Posted on 26-10-2003

Israeli Hit Squads Kill 12

International intervention crucial after 12 Palestinians die in a day which
saw 5 successive attacks on Gaza Wednesday, October 22, 2003

12 Palestinians were killed on Monday in the most devastating series of
attacks against the occupied population since the beginning of the
Intifada. In a continuation of the extreme Israeli policy of extrajudicial
assassinations, apache helicopters knowingly fired missiles into civilian
crowds in a series of five successive strikes.

The fourth and most deadly of the apache attacks came at approximately 9pm
Monday evening. Having first fired two missiles at a car traveling through
the busy al - Sajaiyeh neighborhood, the Israeli helicopter doubled back
and fired a third missile on the crowd of civilians who had rushed to help
the two dead and several injured. A further seven civilians were killed
with this third missile strike. One of whom was 35 year old Zain Shahin, a
doctor from a local clinic who was attempting to
help in the chaos of the scene.

There is no explanation for this appalling attack on a civilian population.
Israel has not only adopted an illegal policy in assassinating Palestinian
militants but is executing this policy with complete carelessness. 291
Palestinians have been killed in assassination attacks since September
2000. 143 of those killed were by-standers. This figure includes at least
32 children and 25 women. These extrajudicial killings are a grave breach
of the 4th Geneva Convention and as such are universally considered war
crimes.

Following the recent catastrophic raids on Rafah which killed 8, and left
1,240 homeless, and now these devastatingly careless extra judicial
assassination attempts, Israel has taken the level of violence to a new
unprecedented intensity. Despite this, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
stood before the opening assembly of the Knesset's winter session on Monday
and attempted to convince the Israeli public that there was no alternative
to the Road Map. Sharon called for all hopes to be focused
on this American sponsored peace initiative.

It is hard to comprehend how recent Israeli policy of inflicting terrible
violence and heavy casualties upon an unarmed occupied population can be
reconciled with Sharon being at all serious about a Road Map he already
killed many times, or indeed peace of any kind.

www.palestinemonitor.org/updates/international_intervention_crucial_gaza.htm