Year: 2009

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UN School Bombed, 40 Killed – US calls for immediate cease fire

Israel crossed the line.

@KABOBFest A UN school in #gaza where people were taking shelter was just tank-shelled by Israel, killing 40 people there. http://tinyurl.com/777edx

@AJGaza US state department says it wants an “immediate” ceasefire in #Gaza, that is “durable, sustainable and not time limited”.

@tweetsfromgaza Israeli tanks fire on 2nd UN school killing and injuring dozens of refugees with nowhere else to go. #Gaza

RT: @syrianews: UN says it “gave the exact GPS co-ordinates” of the location of the UN school which Israel CHOSE to bomb

From the Guardian:

The UN, which said the school was clearly marked, said it was “strongly protesting these killings to the Israeli authorities and is calling for an immediate and impartial investigation”.

“Where it is found that international humanitarian law has been violated, those responsible must be held to account. Under international law, installations such as schools, health centres and UN facilities should be protected from attack. Well before the current fighting, the UN had given to the Israeli authorities the GPS co-ordinates of all its installations in Gaza, including Asma elementary school.”

Just prior to the announcement of the UN school massacre, the Israeli Consulate tweeted:

@IsraelConsulate New Post: How to End the Battle Successfully http://is.gd/eGKS #AskIsrael #Israel #Gaza

Bret Stephens writes in today’s Wall Street Journal on ways that Israel can achieve its military aims without imposing unnecessary hardship on the residents of Gaza.

…

Achieving this aim would not require Israel to take over large swaths of Gaza, but it would require an extended policy of smaller-scale counterterrorism operations, along the lines of the successful West Bank operations.

We shall have to wait and see which post conflict model is adopted, and how free an arm the US gives Israel to complete its balancing act, and whether international monitors will be involved as previously mentioned by Israel.

Khalid Mish’al, head of Hamas Political Bureau says in the Guardian:

“What is being visited on Gaza today was visited on Yasser Arafat before. When he refused to bow to Israel’s dictates, he was imprisoned in his Ramallah headquarters, surrounded by tanks for two years. When this failed to break his resolve, he was murdered by poisoning.

Gaza enters 2009 just as it did 2008: under Israeli fire. Between January and February of last year 140 Gazans died in air strikes. And just before it embarked on its failed military assault on Lebanon in July 2006, Israel rained thousands of shells on Gaza, killing 240. From Deir Yassin in 1948 to Gaza today, the list of Israel’s crimes is long. The justifications change, but the reality is the same: colonial occupation, oppression, and never-ending injustice. If this is the “free world” whose “values” Israel is defending, as its foreign minister Tzipi Livni alleges, then we want nothing to do with it.

Israel’s leaders remain in the grip of confusion, unable to set clear goals for the attacks – from ousting the legitimately elected Hamas government and destroying its infrastructure, to stopping the rockets. As they fail to break Gaza’s resistance the benchmark has been lowered. Now they speak of weakening Hamas and limiting the resistance. But they will achieve neither. Gaza’s people are more united than ever, determined not to be terrorised into submission. Our fighters, armed with the justice of their cause, have already caused many casualties among the occupation army and will fight on to defend their land and people. Nothing can defeat our will to be free.

Once again, Washington and Europe have opted to aid and abet the jailer, occupier and aggressor, and to condemn its victims. We hoped Barack Obama would break with George Bush’s disastrous legacy but his start is not encouraging. While he swiftly moved to denounce the Mumbai attacks, he remains tongue-tied after 10 days of slaughter in Gaza. But my people are not alone. Millions of freedom-loving men and women stand by its struggle for justice and liberation – witness daily protests against Israeli aggression, not only in the Arab and Islamic region, but worldwide.

Israel will no doubt wreak untold destruction, death and suffering in Gaza. But it will meet the same fate in Gaza as it did in Lebanon. We will not be broken by siege and bombardment, and will never surrender to occupation.”

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And on the 10th Day of Israel’s Calculated Tantrum

Livni the good shepherd

Republished with blessings from
dear Auntie Ziona

The cruelty continues … here’s the Situation Report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for the 5th January, 2009. Israel’s callous disregard for its civilian population, for it is the responsibility of an occupying force to provide for the civilian population of the country which it occupies under the Geneva Conventions, is biblically wrathful in its proportions, psychopathic in its methodology. Tipsy, with her hard lips sneering, flips her ratty blonde bob and claims there is no humanitarian crisis. Perhaps she thinks Palestinians are not people, so therefore, no crisis. The world will never forget this craven monstrosity, Israel, you can bet your bottom shekel on it.

