Al SamraOn April 7th at 6 am the village of Al Aqaba woke up to find the Israeli Army destroying thier road and two homes. Two Caterpillar bulldozers were with the military jeeps. They demolished two concrete houses leaving two families homeless, one with 11 children, and the other with 7 children. Their animal shelters had also been destroyed.
They also destroyed about 2.5km of tarmac road that wound around the hills of the village, and the electricity columns which serve energy to the inhabitants. One of the roads is ironically named Peace Street and is a vital link with the Jordan Valley.The bulldozers also created mounds with the rubble along the road to make it impossible for any vehicle to drive along it.
95% of Al Aqaba, which is in area C, received demolition orders from the Occupation Authority in 2006. Since then they have been mounting a legal challenge, but it is apparent that the occupation army does not wish to wait for their own Israeli `law`.
700 people were forced out of their land in 2006, but the entire village was granted a freeze on their demolition orders until the end of 2011 to give the opportunity to resolve the situation peacefully. Background information about the village is available on their own website.
In the afternoon of 7th April the army also demolished three large animal shelters and a kitchen in the farming community of Al Samra in the northern Jordan Valley. Jordan Valley Solidarity arrived just after the demolitions to find the families devastated, and the grandparents visibly upset.They received demolition orders for the third time on Tuesday 29th March, and were given just three days to destroy their own buildings, making it virtually impossible for them to make an appeal through the courts. When the army did not demolish their buildings straight away they became hopeful that they would be able to get a freeze on the demolition order, but their hopes were destroyed today.
The grandmother was crying at the sight of the destruction, and that the sheep and goats were now out in the afternoon sun without any shade. The animals were all crowding under the tractors and water tanks to try to find their own shade. As well as the animal shelters, the army also destroyed the small kitchen of a family with a young baby, aged just 20 days old.
Wounded in Gaza - archive AP Palestinian medical sources in the Gaza Strip reported on Thursday that five Palestinians were killed and at least 40 residents, including children, were wounded in several Israeli air strikes and a ground attacks that were initiated on Thursday at noon.
A fighter of the Al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas movement, was killed when the army bombarded Al Shouka area, in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. The fighter was identified as Saleh Al Tarabeen.
Three residents, identified as Mohammad Al Mahmoum, 22, Mos’ab Al Soufy, 17, and Khaled Ad-Dabary, 23, were killed when the army bombarded Al Jaradat area in Rafah.
On Thursday at noon, resident Mahmoud Al Manasra, 50, was killed, and at least five residents, including a child, were injured when the army fired more than 20 artillery shells into Al Shijaeyya neighborhood, east of Gaza City.
Furthermore, four Palestinians were moderately wounded when the army fired three shells into the Gaza International Airport in Rafah. The airport remains nonoperational since 2000, and was repeatedly bombarded and bulldozed by the army.
The army also bombarded several homes east of Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip; causing damage; no injuries were reported. One child was wounded by an Israeli artillery shell that hit Al-Qarara area, east of Khan Younis.
The Israeli Air Force fired missiles at a training camp using by the Al Qassam Brigades of Hamas in Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, and also bombarded an open area close to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
In southern Gaza, the army fired a missile at a local ambulance causing damage and mildly wounding the driver.
Medical sources reported that another ambulance was targeted by the Israeli Air Force in Rafah, and that eight Palestinians, including children, were wounded.
Five Palestinians, including a journalist, identified as Mohammad Al Madhoun, were wounded when the army bombarded a Police training base west of Jabalia, in northern Gaza. The reporter was seriously wounded.
A Palestinian farmer was also wounded when the Israeli Air Force fired missiles into the Al Waha area, north west of Gaza city.
Several Air Strikes also targeted areas east of Dir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, and Al Hawouz area in addition to the Al Rantissi Base, north of Gaza, leading to excessive damage.
Visiting Cairo, Palestinian Chief Negotiator, Dr. Saeb Erekat, told the Maan News Agency that the Israeli threats and escalation jeopardize the security of the region, and that Israel must halt all of its violations against the Palestinian people.
Meanwhile, Israeli Army spokesperson, Avichai Adraee, told Maan that the army is evaluating the situation and could resort to a larger scale attack against Gaza.
He added that “what the army is conducting right now is only a routine operation that precedes a larger attack” likely to be carried out after the army and the political leadership in Israel evaluate the situation.
Adraee further stated that the Hamas movement is responsible for the latest escalation.
