NEW YORK, April 11, 2007, (WAFA)-Dr. Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations, said in a letter to the President of the UN Security Council Mr. Emyr Jones Parry that Israeli, the occupying Power, continues to carry out violent and unlawful policies that are totally contradictory to the concept of peace.

Mansour stated that during the month of March, the Israeli occupying forces carried out numerous violent military invasions and incursions of Palestinian cities, towns and refugee camps, killing and injuring more Palestinian civilians, including children, destroying more civilian property and infrastructure, and further terrorizing and traumatizing the besieged civilian population.

Repeated incursions have been carried out in particular in the Nablus and Jenin areas as well as in the Gaza Strip. This past weekend the occupying Power resumed its policy of extra-judicial killings, using its lethal helicopter gunships to fire missiles near the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, killing a Palestinian man and wounding several others. This comes on the heels of threats by Israeli officials to carry out yet another full-scale military invasion of the Gaza Strip.

"Among the hundreds of Palestinians arrested and detained in the recent period were 18 Palestinian men seized by the occupying forces following a raid of the Palestinian military intelligence headquarters in Ramallah on 7 March 2007 and 13 young boys from Al-Arroub refugee camp north of Al-Khalil who were arrested by the occupying forces on their way to school on that same day. Regrettably, the number of Palestinian civilians being imprisoned and detained by Israel, the occupying Power, continues to swell as a result of these such arrests, with a total of more than 10,000 Palestinian prisoners, including women and children, currently being held in Israeli jails and detention centers, most in abhorrent and inhuman conditions," according to the letter.

In grave breach of international humanitarian law, Israel, the occupying Power, continues its illegal settlement campaign throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, confiscating more land for the expansion and construction of settlements, building more Jewish-only bypass roads to serve these settlements, and allowing the illegal settlers to act with impunity towards the Palestinian civilian population.

In this connection, Israel, the occupying Power, also continues its unlawful construction of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in particular in and around East Jerusalem, in total disrespect for the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice and the resolutions of the United Nations and in grave breach of international law. Land confiscations and destruction of properties for this purpose continue unabated, Mansour said in a letter.

"Israel, the occupying Power, continues to impose more than 500 checkpoints and roadblocks throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, intentionally and severely restricting the movement of persons and goods. This illegal practice continues to have a disastrous impact on the Palestinian economy and on the socio-economic life of the Palestinian people. Such restrictions even continue to be imposed on humanitarian and medical personnel and vehicles, with several recent reports of Israeli occupying forces preventing the movement of ambulances and harassing and attacking ambulances at checkpoints. Israel also continues to impose frequent, prolonged closures on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and has in particular subjected the Rafah crossing in the Gaza Strip - the only point of entry and exit for Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip - to repeated and arbitrary closures, exacerbating the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza and fueling tensions," the letter read.

The occupying Power has continued to severely restrict the access of Palestinian civilians to the Holy City and to obstruct their access to holy sites, particularly Al-Haram Al-Sharif compound.

Moreover, Israel, the occupying Power, continues to carry out illegal excavations in Occupied East Jerusalem in the Old City despite the calls for cessation of such activities and extremist Jews have been allowed to enter Al-Haram Al-Sharif compound in recent days under the protection of Israeli occupying forces, actions that have in the past inflamed Palestinian and Muslim sensitivities and threaten today to seriously destabilize the fragile situation.

"While attention is focused on the efforts to revive the peace process and on the actions of the new unity government of the Palestinian Authority, this dire situation on the ground cannot be ignored, for it is far from normal, near disastrous and will surely undermine any progress that may be achieved. Attention must also be urgently focused on the actions of Israel, the occupying Power, and the international community must take measures to compel Israel to cease acting with impunity and to uphold international law - it must be compelled to cease its violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people, to cease its illegal policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and instead to genuinely pursue the path of peace," he added.

"There is a real opportunity at the present for progress towards the resumption of the peace process towards the achievement of the two-State solution and a peaceful settlement and the international community should uphold its responsibilities in this regard to ensure that this opportunity is not lost like so many before it," Manosour said.

The letter concluded that accordingly, in follow-up to the above-mentioned letters, I regret to inform you that, since 2 March 2007, at least 17 more Palestinian civilians have been killed by the Israeli occupying forces, raising the total number of martyrs killed since September 2000 to 4478.

M.H.(11:15 P)(08:15 GMT)