Barak, Olmert and Tipsy with their murderous accomplice, Bush and his Israel First cabal, are deliberately breeding terrorism for their future sport before us – for these political sociopaths need enemies to blame, to fight, to control, to ensure future weapon sales, and above all, as a means to retain stolen territory. They rely on the rivers of anger and grief which surely will come from the Palestinians to fuel another war, to create new demons to justify another military campaign for treasure and power in another month or year or more. Pestilent political vampires, they feed from the misery of the downtrodden, the dispossessed, the wretched of the earth. We should all say together, no more, and refuse to allow them to divide us, there is enough for all. Then these perverse parasites could no longer feed from the disparity between humans.

“5 January 2009 as of 17:00

The Israeli military operation has entered its tenth day, with the population of Gaza bearing the brunt of the violence. Israeli ground forces are currently deployed around the large Palestinian population centres in the northern Gaza Strip (Gaza City, Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya, and the Jabalia Refugee Camp), eastern Gaza Strip, between the Gaza governorate and Middle Area, and in southeast Rafah.

Gaza is now divided into two sections with internal movement within the Strip extremely dangerous. It is increasingly dificult for humanitarian staff to distribute aid or reach casualties. More than a million Gazans still have no electricity or water, and thousands of people have led their homes for safe shelter. In addition to the destruction of essential infrastructure including electricity, water and waste water, communications and roads, hospitals are unable to provide adequate intensive care to the high number of casualties.

VIOLENCE

The number of casualties since the beginning of the ground operation on 3 January has risen to approximately 94 Palestinians killed and many more injured. Many of the recent fatalities are women and children with entire families among the dead. This morning, an Israeli shell killed seven members of a Palestinian family (five children and their parents) in their home in the Beach refugee camp. Since this morning until 1500 hours, 25 Palestinians have been killed. The main premises of the Union of Health Care Committees in Gaza City was hit, damaging three mobile clinics and a vehicle. On 4 January, a shell struck Gaza City’s main vegetable market, resulting in five fatalities and 40 wounded. A paramedic working for the UHWC, an Oxfam-funded organisation, was killed when an Israeli shell struck an ambulance trying to evacuate an injured person in the Beit Lahiya area; another paramedic lost his foot and a driver was injured in the same incident.

MoH igures as of 1500 hours are 534 dead and at least 2470 injured since 27 December. However, the danger to medical staff and the dificulty of extracting the injured from collapsed buildings makes proper evacuation and estimation of casualties dificult. An Israeli soldier was killed on Sunday. Overall, close to 60 IDF soldiers have been wounded in Gaza since Saturday, including four who remain in serious condition. Gaza militants fired at least 45 rockets on Sunday, wounding three Israelis.

FUEL / ELECTRICITY

75% of Gaza’s electricity has been cut off. Since the ground operation, all Gaza governorate and most of North Gaza and the Middle Area are without electricity and there is limited electricity in Rafah, following attacks which damaged 6 of 10 power lines from Israel and one of two power lines from Egypt. The Gaza Strip is currently receiving just 25% of its total electricity need. Palestinian technicians face dificulties to reach the damaged lines because of the military attacks. Although extremely dificult for ICRC staff to move, they have managed to escort technicians to repair the damaged electricity supply lines providing electricity from Israel to the northern part of Gaza.

HEALTH

Hospitals are struggling to function under 24-hour per day power outages. Hospital electricity is still being provided by back-up generators and fuel for generators is precariously low. Today, generators at MoH ambulance stations, vaccine stores, labs and warehouses shut down due to lack of fuel, until UNRWA delivered fuel to the MoH. UNRWA and ICRC are working to deliver additional fuel supplies as a short-term solution.

While stabilized patients are being discharged as soon as possible to free up space in the hospitals, the Intensive Care Units (ICUs) throughout the Gaza strip are overloaded, and all ICU beds are occupied. There is an urgent need to evacuate patients out of Gaza.

Although a large quantity of medicines has been supplied by various donors and organizations, humanitarian organizations are now receiving urgent requests for strong pain killers as well as for body bags and bed sheets used for wrapping the dead. There is also an urgent need for more neuro-, vascular-, orthopedic- and open heart surgeons.

Collateral damage to hospitals is not being repaired; broken windows, for example, have not been fixed because of lack of glass. Five of UNRWA’s health centers are now closed due to hostilities nearby.

Palestine Red Crescent ambulance staff has been unable to respond to many calls due to the military operations. From midday 3 January to noon 4 January, the Palestine Red Crescent’s medical services handled 176 wounded and 36 fatalities. Safety of ambulances and medical staff is a major concern.

