Al Mezan condemns the assassination of Abu Samhadana and fellow PRC supporters, and calls upon the international community to effectively intervene to halt Israeli war crimes.

11 June 2006

The intensified IOF offensive on the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) has killed Jamal Ataya Abu Samhadan on June 8th and three civilians who tried to rescue a wounded person on the evening of Friday June 9th.
Further, IOF killed two Palestinians and injured three others this morning June 11th.
According to Al Mezan’s fieldworkers, on June 11th at approximately 10.
40am, Israeli military planes fired two missiles on a number of Palestinians close to Beit Lahia Athletes Club located in Al Manshiya area in Beit Lahia, killing Salem Al Radee, 35, Mohmmad Al Masri, 24 and injuring Abdel Malek Al Attar, 25 and Mahmoud Hamouda, 24, both are in critical condition and Fawzan Al Habl, 28, injured in the neck.
On June 8th at approximately 11.
20 pm, Israeli military helicopters shelled four missiles at a Popular Resistance Committees post located in south-east of Rafah, killing Jamal Ataya Abu Samhadana, 43, Leader of Popular Resistance Committees and three of his fellow supporters Nedal Musa, 21, Mohammad Atia, 23, and Ahmad Marjan,28.
In a separate incident, on June 9th at approximately 3.
25pm the IOF bombarded a blue Mazda in Tel Zaatar neighborhood north-east of Jabalia Camp, killing Khaled Al Zaanin, 41, Basil Al Zaanin, 26, and Ahmad Al Zaanin, 22; it was reported that the car was returning from taking an injured person to hospital following the IOF shelling of Beit Hanoun at approximately 3.
15pm.
It is worth noting that the IOF have killed 236 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the Intifada in addition to 142 injured and 31 children.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights condemns the assassinations and the ongoing Israeli offensive against civilians and properties in the OPT, particularly the assassination crimes adopted as official Israeli policy; Al Mezan warns about the continuation of such policy which might lead to a more deteriorating Human Rights status in the OPT.
Al Mezan considers the three assassinations a new episode of Israeli war-crime series committed against civilians and their properties; it confirms that assassinations are war crimes according to international humanitarian law, mainly the Fourth Geneva Convention, which bans all types of extrajudicial capital punishment.
Al Mezan thus calls upon the international community, particularly the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions, to immediately intervene to halt Israeli crimes and provide international protection to civilians under the ongoing war crimes.
Al Mezan believes that the intervention of the international community constitutes a legal and ethical duty at a time when the IOF are intensifying the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip and taking advantage of the silence of the international community, which is leading to the deterioration of the human rights situation in the OPT and exposing the Palestinian society to human disaster.