Three women killed in Gaza; Al Mezan calls for a prompt investigation

A new crime of murdering of women occurred in Gaza as three women were killed and buried in the late evening hours yesterday, Saturday 21 July 2007. This brings the toll of women killed on suspected honor grounds in 2007 to twelve in Gaza alone. Thirty Palestinian women have been killed and 72 others injured as a result of the internal acts violence, including honor-related crime, during 2007.

According to Al Mezan's field investigations, the Shuhada' Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al Balah received three corpses of women who apparently died from multiple stabs with sharp edges in the neck, chest and different parts of the body. One of them was subjected to strangling as the deep bruised on her neck suggest.

Al Mezan's investigations indicate that at app. 10pm on 21 July 2007, a civilian Magnum Jeep parked at the Al Shuhada Cemetery in the Wadi As Salqa area, which is located in east of middle Gaza town of Deir Al Balah. Unknown persons left the car, carried three bodies and buried them in a grave hole that was previously dug, people who live nearby reported. The incident was reported and a group of the Executive Force arrived at the scene accompanied by and ambulances, and took the bodies to the hospital.

Al Mezan Center for Human Rights strongly condemns the continued killing of women in a flagrant violation of their right to life. The Center denounces that such acts go without adequate investigations, which keeps the conditions surrounding this type of crime unclear.

Al Mezan calls upon the Attorney General Office to open an immediate and effective investigation into this incident and bring those involved in the murdering of the three women to justice. It is the responsibility of the authorities to investigate, search for and prosecute the perpetrators of such an atrocity.

AL Mezan also seizes this opportunity to assert that the prosecution and Attorney General Office must return to perform their duties in accordance with the law. The obstruction of the work of such a main pillar of the justice establishment is extremely harmful to human rights and cannot continue whatever the reasons behind it were.