At approximately 11:30 am, Sunday, 8 August 2004, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) opened fire at Al Mezan Center for Human Rights' fieldworkers, who were conducting field investigations and gathering data on human rights violations in the Al Farata neighborhood in Beit Hanoun.
The fieldworkers were near a water-well, about half a kilometer south to the Armistice Line, the border between Gaza and Israel, collecting evidence on damages IOF caused to it during its latest incursion into the town, which lasted for 37 days, when the shooting took place.
Al Mezan has been pursuing a focused process of data gathering in Beit Hanoun, started on 7 August 2004, in order to document the damages the population of the town had sustained in life and property as a result of IOF violations.
The attack occurred when there was not any offense on the IOF in the area, and against well distinguished civilians who carried papers and cameras.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights condemns this serious act on human rights defenders, which aims at deterring human rights defenders from doing their noble job.
The Center calls upon the International Community to double its efforts to ensure effective protection of human rights defenders while pursuing their professional obligation towards the victims of violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Al Mezan is gravely concerned by this act and reminds about the State's obligations under International Law, especially under the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, of 1999, which prohibits attacks against them.
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