.
In addition to causing dozens of casualties due to the excessive use of force, the IOF has completely destroyed five homes, four vehicles and one store, and damaged 15 other homes.
Troops broke into 20 inhabited houses and used their roofs as military posts_en while the resident families were forced to remain in the building.
They have also caused damage to water and electricity networks.
The incursion continues as this release is circulated.
Al Mezan's fieldworker in North Gaza also reported that IOF opened fire at two women's demonstrations in Beit Hanoun.
After the IOF had rounded-up a group of Palestinians in An Nasser mosque in the town, a group of women walked toward the mosque at app.
7am on Friday 3 November 2006 in an attempt to protect the besieged Palestinians.
However, the IOF opened fire at them and killed Rawda Jaber, aged 48.
Seven other women were also injured.
At least one man was killed inside the mosque from IOF fire.
He was identified as Suhaib Udwan, aged 22.
At app.
7.
30am, another group of women walked from other parts of north Gaza towards Beit Hanoun, protesting the siege and killings.
The IOF opened fire at them, killing Ibtisam Mas'oud, aged 44, and injuring 31 other women.
Some of the group of women managed to enter Beit Hanoun with journalists but were rounded-up by the IOF who arrested them and moved them to the area where the male residents of the town had been collected.
Medical sources informed Al Mezan that it took until 4pm to evacuate wounded women from the area because of the restrictions on the movement of ambulances.
At app.
11pm Saturday 4 November 2006, the IOF opened fire at two Beit Hanoun residents as they were returning home from the place in which the IOF had ordered all male residents of the town to gather for a search and an ID check.
They had been ordered to leave this location by IOF after 'passing' the search and check.
As they were leaving, unarmed, one of them was killed and the other was critically wounded by IOF sniper fire.
Al Mezan reports that the man who was killed was 22-year-old Mazin Shabat and the man who was wounded was 35-year-old Zahir Shabat.
Several other Palestinians were also killed and wounded in north Gaza in separate attacks by IOF, which ordered all male residents of Beit Hanoun to collect in a school and arrested many of them.
Killing of a medical crew: At app.
9:45pm on Friday 3 November 2006, an IOF drone fired a guided missile at the crew of a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance killing three of its members.
They were 27-year-old Mustafa Habib, 43-year-old Ahmed Al Madhoun and 40-year-old Sulaiman Ulwan.
Two other people were wounded in this attack.
According to eyewitnesses, the medics had just arrived at the scene of IOF shelling in Beir Al Na'jeh neighborhood of Jabalia and had started to provide medical assistance when they were killed.
Three of the people hit by the IOF shelling, whom the crew in the process of tending to, were also killed: 19-year-old Ayman Yasin, (his brother) 17-year-old Raed Yasin, and 17-year-old Ahmed Naji.
Four extra judicial assassinations: At 4.
40am, also Friday, IOF fired missiles at a car in the east of Gaza city.
The car was destroyed and three were killed inside it: 31-year-old Tamer Hillis, 31-year-old Ammar Mushtaha, and 25-year-old Talal Farahat.
In yet another assassination on the same day, IOF fired a missile at a car at app.
9.
15pm in the southern Gaza town of Rafah killing one person, 34-year-old Ahmed Abu Hmeed, and injuring five others.
In a third assassination operation which was carried out at app.
10.
30pm on Friday 3 November 2006, IOF fired a missile at a car in Jabalia killing 23-year-old Basil Ashour and critically injuring 22-year-old Muhammad Ayyoub.
Moreover, IOF carried out a fourth assassination at app.
5.
40am today, when IOF fired a missile at a car in the Lababidi neighborhood in Gaza city killing its driver, 33-year-old Lu'ai Al Borno, and injuring two.
Al Mezan Centre condemns this escalation by IOF and is gravely concerned by the IOF aggression in North Gaza.
The Centre has detected numerous cases of rights violations by IOF and emphasizes that IOF have committed grave breaches to IHL, especially the besieging of towns, the targeting of medics and restriction of medical teams' movement and the use of excessive, lethal force in civilian areas without necessity.
The Centre also condemns the use of force against civilian demonstrators and the killing and injuring of them.
With such practices, Israel shows disrespect of its obligations under IHL and human rights standards.
Al Mezan calls upon the international community to condemn these violations of human rights and calls for international intervention to bring them to a halt.
The international community, particularly the High Contracting parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, is called on to intervene promptly to ensure the application of the Convention and the protection of human rights in OPT.
END