Showing posts with label World Issue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World Issue. Show all posts

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Brian Eno on the Israel-Gaza crisis: How can you justify images such as this?

  8/02/2014 09:03:00 PM    


When the musician Brian Eno saw a picture of a Palestinian man carrying the remains of his dead son in a plastic bag, he was moved to write a cri de coeur to his American friends, asking them to explain their country’s unconditional support for Israel. This is his letter – followed by the response from the author Peter Schwartz





Dear All of You,

I sense I’m breaking an unspoken rule with this letter, but I can’t keep quiet any more.


Today I saw a picture of a weeping Palestinian man holding a plastic carrier bag of meat. It was his son. He’d been shredded (the hospital’s word) by an Israeli missile attack – apparently using their fab new weapon, fléchette bombs. You probably know what those are –hundreds of small steel darts packed around explosive which tear the flesh off humans. The boy was Mohammed Khalaf al-Nawasra. He was four years old.

I suddenly found myself thinking that it could have been one of my kids in that bag, and that thought upset me more than anything has for a long time.

Then I read that the UN had said that Israel might be guilty of war crimes in Gaza, and they wanted to launch a commission into that. America won’t sign up to it.

What is going on in America? I know from my own experience how slanted your news is, and how little you get to hear about the other side of this story. But – for Christ’s sake! – it’s not that hard to find out. Why does America continue its blind support of this one-sided exercise in ethnic cleansing? WHY? I just don’t get it. I really hate to think it’s just the power of Aipac [the American Israel Public Affairs Committee]… for if that’s the case, then your government really is fundamentally corrupt. No, I don’t think that’s the reason… but I have no idea what it could be. The America I know and like is compassionate, broad-minded, creative, eclectic, tolerant and generous. You, my close American friends, symbolise those things for me. But which America is backing this horrible one-sided colonialist war? I can’t work it out: I know you’re not the only people like you, so how come all those voices aren’t heard or registered? How come it isn’t your spirit that most of the world now thinks of when it hears the word “America”? How bad does it look when the one country which more than any other grounds its identity in notions of Liberty and Democracy then goes and puts its money exactly where its mouth isn’t and supports a ragingly racist theocracy?


In pictures: Israel-Gaza conflict1 of 95





I was in Israel last year with Mary [a mutual friend]. Her sister works for UNRWA [the UN agency for Palestinian refugees] in Jerusalem. Showing us round were a Palestinian – Shadi, who is her sister’s husband and a professional guide – and Oren Jacobovitch, an Israeli Jew, an ex-major from the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] who left the service under a cloud for refusing to beat up Palestinians. Between the two of them we got to see some harrowing things – Palestinian houses hemmed in by wire mesh and boards to prevent settlers throwing shit and piss and used sanitary towels at the inhabitants; Palestinian kids on their way to school being beaten by Israeli kids with baseball bats to parental applause and laughter; a whole village evicted and living in caves while three settler families moved on to their land; an Israeli settlement on top of a hill diverting its sewage directly down on to Palestinian farmland below; The Wall; the checkpoints… and all the endless daily humiliations. I kept thinking, “Do Americans really condone this? Do they really think this is OK? Or do they just not know about it?”

As for the Peace Process: Israel wants the Process but not the Peace. While “the process” is going on, the settlers continue grabbing land and building their settlements… and then when the Palestinians finally erupt with their pathetic fireworks they get hammered and shredded with state-of-the-art missiles and depleted uranium shells because Israel “has a right to defend itself” (whereas Palestine clearly doesn’t). And the settler militias are always happy to lend a fist or rip up someone’s olive grove while the army looks the other way. By the way, most of them are not ethnic Israelis – they’re “right of return” Jews from Russia and Ukraine and Moravia and South Africa and Brooklyn who came to Israel recently with the notion that they had an inviolable (God-given!) right to the land, and that “Arab” equates with “vermin” – straightforward old-school racism. That is the culture our taxes are defending. It’s like sending money to the Klan.


But beyond this, what really troubles me is the bigger picture. Like it or not, in the eyes of most of the world, America represents “The West”. So it is The West that is seen as supporting this war, despite all our high-handed talk about morality and democracy. I fear that all the civilisational achievements of The Enlightenment and Western Culture are being discredited – to the great glee of the mad Mullahs – by this flagrant hypocrisy. The war has no moral justification that I can see – but it doesn’t even have any pragmatic value either. It doesn’t make Kissingerian “Realpolitik” sense; it just makes us look bad.

I’m sorry to burden you all with this. I know you’re busy and in varying degrees allergic to politics, but this is beyond politics. It’s us squandering the civilisational capital that we’ve built over generations. None of the questions in this letter are rhetorical: I really don’t get it and I wish that I did.

source

   / /

Israeli newspaper sparks outrage with 'Genocide is Permissible' blog

  8/02/2014 08:40:00 PM    


Times of Israel announced it ended its association with Yochanan Gordon, a writer who authored a post entitled "When Genocide Is Permissible."


A screenshot of the Times of Israel blog post "When Genocide Is Permissible." Photo: screenshot


A blog post about the Israel-Gaza conflict that was published by an Israeli online newspaper on Friday provoked an avalanche of criticism and outrage on social media, prompting the news outlet to dismiss its author.

The Times of Israel announced on Friday that it ended its association with Yochanan Gordon, a writer who authored a post entitled "When Genocide Is Permissible."


“Hamas has stated forthrightly that it idealizes death as much as Israel celebrates life. What other way then is there to deal with an enemy of this nature other than obliterate them completely?” Gordon wrote in the Times of Israelarticle. “We have already established that it is the responsibility of every government to ensure the safety and security of its people. If political leaders and military experts determine that the only way to achieve its goal of sustaining quiet is through genocide is it then permissible to achieve those responsible goals?”

Gordon's blog post enraged thousands who took to Twitter to express their bewilderment at how such a piece could be approved.

In response to the public fury touched off by Gordon's post, the Times of Israel deleted the article and announced that it has discontinued its relationship with the author.

"The Times of Israel maintains an open blog platform: Once we have accepted bloggers, we allow them to post their own items," the newspaper said. "This trust has rarely been abused. We are angry and appalled that it was in this case, and will take steps to prevent a recurrence."

"We will not countenance blog posts that incite to violence or criminal acts."

Gordon later apologized in a statement that was posted on the website of another New York-based publication that ran the initial blog.

"I wish to express deep regret and beg forgiveness for an article I authored which was posted on 5TJT.com, Times of Israel and was tweeted and shared the world over," Gordon wrote.

