By Lauren Mellinger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 SANA’A, Yemen – In December 2008, Amnesty International released in Annual Report on the State of the World’s Human Rights, stating that human rights and the rule of law in Yemen have experienced a major setback over the course of 2008.

2008 experienced a rollback of civil and political and human rights, which negatively affected the economic and social standing of many Yemeni citizens.  The Amnesty International report made reference to several instances of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment carried out by the government against Yemeni citizens.  Such treatment included violence carried out by Yemeni security forces against citizens, cases of arbitrary and prolonged detentions without legally charging the individual, unfair trials, and several cases of forced disappearances, extrajudicial execution and threats of physical liquidation.   According to the report, in several cases, individuals were detained solely for requesting information regarding a relative who was in detention.  In addition, the report called for the Yemeni government to promote women’s rights in Yemen, and abolish all forms of discriminatory treatment against women.

While the Yemeni government denies that it permits the execution of delinquent minors, Amnesty International alleges otherwise, citing the execution of Adel Muhammed Said Al-Ma’mari, who was executed despite appeals by the international community as well as medical evidence that Al-Ma’mari was not yet 18 at the time he committed the crime and was sentenced by the court.  Currently, Radfan Razaz, another minor, is at risk of imminent execution.

In December 2008, human rights and media activists from Yemen participated in the third regional training course, with other Middle Eastern and North African states, to improve existing regional human rights networks and establish new coalitions and organizations that will serve to foster further inter-governmental cooperation, develop additional mechanisms to protect human rights defenders, and to cooperate in the preparation of both governmental and non-governmental reports.

For more information, please see:

Amnesty International – Amnesty International Report 2008: The State of the World’s Human Rights – December 2008

Yemen Observer – Conclusion of the Third Regional Training Course on Human Rights – 30 December 2008

Yemen News Agency – 3rd Regional Training for Human Rights and Media Activists Wraps Up – 26 December 2008

Yemen Post – Amnesty International: Human Rights in Yemen See Major Setbacks in 2008 – 22 December 2008

GAZA CITY, Gaza – On January 8, United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the main UN aid agency in Gaza, announced that it was suspending its operations after an Israeli strike killed two workers.  An Israel tank shell killed two Palestinians forklift drivers in a UN aid convoy. 

“UNRWA decided to suspend all its operations in the Gaza Strip because of the increasing hostile actions against its premises and personnel,” Adnan Abu Hasna, UNRWA’s Gaza-based spokesman, said.  The suspension would continue “until the Israeli authorities can guarantee our safety and security”, said UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness.

“Our installations have been hit, our workers have been killed in spite of the fact that the Israeli authorities have the coordinates of our facilities and that all our movements are coordinated with the Israeli army.”

Elena Mancusi Materi, UNRWA’s spokeswoman in Geneva, said the suspension concerned all truck movement in Gaza.  However, “If someone comes to one of our food distribution centers, we will give that person food. If people come to our clinics with injuries, we will treat them.”

For the second straight day, Israel suspended its Gaza operations for three hours to allow humanitarian aid to enter the besieged territory.  The UN said that an aid convoy at the Erez crossing came under fire just prior to when the cease was to take place. 

The Israeli military has not commented on the claim, but stated that it was investigating the incident.

For more information, please see:

BBC – UN Suspends Gaza Aid Operations – 8 January 2009

Financial Times – UN Suspends Gaza Operations – 8 January 2009

Houston Chronicle – UN Halts Aid Shipments, Cites Israeli Attacks – 8 January 2009

Jerusalem Post – UN Halts Aid Shipments to Gaza After Truck Driver Shot Dead – 8 January 2009

Radio Netherlands – UN Relief Agency Forced to Halt Work in Gaza – 8 January 2009

Reuters – UN Agency Halts Gaza Operations Over Israeli Fire – 8 January 2009

Times – UN Aid Agency Suspends Work After Gaza Strike – 8 January 2009

NAHARIYA, Israel – Around 7am on January 8, rockets fired from southern Lebanon landed in Nahariya in northern Israel.  One landed on the roof of the kitchen in a nursing home, lightly injuring one.  In total three Katyusha rockets were fired and two people were injured.

Israel responded by firing five artillery shells into Lebanon, calling it a “pinpoint response at the source of fire.”  Israeli officials suggested that the rocket strike was an isolated incident and that it would not lead to escalation. “We look at it as a local event, something that was predictable,” Cabinet Minister Isaac Herzog said.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora condemned the attack and called for the army and the UN to investigate.  A government official said, “Lebanon denounces and condemns the firing of rockets and the retaliatory action and believes that such action is in violation of UN Security Council resolution 1701… We have asked the competent authorities to investigate.”  UN Security Council resolution 1701 outlined the truce ending the 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hezbollah denied any involvement in the attack and Lebanese Information Minister Tarek Mitri told the AFP news agency he was “assured” by the militant group Hezbollah they were not involved in the rocket attacks.  Rather, it is believed that Palestinians living in Lebanon launched the attack.

