On Sunday, 16 February 2014, the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights issued its annual report on Israeli violations of international human rights law (IHRL) and international humanitarian law (IHL).
The report details policies and activities of the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in 2013 amounting to violations of IHRL and IHL as carried out against the civilian population of the Gaza Strip.
The report commences by giving a brief legal background on the most important and relevant IHRL and IHL principles and gives a brief summary of the critical nature of the Israeli closure imposed on the Gaza Strip.
It then provides a statistical brief on the violations that took place in the reporting period, where 12 people were killed, including one child, and 75 people were injured, including 13 children and 5 women.
It indicates that the IOF arrested 111 people including 39 children during the same period.
In 2013, the IOF continued to launch artillery and missile attacks targeting areas throughout the Gaza Strip.
In the reporting period, the IOF carried out 28 attacks using artillery shells.
As a result of these attacks seven people were killed and 12 people were injured, including five children.
The attacks caused damage to civilian property.
The report relays attacks in 2013 by the IOF against fishermen in the Gaza Strip.
These attacks took place in the context of Israel’s closure of the Gaza Strip, which includes restrictions on the Gaza fishing zone that deprives members of the fishing community of their right to work and puts fishermen’s life and wellbeing at serious risk.
The IOF activities involving fishermen include violations on the right to livelihood, harassment and shooting, arbitrary arrest and detention that involves abuse, and confiscation of property including fishing boats and nets.
The report details incidents of IOF use of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment during fishermen arrests.
During the reporting period, the IOF carried out 147 attacks against fishermen, injuring 10, arresting 22, confiscating 9 boats, and destroying extensive amounts of fishing equipment.
During the reporting period, the IOF arbitrarily arrested Palestinians during limited incursions by land and within Erez crossing in addition to the arrests in the sea.
In 2013, the IOF arrested 111 Palestinians, including 16 people at Erez crossing; including patients who were trying to access hospitals, and 39 children overall.
At the end of the report, Al Mezan condemns the continued and systematicattacks by the IOF againstPalestinian civilians.
As these attacksand the Israeli closure of Gaza continue, Al Mezan expresses its condemnation of the lack of any meaningful international intervention and protection of Gaza's population.
This gap has let the IOF to continue policies amounting to violations of international law in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).
Al Mezan calls on the international community to uphold the moral and legal obligations to take action to bring to a swift end to the violations perpetrated in the oPt including the closure and imposing restricted access areas, which amounts to collective punishment of the entire population.
Al Mezan calls for those who are suspected of ordering or committing gross human rights violations and suspected grave breaches of IHL to be duly investigated according to international standards.
Victims must be guaranteed access to effective remedies and reparation.
  link to report (Arabic)