Since AP, NPR and others are sending out incomplete reports, we thought your news organization would like to make use of
the following information:
Bulletin on Suicide Bombing
In the last two and a half weeks (since the previous suicide bombing) Israeli forces have killed at least 26
Palestinians -- at least 5 of them children -- and injured 161 Palestinian men, women and children. A college student
lost her right eye today after being shot by an Israeli sniper last week.
There have been 369 raids by Israeli forces, mostly into the West Bank. Gaza has undergone sustained shelling by Israeli
forces and continued closures, resulting in increasing lack of food and medical supplies. According to UN reports,
between March 30 and April 12th, Israeli forces launched 2300 artillery and tank shells and 34 missiles into Gaza.
Since the current Palestinian uprising against Israeli military occupation and confiscation of Palestinian land began in
fall 2000, approximately 3,863 Palestinians and 1,084 Israelis and have been killed. Among these have been approximately
720 Palestinian children and 124 Israeli children.
Today, in separate actions, several Palestinian youths were shot, one in the neck. Israeli forces are continuing their
ongoing invasions of Nablus and other West Bank cities.
Today is Palestinian Prisoners Day. 9,400 Palestinian men, women, and children are in prison. According to numerous
human rights reports, Palestinian prisoners are frequently tortured. Defense for Children International reports that
4,000 Palestinian children have been arrested in the past five years, 400 of them currently in prison, including a
fifteen-year-old girl, who has been in prison for over a year after being shot in the stomach by Israeli soldiers. DCI
reports that the arrests are increasing.
Additional Information from Defense for Children International:
According to DCI: "The process of arrest and detention of Palestinian children is a process of systematic abuse and
mistreatment which flouts international legal standards and denies the basic human rights of detainees first as children
and secondly as prisoners...[children are] handcuffed and blindfolded, humiliated and threatened and often beaten and
kicked from the moment they are arrested up to and often throughout their interrogation and detention. They are deprived
of sleep, food and access to the bathroom until so-called confessions are coerced out of them..."
At 5.30pm on Monday 10 April 2006, at least six artillery shells fired by the Israeli military fell on the family house
of Mohammed Rabe'eya Ghaban in Beit Lahiya, in the north of the Gaza Strip. Shrapnel from the shells pierced the skull
of Mohammed's eight-year old daughter Hadeel, killing her instantly. The shelling also resulted in the injury of eight
other family members, including Hadeel's brothers and sisters:
Rawan Ghaban 1 and a half years old
Rana Ghaban 3 years old
Munir Ghaban 4 years old
Amneh Ghaban 9 years old
Ghassan Ghaban 11 years old
Bassam Ghaban 15 years old
Tahrir Ghaban 17 years old
The children's mother, 35-year old Sofia, was the eighth family member wounded in the attack.
Several neighbours were also injured including:
Jaqueline Mo'ein Maarouf 11 years old
Mariam Maher Al-'Assi 15 years old
For more information:
• http://www.imemc.org/
• http://www.ifamericansknew.org/
• http://www.nad-plo.org/main.php?view=pmg_daily-reports
• http://www.dci-pal.org/english/display.cfm?DocId=484=1
• http://www.dci-pal.org/english/display.cfm?DocId=483=1
• http://www.humanitarianinfo.org/opt/