Click on The Headline for Full Story!
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
and Al-Dameer Association for Human
Rights call upon Israel, Egypt and the
international community to resolve the
crisis at the Rafah border crossing
IOA suspends further supply of
fuel to Gaza after Rafah incident
The Israeli occupation authority has decided to
stop supplying fuel to the Gaza Strip to generate its
electricity station after the Rafah incident where thousands
of Palestinians poured into Egypt after unknown armed
men blasted several holes in the border fence between
the Strip and Egypt.
MP Khudari warns: Gaza to plunge
into darkness anew within few hours
The chairman of the popular anti-siege committee
MP Jamal Al-Khudari has warned that the Gaza strip
would plunge anew into darkness within the few
coming hours after Israel decided to halt further
fuel shipments.
Israel wants to cut Gaza
links after border breach
Israel wants to cut its links with the Hamas-controlled
Gaza Strip after militants blasted open the territory's
border with Egypt in defiance of an Israeli blockade,
Israel's deputy defence minister said on Thursday.
Egypt rejects idea of Israel
waiving responsibility for Gaza
A top Egyptian official said Thursday that
Egypt's border with Gaza would go back to normal,
and strongly rejected the idea - floated by Deputy
Defense Minister Matan Vilnai - that Israel might
relinquish all responsibility for the troubled Gaza Strip.
Gazans pour into
Egypt for second day
Palestinians thronged out of Gaza into Egypt for a
second consecutive day on Thursday to stock up on
supplies after militants blew open the border of
the Hamas-run territory.
Power to the (Palestinian) People!
The people of Palestine have done it again, taking
their own fate in their hands after being let down
by their own "moderate" political leadership and,
indeed, the entire international community in their
struggle for freedom. Early this morning they simply
blew up the wall separating Gaza from Egypt, breaking
a siege imposed on them by an Arab government in
collaboration with Israel.
Hamas 'spent months cutting through
Gaza wall in secret operation'
As tens of thousands of Palestinians clambered
back and forth between the Gaza strip and Egypt
today, details emerged of the audacious operation
that brought down a hated border wall and handed
the Islamist group Hamas what might be its greatest
propaganda coup. Hamas, which took control of the
coastal territory last June after a stand-off with Fatah,
has denied that its men set off the explosions that brought
down as much as two-thirds of the 12-km wall in the early hours.
Hamas Beats Israel's Gaza Siege
It took explosives to do what diplomacy couldn't: allow
Palestinians to go on a shopping spree. The siege of Gaza,
imposed by Israel and the international community after
Hamas seized control of the Palestinian territory last July,
ended abruptly before dawn on Wednesday when militants
blew as many as 15 holes in the border wall separating
the territory from Egypt. In the hours that followed,
over 350,000 Palestinians swarmed across the frontier,
nearly one fifth of Gaza's entire population.
Hamas Blows a Hole in Bush's
Plans, by Tony Karon
The hole blown by Hamas in the Gaza-Egypt border
fence has finally punctured the bubble of delusion
surrounding the U.S.-Israeli Middle East policy. In a
moment reminiscent of the collapse of the Berlin Wall,
through the breach surged some 350,000 Palestinians
— fully one fifth of Gaza's total population, as my friend
and colleague Tim McGirk observed at the scene. And
what did they do on the other side? They went shopping
for the essentials of daily life, denied them by an Israeli
siege imposed with the Wehrmacht logic of collective
punishment. And the Egyptian security forces didn't
stop them, despite Washington and Israel urging them
to, because U.S.-backed strongman Hosni Mubarak
would provoke a mutiny among his citizenry and even
his own security forces if they were to be ordered to
stop hungry Palestinians from eating because Israel
has decided that they should starve until they change
their attitude.
ANALYSIS-Hamas exposes
Israeli weakness in Gaza
Hamas has exposed Israel's inability to rein in the
Gaza Strip, proving it holds the power to blow
open the border and turn a crippling Israeli
blockade into a public relations nightmare for
the Jewish state.
