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Report on IOF's Operation Warm Winter
in the Gaza Strip 27 Febr – 03 Mar, 2008
Israeli government orders military
to step up attacks on Gaza
The Israeli government announced on
Wednesday that it had approved stepping
up attacks targeting the Gaza Strip.
Expecting more Palestinian protests,
Israel deploys 3,500 police in
Old City Jerusalem
Ma'an – Thousands of Israeli police officers have been
deployed in the Old City of Jeruslem on Tuesday
in order to suppress expected demonstrations
against the Israeli mass killings in the Gaza Strip,
Israel Radio reported on Tuesday.
Children and civilian
bystanders in Gaza death toll
Israeli military air strikes and artillery attacks on
the Gaza Strip during the last few days have killed
over 100 Palestinians, including dozens of children
and other civilian bystanders. Three Israelis –
a civilian killed by a rocket fired by a Palestinian
armed group on 27 February and two soldiers –
were also killed.
Israeli troops open fire at a
taxi near Ramallah, injure driver
Israeli soldiers opened fire on Wednesday at
midday at a Palestinian taxi in the village of Rantis,
near the central West Bank city of Ramallah,
injuring the driver.
Palestinians: IDF kills infant,
top Islamic Jihad man in S. Gaza
A two-week-old Palestinian infant was killed after
nightfall on Tuesday in a brief Israel Defense Forces
ground operation in the southern Gaza Strip,
Palestinian officials said, just a day after Israel
ended a bloody offensive in northern Gaza against
Palestinian rocket squads.
Medical negligence suspected
in prisoner's death
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights is deeply
concerned over the death of Fadel 'Ouda 'Atiya
Shaheen, 47, from al-Jalaa' neighborhood in Gaza
City, who had been detained by Israeli Occupation
Forces in Be'r al-Saba' Prison, as there are indications
that his health condition deteriorated and the
administration of the prison failed to offer him
appropriate medical treatment.
Israeli forces devastate Palestinians properties
in al-'Aroob refugee camp in Hebron
On Wednesday morning, Israeli forces renewed
their vandalizing operations for the third consecutive
day in al-Aroob refugee camp, eastern of the West
Bank city of Hebron, but no abductions have been reported.
Historic mosque in Jaffa attacked
The Jerusalem-based Al-Aqsa Institution for
Rehabilitating Islamic Sites claimed on Tuesday that
Jewish Israelis assaulted the Hassan Bek Mosque in
Jaffa. The perpetrators reportedly entered the
mosque's yard and broke some of the mosque's
contents, a statement from the Al-Aqsa Institution
added. According to the statement, the assault was
not the first of its kind as several Islamic sites inside
Israel have been assaulted before.
Trade union building targeted in Gaza
Two F-16 missiles were all it took to bring down the
five-story headquarters of the Palestinian General
Federation of Trade Unions. The Union, established
in 1965, is one of the forerunners of the movement
calling for an international boycott of Israel, and
imposition of sanctions on it until Israel meets its
obligations over UN resolutions, borders, and the
right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland.
26 Palestinians kidnapped
across the West Bank
Israeli forces invaded several parts of the West Bank
in the early hours of Wednesday morning and
kidnapped at least eight Palestinians, among those
11 from the northern West Bank city of Jenin
Gaza Video From Real News
http://therealnews.com/web
thisdataswitch=0
P.A security arrests five Hamas supporters
Sources close to Hamas movement reported on
Tuesday that Palestinian security forces, loyal to
Fateh movement in the West Bank, arrested six
Hamas members and supporters in several
areas on Monday.
Israeli forces, Hamas resistance
clash inside occupied Gaza
Palestinian witnesses and Hamas officials said a
column of Israeli armoured vehicles crossed
through the border in central Gaza and came
under mortar and machinegun fire.
Gaza operations will continue,
get more offensive
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on
Tuesday announced that military operations
in Gaza "will continue and get tougher".
Olmert warns of more fighting soon
The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert,
warned today that more fighting in Gaza was
imminent and admitted one of his goals was now
to "weaken" the Islamist movement Hamas.
