The Israeli army continued it aggression and massive offensive against the civilians in the Gaza Strip, and bombarded on Thursday at night dozens of targets in the besieged coastal region killing three children and wounding several residents. 19 Palestinians have been killed since Wednesday evening, and at least 180 have been injured. 23 Palestinians have been killed since last Saturday; most of the casualties are civilians, children and women. Ashraf al-Qodra, spokesperson of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, reported that Israeli war jets fired a missile at a civilian car in Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza, killing three children.
The slain children were identified as Fares al-Basyouni, 9, and brothers Odai Jamal Nasser & Tareq Jamal Nasser, 16 & 14 respectivley.
Earlier on Thursday evening, a 10-month-old infant, identified as Haneen Tafesh, died at the ash-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, after being seriously injured in an earlier Israeli attack.
The Israeli army is widening its assault against the civilians in Gaza, bombarding their homes and lands.
Israel killed 23 Palestinians in the coastal region since Saturday, 19 of whom were killed in the last 24 hours; among the casualties are 7 children, a pregnant women, and two elderly. More than 180 Palestinians have been injured; dozens are in serious conditions.
Thousands of Palestinians held protests in different parts of the occupied West Bank denouncing the ongoing Israeli military aggression against Gaza. The army fired rounds of live ammunition, gas bombs, concussion grenades and rubber-coated metal bullets at them leading to a number of injuries.
Clashes were reported in different parts of the Hebron district, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank, and the soldiers kidnapped three Palestinians.
Injuries were reported in Jenin and Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank during clashes with the army, a number of residents were kidnapped.
The army also occupied a school in Jenin and turned it into a military base.
Soldiers also invaded Beit Sahour and Beit Jala, in the West Bank district of Bethlehem, and clashed with local residents who hurled stones at the invading forces.
VOICEOVER: Israel has pioneered a new type of all-seeing precision weapon: the armed drone. The capabilities of this hunter-killer, which can track a person walking along a street and strike with precision, are a military secret. To use these weapons against civilians is a war crime. But a Guardian investigation has uncovered evidence from the Israeli military themselves that proves just how clearly these weapons can see. So why did one of these drones kill an entire family having tea in their courtyard? Why did these hunter-killers target a group of women and girls walking down the street holding a white flag? Nearly 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the attack on Gaza. More than half were civilians. Four hundred and thirty-one of them were children. Six members of Munir's family were killed by an armed drone. They were having tea in their courtyard when they saw a drone in the sky above watching them. Then it fired. MUNIR
(SUBTITLED TRANSLATION): The rocket landed here. It fell like a ball of fire from that direction. We came back outside. We found Mohammed lying here cut in half. Ahmad was in three pieces. Wahid was totally burnt; his eyes were gone. Wahid's father was pretty much dead. Nour had been decapitated. We couldn't see her head anywhere. Gaurdian Videos
GAZA, (PIC)-- Palestinian medical sources reported that the victims of the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip rose to 254 Palestinians after the death of a 34-year-old patient called Rizq Khweiter.
The sources said that Khweiter was suffering from aortic aneurysm and spent 36 hours in hospital waiting for Israeli permission to leave Gaza for medical treatment.
The Palestinian health ministry appealed to the international community to pressure Israel to open the crossings and allow patients to receive medical treatment abroad, highlighting that the Gaza people are being exposed to genocide under the Israeli siege.
Kristen Ess - For the 60 year memorial of Al Nakba, I have been interviewing elderly refugees for months, people who remember their villages and towns, who talk about their old lives and the new ones they have etched out in the camps.
However on Monday I sat in the bedroom of a 21 year old refugee named Ghassan. His walls are covered with the posters of the killed from Deheisha Refugee Camp, the imprisoned and dead leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the leftist party of which he is a member. http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2767&Itemid=1
Israeli forces destroy fruit trees and greenhouses in southern Gaza Strip
Khan Younis / PNN – Israeli forces destroyed green houses, farms, fruit trees and land in the southern Gaza Strip’s Khan Younis area throughout the night. The Mayor of the eastern town of Khoza’, Sheikh Kamal Najjar, reported that “the bulldozers and tanks of the Israeli occupation penetrated the eastern side of town which exploded with destruction on Tuesday. They washed away more than 500 dunams of land belonging to our citizens.” http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2770&Itemid=1
West Bank movement nearly impossible, Tulkarem resists by going ahead with scheduled plans
PNN – Israeli forces detained thousands of Palestinians throughout the West Bank Tuesday morning. In Za’tara alone, between Nablus and Salfit, hundreds of Palestinians were stuck. This is one of the few routes between the northern and southern West Bank.