"I never intended to call to harm any people although my words may have conveyed that message. With that said I pray and hope for a quick peaceful end to the hostilities and that all people learn to coexist with each other in creating a better world for us all."

sources

   / / /

When Genocide is Permissible by Yochanan Gordon

  8/02/2014 08:30:00 PM    


Judging by the numbers of casualties on both sides in this almost one-month old war one would be led to the conclusion that Israel has resorted to disproportionate means in fighting a far less- capable enemy. That is as far as what meets the eye. But, it’s now obvious that the US and the UN are completely out of touch with the nature of this foe and are therefore not qualified to dictate or enforce the rules of this war – because when it comes to terror there is much more than meets the eye.

I wasn’t aware of this, but it seems that the nature of warfare has undergone a major shift over the years. Where wars were usually waged to defeat the opposing side, today it seems – and judging by the number of foul calls it would indicate – that today’s wars are fought to a draw. I mean, whoever heard of a timeout in war? An NBA Basketball game allows six timeouts for each team during the course of a game, but last I checked this is a war! We are at war with an enemy whose charter calls for the annihilation of our people. Nothing, then, can be considered disproportionate when we are fighting for our very right to live.

The sad reality is that Israel gets it, but its hands are being tied by world leaders who over the past six years have insisted they are such good friends with the Jewish state, that they know more regarding its interests than even they do. But there’s going to have to come a time where Israel feels threatened enough where it has no other choice but to defy international warnings – because this is life or death.

Most of the reports coming from Gazan officials and leaders since the start of this operation have been either largely exaggerated or patently false. The truth is, it’s not their fault, falsehood and deceit is part of the very fabric of who they are and that will never change. Still however, despite their propensity to lie, when your enemy tells you that they are bent on your destruction you believe them. Similarly, when Khaled Meshal declares that no physical damage to Gaza will dampen their morale or weaken their resolve – they have to be believed. Our sage Gedalia the son of Achikam was given intelligence that Yishmael Ben Nesanyah was plotting to kill him. However, in his piety or rather naiveté Gedalia dismissed the report as a random act of gossip and paid no attention to it. To this day, the day following Rosh Hashana is commemorated as a fast day in the memory of Gedalia who was killed in cold blood on the second day of Rosh Hashana during the meal. They say the definition of insanity is repeating the same mistakes over and over. History is there to teach us lessons and the lesson here is that when your enemy swears to destroy you – you take him seriously.

Hamas has stated forthrightly that it idealizes death as much as Israel celebrates life. What other way then is there to deal with an enemy of this nature other than obliterate them completely?

News anchors such as those from CNN, BBC and Al-Jazeera have not missed an opportunity to point out the majority of innocent civilians who have lost their lives as a result of this war. But anyone who lives with rocket launchers installed or terror tunnels burrowed in or around the vicinity of their home cannot be considered an innocent civilian. If you’ll counter, that Hamas has been seen abusing civilians who have attempted to leave their homes in response to Israeli warnings to leave – well then, your beginning to come to terms with the nature of this enemy which should automatically cause the rules of standard warfare to be suspended.

Everyone agrees that Israel has the right to defend itself as well as the right to exercise that right. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has declared it, Obama and Kerry have clearly stated that no one could be expected to sit idle as thousands of rockets rain down on the heads of its citizens, placing them in clear and present danger. It seems then that the only point of contention is regarding the measure of punishment meted out in this situation.

I will conclude with a question for all the humanitarians out there. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clearly stated at the outset of this incursion that his objective is to restore a sustainable quiet for the citizens of Israel. We have already established that it is the responsibility of every government to ensure the safety and security of its people. If political leaders and military experts determine that the only way to achieve its goal of sustaining quiet is through genocide is it then permissible to achieve those responsible goals?

source
Reprint of Yochanan Gordon’s “When Genocide is Permissible” (Updated)
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/08/yochanan-genocide-permissible.html

   / / /

NETANYAHU TO US: DON'T SECOND GUESS ME ON HAMAS

  8/02/2014 08:14:00 PM    





Israeli Defense Minister, Moshe Ya'alon, left, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, attend the cabinet meeting at the defense ministry in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, July 31, 2014. (AP Photo/Dan Balilty, pool)



President Barack Obama speaks in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, Aug. 1, 2014. The president spoke on various topics including the economy, immigration, Ukraine and the Middle East. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)



A Palestinian youth carries damaged copies of the Quran, Islam's holy book, found in the rubble of the Imam Al Shafaey mosque, destroyed in an overnight Israeli strike in Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)



A Palestinian supporter of Hamas holds the Quran as others shout slogans against the Israeli military action in Gaza, during a demonstration in the West Bank town of Tulkarem town on Friday, Aug. 1, 2014. A Palestinian man was shot and killed during clashes with Israeli troops, following the demonstration in Tulkarem, Palestinian security sources said. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)

Prev
1
Next




WASHINGTON (AP) — Following the quick collapse of the cease-fire in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the White House not to force a truce with Palestinian militants on Israel.

Sources familiar with conversations between Netanyahu and senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry, say the Israeli leader advised the Obama administration "not to ever second guess me again" on the matter. The officials also said Netanyahu said he should be "trusted" on the issue and about the unwillingness of Hamas to enter into and follow through on cease-fire talks.

The Obama administration on Friday condemned "outrageous" violations of an internationally brokered Gaza cease-fire by Palestinian militants and called the apparent abduction of an Israeli soldier a "barbaric" action.

The strong reaction came as top Israeli officials questioned the effort to forge the truce, accusing the U.S. and the United Nations of being naive in assuming the radical Hamas movement would adhere with its terms. The officials also blamed the Gulf state of Qatar for not forcing the militants to comply.

With the cease-fire in tatters fewer than two hours after it took effect with an attack that killed two Israeli troops and left a third missing, President Barack Obama demanded that those responsible release the soldier.

Obama and other U.S. officials did not directly blame Hamas for the abduction. But they made clear they hold Hamas responsible for, or having influence over, the actions of all factions in the Gaza Strip. The language was a distinct change from Thursday when Washington was focused on the deaths of Palestinian civilians.

"If they are serious about trying to resolve this situation, that soldier needs to be unconditionally released as soon as possible," Obama told reporters. He added that it would be difficult to revive the cease-fire without the captive's release.

"It's going to be very hard to put a cease-fire back together again if Israelis and the international community can't feel confident that Hamas can follow through on a cease-fire commitment," he said. His comment reflected uncertainty in the U.S. and elsewhere that Hamas was actually responsible for the incident or if some other militant group was to blame.

