A few days after the end of their massive military operation in Rafah which resulted in the killing of 44 people and the destruction of 353 homes and was widely condemned by the international community, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), sustained their routine of home demolitions in Rafah.
In addition, they killed three Palestinians in an extra-judicial assassination operation yesterday, Saturday 25 May 2004 at midnight.
According to eyewitnesses, at approximately 1am Sunday 30 May 2004, IOF tanks and armored bulldozers entered Block J, in Rafah refugee camp, and destroyed 23 homes completely.
Two other homes were severely damaged in the same area.
These demolitions have left 355 people homeless.
During this incursion, Israeli helicopter gun-ships fired two missiles on the area, injuring 4 people, as a result.
The home demolition operation in Block J continued until 4:30am.
In Gaza City, the IOF fired two missiles on a motorcycle in the Zeitun neighborhood at approximately 12:20am on Saturday 29 May 2004.
39-year-old Wail Talab Nassar and 33-year-old Muhammad Mustafa Sarsour, were on the motorcycle and were hit by the first missile.
Madi Ahmad Madi, aged 30, was killed when a second missile was fired while on a group of people trying to help them.
Eight other Palestinians were injured, including two children.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights condemns the continued aggression of the IOF against Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).
Al Mezan once again denounces Israel’s policy of illegal assassination and firing heavy ammunition into civilian crowds, as a breach to international law.
The Center is also highly concerned by the systematic demolition by the IOF of dozens of homes in Rafah, carried out under false claims of ‘military necessity’ and by the silence of the international community regarding these daily occurrences.
The Center warns that the humanitarian situation is rapidly deteriorating as a result of the massive destruction of houses and forcible eviction of civilians in southern Gaza, and calls upon the international community, particularly the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War, of 1949, to immediately intervene to put an end to IOF’s crimes and protect Palestinian civilians in the OPT.
In light of IOF’s escalation of war crimes, an effective international protection is more urgent than ever.
END