Israeli Army aims 'to topple Hamas regime'
The government has yet to define or approve the
overall goals of the current military campaign in the
Gaza Strip, and will wait until Wednesday -
after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit -
to do so, senior government officials said Sunday night.
Bush approved plot to oust Hamas
The documents, which have been corroborated by
sources at the US State Department and Palestinian
officials, reveal that the plan was supposed to be
implemented by the State Department.
Abbas won't resume talks now
The U.S.-backed Palestinian president rebuffed the
Bush administration's request Tuesday to quickly
end a walkout of peace talks with Israel, saying
Israeli military bombardment of civilians in the
Gaza Strip is unacceptable under any circumstance.
to oust PA head
Muhammad Dahlan, the former Fatah security
commander in the Gaza Strip, is working to oust
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud
Abbas and the veteran leadership of the ruling party,
an Abbas aide told The Jerusalem Post. Fatah central
committee member Hakam Balawi, a former PLO
ambassador to Tunis, said Dahlan was responsible
for the defeat of the Fatah-controlled PA security
forces in the Gaza Strip by Hamas last June.
Dahalan advises Fatah cadres in
Gaza not to fight IOF
Leader of the mutiny trend in Fatah faction
Mohammed Dahalan has urged cadres and leaders
of his Movement in Gaza not to be driven by their
compassion to help Hamas in the ongoing fighting
with the IOF troops. Dahalan's "advice" was exposed
by members within Fatah at odds with him and
published in the Jordanian weekly Al-Sabeel
newspaper Tuesday.
Rice: Mideast Talks Should
Resume Quickly
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice blamed
Palestinian Hamas militants she called spoilers
for provoking an Israeli military onslaught in the
Gaza Strip that derailed U.S.-backed peace talks.
Bush: There's 'plenty of time'
for peace deal by year's end
With only 10 months to go and Israeli-Palestinian
talks broken down over renewed violence, President
George W. Bush nonetheless said Tuesday that there
is "plenty of time" to secure a Middle East peace deal
before he leaves office.
MK Eitam to Arab MKs: One day
we will expel you from Israel
Tempers flared Wednesday during Knesset plenary
session when National Union MK Effie Eitam told
Arab MKs that "one day we will expel you from this
house, and from the national home of the Jewish people."
The Rabbi of Hate
"So I believe that I act in the spirit of the Almighty
God. By defending myself against the Jew, I am
fighting for the work of the Lord." Adolf Hitler,
Mein Kampf, 1924. ""A thousand non-Jewish lives
are not worth a Jew's fingernail" Dov Lior, Rabbi of
Kiryat Arba. "We will carry out a greater holocaust
against the Palestinians," Matan Vilnai, Deputy
Defense Minister, 1 March, 2008. Ovadia Yosef, the
spiritual leader of the ultra-orthodox Shas party, which
represents Jews from the Middle East, has urged Jews
around the world to pray for Israeli soldiers, not only
on the Jewish Sabbath, Saturday, but also on Mondays
and Thursdays.
secret Hamas-Israel ceasefire
Some Israeli analysts are speculating that Hamas
and Israel have reached an unannounced ceasefire
following the five-day bombardment of the Gaza
Strip and projectile attacks on Israeli towns.
Hamas lets Fatah man who lost two
kids in IDF raid visit their graves
Following Tuesday's Haaretz report, Hamas has
decided to let a Fatah activist return to the Gaza
Strip to visit the burial site of two of his children
who were killed Sunday during an Israel Defense
Forces' raid in Jabalya.
Rice meets Abbas in Ramallah
Condoleezza Rice, the U.S Secretary of State,
met the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
at his headquarters in the central West Bank
city of Ramallah.
PFLP slams the statements
of Rice in Ramallah
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(PFLP) slammed on Tuesday the statements of
the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice,
during meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas
in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Arab Israelis protest Gaza massacre
Thousands of Israeli Arabs rallied in the northern
town of Umm al-Fahm on Tuesday to express
solidarity with the Palestinians and protest the
army's deadly offensive in Gaza. Gathered in the
town centre amid a heavy police presence, the
protestors waved Palestinian flags and called on
Israel to stop its offensive in the Hamas-run Gaza
Strip, which killed more than 120 people in less
than a week.