Israeli forces are also stopping movement at the only checkpoint east of Tulkarem, however Tulkarem is holding a festival of nonviolent resistance in memorial of 60 years of Al Nakba, flying United Nations flags as a reminder of UN Resolution, the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees. http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2769&Itemid=1
Use of torture on 17-year-old boy by Israeli security service
In the past 24 hours, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF)
have escalated attacks against the Gaza Strip, while have maintained the tightened siege imposed on Strip. On Wednesday evening, 16 April 2008, and in less than half an hour, IOF killed 13 Palestinian civilians, including a journalist, 8 children and 2 brothers, and wounded 32 others, including 17 children and a woman, in Juhor al-Dik village in the central Gaza Strip. They also razed large areas of agricultural land and demolished a number of houses during an incursion into the village. PCHR's investigations strongly indicate that IOF used excessive force and willfully targeted journalists in spite of the clear markings on their suits and vehicles.[1]
According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 04:00, IOF moved nearly 1,200 meters into Juhor al-Dik village in the central Gaza Strip. They raided and searched a number of houses and started to raze areas of agricultural land. At approximately 07:00, IOF fired a tank shell at a house belonging to Salem 'Ali Abu Sa'id, 73. Abu Sa'id and his daughter-in-law, 36-year-old Hala 'Atiya, were wounded by shrapnel to their shoulders. Medical sources described Abu Sa'id's wounds as serious. At approximately 16:30, an IOF aircraft that provided air cover for the incursion fired 2 missiles at a number of Palestinian civilians who gathered near al-Ihsan Mosque, nearly 300 meters away from the area in which IOF troops were deployed. As a result, 9 Palestinian civilians, including 6 children and 2 brothers were killed, and 18 others, including 12 children were wounded. The civilians who were killed were identified as:
1)Mahmoud Ahmed Mohammed, 45;
2)Sofian Ahmed Mohammed, 41;
3)'Abdullah Maher Abu Khalil, 15;
4)Tariq Fareed Abu Taqiya, 16;
5)Islam Hussam al-'Eissawi, 16;
6)Talha Hani Abu 'Ali, 13;
7)Bayan Sameer al-Khaldi, 17;
8)Mohammed Mohammed al-'Assar, 17; and
9)Fadi Jamal Musran, 20.
Fadel Shana'a, 23, a cameraman of Reuters, accompanied by Wafa Abu Mezyed, 25, a soundman, arrived at the area to photograph the children who were killed by Israeli missiles. When they finished photographing, they got on a Reuters vehicle, which was clearly marked with the press badge. They then traveled back to continue their work in the area. They stopped hundreds of meters away from the area where IOF troops were deployed. They got out of the vehicle and a number of children gathered around them. Soon after, IOF fired a tank shell at them. Shana'a was instantly killed and Abu Mezyed was wounded. Abu Mezyed was able to flee from the area. IOF soon fired another shell that hit the back of the vehicle and heavily damaged it. Three civilians, including 2 children, were also killed by the attack, and 12 others, including 5 children, were wounded. The civilians who were killed were identified as:
1)Ahmed 'Aaref Farajallah, 14;
2)Ghassan Khaled Abu 'Otaiwi, 17; and
3)Khalil Isma'il Dughmosh, 22.
At approximately 21:30, IOF troops redeployed outside the village after razing at least 200 donums[2] of agricultural land and demolishing 6 houses.
PCHR strongly condemns and expressed utmost concern over these crimes, and:
1)Asserts that these latest crimes are part of a series of continuous crimes committed by IOF in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) with total disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians.
2)Warns of further escalation in attacks against Palestinian civilians in light of statements and threats by Israeli political and military officials, which may cause more civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip.
3)Expresses utmost concern over continued crimes committed by IOF against journalists and media professionals, and stresses that such crimes aim at silencing the press and prevent journalists from covering crimes committed by IOF against civilians.
4)Calls upon the international community to immediately intervene to stop such crimes, and calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Convention, Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, to fulfill their obligation under article 1 of the Convention to ensure respect for the Convention in all circumstances, and their obligation under article 146 to search for and prosecute those who are responsible for perpetrating grave breaches of the Convention. Such breaches constitute war crimes according to article 147 of the Convention and the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I).
Apr 16 - An Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana and two Palestinian civilians. 23 year old Fadel Shana was covering violence in the enclave when the explosion killed him and two bystanders, local residents said. Reuters soundman Wafa Abu Mizyed, also in his 20s, was being treated for shock and slight injuries. Video from the camera captures the moment an Israeli tank fires a shell towards a vehicle bearing "TV" and "Press" markings. An Israeli military spokeswoman said she had no information on an air strike on a vehicle in the area of central Gaza where the incident took place in late afternoon. Reuters Editor-in-Chief David Schlesinger called for an investigation into the incident.
Susan Flory reports.
SOUNDBITE: David Schlesinger, Reuters Editor-in-Chief
[1] PCHR has issued a separate press release condemning the killing of Fadel Shana'a, a Reuters cameraman.
