Message from Gaza (See Peace Boat Statement below)

Peace Boat's partner Zaher of the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS), a resident of the Jabaliya Refugee Camp in Northern Gaza, has sent us this report of the situation on the ground.

October 9, 2004

"The Israeli Occupation Forces continued their incursion North Gaza Strip area for the twelfth day, more than 95 Palestinians were killed in this area so far, more than 350 Palestinians were injured, some of them in critical cases, the majority of them are civilians and children under age 17.

The Israeli army has completely demolished some 55 houses in the eastern part of the Jabalia refugee camp, and some 50 additional have severely damaged.

50,000 of the people living in Jabalia camp, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, are under complete siege. The water and electricity have been cut off and the food stocks running out.

IOF continued employing excessive, disproportionate force in its operations; including tanks shelling and air raids, and imposed restriction on ambulances' movement, they also targeted electricity and water facilities; some population in the eastern part of Jabalia camp are suffering shortage in drinking water.

The large number of who killed is from Jabalia camp; when you walk in the camp you find funeral tents in every street, the sadness everywhere."

Zaher
From Jabalia Camp

Peace Boat
October 6, 2004

As global citizens strongly committed to a peaceful and just resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we condemn the current military operations by the Israeli Army in the northern Gaza Strip, and appeal for their immediate end.

According to Amnesty International in their press release of October 1, 2004 the Israeli army had at that point killed more than 35 Palestinians in two days, “including several children and other unarmed residents.” The BBC states today that over 75 Palestinians have been killed.

The refugee camps in Gaza are the most densely populated areas in the world. Jabaliya Camp – the main target of this invasion – is home to over 90,000 people living in a area of three square km. More than 100 tanks, armoured personnel carriers and bulldozers are involved in the operation, and helicopter gunships have been used.

This deployment is an absolutely excessive use of force in such a densely populated area and is having a catastrophic impact on the lives of civilians, and will certainly result in more deaths. The accompanying destruction of Palestinian property – and in particular the demolition of homes – breaches the Geneva Convention. The Israeli Government must abide by its obligations to respect human rights and international humanitarian law.

Through these dangerous, inflammatory policies of excessive force and the destruction of homes the Israeli government not only brutalises the Palestinian people, but also, in escalating the situation, endangers the lives of the Israeli people too. In escalating the situation, they undermine the activity of all those working for peace.

1. An immediate halt to the aggressive military operations – including the demolition of homes – in Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya and the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.
   
   
2. An end to all use of violence by all parties in the conflict.
   
   
3. The withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Occupied Territories as laid down in United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338.
   
   
4. A return to the peace process, with the goal of ending the Occupation – the cause of the violence and suffering in the region – and establishing a viable Palestinian State.