Last week in Palestine

["Palestine Monitor" <palmon@hdip.org> (by way of Carlo Gubitosa <c.gubitosa@peacelink.it>)]

The Palestine Monitor
A PNGO Information Clearinghouse

Last week in Palestine
20th December ­ 26th December 2002

While the Christian world celebrated the birth of Christ, the lives of the
people living on the land Jesus inhabited continued to be threatened.
Military curfew was imposed, homes were destroyed, arrests and closure
continued, as did the killing of Palestinians.

In the past week 14 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army,
including two women (one from previously sustained injuries) and two
children. Hanin So'ud Abu Sitta, 12 years old, was killed on 21st of
December 2002, when Israeli soldiers shot a live bullet in her abdomen. She
was on her way home in Rafah, Gaza Strip. The 24th December saw the killing
of 14-year-old Mohammed Bureik, from Jabaliya also in the Gaza Strip. He was
killed by shrapnel from a flachette shell fired by Israeli forces positioned
on the eastern border of the Gaza Strip.

At least six of the killings were extra judicial assassinations, including
the killing of a man in the grounds of the Ramallah hospital; a gun attack
on another unarmed man in the busy center of down town Ramallah in the
middle of the day by plain clothed police, and the Christmas day deliberate
shooting of Ibrahim Abu Hawash in both his thighs ­ he then bled to death
when the Israeli soldiers who shot him prevented an ambulance from reaching
him.

The assassinations of these men is illegal under international law,
furthermore it is an attempt by the Israeli prime minister Arial Sharon to
divert attention from Israeli domestic politics and charges of corruption in
his own party.

Sharon’s escalation is an effort to undermine the internal Palestinian
negotiations in Cairo to reach an agreement about a ceasefire. The trend is
clear, whenever Palestinians get close to declaring a ceasefire Sharon
attacks ­ using assassination in an attempt to provoke a response, so the
bloodshed continues. He needs this to be re-elected.

For more information contact: The Palestine Monitor
+972 (0)2 298 5372 or +972 (0)59 387 087
www.palestinemonitor.org