At the same time, Obama called the situation in Gaza "heartbreaking" and repeated calls for Israel to do more to prevent Palestinian civilian casualties.

Despite the collapse of the truce, Obama credited Kerry for his work with the United Nations to forge one. He lamented criticism and "nitpicking" of Kerry's attempts and said the effort would continue.

Kerry negotiated the truce with U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon in a marathon session of phone calls over several days while he was in India on an official visit. Kerry had spent much of the past two weeks in Egypt, Israel, the West Bank and France trying to mediate a cease-fire with Qatar and Turkey playing a major role because of their close ties with Hamas.

Those efforts failed with Israel saying it could not trust Hamas and some Israelis and American pro-Israel groups complaining that the U.S. was treating the group — a foreign terrorist organization as designated by the State Department — as a friend.

Late Thursday, however, Israel accepted Kerry and Ban's latest proposal, despite its reservations. Once the truce was violated, though, Israeli officials hit out at not only Hamas, but the United States and Qatar for its failure.

An Israeli official said the Netanyahu government viewed both Hamas and Qatar as having violated the commitment given to the U.S. and the U.N. and that it expected the international community to take practical steps as part of a "strong and swift response," especially regarding the return of the abducted soldier.

In a phone call with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, Netanyahu vented his anger, according to people familiar with the call.

Netanyahu told Shapiro the Obama administration was "not to ever second-guess me again" and that Washington should trust his judgment on how to deal with Hamas, according to the people. Netanyahu added that he now "expected" the U.S. and other countries to fully support Israel's offensive in Gaza, according to those familiar with the call. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter by name.

They said Netanyahu made similar points to Kerry, who himself denounced the attack as "outrageous," saying it was an affront to assurances to respect the cease-fire given to the United States and United Nations, which brokered the truce.

___

AP National Security Writer Lara Jakes at Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany, contributed to this report.
By MATTHEW LEE— Aug. 2, 2014 5:10 AM EDT
source

   / / /

ISRAEL BOMBARDS GAZA AS IT SEARCHES FOR SOLDIER

  8/02/2014 08:07:00 PM    






Smoke billows from the rubble of the Imam Al Shafaey mosque, destroyed in an overnight Israeli strike in Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)



Palestinian Seraj Ismail Abdel Al, 5, lightly wounded in an overnight Israeli strike, inspects the damage to several buildings in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)



Palestinian members of the Abdel Al family salvage belongings from their house destroyed in an overnight Israeli strike in Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)




A Palestinian youth carries damaged copies of the Quran, Islam's holy book, found in the rubble of the Imam Al Shafaey mosque, destroyed in an overnight Israeli strike in Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)




Palestinians inspect the damage to their property after the Imam Al Shafaey mosque, across the street, was destroyed in an overnight Israeli strike in Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)



This undated photo shows Israeli Army 2nd. Lt. Hadar Goldin, 23 from Kfar Saba, central Israel. Israeli army spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said Friday, Aug. 1, 2014 that Goldin was apparently captured by Hamas militants who came through a tunnel from the Gaza Strip and another two soldiers were killed. An hour after Friday's cease-fire started, gunmen emerged from one or more Gaza tunnels and opened fire at Israeli soldiers, with at least one of the militants detonating an explosives vest, said Lerner. Goldin was apparently captured during the ensuing mayhem and taken back into Gaza through a tunnel. (AP Photo/YNet News)



An Islamic University guard inspects the damage to the institution, hit in an overnight Israeli strike, in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)




Palestinians, standing on an adjacent building, inspect the rubble of the Imam Al Shafaey mosque, destroyed in an overnight Israeli strike, in Gaza City, northern Gaza Strip, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)



GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel bombarded the southern Gaza town of Rafah on Saturday as troops searched for an officer they believe was captured by Hamas in an ambush that shattered a humanitarian cease-fire and set the stage for a major escalation of the 26-day-old war.

The Israeli military has said it believes the soldier was grabbed in a Hamas ambush about an hour after an internationally brokered cease-fire took effect Friday morning. The Hamas military wing on Saturday tried to distance itself from the soldier's alleged capture, which has prompted widespread international condemnation. President Barack Obama, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon and others have accused Hamas of violating the cease-fire and have called for the soldier's immediate and unconditional release.

At least 35 Palestinians were killed in the bombardment and shelling in and around the city of Rafah early Saturday, said Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Kidra, adding that the area's main hospital was evacuated because of the strikes, which killed dozens of people on Friday.

Elsewhere in Gaza, Palestinian officials reported more than 150 airstrikes including several against mosques and one against the Hamas-linked Islamic University in Gaza City. Heavy shelling continued along the border areas.

The Israeli military said it struck 200 targets over the previous 24 hours. It said it attacked five mosques that concealed weapons and that the Islamic University was being used as a research and weapons manufacturing site for Hamas.

The fiercest battles took place near the site of Friday's attack and purported abduction, near Rafah, about three kilometers inside the strip and close to the borders with Israel and Egypt. Officials have reported that dozens of houses have been damaged or destroyed in airstrikes.

The Hamas military wing said on its website that it is "not aware until this moment of a missing soldier or his whereabouts or the circumstances of his disappearance."

The group said the soldier might have been killed in a clash with Hamas fighters about an hour before the start of the 8:00 a.m. (0500 GMT) cease-fire, and that it had lost contact with the fighters.

"We believe all members of this group have died in an (Israeli) strike, including the Zionist soldier the enemy says disappeared," it said.

The Israeli military declined comment on the statement.

Hamas could be withholding information about the soldier in order to extract concessions from Israel, a strategy used in the past by the Lebanese Hezbollah group, which did not disclose whether two Israeli soldiers it seized in 2006 were alive or dead until their remains were handed over in a prisoner exchange.

The Israeli Cabinet met for an exceptionally long and rare Friday night session to discuss the missing soldier. There was no immediate announcement on a course of action, but an official in the prime minister's office said Israel "expects the United States and the international community to respond strongly to a terror organization that so blatantly defies them."

The official, who spoke anonymously because there was no official Israeli announcement, said "Hamas and other terror groups will bear the consequences of their actions."

The disappearance of the soldier, 2nd Lt. Hadar Goldin, and the heavy clashes that followed it, ended an internationally brokered cease-fire that was to have been in place for three days and open the way for talks in Cairo on a more sustainable truce. Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the humanitarian pause.

Israel launched an aerial offensive on July 8 to stop unrelenting Gaza rocket fire toward its cities and communities and later expanded it to a ground offensive mostly aimed at destroying an elaborate Hamas cross-border tunnel network used for attacks inside Israel.

