Al Mezan expresses its concern and condemns the increased killing of women in Gaza

To : mezan@palnet.com

Reference : 15/2007
Date : 27 February 2007

Press Release

Al Mezan expresses its concern and condemns the increased killing of women in Gaza
The killing of women has increased in Gaza recently. Three women were killed yesterday in Gaza. Four women have been killed since the start of 2007.

According to Al Mezan’s fieldwork investigations, at app. 10.44pm on 26 February 2007, a woman was found dead in Al Sudaniya area on Jabalia beach, with three bullets in her chest. Another woman, aged 45, was found dead in the Salateen neighborhood in north Gaza at around midnight on the same day. And at app. 7.30am on 27 February 2007, a 40-year-old woman was found dead in the north Gaza City with three bullets in her head.

In another incident, on 26 February 2007, at app. 10.30pm, unidentified persons detonated the front door of Dr. Ali Shareef’s house. Dr Shareef is a Professor of Islamic Sharia Law at Gaza’s Islamic University with an explosive device. The blast caused damage to the house which is located in Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood. No casualties were reported.

Al Mezan’s fieldworkers reported that several NGO and private organizations have received threats. Al Awda Medical Center, which is the Rafah branch of the Union of Medical Work Committees, received three telephone threats over the week. Unidentified persons said they planned to bomb the Center. A photographer was also threatened with his shop being blown up. Further, an NGO in north Gaza was set on fire last week and an Internet Café in Rafah was attacked with explosive devices.

Al Mezan Center strongly condemns the killing of women and denounces the silence that the PNA has shown regarding such incidents. The Palestinian security apparatus has not taken any effective measures to promptly investigate the conditions and motives of these killings. Likewise, it failed to take such steps following the killing of a girl in Rafah at the commencement of 2007. The Center is highly concerned with the possibility of overlooking these killings, which will only aggravate such crimes and spread insecurity within the Palestinian society.

Al Mezan therefore calls upon the Palestinian President, Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, and the Minister of Interior, who bear responsibility for the maintenance of security for civilians, to take practical measures to initiate investigation into the killings and other attacks and to bring the perpetrators to justice. Al Mezan asserts that the PNA’s continued failure to uphold these obligations only encourages their reoccurrence, deepens the disrespect for law and promotes chaos in the OPT, particularly in the Gaza Strip.