Silwan protest tent moves due to
harassment as Israelis overtake E Jerusalem
neighborhood
East Jerusalem's Silwan neighborhood is under siege,
as it has been for months. Not only are Israeli forces
tunneling underneath, soldiers and settlers alike
attacked the protest tent which has now moved to
nearby neighborhood. The Israelis have posted
signs that indicate they will be overtaking the
neighborhood with tourist sites and Israeli
infrastructure. The projects are not for the benefit
of the residents who are being driven out.
UN rights body holds moment of
silence for Gaza 'martyrs'
At the request of Iran's foreign minister,
UN Human Rights Council holds moments of
silence for Palestinians killed by Israeli military.
NCA holds a candle procession
in solidarity with Gaza
The Christian National Assembly organized a candle
procession in Jabal Al Zeitoon in Jerusalem on
Monday at night in protest to the Israeli
assaults against the Palestinian people in
the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Ahmadinejad blasts UN chief over Gaza
Iranian leader accuses Ban of submitting to 'Zionist
blackmail' over his reaction to Palestinian rockets.
TEHRAN - Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad lashed out on Wednesday at
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon over his
reaction to the Israeli strikes on Gaza,
accusing him of submitting to "Zionist blackmail".
Hamas looking like Hezbollah
as Israel leaves Gaza
As Israel withdrew its forces from the northern
Gaza Strip on Monday after a two-day assault
on Hamas militants, and as Palestinians emerged
from their houses to inspect the damage, Hamas
leaders seemed to be following the playbook of
their Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, in its 2006 war
with Israel. Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for
Hamas in Gaza, said that like Hezbollah, Hamas had
"gone from the stone to the rocket." "What we
learned from Hezbollah," he said, "is that resistance is
a choice that can work."
Report: Hezbollah says ready for war
with Israel, but won't start it
Hezbollah is ready for another war with Israel
but it will not start one, the deputy leader of
the Lebnon-based guerilla group said in an
interview published Wednesday, a day after
Israel told the European Union its intelligence
showed Iran was rearming the group via Turkey.
Palestinians' bittersweet
homecoming in Lebanon
Nahr al-Bared, Lebanon - Rabie Taha's first sign
of hope has arrived: 300 prefabricated homes
that families are moving into this week on a lot
at Nahr al-Bared, the Palestinian refugee camp
largely destroyed in fighting last summer between
Lebanese soldiers and radical Islamic militants.
Jabaliya buries its dead
East Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip bore
the brunt of Israel's latest military incursion into
Gaza. The incursion, which was launched in the
early hours of Thursday 28 February and lasted
four days and nights. In that time Israeli troops
killed 108 Palestinians, including 54 unarmed
civilians, 26 of whom were children. The
Palestinians who live in and around Abed Rabbo
Street in east Jabaliya suffered intense air strikes
by F-16 planes and helicopters, tank shelling,
snipers, and having their houses invaded and
vandalized by Israeli soldiers, who tied adults
up with ropes, or else locked whole families
into single rooms in order to use their homes
as sniper towers to target local Palestinian
fighters. Sixteen-year-old Jacqueline Abu
Shbak and her fourteen year old brother, Iyad,
both lived on Abed Rabbo Street with their
mother and three other young brothers and
sisters. The children's uncle, Hatem Hosni Abu
Shbak, who lives next door, found the bodies of
Jacqueline and Iyad in the early hours of Saturday
1 March, when he rushed upstairs after hearing
intense shooting and then screaming.
Father misses children's Gaza funeral
West Bank - Two days after his son and
daughter were buried side by side in a
lonely funeral, Mohammed Abu Shbak
finally reached the Gaza Strip on Tuesday to
mourn them. Abu Shbak, a prominent member
of the Fatah movement of Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas, fled to the West Bank city of
Ramallah last June when the Islamic militants
of the rival Hamas group seized control of Gaza.
He wasn't able to take wife and five children with him.
Provoking Hamas to Abandon
Truce Proposals
2008 marks the 20th anniversary of Hamas as
a political movement in Palestine, involving two
decades of continuous struggle against Israeli
occupation. Most importantly, Hamas has
confronted not just the Middle East's most
powerful army, equipped with state of the art
weaponry and nuclear arms, but also the most
powerful Western countries. These have
supported Israel, completely contravening
international law in relation to the Occupation.