Also on Thursday, two Israelis, including a school student, were wounded when a shell fired from Gaza hit a school bus in southern Israel.
Furthermore, the Al Qassam Brigades of Hamas fired shells at the Sofa military base, near the Gaza border.
The Brigades said that attack comes in retaliation to the assassination of three fighters who were killed in an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
Israeli army chief of Staff, Benny Gant, visited the military base and toured the area speaking to locals urging them to remain calm, adding that “the army will do whatever it can to ensure their security, even if this means a military operation against Gaza”.
Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, said that the army is acting against the attacks and will do whatever it can to ensure they stop.
He further stated that the Iron Dome system that was installed to intercept shells fired from Gaza is operational, but added that Israel cannot claim that the system provides full protection.
On Thursday night, approximately at 11, Palestinian factions in Gaza declared a ceasefire while Israeli tanks were seen moving towards the border area.
One man was killed when tanks bombarded a group of Palestinian workers as they collected construction materials near the northern Gaza Strip’s border with Israel.
Palestinian medics announced that Mohamed Shalha, 21, was killed when tank shells landed near him. Shalha and another worker were injured earlier on Tuesday midday but medics were unable to reach them because of the Israeli shelling. The fate of the other injured worker remains unknown.
The Israeli army radio claimed instead that army tanks stationed at the northern borders were targeting a group of armed Palestinians firing homemade shells at Israeli areas near the borders.
Palestinian groups refuted the army’s claim and said attacked were workers collecting construction materials and not fighters.
Illegal Israeli settlement - Gilo (Ma'an)Jerusalem city council on Monday approved the construction of 942 new Jewish-only homes in Gilo settlement in occupied East Jersualem, a councillor told AFP.
Elisha Peleg, from the right-wing Likud party, confirmed that the new construction in Gilo, close to the West Bank city of Bethlehem, had been approved during an afternoon session of the district planning council.
“Of course we approved it, it is only the first step,” he told AFP, saying it was approved by five in favor and one against.
The municipality said this project was in addition to an earlier tranche of more than 900 new homes in Gilo approved in November 2009, which brought sharp condemnation from Washington which expressed “dismay” over the move.
The latest decision came a day ahead of a top-level meeting at the White House between Israeli President Shimon Peres and US President Barack Obama.
Gilo lies in occupied East Jerusalem, which Israel captured along with the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed in a move not recognized by the international community.
Israel considers both halves of the Holy City its “eternal, indivisible” capital, and does not view construction in the east to be settlement activity.
The Palestinians, however, want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state and fiercely contest any actions to extend Israel’s control over the sector.
The Palestinians condemned the move and said they would appeal to the international community to pressure Israel to respect international law.
“We strongly condemn the decision of the Jerusalem municipality to build 942 new homes in Gilo,” said chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat. “This decision proves once again that Israel has chosen settlements over peace.”
Some 180,000 Israelis live in East Jerusalem alongside nearly 270,000 Palestinians.
On Friday Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said that an Israeli landowner was seeking to sell plots for 30 homes in another mainly Palestinian neighborhood of Jerusalem, where 117 settler families already live.
The international community has repeatedly called on Israel to avoid new building projects in East Jerusalem.
US-brokered peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians are deadlocked over the issue of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.
The Palestinians walked out of direct peace talks three weeks after they started last September when Israel refused to extend a 10-month partial freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank.
They refuse to negotiate with Israel while it builds on land which would be a Palestinian state in a peace agreement.
In March 2010, the interior ministry announced a plan to build 1,600 Jewish-only homes in Ramat Shlomo in East Jerusalem.
The announcement, which came as US Vice President Joe Biden was visiting Israel, provoked fierce American opposition and soured relations with Washington for several months.
In light of the media debate and confusion triggered by Justice Richard Goldstone’s 1 April opinion piece in the Washington Post, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) wishes to highlight a few key issues regarding the current status of the UN Fact-Finding Mission’s Report, and the search for accountability in the aftermath of Israel’s 27 December 2008 – 18 January 2009 offensive on the Gaza Strip.
PCHR represent 1,046 victims of the offensive, and have submitted 490 criminal complaints to the Israeli authorities on behalf of these individuals.
As noted by Justice Goldstone, the UN Fact-Finding Mission was not a judicial body. Rather, it was a fact-finding mission mandated to conduct initial investigations on the ground, and to make recommendations on this basis. The Mission found sufficient evidence to indicate the widespread commission of war crimes, and possible crimes against humanity. This finding was consistent with the result of investigations conducted by other organisations, including PCHR, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the UN Board of Inquiry, and the Fact-Finding Mission of the Arab League.
