The blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip over a year ago has
left the population of 1.5 million Palestinians trapped with
dwindling resources and an economy in ruins.
Amnesty International has described as scandalous the Israeli army's
account of firing a tank shell that killed Reuters cameraman Fadel
Shana as a "sound" decision.
Mobile homes for an illegal Israeli settlement in the Occupied
Palestinian Territories got the go-ahead within a week of Israeli
bulldozers demolishing Palestinian homes and property in the area.
Israeli military air strikes and artillery attacks on the Gaza Strip
during the last few days have killed over 100 Palestinians, including
dozens of children and other civilian bystanders.
Every single home in the West Bank villages of Humsa and Hadidiya is slated for destruction.
More than 1,000 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip have become stuck in
the northern Sinai region of Egypt as the Egyptian authorities try to
force them back into Gaza.
Amnesty International today called on the parties involved in the future management of the Rafah crossing at the Gaza-Egypt border to ensure the fundamental rights of the people of Gaza. The governments of Israel and Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas de-facto administration in Gaza must guarantee the local population's rights to health and an adequate standard of living, and their right not to be subjected to collective punishment, including arbitrary restrictions on movement.
Israel has cut off the supply of electricity, fuel and humanitarian
assistance to the population of Gaza, a move Amnesty International has
condemned as collective punishment.
Hundreds of Palestinians lost their lives as a result of the
inter-factional political violence that engulfed the Gaza Strip in the
past year.
The Israeli army is threatening to destroy the homes of Palestinian villagers in the Jordan Valley region of the West Bank.
