The ongoing IOF offensive being conducted in Al Maghazi Refugee Camp has escalated to new levels, resulting in the killing of 16 Palestinians and the injuring of 125, including 30 children.
31 of the injured sustained critical injuries.
Further, 22 houses have been destroyed, 4 of them entirely, as well as 150 beehives.
In addition, a sewing factory belonging to Ahmed Hasan Abd Al Jawwad and generating income for 70 families was destroyed.
In terms of private property, a vehicle owned by Selmi Salem Said was completely damaged and 230 dunums of agricultural land, cultivating olive groves, citrus orchard and other fruit trees was entirely leveled by IOF bulldozers.
According to Al Mezan investigations, on July 19 at approximately 1:30am, IOF Special Forces penetrated eastern Al Maghazi Refugee Camp under the cover of helicopter and killed civilians, destroyed property and razed agricultural lands.
Furthermore, they occupied 9 houses, using them as military surveillance points, and fired randomly at persons approaching the area.
According to affidavits of residents of the area, adjacent to Al Maghazi Refugee Camp the IOF broke into civilian houses and took 14 Palestinians to Kasafim military area for 'investigations'.
Furthermore, the IOF have continued targeting medical personnel who are carrying out their medical duties, opening fire on Mohammed Khamis Al Salhi, Mohammed Mohammed Al Azaiza, Mohammed Khamis Abu Amra, and Anwar Abd Ar Rahman Abu Houli, who consequently needed his leg amputated.
Al Mezan condemns the deadly IOF incursion and disproportionate use of force, which has resulted in the killing of a high number of civilians and the destruction of infrastructure by targeting all phone and electricity networks and transformers, as well as the water networks.
Further, the incessant shelling prevented Palestinians from burying the dead bodies, that subsequently remained in the morgue until the IOF withdrawal from the area on July 21 2006.
Al Mezan denounces the IOF war crimes in Al Maghazi Refugee Camp that contribute to the IOF offensive on the Gaza Strip that has been escalating since June 25 2006.
Al Mezan believes that the field facts show Israel's deliberate targeting of civilians, which constitute a grave breach of international humanitarian law, particularly the 4th Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.
Al Mezan calls upon the international community, notably the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their legal and moral obligations under the Convention and provide protection to Palestinian civilians in the OPT.
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