SHELTER

A large number of people from the border areas are reportedly being displaced deeper into Gaza as the ground operation progresses. UNRWA has now opened 11 shelters for those displaced. 5,000 persons are currently staying at them, though the number is quickly increasing. UNRWA has distributed non-food items (including mattresses and blankets) to those in need, though its stocks are quickly running out. UNRWA will increasingly need items including hygiene kits. UNRWA has also started to distribute food parcels which include bread, beans and meat.

WATER AND SANITATION

Gaza’s water and sewage system is on the verge of collapse due to the lack of power and fuel. The CMWU warns that 48 of Gaza’s 130 water wells are not working at all due to lack of electricity, damage to the pipes and/or depleting fuel reserves on which the generators depend (suficient only for coming 2-3 days). At least 45 additional water wells are operating only partially and will shut down within days without additional supplies of fuel and electricity. Over 530,000 people (approximately 400,000 people in Gaza and North Gaza, 100,000 people in Rafah, and 30,000 people in the Middle Area) are entirely cut off from running water, and the rest are receiving water only intermittently, every few days.

The CMWU is facing dificulties to repair the damages to the networks because of security reasons. However, if the electricity was functioning, the CMWU could redirect water those people from other sources.

The sewage situation is highly dangerous, posing serious risks of the spread of water-borne disease. Sewage is looding into Beit Lahiya, farmland, and the sea, after five of Gaza’s 37 waste water pumping stations shut down due to lack of electricity. The remaining 32 stations are operating only partially and will shut down within 3-4 days unless they receive more diesel. The most dangerous problem is the wastewater treatment plant in Beit Lahiya. In addition to the risks of any strikes near the lake, the sewage level of the lake is rising by approximately 1.5 cm to 2 cm each day due to lack of electricity or fuel to pump overlow sewage from
the main lake into the lagoons. Within a week, an increase of 15-20 cm is expected in the water level, which is close to overflowing.

FOOD

Food distributions continue to be dificult due to the precarious security situation. The Bakery Owners Association has 70 tonnes of cooking gas stored at gas stations near the border and on the eastern road. Access to this gas, only possible with permission from Israeli authorities, would allow them to increase the number of operating bakeries.

MOVEMENT OF HUMANITARIAN AID

Movement of humanitarian aid within the Gaza Strip is dificult due to the dangerous situation on the ground. In coordination with the Israeli authorities, the ICRC is helping coordinate safe passage for a number of ambulances, a fire brigade team, GEDCO and CMWU technical staff to ensure that they are not
shelled while assisting people in need or repairing damages.

CROSSINGS

Kerem Shalom, the Nahal Oz fuel pipelines and Erez are open today. 60 truckloads of humanitarian supplies are expected to enter through Kerem Shalom. Nearly 215,000 litres of industrial fuel along with 47 tonnes of cooking gas have been pumped from Israel to Gaza but not collected due to the prevailing security situation; 100,000 litres of diesel have entered for UNRWA. Erez crossing is partially open for a limited number of medical evacuations and foreign nationals.

Rafah crossing is also open today: 4 truckloads of medical supplies are expected to arrive and 17 medical cases are scheduled to be evacuated. Medical professional volunteers (doctors, surgeons and others) from various countries are waiting on the Egyptian side of Rafah to enter Gaza to help treat injured Palestinians.

PRIORITY NEEDS

Fuel: Industrial fuel is needed to power the Gaza Power Plant, which has been shut down since 30 December. Replacement of ten transformers which were completely damaged is also urgently needed, as well as coordination to allow technical teams to ix other damages. Nahal Oz crossing must remain open as it is the only crossing which can facilitate the transfer of suficient amounts of fuel to restart and maintain operations of the power plant, and restock other types of fuel needed in the Strip.

Wheat grain, essential to provide lour for local bakeries and humanitarian food distribution to the population of Gaza. The Karni Crossing conveyor belt is the only mechanism which can facilitate the import of the amount of grain required in the Strip at this time. This crossing remains closed. Cash has still not entered the Gaza Strip and is urgently needed, including for the UNRWA cash distribution program to some 94,000 dependent beneiciaries, as well as its “cash for work” program, salaries to its staff and payments to suppliers.

Internal movement within the Gaza Strip: Currently movement within the Strip is very restricted. It is essential that patients and ambulances are able to reach hospitals, that agencies are able to access warehouses in order to conduct distributions, and that staff are able to move to ix damages to public
services. Bakeries also need to have access to gas stored in gas stations along the border area.”

