Executive Summary
From November 17-23, 2003, a delegation of three visited Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs). This was a collaborative initiative organized by Forefront, and by the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) in their joint programme the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders. The delegation's goals were to advance the principles laid out in the 1998 United Nations Declaration on the Rights and Responsibilities of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote

Israeli Forces Continue to Perpetrate Crimes in the OPTs

1. Introduction
Since the beginning of the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Monitoring Project (WaSH MP) in June 2002, 643 of the 708 communities defined by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) have been surveyed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. For the purposes of the WaSH MP, the total number of communities that will be monitored is 643, due to the fact that many of the PCBS-defined communities are considered part of a city, like Jerusalem, or are deemed seasonal living places (summer or winter).

The importance of the WaSH MP stems from

GAZA, Dec 30, 2003 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- The Israeli army on Tuesday carried out another incursion into the northern West Bank city of Nablus and its neighboring Balata refugee camp.

The Israeli army tanks and machineries raided Al-Sheikh Salem neighborhood in Nablus and all the areas of Balata camp before imposing tightened curfew on them, Palestinian sources and eyewitnesses said.

The Israeli army had intensified its military deployment in the eastern and western part of the old city of Nablus and barred Palestinian ambulances and paramedics' access to the

JERUSALEM, Dec 29 (AFP) - A lockdown on the West Bank and Gaza Strip imposed in the aftermath of a Christmas Day suicide attack near Tel Aviv was being eased Monday, the army said in a statement.

All labourers and businessmen living in the Palestinian territories had been prevented from entering Israel for work since the attack, the first in nearly three months.

But the army said that it was lifting all restrictions on workers over the age of 35 with families, while 4,000 merchants aged over 28 with families would also be allowed to enter.

Ten trucks carrying 400 tonnes of wheat

At 12:30 p.m. on Friday the (26 Dec. 2003), Adnan Abu-Jwea'd, died due to previous injuries in his abdomen sustained on Thursday (08:00·am) the previous day.
Adnan had been a PRCS employee at Al-Amal Compound as a Maintenance Technician. He sustained his fatal injuries by an Israeli Army sporadic shooting while he was at his home, which is located near Gan Ital settlement (West of Khan Younis).

Adnan is 26-years old, left behind a wife and 4 children, and he had been working with PRCS since 1997.

Palestine Red Crescent Society expresses

by Yoav Lemmer

PETAKH TIKVAH, Israel, Dec 25 (AFP) - Five people were killed Thursday in the first suicide attack in Israel in nearly three months, shortly after a top Palestinian militant was assassinated in the Gaza Strip, as the Holy Land exploded in violence on Christmas Day.

The bomber and his four victims -- three women and a man -- died in an attack on a bus stop in Petakh Tikvah, on the northeastern outskirts of Tel Aviv, which also left 15 others injured, police said.

It was the first suicide attack in Israel

Amman (dpa) - Jordan has rejected a U.N. call for the extension of a refugee camp hosting roughly 500 people, mostly Palestinians who fled the war in Iraq, official sources said Wednesday.

They added the interior ministry had plans to evacuate the camp, near the borders with Iraq, following the departure of nearly 400 Palestinians bearing Iraqi, Egyptian or Lebanese travel documents.

The camp - erected early this year in preparation for a possible influx of war refugees - is also hosting 90 Sudanese and Somali nationals.

Seventy camp dwellers - from Somalia,