The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have again opened fire with live ammunition and launched tens of tear gas canisters at a peaceful demonstration along the Gazan border.
 The demonstrations are organized weekly by international solidarity activists, journalists, and local social activists to protest the imposition of the so-called “security buffer zone.
”  In 2011, the IOF carried out eight attacks on peaceful demonstrations.
 As a result of these attacks, three persons were injured, one of them an international peace activist.
 In January 2012, the IOF carried out three attacks.
  According to field investigations by the Al Mezan Center for Human rights, at approximately 11:35 am on Tuesday 31 January 2012, the IOF opened fired at a peaceful demonstration organized by the Local Initiative in Beit Hanoun.
 Demonstrators were in the Al Wad agricultural area about 100 meters away from the separation fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel.
 No causalities or injuries were reported, but demonstrators were terrified and fled the area.
 About 70 persons; including six international peace and solidarity activists, ten journalists, and members of the Local Initiative participated in the demonstration.
  In a separate incident, at approximately 11:30 am on Tuesday 24 January 2012, the IOF opened heavy fire with live ammunition and launched tens of tear gas canisters at a peaceful demonstration organized by the Local Initiative in Beit Hanoun.
 Demonstrators were between 100 and 300 meters from the separation fence when the IOF opened fire on them.
  According to Al Mezan’s documentation, since 2008 the IOF has carried out 30 attacks on peaceful demonstrations protesting the imposition of the “security buffer zone.
”  As a result of these attacks, two persons have been killed, one of them a child.
 A further 18 people were injured in these attacks, four of them women and one a child.
 In 2011 alone, the IOF carried out eight attacks, resulting in the injury of three persons, including an international solidarity activist.
  The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights condemns these continuous attacks on peaceful demonstrations.
 Through these protests Palestinians seek to defend and protect their properties and source of living.
 Al Mezan asserts that attacks on civilians participating in peaceful demonstrations are in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilians in Time of War.
  Al Mezan therefore calls on the international community to intervene promptly and to uphold its legal and moral obligations to protect civilians and their properties in the occupied Palestinian territory.
 Al Mezan also calls on the international community to work towards ending these Israeli plans, which detach 35% percent of Gaza’s agricultural lands from the territory and deprive hundreds of Palestinian families of their source of living.
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