–   Palestinian and international reports, as well as some Israeli reports, recorded about “1500 martyrs and about 70 thousand injured during the first intifada over the years 1987-1993”.

–   The data indicate that the number of Palestinians who were injured during the years of the second great intifada, which started in 2000, was many times higher than the number of those injured during the first great intifada.

According to the latest documents and several Palestinian data sources on casualties during the occupational war against Palestine, “the number of martyrs increased due to rockets and fire coming from the occupation army since July 28, 2000, to reach the number of 5100 martyrs (-source: Report of the National Palestinian Information Center of the General Information Authority/ Palestinian websites )–including:

Around 950 children,

300 female martyrs

732 other martyrs who were victims of Israeli bombing

396 killed by assassinations and physical liquidations.

–   As for the number of Palestinians injured during the uprising, their numbers have ranged between 50 to 55 thousand, one third of them being children. (source: Palestinian media.)

–   Whereas the number of Palestinian female martyrs reached 300 since the beginning of the Intifada to date, their ages ranged between 24 days to  10 years.. The cause of their death varied from bombing, to shooting, to lack of providing proper treatment. This does not account to the number of women who died during the subsequent period.

If the killings and disabilities mentioned constitute war crimes, then the worst war crimes committed were against Palestinian children.

• According to international child rights laws, and in accordance with Article 38:
• State Parties undertake to respect the rules of international humanitarian law applicable to them in armed conflicts, these rules being related to children and which include respect for these rules.
• State Parties shall, in accordance with their obligations under international humanitarian law, protect civilians during armed conflicts and should take all feasible measures to ensure protection and care of children affected by armed conflicts.
• According to the recommendations of the Israeli military

“Shooting of Roma GG bullets on children is prohibited,

Shooting rubber bullets of RRNM type on children is prohibited,

Firing plastic bullets is prohibited on both women and children.”

• The second article of the convention on the rights of the child dictates that

“State parties should respect the rights mentioned in the convention and apply it to each child within their jurisdiction”.

Meaning that, the occupying state is responsible for implementing the provisions of the convention in the occupied territories.

• The fourth Article of the Convention provides that:

“State Parties shall take all appropriate legislative and administrative measures and other appropriate measures for the realization of the rights recognized in this Convention …”.

The occupying state has violated the following articles of of the Convention on the Rights of the Child:

• Article 2/6:State Parties shall ensure to the maximum child survival and development.
• Martyrs and injured children:

As a result of the intentions and the criminal military instructions with regard to Palestinian children, as documented above, various Palestinian sources pointed out that:

“Since the Al-Aqsa Intifada began, the Israeli army killed about 950 children, and wounded thousands, and the percentage of martyred children is higher than 38% of the total number.”

Reference is made to the most terrible crimes of the occupation against children, such as, the killing of Iman Hajjo on May 7, 2001.

• Crimes of occupation against Palestinian children of the West Bank and Gaza were not only limited to the killing, injuring and disabling of thousands of them, but exceeded all boundaries, and left deep psychological impact on them.
• Elia Awad, head of the Department of Mental Health in the Bethlehem branch of the Palestinian Red Crescent, emphasized that “The scenes of violence such as shootings, destruction of homes, blood and dead bodies, leave emotional, psychological and social impacts which result in the manifestation of psychological instability through involuntary bedwetting, nightmares and feelings of constant fear.”

The Press Officer of UNICEF Office in Jerusalem, mentioned during an interview with Petra News Agency that: “Around one million and three hundred thousand Palestinian children are living since the end of September 2000, under daily Israeli bombardments, which leave an unmeasurable psychological impact, such as: horror, fear, excessive tension, lack of academic focus, nightmares and bedwetting, etc. ”

–   The international law does not allow the occupying state to carry out the death penalty against any civilian without being given a fair trial,

–   To the contrary, the Zionist occupation authorities:

1. Endorsed a law specific to the Israeli occupation which allows field execution of Palestinians,
2. Made “The Israeli High Court of Justice” part of the State of Israel,
3. Took decisions that allow the forces of the Israeli army to carry out its defensive duties, including assassinations.