Since fighting began, Gaza militants have fired more than 3,000 rockets into Israel, reaching most major cities and forcing millions to seek cover. Hamas has also infiltrated Israel several times and killed Israeli soldiers.

In central Israel, residents awoke on the Jewish Sabbath to sirens wailing at 6 a.m. Saturday warning of incoming rockets. The military said they were successfully intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system.

Since fighting began on July 8, more than 1,650 Palestinians — mostly civilians — have been killed and more than 8,000 wounded, according to al-Kidra. Israel has lost 63 soldiers and three civilians, its highest death toll since the 2006 Lebanon war. Hundreds of other soldiers have been wounded.

The prospect of an abducted soldier struck a particularly raw nerve in Israel and looked to worsen the fighting.

Israel has a history of striking back hard after the abduction of its soldiers and going to great lengths to bring them back. In 2011, it traded more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for an Israeli soldier who had been captured by Hamas and other militants five years earlier. Hezbollah's capture of the two soldiers in a cross-border operation in 2006 sparked a 34-day war between the Iran-backed Shiite group and Israel. Israel later traded Lebanese prisoners for their bodies.

The Israeli military accused Hamas of flagrantly violating Friday's cease-fire. Goldin disappeared in an ambush about an hour after the cease-fire began, when gunmen emerged from one or more Gaza tunnels and opened fire at Israeli soldiers, with at least one of the militants detonating an explosives vest, said Israeli army spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner.

Goldin, a 23-year-old from the central Israeli city of Kfar Saba, was apparently captured in the ensuing mayhem, while another two Israeli soldiers were killed. "We suspect that he has been kidnapped," Lerner said.

The military has provided no further details and it remains unclear if the officer is alive or dead.

Outside the family's home, just a block away from the city's military cemetery, which has already seen one funeral of a Kfar Saba soldier from the fighting in Gaza, family and friends gathered and later went to an adjacent synagogue to pray for the soldier's safe return.

Goldin, who was recently engaged to get married, also has a twin brother in the military on the Gaza front-lines.

The officer's father, Simha Goldin, said he expects Israel to "not stop before it turns over every stone in Gaza and returns Hadar home safe and sound."

____
By IBRAHIM BARZAK and ARON HELLER— Aug. 2, 2014 6:55 AM EDT
Heller reported from Kfar Saba, Israel.

sources
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/israel-bombards-gaza-it-searches-soldier

   / / /

  No Comments

Friday, August 1, 2014

US Senate blocks Iron Dome funding to Israel

  8/01/2014 09:17:00 PM    


Republicans nix aid proposal out of fear that "it would increase the debt"; Majority Leader Harry Reid says"If this isn’t an emergency I don’t know anything that is.”


Senate Majority Leader Reid speaking in Senate Photo: REUTERS/Joshua Roberts


A United States Senate bid to deliver aid to Israel duringOperation Protective Edge was blocked by Republicans "over concerns that it would increase the debt," Politico reported.

The Democrats proposed a $2.7 billion border aid package that included $255 for the Iron Dome missile defense system.

“We’ve all watched as the tiny state of Israel, who is with us on everything, they have had in the last three weeks 3,000 rockets fired into their country,” Majority Leader Harry Reid was quoted as saying in an appeal to Republicans' deep ties to Israel after they shut down the proposal. “Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel asked for $225 million in emergency funding so that Israel’s arsenal as it relates to the Iron Dome could be replenished. It’s clear that is an emergency, and we should be able to agree on that.”

“Our number one ally — at least in my mind — is under attack. If this isn’t an emergency I don’t know anything that is,” Reid continued.

GOP leaders who had promised to pass an Israel aid bill in recent days were disappointed, as they had been pushing Reid to separate Israel funding from the border bill, which also included $615 million to fight Western wildfires.

“It’s an important moment for the Senate and the House to show support for Israel. All I can say that if you don’t see the need to come to Israel’s aid now, and the message that it would send now, it would be a big mistake,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was quoted by Politico as saying. “Any person who thinks that the Iron Dome is unnecessary needs to go to the floor and tell us why, why we don’t need to help Israel right now. They’re asking for our help, they’re our best friend in the region, one of our best friends in the world. “

Since the start of Israel's Gaza operation on July 8, Hamas has fired more than 2968 rockets at Israel, according to the IDF. A total of 547 of those rockets have been intercepted by Iron Dome.

sources

   / / /

  No Comments

The Gaza ceasefire has now officially unravelled

  8/01/2014 07:43:00 PM    




Smoke billows after Israeli shelling of Rafah (Picture: AFP/Getty)

A 72-hour ceasefire in the Gaza Strip has come to an end within hours, with Israel and Hamas blaming each other for violating the truce.


Palestinian rescue workers search for survivors in the rubble of a building in Rafah (Picture: AFP/Getty)



Health officials in Gaza said up to 40 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli tanks shelling the town of Rafah near the border with Egypt, while the Israel Defence Forces said it feared one of its soldiers had been captured and that Hamas had resumed rocket fire upon Israel.


Palestinian women react as they arrive at the a hospital in Rafah (Picture: Reuters)



When asked whether the truce, which coincided with talks in Cairo to find a lasting peace, was over, IDF Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner told journalists: “Yes. We are continuing our activities on the ground.”

sources
http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/the-gaza-ceasefire-has-now-officially-unravelled--ekKkwKNBMg

   / / /

  No Comments

IDF view: Hamas Terror Cell Received Advanced Training in Malaysia

  8/01/2014 07:35:00 PM    






Shin Bet investigation reveals that Hamas terrorists received training in Malaysia and Gaza to infiltrate Israel by air to kidnap and murder Israelis.



In the early hours of July 21, IDF forces captured a Hamas cell commander in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza. When questioned by the ISA (Israel Security Agency — also known as the Shin Bet Security Service), the cell commander revealed that he had been sent by Hamas leadership to Malaysia for paragliding training. The plan was to parachute into Israel to kidnap and murder civilians.

The prisoner also revealed Hamas plans to ambush Israeli soldiers with anti-tank missiles and even pointed to a terrorist sniper nest on a map of Gaza. The location: the tenth floor of the Palestinian Red Crescent building in Khan Yunis.
Training to be a terrorist

After being recruited into Hamas’ military wing in 2007, the terrorist underwent regular combat training. Every five months he would attend refresher courses which involved training with Kalashnikov automatic rifles, Soviet-made PKC machine guns and locally manufactured hand grenades.



In 2010, the prisoner was enlisted into a special force sent to Malaysia for parachute training, in preparation for a cross-border kidnapping attack on Israel. He and ten other terrorists from across Gaza spent a week receiving training in Malaysia.

