Al Mezan Publishes a List of Palestinians Killed by the IOF during the Israeli “Cast Lead” Operation in Gaza
On 7 March 2009, Al Mezan published a list of Palestinians killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) during their military operation “Cast Lead” against the Gaza Strip, from 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009.
The list included the names of 1342 people killed, including: 109 women (8% of the total rate of deaths); 318 children (24%); 127 elderly people (9%); 235 fighters – including 27 persons who were assassinated while unarmed and uninvolved in fighting activities (therefore the rate of those fighters, excluding those unarmed is 16%) – and 210 (16%) policemen and security apparatus members who were killed while performing their regular duties and were uninvolved in any combative activities.
Those killed were distributed according to the following districts:
– 465 (35%) in North Gaza district,
– 567 (42% ) in Gaza district,
– 151 (11%) in Middle Gaza district (Der Al Balah),
– 99 (7%) in Khan Younis district,
– 60 (4%) in Rafah district.
The list also indicates that 299 (22%) persons were killed during the first day of the IOF’s offensive, in addition to others who died later of their wounds sustained on the first day.
Al Mezan would like to point out that the information related to the middle and southern Gaza districts list was based on questionnaires filled out by the center’s fieldworkers through visits to the houses of people killed, while the number of names which were based on field visits in north Gaza and Gaza districts were only 161 and 141 respectively. Therefore, minor changes on names of people killed in these two areas are expected.
It is worth mentioning that the Center published previously a list of names of Palestinians killed during Israel’s war on Gaza upon pressing and frequent requests by international, local and Israeli organizations as there were claims that the number of people killed was less than figures confirmed by Palestinians. Al Mezan believed it had a moral duty to provide this list before it had finalized its documentation wok.
