GAZA
CITY, March 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Israeli
occupation forces have assassinated a total of 438 Palestinians since
the start of the second Intifada against Israeli occupation in
September 28, 2000 till the end of 2003, an Arab study revealed
Sunday,February 29.
As
the number of assassinated Palestinian martyrs is on the rise year in
and year out, the Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, toped the list
with 159 martyrs (%36.3), said the study conducted by the Arab Center
for Research and Studies and carried by the London-based Al-Quds Press
news agency.
Titled
“The Zionist Assassinations of the Figures of the Palestinians,”
the three-chapter study also highlighted the sacrifices paid by
political and military leaders from various Palestinian resistance
groups.
Ordinary
Palestinians, who do not belong to any resistance group or political
movements, came second in the list with 143 martyrs (%32.6).
Fatah
movement is the third with 70 martyrs (%16), Islamic Jihad fourth with
42 martyrs (%9.6) and the Committees of the Popular Resistance fifth
with nine martyrs (%2.1).
The
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) came sixth with
eight martyrs (%1.8), self-declared fighters seventh with four martyrs
(%0.9), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP)
eighth with two martyrs and last the Popular Front-General Leadership
with one martyr.
Geographically,
225 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank, 182 in the Gaza Strip
in addition to one martyr outside the occupied Palestinian
territories.
Assassinations
The
study further put at 213 the number of Israeli assassination attempts
of which 177 were successful (%83.1) and 36 flops (%16.9).
Apache
helicopters were used in 46 assassination strikes and F-16s in just
one. Five strikes were proved futile, according to the study.
Explosives
were used in 20 attempts, five of which went awry.
Fifty-nine
besieges and pre-dawn swoops to assassinate Palestinian activists were
also recorded with five failures.
Ambushes
and special forces were applied in 35 bids, while military checkpoints
were used in 16.
More
Martyrs In 2003
The
year 2003 saw more killings and assassinations with 212 martyrs,
followed by 2002 with 146 martyrs and then 2000 with 80 martyrs.
The
study, which is the culmination of three year of research and effort,
concluded that Israeli occupation troops lacked any sense of humanity
or ethics in their barbaric incursions on the Palestinian people.
It
also came to the conclusion that the Israeli assassinations failed to
break the stanch will of the Palestinians and provoked a backlash
among them.
A
painful and serious revenge came hard on the heels any assassination
attempt, the study said.