After returning to Gaza, the cell was given additional weapons training. They were warned to maintain secrecy, and not to reveal details of their Malaysian training to anyone.
Preparing the attack

In 2014, four years after being sent to Malaysia, the Hamas commando squad was summoned for more parachute training. This time the training took place inside the Gaza Strip. According to the prisoner, the squad was not told about where the kidnapping attack would take place.

The prisoner told investigators about a Hamas training camp that took place in June of this year. Exercises involved training with handguns, Kalashnikovs, M-16s, RPGs, machine guns anddemolitions training. Terrorists who attended the camp were trained in various methods forkidnapping soldiers and how to operate inside Hamas’ extensive tunnel network. The prisoner was meant to attend such a course after Ramadan (late July). Ultimately, he was arrested by IDF soldiers operating in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge.



The details of the ISA investigation reveal the great efforts and resources that Hamas invested in bolstering its military capabilities including the building and training of a standing commando army to attack and kidnap Israeli soldiers and civilians.

Hamas goes to incredible lengths to carry out attacks against Israel. That is why the IDF will not rest in its mission to dismantle the organization’s terrorist infrastructure and keep the people of Israel safe.

sources

   / / /

  No Comments

IDF view: Hamas Uses Holy Places in Gaza as Terrorist Facilities

  8/01/2014 07:32:00 PM    




Hamas routinely treats the civilian buildings of Gaza as its private terrorist compounds. It fires rockets at Israel from schools and hospitals, and uses mosques as command centers and to store weapons and hide infiltration tunnels.

Throughout Operation Protective Edge, IDF forces have discovered Hamas terrorists using mosques as terrorist facilities. Hamas exploits the IDF’s sensitivity towards protecting civilian structures, particularly holy sites, by hiding command centers, weapons caches and tunnel entrances in mosques.

On July 29, IDF special forces engaged and eliminated an armed terror cell guarding a mosque being used as a Hamas military compound. When searching the basement of the mosque after the battle, the soldiers uncovered a stockpile of weapons including sniper rifles, RPGs and machine guns. They also found two concealed tunnel entrances, one of which ran 14 meters deepunderground.



The following day, a joint IDF task force tracked down the entrance to a tunnel that had been used by Hamas terrorists to attack Israeli soldiers. The tunnel entrance was in the basement of a mosque. There, the IDF soldiers found the opening to another tunnel serving as a Hamas terrorist bunker.



Hamas’ conversion of Gaza’s holy places into military compounds is further proof that it will stop at nothing to achieve its terrorist aims.


sources
http://www.idfblog.com/blog/2014/08/01/hamas-holy-places-in-gaza-as-terrorist-facilities/

   / / /

  No Comments

Updates: Israel Defense Forces

  8/01/2014 07:04:00 PM    


Friday, August 1



1:30 PM: This morning, in violation of the latest ceasefire, Hamas terrorists fired at our forces in southern Gaza. We suspect that Hamas kidnapped an IDF soldier during the exchange of fire. The IDF is currently conducting intelligence efforts and extensive searches in order to locate the missing soldier.

12:45 PM: 8 rockets and mortars were fired at Israel, 1 was intercepted and 7 hit open areas.

10:15 AM: The names of 4 of the 5 IDF soldiers killed last night by mortar fire are released: Staff Sgt. Noam Rosenthal, 20, Sgt. 1st Class (Res.) Daniel Marash, 22, Cpt. Omri Tal, 22, Staff Sgt. Shay Kushnir, 20 & Cpt. (res.) Liran Adir (Edry), 31. May their memory be blessed.

7:47 AM: Moments ago, six rockets fired from Gaza were intercepted by Iron Dome above southern Israel.

7:14 AM: At 8:00 AM, the IDF will cease fire for 72 hours in accordance with the government’s directive. We will continue to dismantle the tunnels.

5:10 AM: Yesterday, five IDF soldiers were killed by mortar fire during operational activity along the Gaza border.

1:30 AM: Moments ago, three rockets were fired from Gaza. Iron Dome intercepted one above central Israel.

source

   / / /

  No Comments

Official Israel Defense Forces update ceasefire

  8/01/2014 06:57:00 PM    



This morning, Hamas fired at our forces in S. Gaza in violation of a ceasefire. We suspect that an IDF soldier was kidnapped moments later.

IDF @IDFSpokesperson · 29m


If our suspicions about today's events are accurate, Hamas took advantage of the latest ceasefire in order to kidnap an IDF soldier.

IDF @IDFSpokesperson · 50m


We are conducting extensive searches in S. Gaza in order to find a missing IDF soldier. We suspect the soldier was kidnapped by Hamas today

IDF @IDFSpokesperson · 2h


Official Israel Defense Forces Twitter:
https://twitter.com/IDFSpokesperson

   / /

  No Comments

Israel, Palestinian militant groups begin three-day Gaza truce

  8/01/2014 03:11:00 PM    















1 OF 11. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announces a 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, while in New Delhi August 1, 2014.


(Reuters) - A three-day ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip went into effect on Friday and appeared to be holding, with negotiators due to travel to Cairo to discuss a longer-term solution.

The 72-hour break announced in a joint statement by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was the most ambitious attempt so far to end more than three weeks of fighting, and followed mounting international alarm over a rising Palestinian civilian death toll.

"This ceasefire is critical to giving innocent civilians a much-needed reprieve from violence," the statement said.

After the truce began at 1 a.m. EDT (0500 GMT), Gaza's streets began to fill with Palestinian families. Laden with belongings, they streamed back to homes they fled during fierce fighting that destroyed or damaged thousands of dwellings.

In Israel, sirens that have sent tens of thousands running for shelter daily fell silent.

"We are going back to Beit Lahiya (in the northern Gaza Strip)," said Asharaf Zayed, a 38-year-old father of four. "We hope the truce will be permanent and we won't have to go back to a U.N. shelter."

Israel launched its offensive in Hamas Islamist-dominated Gaza on July 8, unleashing air and naval bombardments in response to a surge of cross-border rocket attacks. Tanks and infantry pushed into the densely populated territory of 1.8 million on July 17.

Gaza officials say at least 1,459 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in the battered enclave and nearly 7,000 wounded. Sixty-one Israeli soldiers have been killed in the fighting and more than 400 wounded. Three civilians have been killed by Palestinian rockets in Israel.

Amid strong public support in Israel for the Gaza campaign, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had faced intense pressure from abroad to stand his forces down.

International calls for an end to the bloodshed intensified after shelling on Wednesday that killed 15 people sheltering in a U.N.-run school in Gaza's Jabalya refugee camp.