Ignoring criticism, Carter embraces Hamas official in West Bank, lays wreath at Arafat’s grave
Israeli forces entered the southern Gaza Strip early on Tuesday and carried out searches accompanied by exchanges of fire and explosions, wounding at least five people, medics said.
About 20 armoured vehicles accompanied by bulldozers and two helicopter gunships moved 1.5 kilometres inside the Hamas-controlled Strip near the Kissufim crossing point with Israel.
They searched a school and other buildings in Al-Qarara and Wadi Al-Salqa. Israeli troops and Palestinian activists exchanged fire and a number of blasts were heard in the area.
“Five people were wounded by gunfire and missiles fired by the Israeli occupation. One of them is in a serious condition,” Dr Muawiya Hassanein, the head of Gaza emergency services, told AFP. He added that three were wounded when an Israeli tank shell struck a house east of Al-Qarara village.
The army said in a statement that during the operation “forces identified several gunmen approaching the soldiers. The force fired at them and identified hitting one of them.” In an earlier operation Israeli aircraft raided the Maghazi refugee camp in the centre of the Gaza Strip overnight, targeting activists of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).
A member of the DFLP’s military wing was killed late on Monday and three other Palestinians were wounded in an Israeli air raid on the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics said.
Meanwhile, former US President Jimmy Carter on Tuesday sparked a new spat with Israel after he embraced a Hamas politicianand laid a wreath at the grave of Yasser Arafat during a visit to the West Bank.
Israel accused Carter, the broker of the first Arab-Israeli peaceaccord three decades ago, of “dignifying” extremists. But the ex-president vowed to meet Hamas’ supreme leader later this week in Syria.
Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is on a private peace mission to the Middle East. His itinerary also includes stops in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Syria where the virulently anti-Israel Hamas movement is headquartered. He then returns to Israel next Monday.
Carter has been shunned by Israel this week, and the White House has criticised him for his willingness to meet with Hamas leaders. Carter says the US and Israel should stop isolating the Islamic group, whose control of the Gaza Strip threatens to undermine Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.
“Since Syria and Hamas will have to be involved in a final peace agreement, they have to be involved in discussions that lead to final peace,” Carter said in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
On Tuesday, Carter laid a wreath at Arafat’s grave, breaking with US policy. President George W. Bush cut off contacts with Arafat before he died in 2004, blaming the long-time Palestinian leader for the breakdown of peace talks and subsequent wave of violence. Bush did not visit Arafat’s grave when he visited Ramallah this year.
During the ceremony, a two-man honour guard escorted Carter and his wife, Rosalynn. Carter placed the wreath on the grave then solemnly nodded before turning away. Later, a Palestinian host told Carter that Arafat’s resting place was temporary, and the Palestinians hope to move his remains to Jerusalem one day.
Later, Carter attended a reception organised by his office for Palestinian dignitaries in Ramallah. At the gathering, Carter embraced Nasser Shaer, a senior Hamas politician, meeting participants said.
“We hugged each other, and it was a warm reception,” Shaersaid. “Carter asked what he can do to achieve peace between the Palestinians and Israel ... and I told him the possibility for peace is high.”
Shaer, who served as deputy prime minister and education minister in the Hamas-led Palestinian government that unravelled last year, is considered a leading member of the Islamic group’s pragmatic wing.
After a stint in an Israeli prison last year, he is now a professor at a West Bank university, teaching comparative religion.
Palestinians say Shaer, an academic, was not involved in Hams attacks against Israel, and Israel has never charged him with violent activity.
Flag of Israel flies over Gaza before the 2005 withdrawal [GALLO/GETTY]
The roots of Gaza's misery today can be traced back to the late Ottoman period, decades before the war of 1948 transformed the Gaza Strip from a minor port and agricultural hinterland into one of the most overcrowded places on earth.
It was then, in the middle of the first great age of globalisation, that Gaza's fate was sealed, although it would take half a century for it to unfold.
At the end of the 19th century, the Ottoman empire was undergoing a process of modernisation that was opening provinces like Palestine to greater economic and cultural penetration by Europe.
It was during this period - the heyday of high imperialism - that Zionism arrived on Palestinian soil.
By the early 20th century, thousands of young and relatively unskilled East European Jews were arriving each year in Palestine desperate for work and housing.
While Gaza was never a primary location for Zionist settlement, Gaza City had a small but longstanding Jewish community, and several settlements, including Kfar Darom, were established during the British mandate (1917-1948) period and re-established after 1967.
Most of the young settlers who came during the first three waves of Jewish settlement, from the late 1880s until World War I, were unable to compete with the better-trained and cheaper Palestinian Arab work force, which itself was sustained by a larger Palestinian economy that had undergone a significant development, albeit with ups and downs, in the last century and a half.
This reality led the emerging Socialist Zionist leadership to develop two strategies, the "conquest of labour" (kibosh ha-avodah) and when that failed, the "conquest of land" (kibosh ha-karka'a) to ensure the creation of autonomous, exclusively Jewish settlements that would be free of competition from non-Jewish workers.
