1 November raid On 1 November 2006, in the largest military operation by Israel since Operation "Summer Rains", six
Palestinians and one
Israeli soldier were killed and 35 people were wounded during a
raid on Beit Hanoun by the
Israeli military. The raid involved three
air strikes, sixty
tanks backed by
helicopter gunships. The
AFP news agency reported that three houses were razed by Israeli
bulldozers and a dozen homes were hit by tank shells. The raid was the beginning of Operation "Autumn Clouds" by the Israeli military. Both the
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and the
prime minister,
Ismail Haniyeh, have described the raid as a
massacre.
3 November shootings On 3 November 2006 one
Palestinian woman was killed and ten were reported wounded by
Israeli military fire. The women had gathered outside the
Umm al-Nasr Mosque in Beit Hanoun after an appeal by the local radio for women to rescue Palestinian militants trapped inside by disguising the militants as women. Two women were killed and ten injured. The Israeli military said that their soldiers had spotted two Palestinian militants dressed in women's clothes hiding within the crowd of women, and that the militants were using the women as human shields. A resolution proposed by
Qatar as condemnation of the shelling was brought before the Security Council and was vetoed by the
United States, with the U.S. ambassador to the U.N.
John Bolton calling the proposed resolution 'one-sided' and 'politically motivated'. Following this rebuff, a watered-down and
non-binding resolution was passed by the
U.N. General Assembly on 17 November 2006 expressing the assembly's 'distress' at the shelling and calling for a fact-finding mission to be sent to
Gaza. The resolution was passed by a majority including the
European Union member states. Among the several objectors were the United States and
Israel.
16 November On 16 November, Hamas and
Islamic Jihad militants firing from Beit Hanoun launched a Qassam rocket at the Israeli town of
Sderot, killing one and injuring one other. Israel's Prime Minister released a statement saying: "This is precisely the type of murderous attacks that we are trying to prevent. Israel will take any means necessary in protecting our citizens."
Aftermath Israel refused to cooperate with the UN Human Rights Council and obstructed any international investigation into the matter. A
Human Rights Council mandated mission which was to have been led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, was refused to enter Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. On 11 November the United States vetoed a Security Council draft resolution calling for the establishment of a fact-finding mission into the events of 8 November in Beit Hanoun. A UN report, written by the Special Rapporteur, concluded that ″it seems clear that the indiscriminate firing of shells into a civilian neighbourhood with no apparent military objective constituted a war crime, for which both the commanding officer and those who launched the 30-minute artillery attack should be held criminally responsible″. ==See also==