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PLO: Israel killed 5,526 Palestinians in 8 years

Date: 06 / 10 / 2008 Time: 12:50



Nablus – Ma’an – Israeli forces have killed 5,526 Palestinians over the past eight years including 1,010 children under 18 and 340 women and girls, says a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) International and National Relations Department report released recently.



The report was released in commemoration of the eighth anniversary of Al-Aqsa Intifada, the second uprising of Palestinians in the occupied terrirories. According to the report, 664 of the victims were school students and 11 were journalists.



Furthermore, 33,000 Palestinians were injured and 15,000 suffered from the inhalation of tear gas. More than 7,500 citizens were disabled including 3,600 who were “permanently handicapped.”



The report also highlighted that 247 Gazans died as they were denied travel outside the Gaza Strip for medical treatment.



With regards to demolition of houses, the PLO report recorded 8,300 demolitions including 900 houses in Jerusalem which Israeli authorities destroyed on the pretext that they were built without permits.



According to the report, over the past eight years, Israeli forces have detained more than 65,000 Palestinians, of whom 11,000 are still in Israeli jails. As a result of negligence and dire prison conditions, 76 prisoners died in custody since the beginning of the Intifada eight years ago.



As for military checkpoints and roadblocks, the PLO report stated that since the beginning of Al-Aqsa Intifada, Israeli forces erected 93 checkpoints manned by Israeli soldiers and 537 roadblocks closing different routes across the West Bank using earth and rocks as well as huge cement blocks.



The report concluded with highlighting an escalation in assaults and harassments by Israeli settlers against Palestinian citizens, especially in Hebron in the southern West bank and Nablus in the north. According to the report, 167 Palestinians were killed at the hands of settlers since the beginning of Al-Aqsa Intifada.



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