The bourgeois town of Tel Aviv, founded in 1909, copied the Jews-only policy of the first kibbutz, or collective agricultural settlement, Degania, which was founded the same year.
Both sought to create modern exclusively Jewish environments that would, culturally, economically, and politically, be as autonomous as possible from the surrounding environment - the older Arab/Sephardi and non-Zionist Ashkenazi Jewish communities as much as from Palestinian Arabs.
Transforming Zionism
Crucially, this early competition for jobs and land helped transform Zionism, in the words of Israeli sociologist Gershon Shafir, into a "militant nationalist movement" by the time Tel Aviv and Degania were established.
The exclusivist nationalism of the movement was exacerbated by the reality that Zionism, like American, Australian and South African nationalisms, was at the same time colonial.
All were examples of "settler colonial" movements which were unique in their desire to replace rather than exploit the indigenous population of the colonised land. This strategy went well with the socialist ethos of the emerging Zionist leadership, which was ideologically committed to avoiding the exploitation of the Palestinian population.
A Jewish security group dedicated to protecting pioneering Zionist settlements [Getty]
At the same time however, many senior Zionist leaders had experience working in Europe's African colonies, which would be put to use in developing Zionist policies in Palestine.
Following the thinking of other colonial enterprises, Zionist leaders justified their project by arguing that Zionist Jews had the right to rule Palestine because they - not the Palestinians - had the ability to develop the land to its full potential and usher Palestine out of its supposed slumber and stagnation into the modern world.
In response, the Palestinian nationalism that emerged soon after the first stirrings of Zionism was equally exclusivist in its claim to the right to rule Palestine.
A "spirit of resistance" that had defined Palestinian responses to foreign incursions, whether by Napoleon's France or Muhammad Ali's Egypt, became evident as Palestinians harassed Europeans who bought land in the country even before the first Zionist settlements were founded.
Conflict with Zionist settlers occurred almost from the start of the Zionist movement's colonisation efforts.
Transition of rule
Once Palestine transitioned from Ottoman to British rule, a zero sum conflict over the country's future was inevitable, especially when the level of Jewish immigration and land purchases increased dramatically in the 1920s and 1930s.
The fact that the British government was, literally, "mandated" to facilitate the creation of a Jewish national home in Palestine while merely protecting the existing civil and religious rights of the native population, exacerbated this situation.
Thousands of East European Jews arrived in Palestine desperate for work and housing
The very structure and aims of the British mandate necessitated that any independent Palestinian leadership should be crushed.
Meanwhile, the most logical and "efficient" way to develop the economy would be through relying on the development programmes of the Zionist movement, whose ideology, political and economic discourses appealed to European imperial sensibilities and to the powerful Christian Zionist impulses that had emerged in England in the latter part of the 19th century.
Equally important, the Zionist enterprise brought a huge influx of capital into the country that enabled its development without great expense to the British tax-payer.
Ironically, Zionist leaders like Felix Frankfurter, the supreme court justice, would argue that "no cordon sanitaire" could protect Palestine from the modern world that he believed only arrived with the Zionist movement and British rule.
But in truth neither had brought modernity to Palestine because it had arrived decades earlier.
The Zionists merely replaced an emerging and increasingly cosmopolitan Ottoman modernity, one which saw Palestine undergo a rapid development in the last decades of Turkish rule (in which Arab Jews and early Zionists, as well as increasing trade and contact with Europe, played a part), with a European, colonial modernity that would ultimately push Palestinians off of, and for more than half of them out of, their land.
In the case of Gaza specifically, this meant herding Palestinians, first in 1948, then in 1967, and again during the Oslo decade of "separation" and "divorce" between Israelis and Palestinians, into a prison from which they are still trying to escape.
Flood of refugees At the outset of the 1948 war, the population of the Gaza region was approximately 60,000 to 80,000. By the end of the hostilities, at least 200,000 refugees had flooded what would become the Gaza Strip, whose rectangular shape roughly corresponded to (but was smaller by at least a third than) the area of the Gaza District during the mandate period.
The exact shape of the Gaza Strip was determined by the position of Egyptian and Israeli forces when the ceasefire was announced.
Israel built 17 settlements in Gaza from 1970 to 2000 [Getty]
The majority of the refugees came from the almost wholesale eviction or evacuation of Palestinian towns and villages from Jaffa southwards to Gaza City and the surrounding villages to the north and east that were depopulated during the war.
These refugees were housed in the ensuing years in eight camps throughout the region, many of which were former British military bases. By 2000, the last year of the Oslo peace process, the number of refugees and their descendants had swollen to well over 400,000.