–   In this context, an Israeli report stressed that “Israel turned to a state of assassinations”,

–   Gideon Levy, an Israeli writer specialized in human rights wrote under the title “A Bullet with a Title”:

“The policy of assassinations carried out by Israel in the Palestinian territories is definitely illegal and unethical”

–   Efraim Sneh, former Israeli Deputy Defense Minister at the time, ensured that:

“Israel will continue the policy of assassinations and its army would continue to hit Palestinians… and all those involved in terrorist operations, attacks and preparation of such operations… and that the physical liquidation of Palestinians constitutes the most effective, accurate and proper way,”

• While the Zionist State has officially announced that:

“Israel will continue to implement the policy of assassinations against Palestinians”

This criminal policy is heard day and night from the mouths of the leaders of the Occupying Power.

The liquidation of prominent Intifada activists:

In accordance with the provisions, laws and perspectives of the State of the Zionist Occupation, the occupation army and units, carried out a series of assassinations and ugly terrorist liquidations against hundreds of Palestinian leaders of the various Palestinian factions, and among the ranks of the Palestinian security services officers. As well as the assassination of several Palestinian civilians and children.

–   The Occupation forces committed more than 300 political assassinations since the beginning of the Intifada,

–   Those assassinations were carried out against activists and Palestinian civilians in the WestBank and Gaza Strip during the Al-Aqsa Intifada,

–   651Palestinians were killed, according to the announcement of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, (source: Palestine Today, 22/08/2007)

During the Intifada, which had been ongoing for seven years, the Israeli forces strikingly carried out air or on ground assassinations against Palestinian politicians, military leaders and civilians from various organizations. Those assassinations were justified by the presumed intention of those killed to implement or plan operations to hit Israeli targets.

–   Most Israeli assassination operations were executed by one of the following ways:

Direct shooting of targets; or Directly shooting at targets_[1]

With helicopters;

With surveillance planes;

Or, F-16 aircraft with the help of agents or marks on the ground.

Palestinian information indicate that the Israeli occupation forces, committed hundreds of crimes of this kind since the beginning of Al-Aqsa Intifada, targeting Palestinian activists, including politicians and military personnel.

• According to Palestinian data, the following were victims of these crimes:

430 targeted Palestinians

And 221 non targeted, among which 73 children,

Those crimes were described as a continuous series of Israeli war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories, reflecting the total disregard of the occupation forces for the lives of Palestinian civilians.

–   In addition to these crimes, there are series of other assassinations, the most notable and most dangerous ones being:

1. The assassination of Sheikh AhmedYassinon on 3/22/ 2004 22/3/2004
2. The assassination of Dr. Abdel Aziz Al Rantisi on 4/17/2004.
3. The assassination of four activists from Al Aqsa Brigades in Nablus on/02/ 05/2004.
4. The assassination of three members of Hamas in Gaza on 5/30/2004.

5.       The assassination operations of seven activists of al-Qassam Brigades and Saraya Al Quds and Al-Aqsa Martyrs in Nablus on 6/26/2004, among them, the commander of Al-Aqsa Martyrs in Nablus, two commanders of the Qassam and Al-Quds Brigades and the murder of five activists from the Al Aqsa Brigades in Tulkarem on 7/25/2004.

According to Palestinian documents and data:

–   There were 38 martyrs from the medical crews and civil defense including:

12_[1] Doctors,

14 Nurses,

3 Volunteers,

3 Ambulance drivers,

6 Members from the civil defense crew.

• The number of injured reached around 450 individuals
• The number of attacks on ambulances reached 350 assaults.

The number of disabled ambulances reached more than 1,100,

The number of cars destroyed was about 40,

• The attacks on hospitals exceeded 320 attacks. .

Based on the facts and figures referred to above, the occupation authorities have violated all international treaties, laws and provisions related to the role and work of medical personnel and of Palestinian relief committees.. This being an irrefutable evidence, the Israeli authorities  should be held accountable by the international community for the crimes they have committed.

–      Israeli warplanes carried outa crazy massacre against the Dalu family, where the father, mother and four children died

–      In each corner of Gaza there are thousands of stories, among which genocides against entire Palestinian families at the hands of the occupation forces.

–      Generals of the occupation covered the most terrible massacres with other massacres…The excess amounts of killings show that, the ones addicted to crime do not know when to stop.

–      The absent and silenced international justice should be aroused and the International Criminal Court should punish the warlords and criminality of “Israel”.

The occupation army ascended its aggression against all regions of the Gaza Strip, since Sunday morning and Monday dawn. On Sunday, 31 civilians died and dozens were injured. The number of martyrs of the aggression went up to 76 and more than 680 injured as of the moment of writing this text.

