Recent events show that features of security chaos continue to increase in the Gaza Strip.
Recently, an elderly woman was killed in the Al Shati refugee camp and the Director of a non-governmental organization in Gaza was terrorized.
His life was threatened when gunmen opened fire randomly around him.
The incident is believed to be related to his work and Al Mezan considers this a very serious incident.
According to Al Mezan field investigations, at approximately 6:45pm on 2 March 2008 unknown masked gunmen approached the car of Dr.
Ahmed Abu Tawahina, the Director of Gaza Community Mental Health Program (GCMHP), in their two vehicles.
The gunmen blocked his car in Al Bassa neighborhood in the central-Gaza-Strip-town of Deir Balah.
According to the Dr.
Abu Tawahina's testimony, the gunmen came out of their cars and surrounded his vehicle.
They forced him to exit his car and stand on the road.
One of them attacked him while another opened fire.
As a result, one of the tires of his car was shot.
A gunman threatened him violently while referring to his work at the GCMHP before they retreated.
It is important to note that Abu Tawahina is known to be nonpartisan, and according to his testimony, he has no enemies.
This suggests the incident was purely an act of intimidation on grounds linked to his career.
In a separate incident, on the morning of Wednesday, 5 March 2008, 75-year-old Safiya Muhammad Mahdi was killed by a live bullet to her abdomen in the Al Shati refugee camp in western Gaza City.
According to her relatives, she was hit by a stray bullet.
The concerned authorities initiated an investigation in the incident.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights condemns the assault on Dr.
Abu Tawahina and the killing of the elderly woman by a stray bullet.
The Center warns of a return to intimidation, which targets governmental and nongovernmental officials, as a main form of the insecurity state in the Gaza Strip.
Al Mezan calls on the security apparatus in the deposed government to open a serious investigation into the assault on Dr.
Abu Tawahina, and take all the necessary measures to ensure the arrest of those who committed the two aforementioned crimes and bring them to justice.
Failure to act in prosecuting such violations will only encourage the occurrence of similar incidents.
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