The Gazan hijra
Based on several years of fieldwork interviewing refugees in Gaza, Ilana Feldman, a New York University professor, describes the typical experience of becoming a refugee in the Gaza Strip in what has been described by many Gazans as the "hijra", (adopting the Islamic terminology for the flight of the still small Muslim community from Mecca to Medina in 622) as having "happened almost without awareness...."
"They crossed no international border, but simply went down the road.... Few people imagined that they would be gone for longer than a few days or weeks," she wrote. In this thinking, Gaza's refugees were a microcosm of the larger Palestinian experience of the Nakhba, or disaster of the 1948 war.
Unlike the West Bank, which was effectively annexed by Jordan in 1950 and its population offered Jordanian citizenship, Egypt maintained Gaza under military rule until a legislative council was elected in 1957.
Moreover, unlike Jordan, Egypt had little ties with or concern for Gaza, and thus the Strip received little attention or investment in infrastructure between 1948 and 1967.
Palestinian farmer looks on with his daughter as Israeli tanks sweep through Gaza [Getty]
Jewish settlements
After its conquest by Israel, 17 Jewish settlements would be established inside the Gaza Strip between 1970 and 2000. While housing well under 10,000 settlers, the settlements came to dominate the geography of the Strip, securing access to much of the best land, water, and shore areas.
Their presence justified the transfer of only 60 per cent of the Gaza Strip to Palestinian control during Oslo. The settlers, only half a per cent of the Strip's population, controlled 40 per cent of its territory and even more of its resources.
This situation would not change significantly during the Oslo period, and when the last settler left, five years into the al-Aqsa intifada in September 2005, Gaza effectively became the world's largest prison.
Mark LeVine is professor of history at UCI Irvine and author or editor of half a dozen books dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and globalisation in the Middle East, including Overthrowing Geography: Jaffa, Tel Aviv and the Struggle for Palestine, Reapproaching Borders: New Perspectives on the Study of Israel and Palestine, Why They Don't Hate Us: Lifting the Veil on the Axis of Evil, and the forthcoming An Impossible Peace: Oslo and the Burdens of History.
Maybe the same release a lot of other Canadians received when contacting Government Officials in Canada about ending the siege on Gaza m but this was the only response email I received from any Government officials thus far.... at least a response!
your concerns surrounding the on-going conflict in Gaza.
Notwithstanding every nation’s right to self-defence, we feel that the Israeli government's response is disproportionate, and the use of rockets against Israeli civilians must be rejected. New Democrats condemn the massive loss of civilian life that is resulting from this escalation.
Israelis and Palestinians want a negotiated resolution. New Democrats are encouraged by the results of a public opinion research published in the Israeli daily newspaper Ha’aretz indicating that a significant majority of Israelis want their government to negotiate a ceasefire with Hamas.
The NDP is urging the Canadian government to work with the world community to call for an immediate ceasefire. We urge the Palestinian leadership to resolve their differences to enhance the prospect of a peaceful resolution. We also urge the government of Israel to cease its blockade of Gaza since, during the present state of escalated violence, the blockade is pushing the civilian health system of Gaza to the brink of collapse, and is running the risk of contravening the prohibition against “collective punishment”. For more information on our position on this issue, please visit: http://www.ndp.ca/page/6222.
Again, I appreciate hearing from you on this troubling situation. All the best.
Sincerely,
Jack Layton, MP (Toronto-Danforth) Leader, Canada’s New Democrats
The TorStar has an interesting definition of 'calm'; only 4 Arabs extra-judicially executed(a fith killed in a separate incident doesn't even merit mention);
C.F. Bernadotte
"JERUSALEM–It was another day of war in the Holy Land, mixed with just a trace of peace, as some spoke of a possible ceasefire while others warned of bloodier conflicts to come.
Israeli security forces were put on high alert across the country last night, after an attack outside a restaurant in Bethlehem by special units of the Israeli military that left four Palestinians dead.
The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad retaliated today by firing rockets from Gaza against the Israeli border town of Sderot in what it described as an "initial" response to the Bethlehem raid.
Three of the dead were from Islamic Jihad, while the fourth belonged to al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, Hamas administration leader Ismail Haniyeh set out his conditions for a potential ceasefire with Israel following nine months of almost daily clashes between the two sides that have caused hundreds of deaths, almost all of them Palestinian.
Appearing in public for the first time since a deadly Israeli incursion earlier this month in which more than 120 Palestinians were killed, Haniyeh yesterday proposed to stop firing rockets and mortars at Israel in exchange for an end to Israeli military operations in Gaza, the lifting of punitive economic sanctions, and the opening of the territory's borders with Israel, sealed to all but humanitarian supplies since Hamas took power in Gaza last June."
"GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas set out its conditions on Wednesday for a ceasefire with Israel, calling for an end to all acts of Israeli "aggression" in the Gaza Strip and West Bank and the reopening of Gaza border crossings.