The record of Zionist massacres is quite long, entire Palestinian families were exterminated, the generals of the occupation army exceeded crime limits and massacres to the point of what could be called an “open holocaust”. This open holocaust against all the Arab Palestinian people is unprecedented. It is an open holocaust beyond crime against the children of Palestine in particular, as they have become a target of premeditation and surveillance. And, the most horrible massacres are being covered with more massacres. Courageous fighters are being faced by more extermination of innocent people. Death has increased beyond the capacity of those watching from afar, they have become addicted to crime and are unable to know when to have it stop. The scene of the holocaust has been opened on a larger scale, and will go on as long as the conflict continues.

• According to Palestinian reports, the first Zionist Holocaust during 2008-2009 was intensified in the Gaza Strip, extending from day to day and over the weeks of aggression.

This Holocaust was characterized by “the slaughter of children, women and entire families,”

• According to statements and descriptive testimonies:

“The stench of death was wafting from every corner of Gaza, and even graves were hard to come by”,

“The children of Gaza wake up and sleep to the bombings and the horrors of their nightmares”,

“They suffer psychological trauma caused by incessant shelling… as a result, the emergence of bedwetting and fear of the dark among children have been observed”

“Children of Gaza pile up next to the bodies of their mothers,”

The International Committee of the Red Cross said that they “found a large number of bodies and children sitting beside the bodies of their mothers who were martyred”.

Massacres scenes around the besieged Gaza Strip, tell us thousands of stories such as genocides against Palestinian families at the hands of the occupation forces,

During the war of aggression on Gaza in 2008, the residents of Gaza woke up to the great destructions and horrific massacres caused by Israeli raids. This was not the first Israeli operation on Gaza, but it was the biggest, as it was concluded withnearly320martyrs and one thousand injured in less than 48 hours. Dozens of security sites, homes, mosques, universities, and media centers were destroyed.

The aircrafts did not leave the skies of the Gaza Strip, hitting intensely. The landmarks of Gaza changed after hundreds of tons of explosives were thrown on the city during these few hours.

Sunday night was considered the most severe in bombings coming from F-16s, helicopters and warships. It was a bloody night engraved in the history of Gazans, a history filled with many bloody nights.

Below we document the stories of Palestinian families who were entirely exterminated with their children.

Supp 2-1- Al-Dalu family

Warplanes carried out a massacre by bombing the house of “Al-Dalu” family, 11 residents of the family died, including four children who were siblings and three  women; 18 others were injured, four of them in critical condition..

The martyrs are: Sulafa Al-Dalu (50 years), Samah Al-Dalu (25 years), Tahani Al-Dalu (46 years), Abdullah Al Muzner (23 years), Amina Mattar Al Muzner (83 years), and Suhaila Al-Dalu. The four children who were also siblings are: Sarah, Youssef, Jamal and Ibrahim(one year old), and their father Mohammed Al-Dalu.

Supp 2-2- The extermination of Ba’lousha family

The family of Anwar Ba’lousha was from Jabalya camp, their house of an asbestos ceiling was destroyed by a missile that was initially aimed at Imad Akel neighboring mosque. The house collapsed on the occupants’ heads, causing the death of five children of the family, the youngest being four years old, while Anwar Ba’lousha, his wife and three among his other children were injured. The only survivor is a baby girl of two weeks old. The victims were pulled out from the rubble after half an hour of continuous screams of those who survived. The martyrs are: Jawaher (4years), Dunia (8years), Samar (12 years), Ikram (14 years), Tahrir (17 years).

This was not the only family that was eliminated under these raids,

–   The three children of Ziad al-Absi; Sidqi, Ahmed and Mohammed were blown to pieces when their home was bombed in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip,

–   Before the Al-Absi and Ba’lousha families were bombed, the Keshko family was attained when their house in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza was completely destroyed. The grace of God rescued them, but a man and a woman were found dead under the rubble.

• In the Zeitoun neighborhood south of Gaza City, during the firings of the Israeli occupation army at the homes of people, a 5-year old girl from El Helou family as well asher grandfather died. The mother was seriously injured. All were transferred to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Supp 2-2-1- Five sisters, three siblings-and- a girl

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights monitored the Israeli warplanes which bombed nine children, asleep in their homes in the Gaza Strip. It said that,

“The Israeli occupation authorities are continuing their open war on the Gaza Strip. Those forces are shedding the blood of children, women and the elderly without any concern for the lives of these civilians, thereby violating all the humanitarian appeals of the international law and international humanitarian law.”

