Palestinian Council for Justice and Peace PCJP
Seven months had passed since the breakout of the second Intifada by the Palestinian people. For thirty-four long years, the Palestinians endured arbitrary oppressive Israeli policies and practices such as: deportation; displacement; house demolition; killing; uprooting of trees; confiscation of land and appropriation of private property etc. The Israeli army has engaged upon a systematic campaign of terror against the Palestinian people since 28 September 2000 using all kinds of weapons including internationally prohibited ones.
- Israeli troops and settlers killed 492 Palestinians including 172
children under the age of eighteen and 77 students. The total number of
those injured by Israeli fire was 23147, 40% of them were children and
2077 were students. Four Palestinian doctors were killed including one
German. Ninety-one paramedics and 71 journalists were also injured.
- The number of disabled, as a result of Israeli attacks, reached 2200
Palestinians compared to 2525 Palestinians during the first Intifada in
1987-1992. With 126,000 disabled persons this represents 12.3% of the
Palestinian society.
- Israeli attacks totally damaged 9 ambulances while 82 others were
riddled
by bullets.
- Unemployment rose to 56% with 297,000 able Palestinians were left
without
work.
- The Palestinian economy suffered losses estimated at $4.4 billion US
dollars. The GNP plummeted to 50.7% during the last seven months. The
Palestinian agricultural sector lost $217,905,509 US dollars by 31 March
2001. About 30,000 Palestinian farmers suffered huge losses. Israeli
troops destroyed 108 artesian wells (used for drinking water); 392 ponds;
3802 meters of municipal water network pipes; 41015 meters of fences and
support walls and 804 heads of cattle. Israeli bulldozers and tanks
uprooted 280,000 mature olive and fruit trees and dredged 42,000 dunums of
land mostly in the Gaza Strip. The dredged sites represent 11% of the
total area of the Strip of 367 square kilometers. Israeli authorities
confiscated 2617 dunums of land for expanding Israeli colonies or to pave
by-pass roads for use by Israeli settlers.
- Israeli authorities arrested 1850 Palestinians, 50% of them were
children
under the age of 18. Forty-one schools were ordered closed, 65 students
and 15 teachers were arrested. Since 1994, Israeli military imposed a
strict closure on the Occupied Palestinian Territories for a total of 600
days excluding curfews or partial closures since the beginning of the
Intifada.
- Since 28 September 2000, Israeli army totally destroyed 4000 homes and
other structures including 328 farmhouses and sheds; 29 poultry farms; 30
mosques and 12 churches. Israeli military operations displaced 4000
Palestinian families. The average Palestinian family consists of 10
members in Gaza Strip compared to 6 in the West Bank. Israeli occupation
authorities dismembered the Palestinian Territories into small sections
dividing the West Bank into 64 sectors and the Gaza Strip into three.
These divisions separated Palestinian cities, towns and villages into
isolated easy to control cantons totally restraining the movement of
Palestinian civilians. Israeli forces setup 145 new roadblocks with 103 in
the West Bank and 42 checkpoints in the Gaza Strip. These measures were
used to inflict further humiliation on the Palestinian people. Israeli
forces closed off all highways, main and secondary roads including farm
and dirt roads. Palestinians had to use dangerous mountainous trails to
by-pass Israeli blockades. Today, it would take a Palestinian triple the
time to travel between two points than what it took in normal
circumstances.
Palestinian Council for Justice and Peace
PCJP