The truce left Israeli ground forces in place in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu had vowed "with or without a ceasefire" to complete the destruction of a warren of tunnels through which Hamas has menaced its southern towns and army bases.

Accomplishing that mission - the military said on Thursday the tunnels hunt could be wrapped up in a few days - could open the way for Israel to declare it has achieved the main goal of the ground assault and withdraw its soldiers from Gaza.

"Our understanding is that the Israelis will make clear to the U.N. where their lines are, roughly, and they will continue to do operations to destroy tunnels that pose a threat to Israeli territory that lead from the Gaza strip into Israel proper as long as those tunnels exist on the Israel side of their lines," said the State Department official.

Hamas, isolated in an Arab world concerned about the rise Islamist militancy, is seeking an end to Israel's blockade of Gaza. It also wants a hostile Egypt to ease restrictions at its Rafah crossing with the territory imposed after the military toppled Islamist president Mohamed Mursi last July.

Israel has balked at freeing up Gaza's borders under any de-escalation deal unless Hamas's disarmament is also guaranteed.



CAIRO NEGOTIATIONS

A senior State Department official travelling with Kerry in India said U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns would arrive in Cairo on Saturday and that Frank Lowenstein, the acting U.S envoy for Middle East peace, and another U.S. official, Jonathan Schwartz, would be there on Friday.

The official said he believed the Palestinians would be in the Egyptian capital on Friday, while the Israelis would arrive on Saturday.

The Palestinian delegation will be comprised of Hamas, Western-backed Fatah, the Islamic Jihad militant group and a number of smaller factions, Palestinian officials said. But U.S. officials said representatives from Israel and the United States would not sit across the table from Hamas, which the two countries, along with the European Union, consider a terrorist group.

Just over an hour before the ceasefire was due to take effect militants fired 11 rockets into Israel, one of which was intercepted by the Iron Dome defence system over the centre of the country, a military spokeswoman said.

Israeli strikes killed 14 people in Gaza, including eight from one family, hospital officials said. Earlier, Hamas rockets set off sirens in the Tel Aviv area and one was intercepted.

Israel's military said five of its soldiers were killed late on Thursday by a mortar bomb.

Previous international attempts to broker a humanitarian truce were less successful, securing shorter periods of calm, with some collapsing immediately after being announced.

U.N. political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman said it took a massive diplomatic push to achieve the ceasefire.

"The Egyptians played an important role, the Qataris played an essential role in helping bring the parties on board, the Turks were in touch with all sides. This was a collective effort,” Feltman told CNN.

Kerry, speaking to reporters in New Delhi, said the parties needed to find a way to address Israel's security concerns and to ensure that the people of Gaza could live in safety and dignity. "All the people involved in this have strong demands and strong visions on what the future should look like. Israel has to be able to live in peace and security, without terror attacks and rockets and tunnels and sirens going off," Kerry said. "And Palestinians need to be able to live with the opportunity to educate their children and move freely and share in the rest of the world and lead a life that is different from the one they have long suffered," he added.


   /

  No Comments

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Right-wing Israelis celebrate the deaths of Gazan children

  7/31/2014 04:31:00 PM    


Video from a far-right Tel Aviv demonstration shows the crowd chanting, "there is no school tomorrow; there are no children left in Gaza"







By Inna Lazareva, Tel Aviv

3:00PM BST 30 Jul 2014



"There is no school tomorrow; there are no children left in Gaza,” chanted the right-wing extremists gathered opposite Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square on Saturday night, waving Israeli flags and shaking their fingers in the air.


As the the cries of “I hate all the Arabs” and “Gaza is a cemetery” intensified, some of the protestors tried to accost the participants in one of the country’s biggest anti-war demonstrations this year.


“Go protest in Gaza!” they shouted at the thousands spread all over Tel Aviv’s main protest square, in a demonstration that dwarfed the extremists’ riot.


In one corner of the square, just metres away from those calling for the continuation of the war, dozens of tea light candles were set up as a border around the youths crouched inside. Quietly, they lit lit and placed candles around photographs of both Palestinians and Israelis killed in the war so far.


“Free Palestine” said one poster in shades of the Palestinian flag as it was held up by a protestor against the background of Tel Aviv municipality building which had been lit up in turn to look like a giant flag of Israel.

Related Articles


'Fresh ceasefire attempts' after heaviest Israeli attack 29 Jul 2014


Watch live: Gaza city skyline 31 Jul 2014


Gaza endures heavy night of bombardment 29 Jul 2014


Obama and Pope call for peace in Gaza as child death toll rises 27 Jul 2014


Gaza Strip refugee camp and hospital 'hit by Israeli missiles' 28 Jul 2014


“We don’t want a war mongering government”, chanted the crowds in unison as nearby an all-female drums bands belted out rhythms to which people waved their placards in the air.

Protests for and against the war in Gaza have been sweeping many parts of the country, from Haifa and Nazareth to the smaller Israeli-Arab towns in the north of the country.

In some parts of the country, hate crime has also been on the rise.

On Wednesday, three Jewish men were arrested on suspicion of assaulting two Arab residents in Jerusalem. The two were attacked on their way back from an iftar dinner (a meal which breaks the Ramadan fast after sunset every day) with iron bars and baseball bats, said the Israeli NGO ‘Association for Civil Rights in Israel’.

On the same day, an Arab youth was indicted for attacking an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man, beating and leaving him unconscious.

In Gaza, Hamas has executed over 30 civilians suspected of collaborating with Israel, Palestine Press News agency reported.

A further 20 Palestinians were reported as shot by Hamas gunmen on Monday night after a group protested the massive destruction on the Shejaia neighbourhood, blaming Hamas, Israel’s Channel 10 reported.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/11000115/Right-wing-Israelis-celebrate-the-deaths-of-Gazan-children.html

   / /

  No Comments

Gaza conflict: Israel calls up 16,000 more reservists as US supplies army with ammunition

  7/31/2014 04:25:00 PM    


Israeli call-up comes in face of intense international pressure to curtail operations in Gaza, where more than 100 Palestinians died on Wednesday – but US agrees to provide Israel with new ammunition supplies

Mortars ready to be fired are laid out at an army staging area along Israel's border with the Gaza Strip Photo: Jack Guez/AFP



By AFP

7:32AM BST 31 Jul 2014



Israel mobilised 16,000 additional reservists on Thursday to bolster its forces waging military operations in the Gaza Strip that left more than 100 Palestinians dead in a day.