Hamas: Blowing up Egypt borders
a step to end blockade
A senior Islamic Hamas official said Thursday
that blowing up the fence of the borders between
Gaza Strip and Egypt is a first step towards ending
more than seven months of Israel blockade on the enclave.
Haniyah is willing to negotiate with Abbas
and Egypt about a deal to run Rafah crossing
The Hamas leader and deposed prime minister
Isma'el Haniyah stated on Thursday he is willing
to negotiate a deal to run the Rafah border crossing
with the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and
the Egyptian government.
PNA refuses to discuss border
issues with Hamas
Palestinian National Authority (PNA) rejected a call
from Hamas for a meeting in the Egyptian capital of
Cairo to discuss arrangement for opening a border
crossing between Egypt and the Hamas-run Gaza
round the clock.
Down goes the wall
Last night I received a text message from Fida
-"its coming down-its coming down!" she declared
ecstatically. "Laila! the Palestinians destroyed Rafah
wall, all of it. All of it no part of it! Your sister Fida."
Al Jazeera Q&A: The Rafah border breach
Palestinians force open
parts of border with Egypt
In the early morning of 23 January Palestinian
militants blew up sections of the border between
the Gaza Strip and Egypt, effectively allowing tens
of thousands of Palestinians to freely leave or enter
the enclave for the first time since last June 2007.
"I'm going to al-Arish to see my married daughter.
I have not seen her in four years," said Um Muhammed,
as she prepared to go through a two-meter-wide hole in
the border wall. "I hope I can see her."
Gazans flock to Egypt after militants
bulldoze border fence
RAFAH, Egypt — Dust-covered young men
carrying hundred-pound bags of cement on their
shoulders scampered over the imposing iron fencing
that once separated the Gaza Strip from Egypt.
Gaza explodes
In this unfolding tragedy, borders have turned into
instruments of collective punishment, Israel's way of
bringing Palestinians to their knees.
Another Hamas victory
First it was 'green revolution' in Gaza;
now, Hamas able to end Israeli siege.
Analysis: Hamas shows IDF who is in charge
A few Israel Defense Forces Engineering
Corps officers surely shed a tear yesterday while
viewing the television reports from Rafah: The barrier
built by the IDF with blood and sweat along the Philadelphi
Route, on the Gaza Strip border with Egypt, was coming down.
Palestinians Topple Gaza Wall
and Cross to Egypt
RAFAH, Egypt — Tens of thousands of Palestinians
streamed into northern Egypt on Wednesday after
Hamas militants blew up parts of the fence dividing
Egypt from the Gaza Strip, forcing an end to the closing
of Gaza that had followed Hamas's takeover of the
territory last summer
Feature: Gazans break into Egypt for
shopping in wake of Israeli blockade
RAFAH TOWN, Gaza Strip, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) --
Carrying a goat and jumping over a fence on the
borders between southern Gaza Strip and Egypt,
Suleiman Abdullah said this was the only way to the
outside world in more than seven months of Israeli
closure imposed on the strip. "We are witnessing a
slow death after more than seven months of closure,
and I believe that we have no other choice," said
Abdullah, as he put the goat in a mini-truck waiting
outside Egypt borders.
Ecstatic Palestinians pour into Egypt
RAFAH, Egypt - Osama Hassan can finally buy what
he needs to wed his fiancee now that Palestinian militants
blasted down the Gaza border wall Wednesday, clearing
the way for tens of thousands of locked-up Gazans to
stock up in Egypt on basic supplies that are scarce or
impossible to buy at home.
Palestinians shop till they drop
Dusty, wind-swept and in the throes of a
shopper's high, Sobheya Hemeid sat wedged
Wednesday in the back of a pickup amid 10 of her
relatives and bags of toothpaste, detergent, tea, sugar,
medicine, chocolates and two bunches of fake flowers.