In addition, Hamas has been abandoned to its
fate by neighbouring Arab regimes.
Photostory: The month in
pictures, February 2008
This slideshow is a selection of images from the
month of February 2008. The month in pictures
is an ongoing feature of the Electronic Intifada.
If you have images documenting Palestine,
Palestinian life, politics and culture, or of solidarity
with Palestine, please email images and captions
to photos AT electronicintifada DOT net.
'Restraint' is deceitful, and
'forbearance' is vain
After the IDF already had killed about 50
Palestinians, at least half of them unarmed,
and including quite a number of women and
children, Jerusalem continued to claim, "At
present there will be no major ground operation."
It's incredible: The IDF penetrates the heart of a
crowded refugee camp, kills in a terrifyingly
wholesale manner, with horrible bloodshed, and
Israel continues to disseminate the lie of restraint.
Academic freedom?
Not for Arabs in Israel
In the strange world of Israeli academia, an Arab
college lecturer is being dismissed from his job
because he refused to declare his "respect for
the uniform of the Israeli army." The bizarre
demand was made of Nizar Hassan, director of
several award-winning films, after he criticized
a Jewish student who arrived in his film studies
class at Sapir College in the Negev for wearing his
uniform and carrying a gun.
The mega prison of Palestine
In several articles published by The Electronic
Intifada, I claimed that Israel is pursuing a
genocidal policy against the Palestinians in the
Gaza Strip, while continuing the ethnic cleansing
of the West Bank. I asserted that the genocidal
policies are a result of a lack of strategy.
The argument was that since the Israeli
political and military elites do not know how
to deal with the Gaza Strip, they opted for a
knee-jerk reaction in the form of massive killing
of citizens whenever the Palestinians in the Strip
dared to protest by force their strangulation and
imprisonment. The end result so far is the escalation
of the indiscriminate killing of Palestinians --
more than one hundred in the first days of March
2008, unfortunately validating the adjective
"genocidal" I and others attached to these policies.
But it was not yet a strategy.
To blame the victims for this killing
spree defies both morality and sense
The attempt by western politicians and media to
present this week's carnage in the Gaza Strip as
a legitimate act of Israeli self-defence - or at best
the latest phase of a wearisome conflict between
two somehow equivalent sides - has reached
Alice-in-Wonderland proportions. Since Israel's
deputy defence minister, Matan Vilnai, issued
his chilling warning last week that Palestinians
faced a "holocaust" if they continued to fire
home-made rockets into Israel, the balance
sheet of suffering has become ever clearer.
More than 120 Palestinians have been killed in
Gaza by Israeli forces in the past week, of
whom one in five were children and more than
half were civilians, according to the Israeli human
rights group B'Tselem. During the same period,
three Israelis were killed, two of whom were
soldiers taking part in the attacks.
Transforming Israel
Israeli and Palestinian activists push against a
wall of soldiers in the West Bank. Now that Kosovo
is the newest independent state to emerge out of
the ruins of the former Yugoslavia parallels are
being drawn between the Balkans and the Middle
East. One response to this development came from
Israeli foreign Minister Tzipi Livini who said that
as she does not mind if the Palestinians follow the
Kosovars and declare statehood; what worries her
is that Palestinians will demand equal rights with Israelis.
Leviev: Zionism is bankrupt because
of 'new American religion'
Businessmen Lev Leviev - who, in addition to
being the richest person in Israel, operates a
100-school educational network in Israel, the
former Soviet Union and eastern Europe -
does not accept secular Jewish culture and
believes that Zionism is bankrupt.
'Carter is an anti-Israel bigot'
Dershowitz slams ex-President, addresses
use of religion in primaries.
Endorsements From Ex-Ambassadors
to Israel
Presidential hopeful Barack Obama is working to
win the endorsements of former American
diplomats in the Middle East, in an effort to
strengthen his pro-Israel credentials. This
weekend Obama was successful in landing
the support of Daniel Kurtzer, a former
ambassador to Israel, who is considered to be
a leading expert on the region and a strong
backer of Israel.
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