Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in Occupied Palestine
A Palestinian family mourn their son who was killed by
an Israeli air strike east of Khan Yunis on 10 March 2012
Israeli violations of international law and humanitarian law in the OPT continued during the reporting period (08 – 14 March 2012). Shooting: Israeli Offensive on the Gaza Strip
On Friday evening, 09 March 2012, IOF initiated a new offensive on the Gaza Strip, which continued until Monday evening, 12 March 2012, as a new Egyptian-brokered Tahdey’a (lull) was reached between IOF and Palestinian resistance groups. During this offensive, IOF killed 24 Palestinians, including the Secretary-General and a leader of the Popular Resistance Committees, who was extra-judicially executed by an air strike. The victims include also 4 civilians (two old men, a woman and a child). Additionally, 74 Palestinians were wounded, 59 are civilians, including 16 children and 7 women. During this offensive, IOF launched a series of air strikes targeting Palestinian resistance activists and civilian facilities. In the West Bank, on 08 March 2012, IOF killed a Palestinian child and seriously wounded and arrested another one in Yatta town, south of Hebron. IOF moved into the town to arrest a Palestinian who was released from Israeli jails in the recent prisoners swap between IOF and Palestinian resistance groups. IOF claimed that soldiers opened fire “after a Palestinian had stabbed a soldier.” During the reporting period, IOF used excessive force to disperse peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to Israeli settlement activities and the construction of the annexation wall in the West Bank. As a result, two Palestinian civilian were wounded, and dozens of Palestinian civilians and international human rights defenders suffered from tear gas inhalation. IOF also arrested a Palestinian civilian and an international human rights defender.