The terms mirrored proposals raised by Egyptian mediators trying to piece together a truce deal, which would also end Gaza rocket attacks on Israel by militants from Hamas and other Palestinian groups.
Violence has declined sharply over the past week. A ceasefire could foster progress in U.S.-brokered peace talks between Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah faction lost control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas last June.
"There must be a commitment by Israel to end all acts of aggression against our people, assassinations, killings and raids, and lift the (Gaza) siege and reopen the crossings,"
Ismail Haniyeh, leader of Hamas's administration in the Gaza Strip, said in a speech. A ceasefire, he said, should be "reciprocal, comprehensive and simultaneous," apply both to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and be approved by other Palestinian factions.
"We will not abandon you, our people in the West Bank," Haniyeh said. "Aggression against you is aggression against us."
Hamas had previously been vague about whether it would insist on including the West Bank in any Gaza truce"
A demonstration against the murderous embargo will take place in front of the US embassy and the UN headquarter on March 15 - Vienna - Austria.
Appeal: Gaza shall live! The murderous embargo must be lifted! In the Gaza Strip one and a half million people virtually live under siege, behind barbed wire and without a chance to escape this prison camp. The living conditions are unbearable due to a severe shortage of food, medicine and clean water, strictly limited power supply and worsening hygienic conditions. Despite this situation the blockade of the Gaza Strip is tightened and the Israeli Army is launching military actions and bombardments on an almost daily basis. Those who have to suffer are the civilians.
This political and military strategy must be seen as what it is – a crime against humanity.
The tragedy started in January 2006 when Hamas won the elections. As a consequence, the sporadic blockades of the Gaza Strip were replaced by a permanent embargo imposed by Israel, the EU and the USA. At the same time Israel confiscated the customs duties the Palestinian authorities are entitled to receive, the USA and the EU froze their financial aid to the Palestinian government, thus causing the humanitarian crisis.
The international community's taking sides in the internal political conflicts between Hamas and Fatah contributed to the escalation which resulted in a civil war. After the armed conflicts in June 2007, the USA and the EU supported the proclamation of a new government alongside and against the government elected in the democratic elections in January 2006. They lifted the sanctions in the areas controlled by the new government and maintained those against the Gaza Strip. In December 2007, the international community decided for massive financial aid for the new government. Formally, the whole area under Palestinian governmental control is included, practically however, the Gaza Strip is excluded from any relief programmes for political reasons. The Gaza Strip is choked to death – the victims are the civilian population.
Targeting civilians – men, women and children – cannot be tolerated!
Therefore we urgently ask the Austrian government and the European Union to act in order to relieve the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
First of all, this means lifting the embargo against the Gaza Strip and putting an end to the policy of double standards which has led to a situation where the people in the West Bank are provided with essential goods and services whereas those are denied to the people in the Gaza Strip.
Secondly, it implies demanding that the military siege of the Gaza Strip must come to a stop and providing the people with staple goods for survival.
Thirdly, the government elected by the people in the elections of 2006 must be respected as the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people at the negotiating table.
Cairo - Egypt Sunday allowed convoys carrying humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip through the Israel-controlled Karam Abu-Salem border crossing, according to Egyptian security officials.
The Karam Abu-Salem border crossing, where the borders of Egypt, Israel and Gaza meet, is about 14 kilometres south of the Rafah border between the Strip and Egypt.
The passage of the relief aid via the Israeli-controlled crossing was believed to have been to ensure that no weapons were smuggled into the Gaza Strip.
Egypt has previously allowed relief aid into Gaza, and wounded Gazans to pass into Egypt via the Rafah border crossing which is controlled by the militant movement Hamas.
Scores of Palestinians were killed and wounded in Israeli operations launched on the Gaza Strip last week in response to rocket attacks fired from there on Israeli border towns.
Israel has also imposed a blockade on the territory, which led suspected Hamas gunmen to blast open the border with Egypt on January 23, allowing thousands of Palestinians to cross over.
Israel and the US have been pressing Egypt to reassert control over the border saying that weapons and militants might have been smuggled into the Gaza Strip through the border breaches.
My MP has a slot in a local rag called, Our Man in Westminster but it would seem the Facebook Group Action4Palestine (with its creator) has its very own 'Man In Gaza', who just happens to be breaking out all over the airwaves.
So plz Digg & StumbleOn etc, young Sam who works for the Popular Committee Against Siege is just starting out on a journalistic career; here's his latest broadcast, covering the most recent events.
I have brought End The Siege to Spicy Page as part of my plans to have End The Siege every where on the internet.
My goal with being Involved with Spicy Page is to get A Million Vote Ups for Ending The Siege On Gaza, Yes I am ambitious , and that's ambitious for sure.
It's really easy to sign up, and it's completely free! Check it out! Vote Up Here To End The Siege
If you would like to promote your blog on the web . It's free to join and only takes a moment to register! Just go to spicypage.com and sign up.
