“Six Palestinians, including an infant in the womb of his mother killed by Israeli gunfire

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights, PCHR, published its weekly report on the Israeli violations in the occupied territories in the period between May 10 and May 16.

Palestinian Center For Human Rights

The center reported that six Palestinians were killed by Israeli military fire in the Gaza Strip, and a baby in the womb of his mother was killed when the army shot her.

On May 15, Israeli troops stationed at the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel shot and killed a Palestinian officer working with the National Security forces, as he fled from armed clashes between Hamas and Fateh. The incident took place near the Al Mintar “Karni” Crossing.

On May 16, three Executive Force members were killed and 27 persons, including two journalists and a bystander, were injured when the Israeli air force shelled a site that belongs to the Executive Force, in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.

Also on May 26, two Hamas members were killed and three were injured when the Israeli air force shelled an area in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

 Meanwhile, on May 10, the army fired at a Palestinian pregnant woman in Ein Beit Al Maa’ refugee camp, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus. The woman, who was 7 months pregnant, was seriously injured and her fetus was killed when the bullet hit his head.

The Israeli army continued the attacks against non-violent protests against the Annexation Wall in Bil’in village, near Ramallah, and three persons, including one Palestinian child and a Swiss peace activist were wounded.

A total of 36 residents were shot and injured during the reported period, one of them is a Taxi driver who was shot by an Israeli settler guarding a settlement near the West Bank city of Salfit.

27 of the injured, including two children, were wounded when the army shelled a post which belongs to the Executive Force in Rafah.

The army carried 26 invasions into the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and kidnapped 41 civilians, including seven children, and abducted two in the Gaza Strip.

Five of the kidnapped residents were taken prisoner by the army at various Israeli roadblocks in the West Bank; one of the abductees is a woman.

Soldiers also demolished a Palestinian house in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

The Palestinian territories remained under strict siege, and the Gaza Strip remained isolated from the outside world and from the West Bank.

 Settlement activities continued in the West Bank and Israel issued a plan to build more than 20.000 houses for settlers.

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A Palestinian girl lies in a hospital bed after she was injured by a missile fired from an Israeli aircraft in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip May 17, 2007. Two Palestinians killed after Israeli air-strike on a vehicle belonging to Al-Lolahy family. MaanImages/Hatem Omar

Netanyahu calls for cutting water and electricity supplies to Gaza
Bethlehem– Chairman of the Israeli Likud party, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Thursday called for cutting the water and electricity supplies of the Gaza Strip, and depriving it of services. He said that fundamental services, basics of human life, should be controlled by the Israeli authorities.

Netanyahu also expressed his support to a limited Israeli ground invasion into the Gaza Strip; to a limit of around four kilometers from the northern border.

Last summer, during the Israeli offensive dubbed "Operation: Summer Rain", Gaza's only remaining power station was heavily bombed. Since then, residents of the Gaza Strip have only had limited power, at very limited times. Most residents spend the evenings in total darkness, while a lucky few have a few hours of electricity per night. International organizations at the time called the bombing an unacceptable "use of collective punishment against Palestinian civilians", completely illegal under international law and the Geneva conventions.