In the most recent extra judicial assassination, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, the founder and leader of Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement.
Israeli apaches launched an air strike on the Al Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City and killed the Sheikh and seven other Palestinians as they were leaving the mosque after the dawn prayer.
In separate attacks, IOF killed 5 other Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during the morning hours.
According to Al Mezan's field investigations, IOF fired three missiles into a group people who were leaving a mosque, killing Sheikh Yassin, who was 66 years-old and paraplegic, as well as his two sons Abdul Hamid and Abdul Ghani and 4 others.
20 persons were also injured during the attack.
The Israeli Government claimed its responsibility for the assassination.
This is not the first time the Hamas spiritual leader was targeted by the IOF.
On September 6 2003, he barely escaped from an air strike attack while leaving a house.
Yassin was also arrested twice and detained for several years by IOF.
As the news of the assassination spread through the Gaza Strip, demonstrations and confrontations between civilians and IOF started near the Israeli settlements and checkpoints.
In the southern town of Khan Younis, 3 Palestinians were killed by the IOF, including a child.
During the past 24 hours, the IOF murdered a total of 14 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip Moreover, IOF has continued to build up troops around the Gaza Strip and inside Israeli settlements.
They also closed all the crossing points in the Strip and intensified the restrictions on movement inside the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights condemns Israel’s crimes of assassination and its escalation of human rights violations in the OPT.
The Center appeals for the International Community to immediately intervene to stop Israel’s crimes and protect Palestinian civilians who are exposed to continued and systematic war crimes.
The International Community’s has a moral and legal obligation to intervene at this particular time, while indicators of the IOF intention to escalate their aggression are mounting, and bearing in mind that the International Community’s silence provides Israel a status of impunity and encourages the continuation of its violations.