A Palestinian boy carries a Palestinian flag calling for an immediate stop for the Israeli aggression

VIENNA, May 6 (IslamOnline.net) – The number of handicapped Palestinians killed by Israeli occupation troops since the beginning of Al-Aqsa Intifada has worryingly sky-rocketed, a human rights organization stressed.

The International Friends of Humanity said, in a statement carried by Al-Quds Press news agency Tuesday, May 6, it has received "tragic and sorrowful reports" since the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Intifada on September 2000 on Israeli aggression on scores of handicapped Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The watchdog said it monitored 107 documented Israeli attacks on handicapped and mentally retarded Palestinians, putting the number of those killed at 48 people in addition to 32 others injured and 27 abducted.

This, stressed the International Friends of Humanity, indicates "the excessive use of force by the Israelis."

The statement also said Israeli occupation forces demolished six institutions that cater for handicapped Palestinians.

The Vienna-based organization said the handicaps, such as blindness, deafness and dumbness, prevent Palestinians from complying with the Israeli orders.

When handicapped Palestinians try to heed Israeli orders they might make some weird movements, prompting trigger-happy Israeli soldiers to shoot them, it charged.

"They (Israeli forces) do not check their identities. Suspicion, weird movements and failing to stop at checkpoints are enough reasons to kill them, which signifies how cheap the Palestinian man is to the Israeli soldiers," the statement read.

It added that there was no excuse for Israeli soldiers to shoot at or punish any handicapped Palestinians passing by an Israeli military checkpoint or Jewish settlements.

They should rather treat them kindly and respect their rights, said the International Friends of Humanity organization.

"Why did an Israeli tank crush to death Kamal al-Saghair, a wheel-chaired Palestinian man, during an incursion into Jenin refugee camp in April 2002?

"The motives of the Israeli military racist policy, which pays no heed to the lives of the Palestinians, can provide an answer," the statement underlined.

"Maher al-Naqeep, another wheel-chaired Palestinian, is another example on the Israeli soldiers’ apathy with the suffering of the Palestinian detainees.

"Unconscious as he was, Israeli forces dragged Nageep from his hair along his house's stairs and flung him into their armored vehicle. They tortured him and prevented him from relieving nature for four days," charged the statement.

Homeless

The International Friends of Humanity’s statement also said that Israeli bulldozers razed a number of the houses owned by handicapped Palestinians to the ground, leaving them homeless.

Israeli forces, in addition, prevented hundreds of the handicapped from reaching hospitals for treatment, aggravating their conditions, especially those who suffer from epilepsy, it added.

The Israeli crime of "demolishing and dynamiting the houses of handicapped Palestinians really comes as a shock to everyone.

"They do not even give the occupants a chance to leave. Kamla Sayeed, a deaf-and-dumb Palestinian woman, was trapped to death under the wreckage of her house in Al-Maghazi refugee camp," the statement said.

"It is a heinous crime against human beings, their properties and their neighbors, especially when it is committed in densely-populated areas such as refugee camps."

The statement denounced the government of Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon "for killing the handicapped and civilians in cold blood and paying no respect for their humanity, which sharply conflicts with basic human rights and norms."

It also called on international and regional human rights watchdogs to demand the Israeli government "desist from adopting such barbaric approach."