Return to the Statistics (home) page Learn more about us. If Americans Knew: what every American needs to know about Israel/Palestine
Statistics History Current Situation US Interests Media Analysis About Us
Top Border

printer symbolPrint Article
letter symbolEmail this Page

     

Terrorism and Collective Punishment

Palestinian Territories: Palestinian civilians, first victims of the escalation of violence and the withholding of direct financial aid

Médecins du Monde
Press Release
April 13, 2006

Daily violence in Gaza and Nablus

Since 1st April, the northern Gaza strip has been the target of relentless shelling by the Israeli military forces, allegedly in response to the firing of Palestinian rockets . Over 2,500 shells have been fired, in addition to air strikes which regularly target civilian areas.

8-year-old Nisreen abu Hashash was shot in the face with a rubber bullet in the West Bank city of Hebron on March 28, 2006.
8-year-old Nisreen abu Hashash was shot in the face with a rubber bullet in the West Bank city of Hebron on March 28, 2006. Photo by/Nayef Hashlamoun

Civilian populations are the first victims and it has resulted so far in the death of 16 people and 77 injured.

In addition, daily incursions in Nablus since 1st April have incurred 1 casualty, 32 injured and 50 arrests.

The closure of borders seriously threatens access to healthcare

Access to medication and to essential products is seriously impeded in the Gaza Strip due to the closure of commercial border crossings. The shortage of medication prevents normal access of patients to health care services.

Access to healthcare for the Palestinian population is seriously threatened by the restriction of movements and the closure of roads in the Palestinian Territories. The current situation recalls the large-scale Israeli military incursions of April 2002 in the main cities of the West Bank (Jenin and Nablus), raising the possibility of a new major humanitarian crisis.

Suspension of aid: probable collapse of the healthcare system

MDM, which has been working in the Palestinian Territories for over 10 years, supporting Palestinian health services through their programmes, is extremely concerned by the EU and US decision to suspend all direct financial aid to the Palestinian Authority. European aid represents a quarter of the Palestinian Authority's total budget and this measure will further undermine the healthcare structure: hospitals, the central public drug centre in Ramallah, doctors and medical teams, the Red Crescent emergency services will no longer be able to provide public services.

There has been a sharp increase of poverty and unemployment in the Palestinian Territories and such a measure will further deprive 30 % of the Palestinian population of their income.

Médecins du Monde strongly condemns the excessive use of force by Israeli armed forces targeting civilian populations as well as the decision of international donors to freeze payments and assistance, which constitutes a collective punishment.

The association calls upon all parties to the conflict to respect the life of humanitarian actors and civilian populations in accordance with International Humanitarian Law and warns the international community of the direct and immediate humanitarian consequences that the suspension of aid will have on the healthcare system. MDM calls upon donors to respect commitments of humanitarian aid promised to the Palestinian population

Contact Presse:
Florence Priolet / Annabelle Quenet
Tél : 01 44 92 14 31 / 14 32
www.medecinsdumonde.org

Back to topBack to Top

printer symbolPrint Article

letter symbolEmail this Page

The History of Terrorism
Videos & Multimedia

British TV Documentary – Dispatches: The Killing Zone

VIDEO: Palestinians Document Settler Violence

VIDEO: West Bank attack filmed

Video – Gaza: A humanitarian implosion

Video: Old Palestinian Man Describes Being Shot

Video – The Easiest Targets: The Israeli Policy of Strip Searching Women and Children

Audio Interview – Psychology of Suicide Bombings

Video – Soldiers Explode a Portion of a Palestinian Home, Killing the Mother

Video – Soldiers Force a Palestinian to Play Violin at Roadblock

Related Articles

Israel 'using food and medicines as weapons'

Nobel Peace Laureate: Hope as Palestinians Use Nonviolence in their Struggle for Human Rights and Freedom

Israeli Strip Searches: A Partial List

68 women gave birth on checkpoints, 34 infants and 4 women died

Americans Tortured in Israeli Jails

More on Collective Punishment/Terrorism

Additional Resources

The Gaza Strip: A humanitarian implosion

Back to a Routine of Torture – Torture and Ill-treatment of Palestinian Detainees during Arrest, Detention and Interrogation – September 2001 - April 2003

Amnesty International – Israeli Settlers Wage Campaign of Intimidation

Booklet – ‘No Exit’

Amnesty International – Under the Rubble

Organizations

Public Committee Against Torture in Israel

Stay Informed

Sign up for our mailing list and receive an email whenever we post a new article on our news site, Israel-Palestine News.


If Americans Knew distributes and posts to our website copyrighted material, sometimes without the permission of the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of the Israel/Palestine conflict. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law since it is being distributed without profit for purely educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

This website is printer-friendly. Please Print this article and share it with your friends and family.

gazavictims.html