Israeli forces assassinated 6 Palestinians this morning (Monday July 30th, 2001) near the West Bank village of Farah, bringing the total number of targeted assassinations and extra-judicial killings by Israel to 50 since the outbreak of the Intifada in late September 2000.

According to Israeli sources, the victims "…belonged to the Al-Aqsa Brigades, an armed faction of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement." Palestinian officials described the incident as "…mass assassination."

This latest act of aggression comes amid rising tensions due to Israel's provocative incursion into Al-Haram Al-Sharif in Jerusalem yesterday, in which hundreds of Israeli soldiers and police stormed the sacred site and stopped short of attacking Muslim worshippers trapped within Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Israel's policy of targeted political assassinations and extra-judicial killings adds more volatility to an already explosive situation, and threatens to escalate the entire region into an endless cycle of incontrollable conflict. It also stands in grave violation of the so called Tenet "ceasefire" plan, which was reached on June 13th, 2001.

The Israeli government's publicly declared approval of assassinations and extra-judicial killings is a dangerous adoption of state-terror as a means of dealing with the occupation, which entails nothing short of gangsterism, all in the name of "security."

The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH) urges the international community to take concrete steps in putting an end to Israel's policy of terror against the Palestinians, and to provide immediate protection to the Palestinian people by deploying international monitors to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.