New Israeli Crimes in Gaza - IOF Kill Eleven People Including an American Peace Activist

In a serious escalation of their aggression in the Gaza Strip, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) murdered eleven civilians in the Gaza Strip.
Rachel Corey, a 24-year-old peace activist from Washington US, was murdered.
In addition, ten Palestinian civilians were killed around the Strip; five of them are children.
At around 4:45 pm Sunday, 16 March, 2003, an Israeli bulldozer driver murdered Rachel Corey while she was protesting against home demolition in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.
Corey and seven other members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) were in the site, which has been subject to frequent Israeli incursions and regular home demolitions.
Eyewitnesses said the victim was well marked and was not a threat in any way.
An American citizen who was with Rachel, Greg Schnabel, said, “Rachel was standing in front of the home.
As the bulldozer approached she stood her ground.
Rachel was wearing an orange fluorescent jacket.
She was clearly visible to the bulldozer driver as well as to the soldiers in the tank.
The bulldozer to push up the ground from beneath her feet.
The pile of earth was mounding up and she tried her best to stay on top of it.
As the ground continued to move Rachel went down on her knees.
The bulldozer continued to move forward.
Rachel began to become poured beneath the dirt.
Still it did not stop.
Finally, Rachel was beneath the bulldozer.
The bulldozer did not even pick up its blade and ran over her.
” and reflective strips”, he added.
Medical sources in Rafah said Rachel died from skull and chest fractures.
Al Mezan keeps full records and affidavits on this incident in English.
In addition, Ahmad an-Najjar, aged 43, was killed by IOF as he was shot in his home in Tal as-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah.
Moreover, Muhammad Abdul Hadi, aged 18, was killed from IOF fire in the Al Amal neighborhood west of the town of Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip.
Three other Palestinians were also wounded.
In the early morning hours of Monday 17 March 2003, IOF invaded the an-Nusierat refugee camp in the middle of Gaza.
They broke into the house of Muhammad as-Sa’afeen and blew it up with dynamite while Muhammad was in.
Muhammad, aged 34, was killed, as a result.
In addition, Israeli tanks opened fire on the area killing four other civilians including the 3-year old Ilham Zyad al-Attar, who died from three bullets in the heart and the leg and three young Palestinians.
Al Mezan's fieldworkers said the four persons are:  Umar Tawfiq Abu Yusif, aged 17; Umar Hasan Darweesh, aged 17; and Saeed Husni at-Taweel, aged 16.
Ibrahiem Al-Othmani, aged 25.
In a separate attack, at approximately 2 am the same day IOF invaded the Atatra area northwest of the town of Beit Lahia.
Soldiers called on civilians aged between 16 and 45 to gather and forced them to sit into a big hole in the area.
sources in the Ash-Shifa hospital in Gaza reported that two Palestinians were killed in this area; they are: Shadi Khrais, aged 20 and Ramiz al-Sdudi, aged 19 and both members of the Palestinian Marine Police forces.
The incursion in Al Atatra continues and sounds of big explosions are heard as this release is being drafted.
In grave breaches to the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War, of 1949, IOF have deliberately been killing civilians and destroying private property when it was not necessary since the beginning of the current Intifada.
The killing of Rachel Corey is only one evidence.
Israel has killed 134 Palestinians and one American citizen; wounded hundreds of people; destroyed 845 homes; 174 commercial and industrial facilities; razed approximately 1,348 dunams of agricultural land and arrested hundreds of people since the beginning of this year.
The Center highlights the fact that Israel's escalation is in part allowed by the international community's tendency to address the Israeli occupation and Palestinian rights from a political perspective, which contravenes their obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 1949.
As such, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights is making an urgent appeal to the international community to quit its silence towards Israel’s crimes in the OPT, and to fulfill its moral and legal obligations under the international humanitarian law.
The international intervention and protection of the civilian population is urgent.
It is also the international community's responsibility to bring those who ordered and perpetrated these crime to justice.
  END For more details on the killing of Rachel Corey