More data on Israel's assassinations
B'tselem's server is up again today. If you go here, you can find the following information, which covers the period from the beginning of the current intifada (September 29, 2000) through 10 March 2004:
- At least 135 of the Palestinians killed were extrajudicially executed by Israel, 76 of them in assassinations carried out by the Israel Air Force and 59 of them in assassinations carried out by ground forces. In the course of these assasinations 90 additional Palestinians were killed, 28 of them minors. 80 of them in assassinations carried out by the Israel Air Force and 10 of them in assassinations carried out by ground forces..
The number of extrajudicial killings is higher than I had estimated yesterday. Significantly, too, as you can learn if you go here, the policy was pursued under Barak and not solely under Sharon.
The first assassination that B'tselem lists there, during this intifada, was that of Hussein Muhammad Salim 'Abayat, age 34, from Taamera, Bethlehem, who was killed by Israeli security forces helicopter missilefire aimed at his car, in Beit Sahur, on 9 November 2000. Two 52-year-old women were killed as "collateral" damage in that attack.
The word "B'tselem", by the way, is Hebrew for "in the image", and is a reminder that all human beings are created in the image of G-d.