I had a long day, an awful day, taking photos and writing from on the ground in Gaza City and northern Gaza.
I met with two children who survived Wednesday's Jabalyia soccer bombing: the other 4 kids were, as you likely know, killed. One of the children I saw had no flesh on their legs, had burns all over their bodies from the tank's shelling. This was one of the scariest things I have seen yet, and I have seen a lot more than that. Only today, 35 killed, still going on and 180 injured, many were women and child. Hospitals appeal for blood donation and fuel for ambulances.
I asked one boy to give me details of what happened that Thursday afternoon. The 9 year old boy cried while he told that he'd seen the decapitated head of his cousin strewn far from his body, arms and legs, far away from where they were all playing soccer. His mother added that there wasn't any electricity when her son was admitted to the hospital.
He was crying as he told the story, his tears hurting him even more than his psychological pain, as he has burns in his eyes. His mother uncovered his wounded leg where I could only see bones without flesh in places. I could not understand how he managed to lay down conscious, but knew it was a consciousness full of pain and anguish. I felt this pain in my own heart and head.
As I talked this child's mother, she said that she'd had to evacuate her children, as it's no longer safe to be in that area where the children had been playing. The kids ranged from 6 to 14 years old. The two ones who survived said they had all been playing soccer in front of the door of their house in Jabalyia when the Israeli missile hit them.
I finally came back home some hours ago, after waiting a long time to find transportation. But, eventually managing to make it back to Rafah, I collapsed for a nap for an hour. My sleep was disrupted: I awoke scared by the bombing of F-16s (I learned later on). I ran from my bed through our dark house, and seeing no one from my family inside, I ran without shoes into the street. People were out in the street, young men running. I didn't understand, didn't know what I was doing other than that I was running but didn't know to where. Most people's windows were down, shutters closed, as it is freezing cold at moment.
I was glad not to be injured by shattered glass and debris on the streets. I made it back home to write this on my laptop. But I've decided going back to sleep is not a good idea, no matter how exhausted I am. If I have to die (not my wish), I want to be awake, so I know I'm dying, and by whom. Not asleep.
-Mohammed Omer is an International Award Winner: Best Youth Voice from New America Media 2006.
Below is a letter of support from a friend (Nashri) who came to Gaza lately. Nashri, who came to the Gaza strip when the Berlin wall was down, faced a lot of troubles near the borders.These troubles made her determine to transfer the image of suffering.
I met her in Gaza strip and involved with her in a charity task alongside her mum.
She is very aware of what's going on in the Gaza strip and promised to exert tremendous efforts to show the world the real situation in Gaza Strip.
Her promise was on ground 3 days after she has gone back to Ireland. She helped in organizing a protest in Ireland in the 23rd of February as a part of the Global day for Gaza held by PCAS.
Dear all,
Because of the inadequate excuse for "News" here in Ireland, I'm not sure if all of you fully comprehend the horrific extent of Israel's escalating bombardment of the Gaza Strip but I watched the news on Aljazeera in utter disbelief yesterday as Israel continued its mass killing of civilians in the densely-populated refugee camps of Jabaliya (120,000 people in two square miles) Khan Yunis and Rafah. These are camps which I visited only 3 weeks ago on a humanitarian aid mission with the ISPC to the Gaza Strip, and I experienced first-hand, the atmosphere of terror a falling rocket can create.
Since Wednesday, the Israeli Defense Force have killed at least 110 people in the Gaza Strip of which 34 are children including a 2-day old baby. This offensive was launched last week in response to the death of a 45 year old Israeli student in the southern town of Sderot, the first such death in nine months. More than 70 were killed yesterday alone in one of the bloodiest days as heavy rockets, missiles, cluster bombs fired by Apache Helicopters and 1-ton bombs dropped by F16, rained down on civilian areas.
The statistics speak volumes and are alarmingly one-sided. In response to the 6 Israeli's wounded on Saturday by Hamas Rockets, over 60 people were killed in the Israeli retaliatory strikes. So far today, 4 Israeli civilians have been moderately injured by Hamas rockets and so Israel has responded by killing 10 Palestinians using heavy artillery shelling.
All life is precious but it doesn't take a degree in Human Rights to see that Israel's response to the homemade rockets being fired over the border from the Hamas-controlled territory is excessive and disproportionate - if you push people into a corner, they are going to fight back. I only ask of you all to be aware of the situation over there; of Israel's flagrant abuse of basic Human Rights in the targeting of innocent civilians in densely populated areas in what they call "Collective Punishment", of its defiance in response to global denunciations and calls of restraint from the International community, of its obvious superiority complex when it comes to obeying UN resolutions. A recent opinion poll has indicated that the majority of Israelis favour a truce with Hamas.
