In the past week alone, Israeli troops killed 84 Palestinians, and wounded more than 400. An aggressive wave of Israeli military escalation against Palestinian refugee camps throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip left the entire Palestinian people in a state of horror only comparable to the 1982 Israeli massacres in Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps in Lebanon, in which more than 2,500 women, children and men were systematically murdered at he hands of Ariel Sharon.

While the international community remains shamelessly silent towards such atrocities, the Palestinians continue to suffer the most horrendous forms of military aggression, strangulation, and humiliation. To add insult to injury, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon affirmed, after a meeting of the Israeli security cabinet, that Israel will continue to launch widespread attacks on all the Palestinian territories.

Clearly, the Israeli government is determined to inflict more pain and horror on the Palestinians, with the shortsighted assumption that 'militarism' and the use of brute military force will put an end to the violence. Tragically, such policies and measures will only add more volatility to the situation, dragging the entire region into further conflict and bloodshed.

Israel must understand that an end to its occupation of the Palestinian territories is the only real solution to the conflict. The international community must not adopt Israel's distorted version of reality, and take a firm stance against the atrocities that are being committed daily against the Palestinian people.

18 months after the outbreak of the Intifada, the reality is strikingly more visible than ever before: neither Israelis nor Palestinians will have peace and security as long as Israel occupies the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The only way to peace is a complete end to occupation, in all its forms