Appropriately, and consistent with the requirements of international law, the Fact-Finding Mission recommended that these allegations be investigated. The Mission noted that if domestic authorities failed to conduct effective investigations, the International Criminal Court became the most appropriate forum to investigate these serious charges. Responsibility would thus fall on the Security Council to activate the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, in accordance with Article 13(b) of the Court’s statute. According to the timeline established by the Mission, this referral should have taken place approximately one year ago. The Security Council took such action most recently with respect to the current situation in Libya.
The most serious allegations regarding Israel’s conduct of hostilities during the offensive relate to the direct targeting of civilians, widespread indiscriminate attacks, the choice of targets and methods of combat, and the extensive destruction of public and private infrastructure, including the total or partial (rendered uninhabitable) destruction of 7,872 civilian housing units. A few significant cases in this regard include the attack on UNRWA headquarters, the attack on Fakhoura school, the Abdul Dayem case, the Al-Daia case, the Abu Halima case, and the attack on Arafat Police compound. Policies including those related the conduct of hostilities, the choice of targets, the use of white phosphorous, and the artillery bombardment of civilian areas may also give rise to individual criminal responsibility. None of these cases have been effectively addressed, and have not been ‘reconsidered’ by Justice Goldstone.
International law clearly requires that allegations of international crimes, as detailed in the Fact-Finding Mission’s Report and elsewhere, must be subject to genuine investigation, and if appropriate, those responsible prosecuted.
International jurisprudence has consistently identified four components essential to conducting a genuine investigation.[1] An investigation must be: effective (capable of leading “to the identification and punishment of those responsible”[2], and “undertaken in a serious manner and not as a mere formality preordained to be ineffective”[3]); independent (based on, inter alia, “the existence of guarantees against outside pressures”,[4] specifically “the persons responsible for the injuries and those conducting the investigations should be independent of anyone implicated in the events”[5]); prompt;[6] and involve an element of public scrutiny.[7] Significantly, the whole operation must also be analysed, and not merely the immediate specifics of any one incident; the overall plan and its implementation must be analysed.[8]
In the over two years that have passed since the offensive, all parties have failed to conduct investigations complying with these standards. Most recently, the UN Committee of Independent Experts mandated to monitor Israel and the Palestinians’ domestic investigations found that “there is no indication that Israel has opened investigations into those who designed, planned, ordered and oversaw ‘Operation Cast Lead’.” The Committee also noted significant problems with respect to the role of the Military Advocate General.
The overwhelming majority of investigative procedures initiated by Israel have been closed on reaching the IDF’s apparently preordained conclusion that: “[t]hroughout the fighting in Gaza, the IDF operated in accordance with international law.”
In the over two years since Operation Cast Lead one Israeli soldier has served 7.5 months in jail for the theft of a credit card and two others received three month suspended sentences for using a child as a human shield. These three convictions, and the ongoing trial of a fourth soldier, have been the only concrete judicial outcomes from Israeli investigations. It is noted that these indictments fail to reflect the gravity of the actual crimes committed, as does the exceptionally lenient sentence in the human shields case.
PCHR have concluded that the Israeli investigative system as a whole, including as this relates to civilian supervision, is flawed, either in law, in practice, or both.
In light of the domestic systems now proven inability and unwillingness to conduct genuine investigations, it is imperative and appropriate that these allegations be investigated by the International Criminal Court. On 25 March 2011, the Human Rights Council made precisely this recommendation, recommending that the General Assembly submit the UN Fact-Finding Mission’s Report to the Security Council, to consider referring the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory to the International Criminal Court
The current debate must focus on the relevant core issues. Significant evidence indicates that widespread war crimes were committed in the context of Operation Cast Lead. These have not been subject to genuine judicial scrutiny. This situation must be remedied by a referral to the International Criminal Court.
All political considerations must be put aside, and the rule of international law upheld. There is no basis to retract or reconsider the Report of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict. The equal application of the law is the very least that victims on all sides deserve. Justice Goldstone will hopefully join the call of the Human Rights Council, supported by human rights NGOs globally, in asking the Security Council to refer the situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory to the International Criminal Court.
All parties to the events in the region must be held to universal standards so that the law proves capable of protecting civilians from future atrocities, and so that those victims of past crimes can finally achieve accountability and justice.