@AJGaza John Ging, chief of the UN aid mission in #Gaza, warns that if the generators at Shifa hospital fail, patients in intensive care will die.

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Norwegian Doctor – Gaza is a complete manmade human disaster

Aid is NOT getting through, contrary to Israeli propaganda. However, according to the doctor, the most important thing is to guarantee the safety of the Palestinian population and stop the bombing. From the injuries he is seeing, the doctor suspects that the Israelis are using DIME bombs.

Olmert continues to reject a cease fire – after all, the Israelis only killed 700 Palestinians in the last major conflagration in 2004, the hundreds more killed between then and now don’t count apparently.

The declaration came after Mr Olmert met with French President Nicholas Sarkozy in Jerusalem.

“The results of the operation must be … that Hamas must not only stop firing but must no longer be able to fire,” Mr Olmert told Mr Sarkozy.

“We cannot accept a compromise that will allow Hamas to fire in two months against Israeli towns,” he was quoted as saying.

Hamas said its fighters had fired missiles at seven tanks in the same district and that 10 Israeli soldiers were killed.

Al-Jazeera television said three Israeli soldiers were killed and 30 wounded and Al-Arabiya, another Arab news channel, said there were four Israeli dead.

The Israeli military confirmed there was heavy fighting and released a statement saying three soldiers from the elite Golani Brigade were killed and 24 wounded when their position was accidentally hit by Israeli tank fire in northern Gaza.

Meanwhile, finally the Israelis deigned to let in a team of 4 International Red Cross medics – perhaps this may presage that the Israel will cease its most visible, spectacular human rights violations as the ICRC is responsible for monitoring the Geneva Conventions. The less visible yet just as lethal violations are omnipresent.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says people injured in fighting in the Gaza Strip are dying because ambulances cannot reach them.

“The situation is extremely dangerous and the coordination of ambulance services is very complex because of the incessant attacks and military operations,” ICRC spokeswoman Dorothea Krimitsas said in Geneva.

“Wounded people have died while waiting for Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances.

“In some other cases, ambulances cannot reach the wounded at all because of the ongoing fighting and shelling.”

Some 555 Palestinians have now been killed and 2,700 injured since the start of the Israeli offensive to halt Hamas rocket fire on December 27, the head of Gaza’s emergency services said.

The area’s health services are under stress, with many health workers unable to reach their hospitals, and emergency rooms and intensive care units overwhelmed, according to the Red Cross.

At least two hospitals were out of fuel for their generators, the only source of power available.

The organisation was also concerned about water supplies in the densely populated coastal strip.

Ms Krimitsas said two out of the 45 wells in the Gaza Strip were out of action after having been hit during Israeli air raids, while the pumps on eight others were no longer working because of power cuts.

“Half a million people, that’s about one third of the population of the territory, are threatened with being completely deprived of water,” she said.

Ms Krimitsas said technicians needed to gain access to the electrical installations damaged during the fighting.

A team of four ICRC medical staff, including a surgeon, were allowed into the Gaza Strip from Israel on Monday after three days’ delay, the relief agency said.

They are due to help staff at the territory’s Shifa hospital carry out complex operations on the wounded.

Ms Krimitsas said the medical team also brought in tetanus vaccines for children and blood supplies.

“Hospitals had completely run out of these vaccines, which are potentially lifesaving for patients with dirty wounds or needing an operation,” she said.

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Gaza Holocaust continues, World does nothing

Hamstrung by the cheerleading, braindead US with its bizarre unilateral support for Israel, the world can only watch as Israel slaughters Palestinians as if for sport, whilst nauseatingly dissembling that it isn’t targeting civilians and that it is acting in self-defence. Even if the UN could pass a resolution, militant Israel is not known for abiding by international conventions and laws.

Al Jazeera is still managing to get some news out of Gaza, and the news is beyond shocking.

“Yesterday the bread in our house ran out and me and my brother went to the bakery and waited three hours just to buy bread. There is not a lot of food in Gaza.

We have water, but we need electricity to power the pump so the water may run out in a few days. This has already happened for some of our neighbours.

Of course I worry about this situation and that maybe there will be no food left and we will have to go searching for it. But I don’t know what will happen. I don’t have any thoughts. I am living in the moment and waiting to see what will happen.”

All of the citizens of the so-called free world are watching us on their high definition monitors, while we’re being slaughtered.

People know what is going on, the international community knows. When are they going to take action? We’re in the 21st century – is this what civilisation is all about?

As a Palestinian, I don’t rely on the international community; they abandoned us.

