The Israeli Forces Perpetrate a Massacre in Khan Yunis, Using Heavy Weaponry Against Civilians

At approximately 1:00 AM on Monday 7 October 2002 the Israeli Occupation Forces invaded the town of Khan Yunis in the south the Gaza Strip, using heavy weaponry, killing 12 civilians and injuring tens more.
Much damage of homes and private property was reported in the town.
Al Mezan fieldworkers reported that about 30 Israeli tanks and military vehicles, covered from above by helicopters, came from the Gush Qatif Settlement Bloc and entered the Al Amal area.
Eyewitnesses told the Center that helicopters fired upon two residential buildings in the area with heavy machineguns and rockets.
The following twelve Palestinians were killed in this attack: Abdul Fatah Ali al-Salut, aged 40 Rahimeh Hasan Salameh (Abu Shamaleh), aged 50 Ihab Hilmi Khalaf, aged 22 Jamal Fathi Barbakh, aged 17 Usama Muhammad Abdeen, aged 30 Muhammad Mustafa Sadiq, aged 20 Faris Abdul Nasir al-Zaqzuq, aged 18 Ayman Muhammad Saqr, aged 27 Ahmad Abdul Rauf al-Astal, aged 14 Muhammad Hussain al-Astal, aged 14 Haitham Musa Abu Naja, aged 25 (Hit directly by a rocket and split in half) Abdullah Walid Sabah, aged 16.
Eight of the above died from rocket shrapnel and that Rahimeh Salameh was shot dead after Israeli soldiers broke into her home.
In addition, medical sources reported about 200 casualties, 130 of whom stayed at hospital.
The Israeli operation lasted until 6:30 A.
M.
when the tanks withdrew from the town.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights is gravely concerned by Israel’s increasing use of excessive and lethal force against civilians  and civilian property.
Such procedures constitute grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons, of 12 August 1949, specifically Articles 33, 53 and 147.
Al Mezan condemns Israel’s actions and reproves the international community for shirking its moral and legal responsibilities towards the civilian population of the OPTs through its continual state of silence on this situation.
The Center considers that this characteristic refusal to criticize those responsible for such actions is taken by the IOF as a tacit encouragement to continue on their course of recurrent atrocities against Palestine and the Palestinians.
Practically speaking, this amounts to a form of implicit connivance with the Israeli criminals.
Al Mezan also declares its concerns that such incursions into Palestinian towns and villages in the Gaza Strip are merely the precursor to a full-scale invasion of the Strip, similar to the incursion of the West Bank earlier this year.
Such an invasion will, again, only be facilitated by the ongoing silence of the international community.
Al Mezan calls upon the international community, especially the High Contracting Parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons, of 12 August 1949, to fulfill their obligations clearly laid out in the Convention to “respect and ensure respect for the Convention in all circumstances”.
The international community must intervene immediately to protect the civilian population of the OPTs and bring the Israeli criminals to justice.
This intervention is long overdue.
END