Beit Hanoun

Beit Hanoun (in Arabic: بيتحانون) is a town of 35.000 inhabitants managed by the Palestinian Autorité in the Gaza Strip. The city is located at the North-East of the Gaza Strip, in seaside, with ten kilometers in the south of Ashkelon and with six kilometers of the Israeli city of Sderot. Its population is mainly Bedouin.

Since the Israeli withdrawal of the Gaza Strip in 2005, Beit Hanoun is used as a basis for the Hamas for its shootings of its rockets Qassam on the Israeli cities close to the Negev like Sderot. In order to put an end to these shootings, the city is the frequent target of the Hebrew State.

The November 9th 2006, the president of the Palestinian Autorité Mahmoud Abbas declared Beit Hanoun, where 56 Palestinians were killed during the operation Nuages of autumn carried out by the Israeli army, “disaster area” and announced a help of a million dollars to its inhabitants.

The operation Clouds of autumn (2006)

Incursion of November 1st

November 1st 2006, in the greatest military operation launched by Israel since the Operation Rain of summer, six Palestinians and an Israeli soldier are killed and 35 people wounded at the time of the incursion of Tsahal into Beit Hanoun. The French news agency AFP reported that three houses were shaven by Israeli tanks. This incursion marks the beginning of the baptized operation Nuages of autumn by the Israeli army. Immediately after the facts, the president of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas and its Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, qualifies the incursion of massacre.

Massacre of November 8th

At dawn, shells of Israeli artillery fall on five houses from Beit Hanoun, killing eight children, five women and five men, and making 58 wounded, according to the ministry for Health. Among deaths, eleven members of the same family appear, including two children.

Israel, via its Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, expresses its regrets, calling upon “a technical error” and announces the opening of an investigation. This Israeli bombardment, most fatal since 2002 in the Gaza Strip, causes a wave of international indignation, but American the initial reaction does not condemn Israel explicitly. “We deeply regret the casualties and the human losses in life today in Gaza. We took note of the excuses of the Israeli government and we hope that the investigation that it opened will succeed quickly”, declares Gordon Johndroe, spokesperson of the Safety advice main road to the White House.

Side of the Palestinian Authority, the reactions is immediate: “We condemn this terrible massacre firmly and atrocious clerk against our people in Beit Hanoun, against children, women and old men”, declares Mr. Abbas. “Israel wants neither peace, neither safety nor of a Palestinian partner”, adds it, by condemning “those which justify the acts made by Israel”, an allusion to the attitude of the United States which called upon the right of Israel to “the self-defense” by commenting on military operations to Gaza. The Prime Minister for the Hamas Ismaïl Haniyeh also denounces “a massacre”.

The following day, the emissary of UNO to the the Middle East Alvaro de Soto says himself “shocked and dismayed”, Moscow “extremely worried” and the European commission judge the shootings “deeply shocking”. The France, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom denounces the brutality of the attack. The Arab Ligue speaks about “massacre” and calls with an emergency ministerial meeting.

Following the massacre, a project of resolution “condemning the attack of Beit Hanoun and requiring of Israel to put an end immediately to its military operations in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem-Is” is presented by the Qatar. The project receives ten votes for, with four abstentions (Denmark, Japan, the United Kingdom and Slovakia) but is rejected, the the United States having taken advantage of their right of Véto as a voter against, judging the draft Resolution “anti-Israeli”. Thus, the representative of the the United States, John Bolton, affirms that, of the opinion of its delegation, “this text did not present in an equitable way the events which had proceeded in Gaza”, estimating the draft Resolution “justified politically” and “not contributing to restore peace”.

See too

the operation Rain of summer
the massacre of Qibya
the israélo-Palestinian conflict

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