By the time the international community and the Arab States are trying to end the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian People and initiate the peace process, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Apache helicopter gun-ships fired six missiles directly into the car of Dr.
Abdul Aziz al-Rantisi, a senior Hamas political leader, in Gaza City today, Tuesday, 10 June, 2003.
According to the findings of the Al-Mezan Center, at around 11:10 this morning two Israeli Apache helicopters fired six missiles directly into a civilian car on Izzaddin Al Qassam Street in Gaza City.
The car was completely destroyed, and a 50-year-old woman, Khadra Abu Hamada who was incidentally passing the street, was killed.
One of Dr.
Rantisi’s bodyguards, Mustafa Salih, 34 years old, was also killed, while 7-year-old Amal al-Jarushe sustained very critical wounds.
In the car was Dr.
Rantisi, aged 52, and his son who were both injured.
It is worth noting that the attack took place in the rush hour and in a densely populated area in the city.
In addition, the office of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees – a Palestinian NGO, one of its ambulances and dozens of homes and a number of motor vehicles were damaged from the explosions.
Medical resources in Gaza confirmed the death of the two people and the injury of 31 others, seven of whom are in critical conditions at the hospital.
The Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights condemns this crime of extra-judicial execution and deliberate killing, which constitutes a severe breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civil Persons in Time of War, as a war crime.
This act necessitates effective pursuit of, and bringing to justice, those who ordered and perpetrated it.
Substantial results of the fieldwork by Al-Mezan proves that the IOF systematically practices killings and destruction of property while displaying a flagrant disregard for civilian life.
The Center highlights the fact that Israel's escalation of its crimes is in part legitimized by the international community's reluctance to condemn these acts as the war crimes that they are.
By addressing the Israeli occupation and Palestinian rights from a political perspective, the community applies double standards to Israel’s acts and grants it the status of a state above law.
As such Al-Mezan calls upon the international community to end its silent complicity and fulfill its legal and moral obligations toward the civilian population of the OPT.
Those who ordered and perpetrated these crimes must be brought to justice under international law.
END