One of its statements  added

“The worst humanitarian crime, fell during the Sunday night where, 22Palestinian children died and got injured inside their homes.

Five sisters were killed in Jabalya camp, in northern Gaza, while they were sleeping inside their home, while three brothers were killed in Rafah camp as they were also asleep inside their home, a ninth girl in the city of Gaza also died inside her house.”

Supp 2-2-2- Imad Akel mosque:

According to the investigations conducted by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, the Israeli war planes bombed the Imad Akel mosque, composed of three floors in Block4 of Jabalya camp, which has the highest population density in the world. This resulted in the complete destruction of the mosque and the destruction of a neighboring house belonging to Anwar Khalil Ba’lousha. Seventeen civilians were also killed, including five children from nearby houses which were significantly affected.

Supp 2-2-3- Al-Shifa medical center: headless corpses and volatile organs

According to testimonies, the stench of death was suffocating, and decapitated bodies were left on the ground due to the incapacity of mortuary refrigerators to accommodate all the bodies It felt like the wheel of time has stopped for those bodies and their surroundings, as families and loved ones have come to hit the ground with their hands due to the horror they have suffered and the loss of their beloved ones…

–    A man is found holding his martyred 7-year old child, in a piece of cardboard as the hospital has run out of blankets. He was taking him back home to get ready for his burial,

–    Another man became insane due to the shock of learning that his son Mohammed became a martyr in the passports building during the officers graduation ceremony.

–    A father sat near the headless body of his son and started shouting and hitting his head against the ground.

–    A mother was tongue-tied due to the tragedy. She she gestured to some men to offer her a drink of water, thinking she might wake up from the annoying nightmare she was in and her children would come back to her.

We were numbed by the scenes our eyes saw, taking us back to the memory of Sabra and Shatila massacre in 1982, in Lebanon, where the bodies of the martyrs laid by the dozens on the ground.

According to the image portrayed by Ma’an Agency, , people were busy identifying the bodies of their loved ones. They searched the pockets to try to identify headless bodies, whose parts had scattered along the Gaza strip due to the dozens of rockets that rained down on them.

Supp 2-3- Baker family: the death of a mother and her four children

Five people from one family died in Al-Tuffah neighborhood, east of Gaza City. Medical sources mentioned that “All the martyrs belonged to the family of Baker who lived in al-Tuffah neighborhood. One of the martyrs is a one-year child, another is a two-year old girl. All victims  arrived to the hospital in pieces.”

Supp 2-4- Fakhoura school massacre

The most horrifying scene was in the Fakhoura UNRWA School where around forty Palestinians died, most of them children. Their bodies were scattered in parts…blood was everywhere… some bodies were chopped while others were burnt…walls were destroyed…and you could hear sounds of screams…This was the scene inside and around the area of Al Fakhoura School in the Jabaliya Refugee Camp, located in the northern Gaza Strip, after it was bombed by Israeli warplanes with several missiles without mercy…!

With great difficulty, some aid workers and Palestinians managed to reach the targeted area, watching for planes were flying in the sky getting ready to launch more rockets.

One of the ambulance officers trembled from the horror of the scene, he said, “For ten days we have been moving the wounded and injured … followed by the killing of entire families…but I have never seen such a scene, he added, “blood and body parts were everywhere…the screams of women and children was heart- breaking(U.B.I).”

Supp 2-5- The Samouni family massacre

The occupation forces targeted the Samouni family killing about fifty of its members, including children, women, elderly and youth

–   The deputy of Al-Samouni family witnessed the events (25 years), saying:

“The occupation forces penetrated the eastern of Zeiotun neighborhood and gathered dozens of families from the Samouni family in one house of 180square meters, they shot us with missiles for ten minutes until we all fell either wounded or dead”, adding that “after the occupation forces shot us with those missiles, the house turned into a pool of blood, some of us died on the spot and some of us got wounded fighting for their lives, until they died after hours.”

• Zinat Al Samouni said that

Her son bled to death under the rubble, while her husband and four of her children died, as well as about, 25members of her family during the bombing. Zinat who is 40 years old also added while lying on a bed in Al-shifa hospital, crying: “They killed my family, my son bled for two days, we have appealed the Red Cross and Red Crescent and the relief agency, but in vain, whoever was in the house died”. Zinat was only left with her baby daughter who was born 20 days earlier, and another daughter who was severely injured; paramedics brought her and her son Faraj to the hospital on a donkey cart.