Isn’t this what the Security Council and Geneva Conventions are about – fighting to prevent war?

When the fuel runs out it’s going to be pitch black – we’ll lose all communications and no one will know what’s going on. We’re facing a dark destiny.

The situation is going to become really bad – way beyond catastrophic.”

The ground offensive has begun and they’re shooting at anyone they can.

I don’t know what’s going on on the front lines, but here at the hospital we’re seeing more and more people who have been shot.

The international community is just standing by and watching – people have gone deaf and forgotten how to speak. All we hear are bombs and rockets, no words.

There have been demonstrations – the people stand behind us. But the governments can’t hear them.

International governments can stop this but they’re not doing anything.

I see convoys of medicine and supplies coming our way on the TV, but I haven’t seen any of it with my own eyes yet.

We’re still working with what we have, but it’s all running out.”

And the kids – I have no words to describe how they felt. They were screaming and crying and we can’t help them because each time they hear more attacks their fear increases.

It’s getting worse and worse. I am worried because I don’t see an end.

I am very depressed and everyone in my family is the same: depressed, afraid and sick because the Israelis are becoming more and more crazy.

I hope the resistance in Gaza will help us – yesterday I was praying for the resistance movement, for God to give them support and strength.

I believe the resistance is strong and brave – facing the Israeli army is not an easy thing. They are sacrificing everything for the sake of their home country and their land.

Why doesn’t the international community demand that Israel halt its attacks immediately? They are only on the side of Israel, not with us. They want more Palestinian victims in Gaza – people who did nothing and do not deserve to be killed in such an ugly way.”

The bombing is hurting lots of civilians because it is a densely populated area. This is the reality on the ground. You cannot avoid that even if you want to.

The humanitarian situation is deteriorating. There is no electricity in Gaza now – last week we used to get it for two hours a day, now we get nothing.

Before we had running water for three hours out of every 48. Now there is no water because it depends on electricity.

Also, the sewage system does not work because there is no electricity or spare parts.

There is a lack of qualified doctors for the very complicated surgeries and a lack of medicines.

There is no wheat or sugar in stores – many essential items are missing.

Now they’re cutting all electrical lines and destroying the infrastructure. Today the telecom company issued a statement saying that the telecommunications will be cut off because the infrastructure has been changed – we will not have telephones or mobile phones.

This operation is re-emphasising that every Palestinian is a suspect; the war being fought against us proves that there are no moral standards whatsoever, this mentality that is practicing all those brutalities against civilians will only lead to more extremism.

I was one of the people who believed in political solutions and that peace is possible, yet what we see negates all that. It is evident now more than at any time that Israel has no interest in peace.

Gaza is a big prison and Israel wants to turn us into a model of its hegemony maybe to show the world its deterrent force.

What is taking place is not a war; because there is no proportionality between Palestinian resistance and Israeli acts, it’s an aggression.

I feel like we are living in a type of madness that enhances the radicalism on both sides. I wonder whether we are the Native Americans of the 21st century.

What can I say. I’m beyond disgusted – for me, Israel has forfeited its habitually trumpeted ‘right to exist’ through its frenzy of militant, joyous sadism. Its actions aren’t about self-defence, they are sheer aggression and spite against a defenceless population, without bomb shelters or bunkers. For me, the Gazan Shoah is the straw that broke the camel’s back.

@AJGaza Sixty per cent of today’s casualties are women and children, according to AJA’s correspondent, reporting from inside Shifa Hospital

Kabobfest analyses the terrible leaflets dropped by Israeli aircraft to Gaza residents:

A New York Times article highlights their essential absurdity:

Leaflets dropped from airplanes said, “Hamas is getting a taste of the power of the Israeli military after more than a week and we have other methods that are still harsher to deal with Hamas. They will prove very painful. For your safety, please evacuate your neighborhood.”

Palestinians said they had no place to go because so many neighborhoods received the same message.

In effect, they’re telling Gazans to find a safe place to go to while keeping them from having any such places. The only safe locations now are outside what many call the world’s largest prison.

As an aside for all those who can only discuss this conflict in terms of rockets, I would bet that every single Gazan seeking a safe place would prefer to sit it out in Sderot or Ashdod. The only Israelis from those places willing to go to Gaza would do so as IDF soldiers, on the other hand.

Is the West Bank next?

Why Aren’t More Americans Dancing To Israel’s Tune? Max Blumenthal discusses Israeli hasbara and why it isn’t working so well in America, providing some useful links chronicling the Israeli attack on Gaza which Israel claims is merely an attack on Hamas, which Israel aided and abetted in the past.