Israeli military officials also stated that they believe that Palestinians, not Hezbollah, launched the attack.  However, a statement from Israeli Defense Force’s Northern Command said that Israel “holds the government of Lebanon and the Lebanese armed forces responsible for preventing rocket fire into Israel.”

For more information, please see:

Africasia – Lebanese Government Calls for Probe into Rocket Fire – 8 January 2009

Al Bawaba – Lebanon PM Condemns Rocket Attack on Israel – 8 January 2009

BBC – Rockets Hit Israel from Lebanon – 8 January 2009

International Herald Tribune – 2nd Front? Rockets Land in Israel’s North – 8 January 2009

Jerusalem Post – IDF: Israel Holds Lebanese Gov’t  and Armed Forces Responsible for Rockets – 8 January 2009

New York Times – Rockets Fired from Lebanon into Israel – 8 January 2009

The Telegraph – Israel Hits Back After Lebanese Strike Raises Tension – 8 January 2009

Yedioth – IDF Shells Rocket Launching Sites in Lebanon – 8 January 2009

By Laura Zuber
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Middle East

GAZA CITY, Gaza – On January 7, after four days of seeking Israeli guarantees of safe passage, a rescue team from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) entered Gaza City.  The rescue team searched several homes in a row of ruined houses in Zaytun, the most shelled neighborhood in Gaza City.  In one home, the ICRC found four emaciated children, too weak to stand, next to the corpses of their mothers.  In the home, another survivor was found; he was also too weak to stand. 

Muhammad Shaheen, a volunteer with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), said the team found a scene of devastation. They discovered another 10 corpses inside the house and “dozens” more dead lying in the rubble in the area around.

The ICRC statement added that a search of another home revealed 15 other survivors, including several wounded.  A search of a third home found three more dead.  The Zaytun neighborhood was the scene of an Israeli attack on a house on Monday that was known to have killed nine members of the Samouni family. It was the first time medics had been able to reach the scene.

ICRC believes “that in this instance the Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded.”  Their statement called the delay in allowing rescue services access unacceptable. 

Pierre Wettach, the ICRC’s head of delegation for Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said: “The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded. Neither did they make it possible for us or the Palestine Red Crescent to assist the wounded.”

In an ICRC news release, the organization stated that “Large earth walls erected by the Israeli army had made it impossible to bring ambulances into the neighborhood. Therefore, the children and the wounded had to be taken to the ambulances on a donkey cart.”  In total, the ICRC/PRCS rescue team evacuated 18 wounded and 12 others who were extremely exhausted.

The statement said the group was told more wounded people were in the neighborhood, and demanded that Israel grant it and the Red Crescent immediate access and safe passage to search for them.  However, the ICRC has still not received confirmation from the Israeli authorities that this will be allowed.

In response to the ICRC’s statement, a spokesman for Israel’s military said that the Red Cross’s news release was the first he had heard of the alleged incident.  The spokesman told CNN that “We do make every effort and our soldiers do put themselves at risk” to help wounded civilians.

On January 6, the ICRC held a press briefing, during which ICRC’s Director of Operations, Pierre Krähenbühl, described the situation of civilians in Gaza as “intolerable.”  He expressed the ICRC’s grave concern over the growing number of civilian deaths and injuries and the increasing amount of civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, that have been effected by the Israeli military operations.  Krähenbühl added that direct attacks against civilians are prohibited, as are indiscriminate attacks. Furthermore, military objectives must not be located in or near densely populated areas. 

“The only people that can legitimately be attacked are those who participate directly in the hostilities. Everyone else must be spared. Likewise, essential civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, the water supply and sewage networks must not be directly attacked. Respect for the rules of IHL – respect of civilians, distinction between civilians and combatants, measures of precaution – are of the utmost importance, all the more so when one considers that Gaza is one of the world’s most densely populated areas. As the conflict intensifies, it is becoming ever more dangerous for civilians.”

For more information, please see:

BBC – Israel Accused Over Gaza Wounded – 8 January 2009

Guardian – Medical Teams Find ‘Unbelievable’ Horror Amid Rubble – 8 January 2009 

ICRC – Gaza: ICRC Demands Urgent Access to Wounded as Israeli Army Fails to Assist Wounded Palestinians – 8 January 2008

New York Times – Gaza Children Found With Mothers’ Corpses – 8 January 2009

Press Association – Infants ‘Left With Mothers’ Bodies’ – 8 January 2009

Times – Red Cross Finds Starving Children With 12 Corpses in Gaza – 8 January 2009

CNN – Red Cross Demands Gaza Access, Cites ‘Shocking’ Discoveries – 7 January 2009

ICRC – Gaza: Plight of Civilians Traumatic in ‘Full-Blown Humanitarian Crises’ – 6 January 2009