IOF Launch an Incursion on Gaza City and Kill Eight Palestinians

At approximately 4:30 am on Wednesday January 21, 2004, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) launched an incursion in Al Zaytun area in Gaza City.
According to eyewitnesses, four Israeli tanks, two army jeeps and two bulldozers entered the area and opened fire.
Eight Palestinians were killed and three were wounded, as a result.
Below are the names of the victims: - Ahmad Ali Abu Rkab, aged 22; - Iyad Mahmud Al Ra’I, aged 30; - Marwan Atiyeh Basal, aged 30; - Samih Kamil Sutah, aged 17; - Musa Sulaiman Dallul, aged 31; - Samy Muhammad Badawi, aged 16, - Akram Abu Ajami, aged 17; - Uthman Jindyeh, aged 22.
Three other persons sustained wounds, one of whom is in a critical condition: - Kamal Sulaiman Dalul, aged 34; - Muhammad Hasan Azzam, aged 55; - Ala’ Hamdi Al Susi, aged 32.
The latter is an ambulance driver who was trying to collect the injured when IOF fired on the ambulance.
The arbitrary shelling of the area also caused damage to electricity lines, to the infrastructure and to a shop.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights gravely condemns Israel’s use of excessive, disproportionate force in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), in violation of the International law and the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War, of 12 August 1949.
Al Mezan appeals for the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to intervene and ensure Israel’s respect of the Convention in the OPT.
The International Community holds a legal and moral responsibility towards the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the continued human rights violations.
The Center, as such, calls for the conference of the High Contracting Parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention to reconvene on the issue of the Occupied Palestinian Territories to guarantee Israel’s compliance with its provisions.