The call-up came after Washington announced it had agreed to restock Israel's dwindling supplies of ammunition despite its sharp condemnation of an attack on a United Nations school in Gaza blamed on Israel's army.


"The army has issued 16,000 additional mobilisation orders to allow troops on the ground to rest, which takes the total number of reservists to 86,000," an army spokeswoman said.


Israel's security cabinet, which met for five hours Wednesday, unanimously decided to pursue attacks against Hamas "terrorist targets" and other operations to destroy a network of tunnels used by the Islamist movement between Gaza and Israel, public radio said.


Public radio quoted Major General Sami Turgeman, the senior officer for the Gaza region, as saying that the destruction of militants' remaining tunnels into Israel could be complete "in a few days".




A Palestinian boy stands in a damaged classroom of the UN school in Jabaliya (EPA)

More than 100 Palestinians died in the Gaza Strip Wednesday, among them the victims of Israeli fire on a market and the UN school where Palestinians fleeing the fighting had sought refuge.

At least 17 people were killed in the strike on the market in Shejaiya, near Gaza City, as Israel observed a four-hour humanitarian lull in other parts of the crowded coastal strip.

The market strike came hours after Israeli shells slammed into a UN school in Jabaliya refugee camp which was sheltering some 3,300 homeless Gazans, killing 16 and drawing a furious response from the United Nations.

"This morning a UN school sheltering thousands of Palestinian families suffered a reprehensible attack," UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday on a visit to Costa Rica.

"It is unjustifiable, and demands accountability and justice."






The attack was also denounced by the White House in a carefully worded statement that avoided mentioning Israel.

"The United States condemns the shelling of a UNRWA school in Gaza, which reportedly killed and injured innocent Palestinians, including children, and UN humanitarian workers," a statement said.

The Pentagon later said it had granted an Israeli request for ammunition, including some from a stockpile stored by the US military on the ground in Israel for emergency use by the Jewish state.

Rights group Amnesty International had urged Washington to halt arms supplies to Israel.

"It is time for the US government to urgently suspend arms transfers to Israel and to push for a UN arms embargo on all parties to the conflict," it said in a petition to US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Hamas said Wednesday it fired rockets at Tel Aviv and the southern port city of Ashkelon in response to the market and school strikes.

The Israeli military said that a rocket hit open ground "in the Tel Aviv area" and another two were intercepted over Ashkelon.

It said that a total of 81 rockets fell in Israel on Wednesday, with another nine shot down by missile defences and that Israel hit 88 targets in Gaza.

Early Thursday, Israeli warplanes attacked a mosque near the same UN school in Jabaliya, wounding 15 Palestinians, emergency services said.

Medics said two more Palestinians died Thursday of wounds sustained previously, bringing the death toll from 23 days of unrelenting Israeli attacks to 1,363.

In Israel, the army said another three soldiers were killed in Gaza, raising the overall number of soldiers killed to 56 since the operation began on July 8.

Despite the loss of life, there appeared to be little Israeli appetite for a truce, with a senior official telling Haaretz newspaper that the Jewish state was not even close to a ceasefire.

"When a ceasefire proposal that answers Israel's important needs is laid on the table, it will be considered," he said, warning that the military operation would expand.

"The (military) will expand attacks against Hamas and the rest of the terror organisations."

Nevertheless, a two-member Israeli delegation travelled to Cairo late Wednesday to discuss a possible ceasefire with Egyptian officials, an official at the airport told AFP, saying they were expected to leave after several hours.

Cairo, a key mediator in previous truce negotiations between Israel and Hamas, was also expected to host a Palestinian delegation later this week.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/11002096/Gaza-conflict-Israel-calls-up-16000-more-reservists-as-US-supplies-army-with-ammunition.html

   / /

  No Comments

Heartbreak: Reporting on Gaza’s child victims

  7/31/2014 04:02:00 PM    


AFP Middle East correspondent Sara Hussein recently completed an assignment in Gaza, where more than 1,280 Palestinians have been killed -- including more than 240 children.

WARNING: This blog includes distressing images from inside a morgue.



The bloodied legs of a dead child are seen in the morgue at the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, on July 20, 2014. (AFP Photo/Mahmud Hams)



A relative reacts after seeing the bodies of three Palestinian children, killed in an explosion in a public playground on the beachfront of Shati refugee camp. July 28, 2014. (AFP Photo/Marco Longari)

By Sara Hussein

GAZA, July 30, 2014 --- This war in Gaza is not the first war I have covered, it isn't even the first war I've covered in Gaza. I've been to places like Syria and Libya, and seen some of the horrible things that are normal in armed conflict, and I've seen dead children before, but never like during this war in Gaza. Never so many, never so often.

Everyone loves their children, and Gaza is no different. But there is a special public affection here, a pride untempered by sensibilities of privacy or modesty. Everyone wants to show you pictures of their children. The men whip out their cellphones even more readily than the women. I have seen photos of most of the children of the staff at my hotel. My favourite receptionist Ayman has two daughters, one of whom has his fair skin and light eyes; the smiling bearded guard/housekeeper Mahmud has three sons, including the youngest, who he tells me with a mixture of pride and slight embarrassment is as 'pretty as a girl.'



Last year: Palestinian school children play with on Gaza beach on October 24, 2013 in Deir al-Balah. (AFP Photo/Mohammed Abed)

Children are everywhere in Gaza. They gather around you in refugee camps and at the schools run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, where more than 160,000 people have sought shelter after fleeing their homes. Some of them are bold and inquisitive, reaching out a hand to shake yours, asking your name, about your family, your home country. Two sisters at a school in Gaza City rifled through my handbag looking for something to play with, and then played a clapping game with me.



Displaced Palestinian children pose for a picture in Gaza City on July 26, 2014. (AFP Photo/Mohammed Abed)

Others are different, and are quiet in a way that suggests something beyond a mere personality trait. At the same school, a little girl with big eyes and red hair put her hand out for mine, but instead of shaking it, she just held onto me. She told me her name was Yasmin, but she wouldn't say anything else. She followed me around the school as I did interviews, and then came and sat next to me as I waited in the shade for a press conference. She didn't want to talk, just to sit quietly by my side.



Palestinian relatives carry the bodies of three kids, who were among eight members of the same family killed in an Israeli strike, during their funeral on July 19, 2014 in Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza strip. (AFP Photo/Thomas Coex)
Inside the morgue




At the morgue at Gaza City's Shifa hospital, employees have seen dozens of dead children. There was stoicism in the way they swabbed and cleaned the bodies of the three in front of them -- Afnan, Jihad and Wissam Shuheiber. They have seen broken little bodies before, and they would see them again, probably later that same day. Their clinical behaviour was all the more stark by contrast with the unrestrained pain on the faces of the children's relatives.

