"Israel" Raids Take Heavy Civilian Toll

Source: alalam.ir, 31-12-2007
AL-QUDS-More than one third of the Palestinians killed by "Israeli" forces in 2007 were civilians who were not involved in hostilities, an "Israeli" human rights group said in a report released Monday.
The report by the B'Tselem organization said: "In 2007, about 35 percent of those killed were civilians who were not taking part in the hostilities when killed."
Out of the 373 Palestinians martyred, 131, or some 35 percent, were civilians who were not involved in fighting, the report said -- a decrease of 19 percentage points from the 2006 figure of 54 percent.
The number of Palestinians martyred by "Israeli" occupation forces in 2007 nearly halved compared to the previous year.
In 2006 the number stood at 657, with 348 of those martyred reported as innocent bystanders.
The majority of the Palestinians who died by "Israeli" fire in 2007 were martyred in the Gaza Strip.
Since then, the "Israeli" occupying regime has launched regular air and ground operations in the densely populated Palestinian territory.
In its review of the status of the Palestinian Territories, the group charges "Israel" with committing grave human rights violation in the West Bank and Gaza.
It said that 2007 saw a "deterioration in many other measures of the human rights situation in the occupied territories."
"The primary one is the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, which has declined to an all time low, following "Israel's" siege on the area."
After Hamas came to power, the "Israeli" occupying regime in September declared Gaza a "hostile entity", upping restrictions on the movement of goods and people to the impoverished territory.
According to report more than 80 percent of Gaza's residents directly rely on international aid agencies to supply their food.
"If the stranglehold over the Gaza Strip is not removed immediately, the UN expects this number to keep rising," the group said.