This is a preliminary report issued by the Human Rights Division of the Land Research Center (LRC) - Jerusalem. It discusses the events and violations carried out by the Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinian population between the 29^th of September and the 18^th of October 2000. The events, in which Apache helicopters and Laue missiles were used among other weapons, resulted in the death of more than one hundred Palestinian martyrs and the injury of more than four thousand.

As mentioned above this report is preliminary due to the fact that the military and economic siege of the Palestinian territories in addition to the usage of tanks and international-forbidden weapons is still continuing as we speak and the number of those killed and injured is expected to rise by the day.      

Al Aqsa Uprising did not come out of vacuum; it is the result of more than thirty years of economical siege of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, land fragmentation, Israeli colonies implantation in the heart of Arab lands, in addition to instilling procedures and policies aimed at transferring and evicting the Palestinian people and dissolving their national rights and identity. Moreover, Israeli occupation forces have systematically embarked on the policy of land confiscation, house demolition, racial and religious discrimination, in addition of to ethnic cleansing to ensure the continuation of the occupation and the elimination of the Palestinian “issue.”

What is different about this Uprising is the level of brutality practiced by the occupation forces, which only reflects the total denial of Israeli political machine of the Palestinian international rights and that the only language it understands is the language of bullets, guns and missiles fired at civilians as well as military personals. The following is an attempt to document such brutality and cruelty. Please note that such information were gathered through LRC’s field work, the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Al Makassed Hospital, Al Mutala’a Hospital in addition to the Eyes Hospital in Sheikh Jarrah – Jerusalem.

Martyrs by Region:

It is worth mentioning that all of the martyrs in Gaza Strip were killed by live bullets and that the youngest martyr was Sara Abdel Azeem who was killed by a bullet to the her head shot by a settler.

Injuries by Region:

Injuries Classification:

Please note that 12% of the injuries were considered to be critical and that 4 martyrs passed away due to the seriousness of their injuries. 

Type of Bullets Used:

The Center also documented some, but not all, of the unprecedented violations carried by the Israeli occupation forces during the latest round of the Intifada. Such violations include, but not limited to, the following:

·        The bloody attack on Palestinian worshippers in Al Aqsa Mosque on the 28^th and 29^th of September 2000 that left 5 martyrs and hundreds of injuries. The attack is the third massacre carried out by occupation forces in Al Aqsa since 1990.

·        Shooting at more than 25 ambulances leading to the total destruction of four of them. Moreover, the closure of the airport and the entry points led to delays in the transfer abroad of 21 people whose injuries were critical.

·        The killing of the Palestinian paramedic Bassam Fayez while trying to save the child Mohammad Al Durrah. Israeli forces opened their fire on Al Durrah and his father for 45 minutes before finally delivering the killer bullet to Mohammad while in his fathers’ arms.

·         Attacking hospitals, both in the field and off the field, more than five times. Al Makassed Hospital was attacked twice while Al Mutala’a Hospital was attacked three times in the period between the 29^th and 30^th of September 2000. That is not to mention the numerous times Israeli Special forces and Border Guards attacked field hospitals in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Moreover, these forces made a habit of closing off areas where hospitals were located in and made the roads leading to such hospitals inaccessible which disrupted the flow of medicine and donated blood to and from these hospitals.

·        Evacuating a number of Palestinian houses to be used as shooting huts especially in the divided city of Hebron.

·        Arial and land bombardment of civilian houses in Gaza, Nablus, Ramallah, Hebron and Tulkarem which caused heavy human and monetary casualties.

·        Establishing an unholy alliance between the Israeli military forces and Israeli settlers to carry out attacks against Palestinians especially in the countryside of the West Bank and Gaza. A number of Palestinian victims fell dead as a result of settlers’ attacks. Such victims include the 18-month old Sara Hasan, the 25-year old Abdel Rahman Allamah, Isam Joudeh (40 years old) whose body was mutilated and burnt, in addition to Fareed Musa Nassasreh who received a bullet in the heart. The list continues.

·        Using for the first time new types of weapons to attack Palestinian civilians. Such weapons included Laue Missiles, Apache helicopters, in addition to a variety of semi and full automatic machine guns and the usage of naval power.

·        Targeting media personals in general and the Palestinian ones specifically; so far12 Palestinian journalists were injured in the field despite wearing their special formal outfit.

·        Attacking and damaging huge parts of educational institutions such as Al Khadoory University in Tulkarem. In addition, Israeli forces bombarded the college of Education in Gaza and occupied a great number of schools in the territories and transformed them into military headquarters.

·        Cutting off water, electricity, and phone lines on more than 200 Palestinian village and town.

·        Economically, the total closure of the Palestinian territories since the 29^th of September 2000 have caused the loss of more than $12 million a day in addition to the damages caused by the continsuous Israeli bombardment of the Palestinian basic infrastructure.  

·        Cutting down hundreds of olive and orange trees in Nablus, Khan Yunis, Rafah and Deir Al Balah. That is in addition to the uprooting of tens of dunums owned by Palestinians.

·         Attacking Palestinian residents of the Green Line which led to the killing of 13 martyrs 3 of which were children. That is in addition to tens of injuries and the destruction and the burning of houses, mosques and commercial shops and the arrest of more than 300 Palestinians under the pretext of “ public misconduct.”

Israeli occupation forces have used deadly force in dealing with Palestinian civilian demonstrations that did not pose any life threatening dangers to Israeli soldiers. Therefore, we forewarn the international community of the harsh consequences of the continuation of Israeli aggression against Palestinian civilians in the occupied Palestinian territories.   

We demand the following:

·        That the international community represented by its associations and establishments to pressure Israel into stopping its war crimes against Palestinian civilians.

·         To provide international protection for the Palestinian population against the genocide that is been practiced against it by Israel. We also demand

·        The full implementation of the Geneva Accords regarding the treatment of population under occupation.

·         The establishment of a war crime tribunal to punish those involved in execution of the killings in the Palestinian territories.

·        The honest and full implementation of United Nations’ resolutions 242 and 338.

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