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Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
Press Release

Reference: 69/2010

Date: 17 August 2010

Al Mezan Condemns Killing of Woman by Armed Men; Calls for Investigation

At approximately 9:20pm on Tuesday 17 August 2010, unknown armed men opened fire from a civilian car at a women, Jabriya Mansur Salama Abu Qenas, 62, while she was sitting in front of her house east of the Al Jalaa' street in Al Ghifari neighborhood in Gaza City. The assailants shot the woman in her chest and escaped. Her relatives carried her to the Shifa Hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival. Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights strongly condemns this crime and calls for prompt, serious investigation into it.

In his affidavit to Al Mezan, one of the Abu Qenas relatives, who preferred his name be concealed, said that he went to buy some things for his relative Jabriya, who is his uncle's wife, from a grocery south of her house. Jabriya, who cured people using traditional methods, was sitting with her husband, Abdullah Abu Qenas, 75, in front of their house. After buying the things for Jabriya, he added, and while he was about 50 meters from Jabriya and her husband, he saw a silver ‘Hyundai’ car with black windows and without number plates advancing towards the Al Ghifari crossroad. The car turned into the street in the opposite direction to the north side. The car approached the sidewalk and stopped opposite to Jabriya, who was sitting on the ground, and her husband, who was sitting on a chair. Then, he could hear a weak sound of what he believed muted bullets. The car left quickly to the east and he saw Jabriya laid on the ground bleeding from the chest. She was admitted to Shifa Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Abu Qena's relatives asserted that two weeks before the incident there were two cars; a white Mercedes and a Skoda, which tried to approach Jabriya close; however, when her relatives approached them, the cars fled away.

Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights strongly condemns the murder of the woman. It expresses its concern by the use a civilian car with black windows and without number plates to commit the crime. Al Mezan calls for initiating a prompt investigation into this crime and bring the criminals who committed it to justice. Al Mezan urges the police to deal firmly with cars that do not carry number plates, as they could be used to commit crimes and facilitate criminals’ escape.

Ends

Press Release link:

http://www.mezan.org/en/details.php?id=10640&ddname=State%20of%20insecurity&id2=9&id_dept=9&p=center