The year 2001 was the bloodiest for Palestinian inhabitants of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since Israel conquered those territories in the Six-Day War of 1967, according to a new report released Monday by the Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem.
A total of 345 Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli security forces in the territories during the course of the year, of whom 38 were under the age of 15.
It was also one of the deadliest years for Israelis living within the country's 1967 borders, according to the report. Seventy-nine Israeli civilians were killed within the 'Green Line' by Palestinians during the year.
That total accounted for almost one third of the 260 Israeli civilians killed within the country's old borders since the first intifada, which broke out 14 years ago.
The Palestinian toll recorded by B'Tselem did not include six Palestinians who were killed Sunday by Israeli troops in two separate incidents in Gaza. The Israeli authorities said they were slain in clashes, but Palestinians denounced them as executions.
Sunday's killings dampened hopes that a two-week-old reduction in Israeli-Palestinian violence could be sustained long enough for a ceasefire to take hold.
As a precondition for talks on implementing a United States plan for a permanent ceasefire and an eventual resumption of peace talks, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has demanded that there be no violence from the Palestinian side for at least one full week. Israel's insistence that the six were killed while carrying out operations against Israelis will set the clock back yet again.
Sunday's killings were also the worst incident of violence since Friday's launch in Jerusalem of the Israeli-Palestinian Coalition, which aims at reviving the peace constituencies in each camp following the the latest intifada which started in September 2000 when Sharon, then leader of the opposition, made a controversial visit to the site of one of Islam's holiest shrines, the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
The Coalition, led by Palestinians Sari Nusseibeh and Hanan Ashrawi, and several Israeli opposition legislators, including Yossi Beilin and Yossi Sarid, is calling for a final peace accord based on the creation of a Palestinian state, Jerusalem as the capital for both nations, and the removal of Israeli settlements from the occupied territories.
The new grouping has been buoyed by recent polls showing that about two-thirds of Israelis strongly favor a resumption of peace talks, and more than 70 percent of Palestinians support Yasser Arafat's recent call for a ceasefire.
"We are not willing to continue to be held hostage by extremists from both sides," said Israeli author David Grossman, one of the founders of the Coalition. "We all know what the framework of the only possible permanent settlement is. Why not arrive at it now and prevent thousands of tragedies?"
The grim statistics of the tragedies over the past year were the subject of the B'Tselem report.
In addition to the 351 Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli security forces, 103 members of the Palestinians security services were killed in the occupied territories by their Israeli counterparts. Seven Palestinian civilians, including a two-month-old baby, were killed by Israeli civilians during the year, the report said.
Also in the occupied territories, 65 Israeli civilians, including six under the age of 15, were killed by Palestinians. Twenty-one Israeli soldiers were also killed there during the past year.
Along with the 79 Israeli civilians killed inside Israel proper, according to the report, 16 members of the Israeli security forces were killed there during the year. The worst monthly total was December when 23 civilians were killed in two suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Haifa.
The additions of the past year put the total number of Palestinian civilians in the occupied territories killed by Israeli security forces and settlers since the al-Aqsa intifada began, at 601. In addition, 138 members of the Palestinian security forces have been killed during the same 15-month period.
Since the intifada began, a total of 83 Israeli civilians and 40 Israeli soldiers and police have been killed by Palestinians in the occupied territories.
Of all the 2071 Palestinians killed by Israelis in the occupied territories since the first intifada started in 1987, more than 400 were under age 17, says the report. A dozen Israelis under 17 have been killed in the occupied territories, of whom five were 13 or younger.
Within Israel itself, some 40 children under 17 have been killed by Palestinians during the same period, according to B'Tselem.
Copyright © 2001 Oneworld.net
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