The spiraling violence and killings in Israel and the occupied territories in the past four and a half years has brought untold suffering to the Palestinian and Israeli civilian population. More than 3,200 Palestinians, including more than 600 children and more than 150 women have been killed by Israeli forces, and more than 1,000 I Israelis, including more than 100 children and some 200 women were killed by Palestinian armed groups. Most of the victims were unarmed civilians who were not taking part in any armed confrontations. Thousands more have been injured, many of them maimed for life. Amnesty International has repeatedly condemned and campaigned against the killings of civilians by both sides.

Since the beginning of the Intifada (The Palestinian uprising against Israeli Occupation), there has been an increased militarization of the conflict. From the first days the Israeli army abandoned policing and law enforcement tactics and adopted military measures generally used in armed conflict, routinely using excessive and disproportionate force against civilians, including frequent air-strikes and tank shelling in densely populated Palestinian residential areas large scale destruction of Palestinian homes, land and infrastructure and the imposition of military blockades and prolonged curfews which kept the Palestinian population imprisoned in their homes. Armed Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians, which were sporadic before the Intifada, become a frequent occurrence, including suicide bombings, shootings and other attacks on buses, cafes and public places.

However, the endless cycle of killings is not the only human rights scandal. The increased militarization of the conflict has resulted in a dramatic deterioration of the human rights situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with unprecedented levels of poverty, unemployment, and health problems. Palestinian women have borne the brunt of the suffering but their blight has been largely ignored. The multiple violations committed by Israeli forces in the occupied territories have had grave and long-term consequences for the Palestinian population and a particularly negative impact on women (as well as children and other vulnerable sectors of Palestinian society), compounding the pressures and constraints to which Palestinian women are subject in the traditional Palestinian patriarchal society.

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