Palestine: Statement by Palestinian NGO's against domestic violence against women

Formal and popular movements have not made any efforts to limit or stop such crimes that are in contradiction of all monotheistic religions and laws. Therefore, the Palestinian community witnessed a more grotesque murder of two sisters and attempted murder of the third sister in Jabal Al-Mukaber in Jerusalem.

Statistics show that according to police reports in the West Bank and Gaza, there were six cases of murder and three cases of attempted murder in the various cities of the West Bank and one murder and one attempted murder in Gaza.

The cases that were documented since the beginning of this year are the following:

In February 2005 a 31-year-old woman was found murdered in Jericho city.

15-03-2005 a father stabbed his 17-year-old daughter to death in Al-Khader village near Bethlehem.

16-03-2005 a brother killed his 17 year old sister near Bal’a village, Toul Karem district after he noticed she was pregnant due to being raped by her father who fled following hearing the girl’s confession to her brother while he was strangling her.

08-04-2005 a woman and her fiancé were shot in Beit Lahia, Gaza Strip by a group of young men who claimed that they were protecting public honour without being given any authority to do so. They found out afterwards that this woman's sister was accompanying her while she was taking a walk with her fiancé.

30-04-2005 a woman from Ramallah city aged 23 was killed by her father with a sharp object to the head because she insisted on marrying a man whom the family had refused as a suitor.

02-05-2005 a brother killed his two sisters aged 20 and 27 by strangulation and attempted to murder the third aged 31 who was taken to hospital in a critical condition in Jabal Al-Mukber, Jerusalem.