Amnesty International 2003 report: Israel and the Occupied Territories:
amnestyusa.org
At least 1,000 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army, most of them unlawfully. They included some 150 children and at least 35 individuals killed in targeted assassinations. Palestinian armed groups killed more than 420 Israelis, at least 265 of them civilians and including 47 children, and some 20 foreign nationals, in targeted or indiscriminate attacks. Prolonged closures and curfews were imposed throughout the Occupied Territories and more than 2,000 homes were destroyed. Thousands of Palestinians were arrested. Most were released without charge, but more than 3,000 remained in military jails. More than 1,900 were held in administrative detention without charge or trial, and some 5,000 were charged with security offences, including involvement in attacks against Israelis. More than 3,800 were tried before military courts in trials that did not meet international standards. Ill-treatment of Palestinian detainees was widespread. Israeli soldiers used Palestinians as "human shields" during military operations. Certain abuses committed by the Israeli army constituted war crimes. These included unlawful killings, obstruction of medical assistance and targeting of medical personnel, extensive and wanton destruction of property, torture and cruel and inhuman treatment, unlawful confinement and the use of "human shields". The deliberate targeting of civilians by Palestinian armed groups constituted crimes against humanity. At least 158 Israeli conscientious objectors and reservists who refused to serve in the Occupied Territories were imprisoned.
The IDF continued to demolish houses and destroy agricultural land and industrial installations throughout the Gaza Strip, especially in areas close to Jewish settlements, settlers' roads and borders. The army also resumed the practice of blowing up houses of relatives of people known or suspected of involvement in attacks against Israelis. The destruction of Palestinian homes left thousands homeless, most of them children. The construction of the initial phase of a barrier around some West Bank cities resulted in the destruction of vast areas of Palestinian agricultural land. Other collective punishment in the form of closures and curfews was imposed throughout the Occupied Territories on an unprecedented scale.
Israeli soldiers often used Palestinians as "human shields" during military operations, forcing them to carry out tasks that endangered their lives, including entering houses to make the inhabitants leave, searching houses for explosives, removing potentially dangerous objects, and providing cover for them when they shot at other Palestinians. At least one Palestinian was killed while being used as a "human shield" by the IDF.
During the night of 22 July, the IDF dropped a one-ton bomb from an F16 fighter jet on a densely populated neighbourhood of Gaza City, killing Hamas activist Salah Shehada, the target of the IDF attack. Seven other adults and nine children were also killed, and more than 70 injured. The IDF accused Salah Shehada of having organized attacks against Israelis. Six nearby houses were also destroyed in the attack. The following day Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called the attack "one of the most successful operations".
Palestinian armed groups killed at least 265 Israeli civilians, including 47 children, and some 20 foreign nationals. Of these, some 180 were killed in suicide bombings, often in crowded areas such as cafés, and in other attacks inside Israel. More than 80 were killed in shootings and other attacks in the Occupied Territories. Also killed were over 150 soldiers, more than 100 of them in the Occupied Territories and 47 inside Israel.
Five-year-old Danielle Shefi was killed on 27 April by three armed Palestinians in Adora, an Israeli settlement in the Occupied Territories. She was shot dead and her mother and two brothers, aged two and four, were injured. Elsewhere in the settlement, the gunmen killed three adults. The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for what it described as an "heroic and daring operation".
Israeli settlers repeatedly attacked Palestinians and destroyed their property in the Occupied Territories. In October during the olive harvest, Israeli settlers frequently attacked Palestinian villagers, preventing them from picking their olives and burning and destroying olive trees and other property. Several of the attacks occurred around Nablus. In the village of Yanun, all the Palestinian residents were forced to flee the village because of repeated attacks by Israeli settlers. The villagers later returned home under the protection of international and Israeli peace activists. In most cases the IDF did not intervene to protect the Palestinians under attack and often declared the areas closed to Palestinian farmers.
In August, six Israeli settlers were arrested as they placed a bomb outside a girls' school in East Jerusalem.
The IDF imposed closures and curfews on an unprecedented level throughout the Occupied Territories. Most Palestinian towns and villages were cut off from one another and from surrounding areas for most of the year, and prolonged curfews were imposed on the major population centres. From the beginning of August, Nablus, home to around 120,000 Palestinians, was under strict 24-hour curfew for 106 consecutive days. These sweeping measures of collective punishment affected millions of Palestinians, whose access to work, school and medical care was denied or severely restricted for most of the year.
In Nablus on 6 April the IDF bulldozed a house on top of 10 members of the al-Shu'bi family. Eight of them were killed, including three children, their pregnant mother and 85-year-old grandfather. Two other elderly relatives were found alive under the rubble a week later. |
