NEW YORK, August 7, 2006 (WAFA) - "Since our last letter to you dated, Thursday, 3 August 2006, the following tragic events have occurred in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem," said Dr. Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations in three identical letters to the UN Secretary-General the President of the UN Security Council and the President of the UN General Assembly.

Dr. Mansour reiterated, Israel, the occupying Power, must be held accountable and the perpetrators must be brought to justice for its war crimes, State terrorism and systematic human rights violations committed against the Palestinian people.

He said that Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) continued their indiscriminate and disproportionate shelling towards civilian areas and agricultural land throughout the Gaza strip.

"On Friday, 4 August 2006, Israeli occupying forces widened their scope of aggression on Al-Shawka neighborhood, east of Rafah in southern Gaza.

Israeli warplanes fired missiles onto the homes of Palestinian civilians, causing more death and injury among the civilian population and vast destruction to civilian property and infrastructure," reads the letter.

Moreover, it reads on, the new tactic by the occupying forces of telephoning Palestinians before dropping bombs on their homes is sowing panic and fear in the Gaza Strip.

"As a result, hundreds of Palestinian civilians have fled their homes in terror. In one tragic incident, a 3-day-old infant girl, Shahd Al-Eid, fell from her mother's arms as she was fleeing to seek refuge from an Israeli missile attack," said Masnour.

He added that the infant was later pronounced dead as result of internal bleeding and bruises.

On Saturday 5 August 2006, he says, Israeli warplanes fired missiles at a group of civilians also trying to flee their homes in Tannour Quarter in Al-Shawka neighborhood. The missile fell into a crowded street in the midst of a fleeing family, resulting in the deaths of two children and the injury of scores more.

"The United Nations humanitarian agencies working in the Occupied Palestinian Territory have continued to express their deep concern by the impact of the ongoing Israeli aggression on Palestinian civilians and civilian infrastructure in Gaza, which has resulted in a sharp decline in the humanitarian situation facing 1.4 million people, more than half of them children," Dr. Mansour added.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has reported an increasing number of displaced Palestinians as a result of Israeli aggression in the Gaza strip.

As a result, Mansour said, UNRWA is currently sheltering 1,345 from 289 families, nearly all of them refugees, in four schools in the Gaza Strip.

He added that the World Food Programme (WFP) has reported that more Palestinians are now dependent on food aid, increasing the number of Palestinians it feeds from 160,000 people to 220,000 people, monthly, adding that the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has also reported that Palestinian children living in Gaza are indeed bearing the brunt of Israel's onslaught and that of the approximately 40 Palestinian children killed since 28 June 2006, almost a quarter were less than 10 years old.

Mansour has also said that Israel, the occupying Power, has also continued with its illegal policies and practices in the West Bank. "Yesterday, Israeli occupying forces abducted the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Dr. Aziz Al-Dwaik. Israeli occupying forces besieged Al-Dwaik's home, abducting and leading him into an undisclosed area."

He revealed that IOF also abducted another elected Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Mr. Fadl Hamdan and eight other Palestinian civilians throughout the West Bank, including an 18-month old baby who the occupying forces abducted from his mother and left him in the street for an hour.

A.D. (22:39 P) (19:39 GMT)