ILLEGAL DESTRUCTIONS The buffer zones created between settlements and palestinian civile areas are constantly and illegally expanded. To expand those buffer zones, Palestinian cultivations are destoyed, their houses are demolished without warning, nor compensation, nor opportunity for appeal. Water plays also a key role in israeli politics in Gaza strip.

This field in Beit Lahia had been totally destroyed a few weeks before our visit. Within 3 hours bulldozers uprooted the trees, systematically destroyed the cultivations, the well, the irrigation network and the cowshed, totally annihilating 40 years of work of one palestinian refugee family. >> latest news 15.02.03

In Rafah (south of Gaza strip) we've seen the result of mass house demolition. The victims of such destructions don't get any warning, nor compensation, nor opportunity for appeal. Economic consequences for these families are often tragic.

Destruction of private property not justified by military necessity is a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention (article 147)

Besides, successive bombings by Apaches or F-16 have systematically destroyed all infrastructures and official buildings related to palestinian authority: the airport, the port, the police department, governmental buildings, and so on and on. Among these buildings many had been build thanks to European or Swiss funds, like the Palestinian TV tower [below].

Palestinian authority official building in Gaza city.

These bombings often provoque collateral damages on civile buildings or schools or hospitals...   and on civilians...

texts: mirouille   -  pictures: E.B., N.K., R.B.    April 2002