Consistent with their systematic aggression and collective punishment of Palestinian civilians in the OPTs, the Israeli Occupation Forces invaded wide parts of Gaza City and the North Gaza District on Thursday 19 September 2002.
On the afternoon of Friday 20 September 2002, they shelled civilian areas in the town of Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip.
According to Al Mezan fieldworkers, at approximately 11 P.
M.
on Thursday, Israeli tanks entered Gaza City in the east.
Eyewitnesses told Al Mezan that these tanks entered from the Beit Hanun / Eriz crossing in the north, the Nizanit settlement and Al Muntar / Karni crossing in the east and reached the Al Yazigi factory in Salah ad-Din Street and the Al Mahata area in Yaffa Street, east of Gaza City.
Due to the use of excessive force and the targeting of homes and civil property, two persons were killed: Ahmad Mahmud Libad, aged 35, and Samira Muhammad ad-Duhdar, aged 25.
Both died from live bullets in the head.
Al Mezan fieldworkers visited the area just after the invasion and documented the damage sustained.
The results of fieldwork showed that the Israeli forces targeted twelve workshops and small factories; six were completely destroyed by explosives and two others were partially bulldozed.
Additionally, five commercial stores and tens of homes were severely damaged.
In Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, at 3 P.
M.
Friday 20 September 2002, the Israeli forces fired upon the Block J area, on the border with Egypt, with heavy machineguns and tank shells.
Helicopter gunships took part in the attack, which resulted in the killing of Abdullah Sulaiman al-Gharabli, aged 14, from a heavy bullet in the head and Haytham Saeed Nattat, aged 17, from a tank shell in the head.
Fifteen other Palestinians were injured and ten homes were damaged in the attack.
Four Palestinians were also wounded in the Salah ad-Din Gate area in the town before the Israeli forces withdrew at 10:30 P.
M.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights is gravely concerned by the daily Israeli incursions into Palestinian towns and villages in the Gaza Strip and the use of excessive and lethal force against civilian persons and property.
Such procedures constitute grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the human rights norms.
As such, Al Mezan, again, condemns the Israeli acts and considers that the silence of the international community only encourages the Israeli forces to continue perpetrating such crimes.
Al Mezan challenges this silence in the face of such war crimes and violations of international law, which places the international community’s integrity and legitimacy in question.
The Center calls upon the international community to intervene immediately to protect the civilian population of the OPTs and put an end to the Israeli occupation.
END