• Ibtissam Al Samouni uttered, from the ruins of her home, some chilling statements

She described the moments of the carnage that the family suffered during the Israeli war on Gaza, and claimed that 29 members of this rural family died. Ibtissam who is 32 years old, described the night of Sunday the 4^th of January as the “night of death” which filled 29 coffins with her family members, mostly children and women. The tragedy of the family covered the forefront of screens of international television, yet those who talk about freedom and human rights did not even think of even investigating the circumstances of the massacre. Ibtissam added: “Since the beginning of the ground operation on Sunday the fourth of January, the Israeli army surrounded our house and we could not get out and move to safe places. We stayed until Monday morning, when some soldiers thrust into a number of neighboring houses in the Samouni neighborhood of Zeitoun and gathered all of us to a nearby house where our number reached more than a hundred”, she added crying, “They left us until six o’clock, in a house destroyed from the inside and which lacked the basic necessities of life, they also circled the house and suddenly, without any previous warning, the house was hit by a tank rocket and several of us were hit. After a few seconds, a second rocket was launched, some family members died, and within this same moment a third rocket was launched and more family members were hit”. She explained that she was hiding from room to room along with some other family members scared of being hit by the rockets. Her son Faris Samouni (12 years old) and her daughter Rizqa Samouni(14 years old) died.

Ibtissam pointed out that the survivors tried to leave the house under the fire of the occupation soldiers, while carrying some of the injured with them, only to find another rocket hitting them. As a result, more family members died, more than ten were injured and the rest survived.

Supp 2-6- Abu Aisha family

Palestinian medical sources at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza confirmed that seven members of Abu Aisha family arrived in pieces from the Mashtal area, north west of Gaza City, Al-Shati camp. The sources confirmed the death of the father, the mother and five children in the raid, which occurred just after midnight after a shell fired by warships landed on the house, destroying most of it.

Supp 2-7- The extermination of Daya family

On a night, different from all other nights that preceded it, for the Daya family who lived in Zeitoun neighborhood south east of Gaza City, as in a matter of minutes, before the dawn of Tuesday, men, women and children were killed by Israeli bombing. The family’s fate was the same as that of other Palestinian families.

The man of the household, Haj Fayez Mosbah Al Daya, aged 65, feared the exposure of the family to a possible massacre. The neighborhood was subject to extensive Israeli bombing from the air and land. His fear drove him to gather his wife, his children and grandchildren on the first floor of their four-floor house. Only moments later, the first half of the house was destroyed. On Tuesday morning the scenery observed by the residents was as if an earthquake had hit the house of 25 members and turned them all into a pile of stones. The family was buried under the rubble of the entire house which was hit by a missile or a heavy grenade fired by an Israeli war plane, turning it into traces.

This family consists of Haj Fayez and his wife Khitam, 60 years old, his sons and daughters and their families, his 16 grand children, the youngest a baby, no more than six months old. While the new tragedy appeared, and within few hours on Tuesday, the rescue teams and the neighbors tried to lift potential survivors of this family to no avail; the rescue tools were primitive and the area was still threatened by successive Israeli attacks.

Supp 2-8- Athamna family

Majdi Athamna, 75 years old, was standing on the rubble of the home of his family, waving an unexploded landmine towards members of a TV crew, who were urging him to put it down on the ground, as they were worried. He came down from the pile of ruins caused by the holocaust on the Gaza strip saying “Do not worry. If I die, I am not more precious than what they actually destroyed.” He also said that the mine, was one of many mines planted by Israeli soldiers to demolish the home, in which, dozens of members of his extended family used to live.

He added with a trembling voice, “I built this for fifty years and all was gone in the blink of an eye”,

The house was the family refuge from the tragedy which had occurred earlier, killing18 of his relatives in November 2006 due to firing from an Israeli tank, which destroyed another house. The occupation forces destroyed three nearby buildings owned by his sons and all the other real estate properties that stretched along one kilometer in Ezbet Abed Rabbeh, on the outskirts of Gaza city.

In addition to all these massacres and stories, other countless previous massacres and potential subsequent ones come up. When such confessions and documents are gathered, they are added to other long series of statements, including the interviews of Israeli officers who disclosed the massacres carried out against Egyptian soldiers in 1956 and in1967. There is nothing else left to do other except for the absent and silenced international justice, until today, to take action and for the International Criminal Court who is active on other fronts, apart from the Israeli front, to do the same…!