At approximately 12:30am Friday 22 March 2002 the Israeli occupation forces penetrated into the Block J area in Rafah Refugee Camp near the Egyptian border with Gaza Strip.
Six Israeli tanks entered the area and began to arbitrarily shoot at residents.
Muhammad Ali Uthman, age 23, was killed by a heavy caliber bullet in his back and four others were wounded: Ayman Hamad Hassan, age 30, Iyad Shaaban al-Mghari, age 23, Muhammad Jamal Braikih, age 19 and Bassam Sabri Zu’rub, age 21.
Iin addition, a brick factory owned by Rubin Barhum, from the same area, was completely destroyed and numerous houses were left damaged.
The Israeli operation lasted until 4:30am Saturday 23 March.
In a separate attack, the Israeli forces shelled the western part of Khan Yunis Refugee Camp on Friday 22 March.
At 7:30pm they fired upon the area with heavy machine guns and canon shells for three hours.
The Israeli violations against the residents of the al-Mawasi area, located along the seacoast of Rafah and Khan Yunis, have also continued.
They imposed a curfew on the area beginning at 7:00pm on Friday March 22.
It is important to note that the Israeli forces had maintained a curfew on this region from 7 March through 17 March, 2002 Such curfews greatly impair economic activities and generally make daily life extremely difficult for residents.
In the context of willful killings by the Israeli forces, which aim to incur as high a toll as possible on Palestinians, the Israelis opened fire on civilians in the Brazil neighborhood in Rafah on Thursday 21 March, 2002.
Riham Husan Abu Taha, 4 years old, was killed by a heavy caliber bullet that lodged in her skull while she was in front of her house, only 5 meters from the borderline that sees continuous movement by Israeli tanks.
After spending a day in the hospital in a state of clinical death, she finally expired on Friday 22 March, 2002 Al Mezan Center has investigated what happened in the area at the time of the Riham’s shooting and has found that there was no fire upon the Israeli tanks when they shot her.
This incident exemplifies the Israeli intention of inflicting casualties upon Palestinian civilians.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights is gravely concerned by the continuous targeting of civilian life and property, the use of excessive lethal force, and the breeches in the 4th Geneva Convention and other human rights treaties by the Israeli forces.
Al Mezan strongly condemns the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation upon Palestinian civilians.
We wish to assert the fact that international silence and inaction in this realm only serve to validate Israeli criminal actions.
Therefore, we urge the international community to immediately intervene and provide protection for Palestinian human rights as a first step to ending the illegal Israeli occupation.
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