Most sickeningly, Israel's own Deputy Defence Minister, Matan Vilnai, in a statement on Friday, announced on Israel's Army Radio that the Palestinians risked bringing a "Shoah" (The Hebrew word for The Nazi Holocaust) upon themselves if Hamas does not cease firing the home-made Qassam rockets into southern Israel. Considering, I found this particular choice of words coming from a leader in the Jewish State appalling.
Closer to home, in a statement issued on Friday evening, our Foreign Affairs Minister, Dermot Ahern, condemned " the firing of rockets on Israeli towns by Palestinian militants the killing of an Israeli student on Wednesday, and the l arge numbers of civilians killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza". (Interesting placing of priorities there I thought.)
Below, there is a link that once there you can see pictures and articles on the situation over there, most of which are, I warn you now, very harrowing and difficult to view but I implore you not turn a blind eye completely. It's the least we can do.
Sincerely, Nashri
لجنة المتطوعين .. المنبثقة عن اللجنة الشعبية لمواجهة الحصار
Five days have passed on the Israeli aggression against the unarmed Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the Arab world seems to be in a coma. More than 120 martyrs and over 300 injured in the latest Israeli crimes amid suspicious International silence. Most of the martyrs and the injured are unarmed civilians, including tens of children and women.
New Israeli occupation strikes martyred ten more Palestinians in the north of the Gaza Strip early on Sunday. In the latest incident, two Palestinians were martyred during an ongoing Israeli operation in Jabalya, in northern Gaza. Palestinian sources said a 21-month-old baby girl was also among Sunday's dead.
Three people, including one civilian and one Hamas resistance fighter, were martyred in two separate strikes early in the day in the north, where Israeli ground and air troops were operating for a second day. Two other people, whose identities were not immediately available, were fatally wounded near the northern town of Jabaliya. Moreover, one Palestinian died of wounds from Saturday’s Israeli attacks and two bodies of women were pulled out on Sunday from beneath the rubble of houses destroyed in the previous day.
A 13-year-old Palestinian boy was also martyred in clashes with Israeli occupation soldiers during protests against the Jewish state's blitz on the Strip. Mahmud al-Musalmi was martyred in the southern town of Al-Khalil. At least 15 people had been injured by rubber bullets in the clashes around the flashpoint town of Al-Khalil in the south of occupied West Bank.
Thousands of Palestinians poured out into the streets throughout the occupied West Bank on Sunday to protest an Israeli air and ground assault on Gaza. Since the military began its assault early on Saturday, more than 68 people have been martyred by the Israeli occupation military in Gaza, the bloodiest 24 hours in the territory since the start of the second Palestinian uprising in September 2000. The martyrs have included seven children and nine women in addition to other civilians.
GAZA HOSPITALS ON VERGE OF COLLAPSE
Medical sources in Gaza reported Sunday that some 200 people were injured over the weekend, in the heavy fire exchanges between Israeli occupation forces and Hamas, resulting in the Strip's hospitals arriving at the brink of collapse. "The situation is very hard. I have a new intensive-care patient coming in every half-an-hour," Dr. Khalil Nahal, of the Intensive Care Unit in Shifa Hospital, Gaza Strip's main medical facility.
Even after the hospital was able to secure more beds for its patients, the medical staff is having trouble coping with the numerous patients coming in. "Normally, I have 11 beds in the ICU, in its full capacity," said Dr. Nahal. "Now I have 95 beds in three locations in the hospital. We only have four more ICU beds available right now."
A former physician at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem, Dr. Nahal found himself caring for many civilians caught in crossfire. Should the fighting continue as it has over the weekend, said Dr. Nahal, Shifa may soon arrive on to the brink of collapse. "There is a shortage in beds, in drugs, in resuscitation devises, in needles, medical supplies and blood."
The Gaza blockade, he added, makes it impossible to transport those seriously wounded for treatment in the occupied territories. "We called on Gazans to donate blood and many have come to do so, but we have no way to transport (critical) patients to Israel – the crossings have been closed since Wednesday."
Physicians for Human Rights published a statement denouncing harming innocent civilians on the Strip and called on both sides to make proper medical treatment available to the wounded. "The great number of civilians under threat is horrifying and the leaders of both sides must lay down their arms and begin negotiations. During wartime it is imperative that health and medical facilities be allowed to remain in full working order in order to deal with the wounded," said the statement.
RESISTANCE RETALIATES WITH ROCKET BARRAGES
Meanwhile, the Palestinian resistance retaliated with more rockets that landed in the western Negev area and Ashkelon's vicinity. Some 20 rockets hit the region since the early morning hours. Four settlers were wounded and a dozen others suffered shock after a Qassam rockets landed in Sderot and western Negev communities. On Saturday, the Palestinian resistance fighters killed two Israeli occupation soldiers.
The Israeli aggression against the Palestinians in Gaza demands an instant action from the international community especially from those governments that claim democracy, not to mention the Arab World. To all these governments and to the Arab countries we say: Wake up people, what are you waiting for?
