- Title: GAZA: ISRAEL EXPELS EIGHT PALESTINIANS TO GAZA
- Date: 6th December 2003
- Summary: (U2) GAZA STRIP (DECEMBER 4, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SLV CAR ARRIVING WITH DEPORTEES ARRIVING TO GAZA FROM THE WEST BANK; SLV PRISONERS GETTING OUT OF CAR; SLV DEPORTEES; WIDE OF DEPORTEES AT PRESS CONFERENCE (4 SHOTS) 0.29 2. (SOUNDBITE)(Arabic) ZHANEN SAWALNEH, DEPORTEE BELONGING TO AN ISLAMIC MILITANT GROUP, SAYING "We guarantee our right to live wit
- Embargoed: 21st December 2003 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: GAZA STRIP
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Reuters ID: LVA3O7NA7KRA9JU4AAY7D0C2S65V
- Story Text: Israel expels eight Palestinians to Gaza
Israel's military expelled eight more alleged Palestinian
militants from the West Bank to the fenced-in Gaza Strip on
Thursday (December 4) without charge or trial, Palestinian
security sources said.
The first five in a group of 18 West Bank Palestinians
scheduled for deportation for alleged assistance in terror
activity against Israel were sent to the tiny, impoverished
desert territory last month.
Such expulsions have been condemned by human-rights
groups.
Palestinian security sources said some of the eight
were dumped just past the Erez border crossing and others
on a coastal road near a Jewish settlement after an Israeli
military court rejected their appeal against deportation.
Another four were expected to be deposited in the Gaza
Strip in the coming hours, the security sources said.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
Zhanen Sawalneh, the eldest deportee at 38, told
reporters on arrival in Gaza City that seven including
himself were members of Islamic militant group and the
eighth belonged to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's
Fatah faction.
He said they were held in administrative detention for
up to 18 months without any evidence presented against them.
"We guarantee our right to live with dignity in our
land. There is no doubt that Israel's policy of exiling
Palestinians, of detaining them, of killing them and using
aggression on them, and incursions against them is a
message from Israel saying that the only language they
understand is resistance, the language of aggression, the
language of power," said Sawalneh.
Israeli military sources last month described the
expulsions as "residency demarcation" a preventative
step taken against Palestinians who could not be put on
trial for fear of exposing intelligence sources who
provided information on them.
Palestinians and international human rights groups have
censured such measures in the past as violations of
international law.
Last year, Israel deported to Gaza, two Palestinians
accused of helping a suicide bomber.
The Palestinians deported last month belonged to
Islamic Jihad. It and Hamas are sworn to destroying Israel
and have conducted suicide bombing campaigns in a
three-year-old revolt.
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