Dozens more worshippers were wounded by Goldstein's gunfire. The Israeli army shot and killed over 20 Palestinians in subsequent clashes that erupted as news of the massacre in the Ibrahimi Mosque spread, and hundreds more have been injured. It is with great sorrow and pain that Birzeit University extends its deepest condolences to the families and friends of those killed in the Hebron massacre and its bloody aftermath.
Few words can assuage the outrage and grief inspired by such a vile act of racial hatred.
The massacre at the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron makes it painfully clear that the presence of Israeli settlers in illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories is anathema to real peace between Palestinians and Israelis. Furthermore, Palestinians detainees are tried in military courts while settlers who are detained by the army appear in a civilian court where the sentences they receive are often no more than a slap on the wrist. According to a report on settler violence against Palestinians released by the Israeli human rights group B'tselem in March, only one Israeli settler has been convicted of murdering a Palestinian, even though 62 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli civilians since the beginning of the intifadah. In March the Israeli government took a decision to outlaw two extremist settler groups, Kahane Chai and Kach, making it henceforth illegal to proclaim membership in these two organizations, both of which propose violent measures against Palestinians. The army has also detained several leaders of these groups, and ordered the disarming of several of whom are considered to be the most dangerous of right-wing settlers.