Hope blooms for Gaza flower farmer
who crossed into Egypt
When Zakaria Hijazi heard that Hamas had
blown up the border with Egypt, he brought 100,000
flowers from his Gaza farm in the desperate hope of
making his first sale in months. The 40 year-old was
one of tens of thousands of Gazans who poured into
Egypt after militants, exhausted by a punishing Israeli
blockade on their tiny territory, blew up parts of the
fence that marks the border in the divided town of Rafah.
Mubarak says he authorised Gaza
Palestinians to enter Egypt:
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Wednesday
that he authorised the crossing of Palestinians from the
Gaza Strip into Egypt to stock up on goods as long as
they were not armed.
Rafah: the breach in the wall is an act of
freedom and a strong warning to the EU,
the Quartet and Egypt
"The thousands of Palestinians crossing the
Rafah border point these last hours, the breach in the
wall and the breaking of the siege decided by Israel
against the civil population, are all true acts of resistance
and an affirmation of the freedom of that people, not the
Qassam rockets being fired at Israeli civilians that
contravene international law, or the bloodshed
inflicted on the Palestinian civil
population perpetuated by Israeli raids.
A broken society
If you bottle up 1.5 million people in a territory 25
miles long and six miles wide, and turn off the lights, as
Israel has done in Gaza, the bottle will burst. This is
what happened yesterday when tens of thousands of
Gazans poured into Egypt to buy food, fuel and supplies
after militants destroyed two-thirds of the wall
separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt. It was the
biggest jail break in history.
Freedom for Gaza (but for one day only)
Abdullah al-Najar, who runs a taxi company in the northern
Gaza town of Jabalya, reflected for a moment as the families
and donkey carts, laden with everything from olive oil to
mattresses, from cement to computers, streamed past him
and through what only hours earlier had been the
impenetrable part-iron, part-concrete southern wall
incarcerating Gaza's 1.5 million residents.
Letter to the Editor: Bravo Gaza
Cheers to the women of Palestine, cheers to the
Palestinian people and their leaders! Palestine
will be liberated, not some day, but soon!
We refuse to remain silent on the brutal collective
punishment being inflicted upon the Palestinian
population (This brutal siege of Gaza can only breed
violence, January 23), which has reached even more
horrific levels following Israel's cutting of fuel supplies.
The 1.5 million residents of Gaza, who were already
suffering severe shortages of fuel, food and medicine,
are facing a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the middle
of winter, without heat and lighting. The only power station
in Gaza is needed to provide electricity to deliver clean
water and manage sewage. Hospitals are warning that
patients' lives are at stake, with electricity needed to run
essential machinery such as incubators, dialysis machines,
and heart monitors, and essential surgery that will have
to be cancelled.
Israel likened to Nazis in
political cartoons
Arab newspapers attack Israel for Gaza blockade,
compare Israeli government to Nazi Germany;
despite some voices of dissent against Hamas.
Fatah distances itself from Rafah border breakthrough.
US stymies Security Council action on Gaza
Despite intensifying calls for international pressure to
address the fast deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip,
observers and some diplomats say the UN Security Council
has proved as ineffective as it has been for many years
concerning issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
U.N. Human Rights Council
rebukes Israel on Gaza
The U.N. Human Rights Council on Thursday demanded
Israel lift its week-long blockade of Gaza, rebuking the
Jewish state for the third time for violations in the
Palestinian territories since the forum was set up in 2006.
RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE
: Obama backs Israel
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to the
UN, found a short letter in his mailbox two days
ago. The sender: Barack Obama. The subject:
The Security Council meeting regarding the
situation in Gaza. "I urge you to ensure that
a Council resolution won't pass that does not
"fully condemn" the Qassam attacks on Israel,"
Obama wrote. "We all are worried about the
consequences of the blockade on Palestinian
families. Nonetheless, we must understand
why Israel is forced to do this."
over Gaza border breach
"I believe Egypt knows what its job is, and we
expect them to fulfill its task in the framework
of agreements," Defense Minister Ehud Barak
said Wednesday, revealing the security
establishment and the government's great
anger at Egypt over the breach of the Rafah
border Wednesday. Barak made the statement
during an interview on Channel 10 during a visit
to France. Security sources said Wednesday that
Egypt's conduct raises the concern that Cairo is
purposely ignoring Israel's demands. It has
continued to refuse to better address weapons
smuggling across the border, they added.
Mubarak not closing
norder anytime soon
Palestinian movement into Egypt slows;
Egyptians say not planning to reseal border
with Gaza anytime soon. IDF continues
operations in Strip.
UN Security Council unlikely to
agree Gaza statement: diplomat
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The UN Security council
is grappling for a response Wednesday to the Israeli
lockdown of the Gaza Strip with Washington vowing
to oppose any measure that ignored Israel's
security concerns.
Arab League chief: Israeli policy
is destroying peace process
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa on
Thursday accused Israel of taking steps destined
toward destroying the peace process, particularly
with regard to its policy on West Bank settlements.
Sword dancing while Gaza starves
A staggering disparity in images has emanated
from the Middle East over the past two weeks.
While US President George W. Bush received a
warm welcome during his tour of the Persian Gulf,
Israel pounded Gaza killing over 40 Palestinians,
nearly half of them civilians. Bush participated in
sword dancing ceremonies, watched the prowess
of hunting falcons, and in the United Arab Emirates
he was finally greeted with the flowers that he once
believed American troops would receive in Iraq.
The obscene displays of wealth and extravagant
gifts by the Gulf states, whose coffers are flush with
cash from near-record oil prices, contrasted sharply
with the images of death and destruction unleashed on
impoverished Gaza. This was compounded by Israel's
total closure of the tiny strip late last week, leaving the
1.5 million Palestinian inhabitants with dwindling food
and fuel supplies. As the only power plant in Gaz
a shut down Sunday night, Palestinian children in a
candle-light march covered by Al Jazeera asked, "
Where are the Arabs?" Yet, the Arabs weren't the
only ones absent from the scene. Indeed, Gaza
appears to have been abandoned by the entire
world, further revealing the state of fragmentation
and isolation of the Palestinian national movement.
Egyptian riot police direct traffic
away from Egypt-Gaza border
Dozens of Egyptian police use batons to beat
hoods of private cars, pickup trucks that massed
at border to carry Gazans further into Egyptian
territory. Hamas member: Demolition of border
wall planned for months.
Egypt arrests 500
during pro-Gaza demo
EGYPTIAN authorities have detained at
least 500 people in Cairo while breaking
up a demonstration staged in support of
Palestinians in the Gaza strip, a security source said.
Soldiers assault and arrest B'T
selem worker in Hebron
Soldiers assaulted and arrested Issa 'Amro, a
B'Tselem fieldworker, in Hebron on January 19.
'Amro was arrested while filming a disturbance
by settlers in the Wadi Hsein neighborhood in East Hebron.
Soldiers kidnap a Palestinian Human
rights Activist in Nablus
The Ahrar Center for Detainees' Studies reported on
Wednesday that Israeli soldiers kidnapped Ahlam Jawhar,
a Palestinian woman active in Human Rights, as she was
leaving Nablus city through the Huwwara roadblock.
Hamas says pro-Abbas forces
arrest two members in West Bank
The Islamic Resistance Movement
(Hamas) on Thursday said Palestinian
security forces arrested two members
of its movement in West Bank.
Resistance attack a military
camp near Jenin
The Al Aqsa Brigades, the armed wing of
Fateh movement, claimed responsibility for
attacking an Israeli military post west of the
northern West Bank city of Jenin on Wednesday.
