Three Palestinian Civilians Killed in Khan Yunis, February 18

B'Tselem's investigation of the incident which occurred last night next to the Morag settlement in the southern Gaza Strip.

Yesterday evening, February 18, 2002, IDF soldiers identified two armed Palestinians in the area of the greenhouses of the Morag settlement, in the southern Gaza Strip. The soldiers shot at the Palestinians, killing one while the other fled. The soldiers directed intensive gunfire towards an area some 200 meters north of the settlement's greenhouses. In this area, which is called Kizan a-Nijar, Palestinian families live in tin shacks.

Testimonies from residents of the area reveal that at this time, Abd al-Wahab Zihad a-Nijar, a resident, was feeding his cows. When the gunfire began he ran northwards, toward his shack. Due to the intense gunfire he was unable to reach his home and instead found refuge in the shack belonging to Salah Husein Jaribiya Abu-Azum. After approximately half an hour he left toward his house. Abu-Azam last saw A-Nijar running to seek cover in an abandoned room which once housed a water pump. The gunfire continued throughout this time and was aimed in the direction of A-Nijar as he was running. After the incident ended, his corpse was found approximately 200 meters from the area.

IDF soldiers also fired shells towards the shack where Sami 'Atia al-Bahabsa lives with his two wives and seven children. His wife Sadia managed to run away from the shack, carrying her baby daughter, and reached the shack inhabited by Abu Ashraf Nimer, some 50 meters away. His daughter Sabrin, who is 18, was severely injured in the stomach. She also reached Abu Ashraf Nimer's shack, and then collapsed. Two other daughters and the two sons were injured while they were in the shack, and were rescued by their father, who reached the shack under heavy artillery fire. The father carried them out to an ambulance that evacuated them to the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. Sami al-Bahabsa then attempted to return to the shack once more to rescue his second wife, Miryam Ouda, age 37, and his daughter Mona, age 14, but was unable due to the heavy IDF fire, and instead remained standing by an ambulance.

At 9:30 p.m., an ambulance tried to rescue the two women, accompanied by B'Tselem's fieldworker, Nabil Mekherez. IDF soldiers opened fire at the ambulance, shattering its front windshield. The driver was forced to leave the area.

Sami al-Bahabsa waited at the site until 5:00 in the morning, when the IDF forces retreated from the area. He then entered the shack and found his wife Miryam and daughter Mona, who had been killed.

Four of al-Bahabsa's children injured in this incident are currently hospitalized at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. Aida, age 16, has shrapnel in her right leg and chest; Sabrin, age 18, has very severe injuries in her stomach and right leg, Muhammad, age 11, was injured in the chest and left leg by shrapnel; Ramdan, age 4, was injured by shrapnel in his back. The funerals of Miryam and Mona will be held this evening in Rafah.

At the site of the incident, B'Tslem's fieldworker found a large number of small darts of the type found in Flechette shells, suggesting that the IDF fired Flechette shells at the shack. The IDF has used Flechette shells in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of this intifada, and at least eight Palestinian civilians have been killed by this ammunition.

Conclusions:

Even if IDF soldiers believed that the armed Palestinian who fled from Morag was hiding in one of the shacks, there is absolutely no justification for the soldiers' actions last night, which included a number of human rights violations:

• Indiscriminate firing at civilians: IDF soldiers intentionally fired shells towards inhabited houses, killing three civilians, including one minor, and injuring an additional four minors. This shelling was conducted in complete disregard to the danger it posed to civilians.

• Firing at ambulances: IDF soldiers intentionally fired towards an ambulance that had arrived to evacuate the injured, in blatant violation of the provisions which grant absolute protection to medical staff.

• Obstruction of medical treatment: Soldiers prevented access to medical treatment to the two injured women who lay in the shack all night.

• Suspected use of illegal weapons: The use of Flechette shells, in the current conditions of the Gaza Strip, is illegal under international humanitarian law. This ammunition is not sufficiently precise to ensure that civilians will not be injured as a result of their use. B'Tselem has a position paper on the legality of the use of Flechette shells.

Since the beginning of this intifada, B'Tselem has called upon the security forces to avoid harming civilians, to refrain from using Flechette shells, to refrain from harming medical personnel, and to allow medical treatment to those who have been injured. Unfortunately, the security forces continue their policies, which are characterized by utter disregard for the lives of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.

B'Tselem calls on the Military Advocate's Office to immediately open a Military Police Investigation into this incident, and to take all necessary measures against those responsible for the tragic results of this incident.

B'Tselem calls on the security establishment to draft clear regulations that prohibit firing at civilian houses and at medical teams, and that will ensure medical treatment to the injured. In addition, as is already the case in the West Bank, B'Tselem calls for the prohibition on the use of Flechette shells in the Gaza Strip.