Geneva, August 5, 2014

Madame High Commissioner,

Alkarama deplores that since the launch of the 'Operation Protective Edge', over 1700 Palestinians have been killed, over 70% of which are civilians, of whom 377 are children and 196 are women, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. On the other hand, 67 Israeli were killed, including 64 soldiers, and unfortunately three civilians.

On 6 August 2014, Alkarama called on the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Navi Pillay to ask the United Nations Security Council to refer the war crimes committed in Gaza by the Israeli Defence Forces to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

On 8 July 2014, Alkarama wrote to the Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian territories to call upon the Israeli authorities to investigate the arbitrary execution of 17-year old Palestinian, Zakariah Jamal Abu Arram.

Since the launch on 8 July 2014 of "Operation Protective Edge", Israel's third major offensive on the Gaza strip in the last six years, the Israeli defence forces have killed 171 civilians, including 48 children and 31 women. Amongst them are the cases of four families, documented by Alkarama, which amount to 30 victims of extrajudicial executions, almost half of whom are children.