The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza issued a report on Monday which stated that 13 Palestinians including one woman, were killed while 188 others were injured by Israeli army fire during the month of February 2007.
The report mentioned that the number of the injured from the 3 to18 age category was 70. In effect, the ratio of injured children stands at 37.2 % of the total figure of casualties.
In the reported the ministry of Health stated that due to the clashes that erupted between Israeli troops and Palestinian civilians protesting the excavation near the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, 23 civilians were hospitalized while hundreds others were treated on the spot.
The military offensive (‘Hot Winters’) that the Israeli army conducted in Nablus city in the northern part of the West Bank, lasted nearly all of last week. The report stated that Israeli forces intensified the bombings of residents’ homes in the Old Town of Nablus. 150 houses and a shop were damaged during the operation, according to the report.
The report confirmed that during the Nablus military offensive the Israeli army attacked the health sector. The Israeli forces prevented ambulances belonging to the Red Crescent Society and the medical aid from arriving to help the two killed civilians in Nablus’ old city; both were injured and remained bleeding for more than two hours before they died.
In addition, Israeli troops deployed in Nablus stopped medical crews from attending other injured or sick civilians. Soldiers detained the medical crews and usully forced them to strip naked before letting them go, the report concluded.
