Yesterday evening, 11 March 2002, Israeli troops launched large-scale offensives on Jabalya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip and on the West Bank town of Ramallah including Al Bireh. The attacks exacted a heavy death toll from the Palestinian civilian population. In Jabalya refugee camp alone Israeli soldiers killed 17 Palestinians in one day.

Also on 11 March 2002, at around 11.25 p.m., Israeli infantry and armored corps started an incursion into Ramallah and Al Bireh, which was described as the largest offensive since the start of the Israeli attacks against Palestinian refugee camps.

According to information gathered by LAW, Israeli troops raided Ramallah from the north, the south, the east and the west and reoccupied the town. They shelled civilian homes and clashed with Palestinian policemen and security officers killing five of them. In addition, ten Palestinian police and security officers were wounded when Israeli troops opened fire at the area around the Palestinian Legislative Council. They were left to bleed to death as Israeli troops barred ambulances from evacuating them.

During the incursion, Israeli troops occupied Palestinian civilian homes. From there they positioned their guns and pointed them at the Al Amari and Qadura refugee camps. Occupied homes include the residence of the Mayor of Al Bireh, the Shihab building adjacent to the presidential compound and Al Rahman building at the Ain Areek-Betunia junction as well as a hospital of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society's, which is under construction. In a punitive action, Israeli troops demolished the family house of Wafa Idris house in Al Amari refugee camp. Wafa Idris committed a suicide bomb attack in Jerusalem some weeks ago.

Israeli troops have also prevented ambulances from evacuating the wounded and have attacked hospitals. On 12 March 2002, at around 10 am, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society Maternity Hospital in Al Bireh was shelled. The hospital director reported that four floors were extensively damaged. Moreover, Ramallah and Sheikh Zayid Hospitals have been placed under siege.

In the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), reported that on 11 March 2002, at 10.10 p.m. Israeli infantry and armored corps as well as gunships raided Jabalya refugee camp. They opened fire on any moving object in the camp killing 17 Palestinians including two brothers and a man and his son.

Eyewitnesses told PCHR that Israeli troops positioned on top of Ismail Salem's house opened fire on civilians in the area killing 55-year-old Abdul Rahman Iziddin and his son Walid (35), who was killed as he tried to rescue his wounded father. Several metal molding workshops were destroyed and security posts were bulldozed to the ground. More than 50 people were injured in the Israeli offensive.

Moreover, four Palestinians were killed this morning, 12 March 2002, in Ma'an, East Khan Yunis, when Israeli gunships shelled a metal molding workshop.

Israeli gunships also shelled Salem Ashor's air-conditioning workshop and the Latin School in Gaza.

In Dir Al Balah, Israeli gunboats opened fire on a Palestinian naval post killing Ahmad Ahmad, 25, and wounding four.

LAW urgently calls on the international community to take effective measures in order to protect the rights and lives of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories including East Jerusalem, specifically to send an independent, effective protection force to the area.

LAW calls on the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to comply with their obligations to ensure respect for the Convention, for example by taking action to prosecute grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention (war crimes).

LAW calls on the European Union, which is a vital trading partner for Israel, to suspend its Association Agreement with Israel as a means of pressuring Israel into compliance with basic norms of human rights and international humanitarian law.