A/HRC/12/48 page 48 with a peak in 2002 of 220 individuals killed in 55 suicide attacks.13 The last recorded suicide attack took place in February 2008 in the Israeli city of Dimona.14 183. The firing of rockets and mortars from Gaza into Israel began in 2001.15 Israeli sources report that as many as 3,455 rockets and 3,742 mortar shells were fired into Israel from Gaza until mid-June 2008.16 184. After his election as Prime Minister in 2001, the Likud leader Ariel Sharon discontinued any direct contacts with the Palestinian leadership, in effect putting an end to talks on the final status. 185. In June 2002, the beginning of the construction of the separation Wall, which encroached on Palestinian land to encompass most Israeli settlement areas in the West Bank as well as East Jerusalem, left almost half a million Palestinians on the western side of the divide, cutting historical, social, cultural and economic ties with the rest of the Palestinians in the West Bank.17 In 2004, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion on the legality of the Wall being built by Israel, at the request of the United Nations General Assembly. The Court stated that Israel must cease construction of the barrier, dismantle the parts of the barrier that were built inside the West Bank, revoke the orders issued relating to its construction and compensate the Palestinians who suffered losses as a result of the barrier.18 Israel disregarded the views of the Court and construction of the Wall continued. In 2004 and 2005, the Israeli Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice (see sect. D below), ruled that some parts of the route of the Wall violated the principle of “proportionality”in both Israeli and international law, causing harm to an “occupied population” and that the construction of the structure should be done in a way to lessen the prejudicial impact on the rights of the resident Palestinians. The Israeli Court See website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (“Suicide and other bombing attacks in Israel since the Declaration of Principles (Sept. 1993)”), available at: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-%20Obstacle%20to%20Peace/ Palestinian%20terror%20since%202000/Suicide%20and%20Other%20Bombing%20Attacks%20in%20Israel%20Since 13 BBC News, “Israeli killed in suicide bombing”, 4 February 2008, available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/ middle_east/7225775.stm 14 “The operation in Gaza…” states that the firing of rockets and mortars from Gaza started in 2000. The same sources quoted in the report, however, put the beginning of the firing of rockets and mortars in 2001. The report states that between 2000 and 2008 “Israel was bombarded by some 12,000 rockets and mortar shells between 2000 and 2008, including nearly 3,000 rockets and mortar shells in 2008 alone.” 15 Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center, “Rocket threat from the Gaza Strip, 2000-2007”, December 2007, available at: http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/ malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/html/rocket_threat_e.htm; and “Summary of rocket fire and mortar shelling in 2008”, January 2009, available at: http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/ pdf/ipc_e007.pdf 16 See B’Tselem statistics (Separation barrier statistics), available at: http://www.btselem.org/English/ Separation_Barrier/Statistics.asp. 17 Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Advisory Opinion of 9 July 2004, I.C.J. Reports 2004. 18