Palestinian Sources: Israeli army invades
several parts of the West Bank and kidnaps 7 civilians
Palestinian media sources reported that
the Israeli army invaded several parts of
the West Bank on Thursday at dawn and
kidnapped at least seven Palestinian civilians.
Hamas court sentences policeman to
death for family feud killing
A court in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip sentenced a
member of the radical Islamic group's security force
to death Thursday for the killing of a colleague in a
family feud, Hamas officials said.
Palestinian forces enter
Jordan under US programme
The first battalion of Palestinian security forces
crossed into Jordan on Thursday to begin training
under a U.S. programme after nearly a year-long delay.
Israel-PA military cooperation
improves in the West Bank
Military cooperation with the Palestinian Authority
has improved in recent months, even though defense
officials Wednesday criticized the conduct of the
Palestinian Preventive Security Service in the
shooting attack near Mt. Hebron three weeks ago.
In that attack, off-duty Israel Defense Forces soldiers
David Rubin and Ahikam Amihai were killed.
Researcher: Israel is about to pass a
law which will bar thousands of detainees
from visitation rights
Fuad Al Khafsh, a Palestinian researcher and
specialist in detainee's affairs, stated on
Wednesday that the Israeli Knesset approved
in preliminary reading a new law which will give
the Israeli Minister of Interior full authority to
bar thousands of Palestinian families from visiting
their family members imprisoned by Israel.
The Palestinian National Conference
in Damascus calls for Unity
In a joint statement issued on Thursday by
all the participants in the Palestinian National
Conference for Palestinian National Rights said
that this conference is to bring unity to the
Palestinian people and enforce the Palestinians rights.
Additional flaps with US officials
reported at roadblocks
American diplomats continued this week to raise
the Civil Administration's ire over their continued
refusal to open their car doors or windows and
present identification when crossing from Israel
into the West Bank. On Tuesday, Civil Administration
officials filed a report with the Foreign Ministry after
American officials, including the US security coordinator
to Israel and the Palestinian Authority Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton,
refused to present their identification cards as they arrived
at an IDF checkpoint at the entrance to Ramallah.
world probe October 2000 riots
Committee announces that if Attorney General
Mazuz decides to close case without indicting
Israeli policemen involved in death of 13
Arab-Israelis it would seek international
investigations, recourse. Committee discusses
'Israeli crimes in Gaza,' plans series of protest rallies.
Chomsky: Palestinians punished
for not obeying Israel-U.S. orders
TEHRAN - Noam Chomsky, a widely known
intellectual and political activist, says an
immediate punishment of Palestinians started
"for the crime of not following orders" by Israel and U.S.
Wounded in war, 10-year-old
boy recovers in Ladera Ranch
LADERA RANCH – The 10-year-boy sat
in a sofa chair, his fingers furiously working a
PlayStation Portable professional wrestling game.
Gaza diary 2: Rana Elhindi
Rana Elhindi, a Save the Children worker
in Gaza, continues her diary of the current
crisis for the BBC News website.
Featured CounterPunch
Website of the Day: Rafah Today
http://www.rafahtoday.org/
The Untermensch Syndrome:
Israel's Moral Decay
What is transpiring in the Holy Land is anathema
to human civilization; it is an embarrassment to
six billion people who are good, decent human
beings. If our governments refuse to act, then
so we must, for the sake of innocent and peaceful
Palestinian and Israeli people, for the sake of human
decency and for the sake of our future generations.
Crime and impunity
For as long as Israel treats its armed forces as if
they are above the law, it will face the charge that
it condones torture.
Truth was first US casualty in Iraq war: study
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush and
his top officials ran roughshod over the truth in the run-up
to the Iraq war lying a total of 935 times, a study released
Wednesday found. Bush and his administration "waged a
carefully orchestrated campaign of misinformation about
the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq," said the
damning report entitled "False Pretenses."
0 Have Your Say!:
Post a Comment