These three children -- brothers Jihad and Wissam, and their cousin Afnan -- were playing on a rooftop in Gaza City when a rocket hit their building. They were carried away with injuries but died soon after. Each of them was peppered with shrapnel wounds, hot steel had ripped away coin-size pieces of their skin. The teeth of one of the boys appeared to have been shattered in the attack. The youngest of the three, Wissam, was wearing blue and yellow superhero underwear.



Relatives of four dead Palestinian boys from the same family mourn at the morgue of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, on July 16, 2014. (AFP Photo/Mahmud Hams)


"I cried as I took notes"

It was hard to remain composed in the morgue as the staff flitted around the three children, and a fourth who had been transferred after dying at another hospital. I slipped inside before the scrum of journalists entered, and I stood quietly in the corner as the team worked and three family members inside swung between anger and extreme pain. I continued to take notes and observe, but I cried as I did so. And when I wrote about it later, I cried again.

The Shuhaiber children were not the only infants killed as they played in Gaza. On July 16, I was filing a report in my hotel when the sound of a blast prompted me to run outside. I arrived on the hotel patio to see a group of children running in panic along the beach towards us. As they ran, another shell was fired at them. Several managed to take refuge in the hotel, where staff and journalists tried to comfort the terrified and treat the wounded. At least three were injured. With two other journalists, I tried to help a boy with shrapnel in his chest. Ambulances came and evacuated the wounded. They got to the beach to find four dead children. After the panic was over, the floor of the hotel's patio restaurant was smeared with blood and scattered with bits of gauze.


Viewing on a mobile device? Click here to open video in a new window.

There’s no final paragraph that neatly wraps up these sort of incidents, no happy ending. But there was a moment for me that stood in contrast, at the home of one of our wonderful reporters in Gaza, Adel Zaanoun. We sat down for the iftar evening meal and he insisted that I hold his two-month-old twins, Adam and Alma.

They were so tiny and so pink and they squealed and punched their little fists. They were so completely alive, and they all but forced everyone in the room to smile.



Before the bombs: Palestinian children smile play during the second day of Eid al-Adha or "Feast of the sacrifice" in Gaza City on October 16, 2013. (AFP Photo/Mohammed Abed)

http://blogs.afp.com/correspondent/?post/Heartbreak%3A-Reporting-on-Gaza%E2%80%99s-youngest-victims

   / /

  No Comments

UN: 'world stands disgraced' as shelter for Gaza children is shelled by Israel

  7/31/2014 02:06:00 AM    


The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said the shelling of the school, being operated by the UN as a refugee camp, was a "serious violation of international law"



A Palestinian girl cries while receiving treatment for her injuries caused by an Israeli tank shelling at a UN school in Jebaliya refugee camp, 30 July 2014. Photograph: Khalil Hamra/AP


United Nations officials described the killing of sleeping children as a disgrace to the world and accused Israel of a serious violation of international law after a school in Gaza being used to shelter Palestinian families was shelled on Wednesday.

At least 15 people, mostly children and women, died when the school in Jabaliya refugee camp was hit by five shells during a night of relentless bombardment across Gaza. More than 100 people were injured.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, said the attack was "outrageous and unjustifiable" and demanded "accountability and justice". The UN said its officials had repeatedly given details of the school and its refugee population to Israel.

Fighting in Gaza continued through the day despite a four-hour humanitarian ceasefire called by Israel from 3pm. A crowded market in Shujai'iya was hit in the late afternoon, causing at least 17 deaths, including a journalist, and injuring about 200 people, according to Gaza health officials. They said people had ventured out to shop in the belief a ceasefire was in place. Witnesses said several shells struck as people were running away. Israel said rockets and mortar shells continued to be fired from Gaza.

At the UN school the first shell came just after the early morning call to prayer, when most of those taking shelter were asleep, crammed into classrooms with what few possessions they had managed to snatch as they fled their homes.

About 3,300 people have squashed into Jabaliya Elementary A&B Girls' School since the Israeli military warned people to leave their homes and neighbourhoods or risk death under intense bombardment. Classroom number one, near the school's entrance, had become home to about 40 people, mostly women and children.

As a shell blasted through the wall, showering occupants with shrapnel and spattering blood on walls and floors, Amna Zantit, 31, scrambled to gather up her three terrified infants in a panicked bid for the relative safety of the schoolyard. "Everyone was trying to escape," she said, clutching her eight-month old baby tightly. Minutes later, a second shell slammed through the roof of the two-storey school. At least 15 people were killed and more than 100 injured. Most were women or children.

Pierre Krahenbuhl, commissioner-general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said the shelling of the school was a "serious violation of international law by Israeli forces".

Krahenbuhl said: "Last night, children were killed as they slept next to their parents on the floor of a classroom in a UN-designated shelter in Gaza. Children killed in their sleep; this is an affront to all of us, a source of universal shame. Today the world stands disgraced."

Khalil al-Halabi, the UN official in charge of the schools in the area, was quickly on the scene. Bodies were littered over the classroom, and the badly injured lay in pools of blood amid the debris and rubble caused by the blast. "I was shaking," he said. "It was very, very hard for me to see the blood and hear the children crying."

By daylight, the detritus of people's lives was visible among ruins of the classroom: a ball, a bucket, some blankets, tins of food, a pair of flip-flops. The corpses of donkeys, used to haul the meagre possessions of refugees to what they thought was safety, lay at the school's entrance as two lads wearing Palestinian boy scout scarves collected human body parts for burial. Five of the injured were in a critical condition in hospital.

Halabi was facing impossible requests for advice from those who escaped the carnage. "These people are very angry. They evacuated their homes and came here for protection, not to be killed inside a UN shelter. Now they are asking me whether to stay or leave. They are very frightened. They don't know what to do."

The attack on the school was the sixth time that UNRWA premises have been hit since the war in Gaza began more than three weeks ago, the UN said.

Palestinians fled their homes after Israel warned that failure to do so would put their lives at risk. Those at the Jabaliya school were among more than 200,000 who have sought shelter at UN premises in the belief that families would be safe.

Analysis of evidence gathered at the site by UNRWA led to an initial assessment that Israeli artillery had hit the school, causing "multiple civilian deaths and injuries including of women and children and the UNRWA guard who was trying to protect the site. These are people who were instructed to leave their homes by the Israeli army."

Krahenbuhl added: "Our staff, the very people leading the humanitarian response, are being killed. Our shelters are overflowing. Tens of thousands may soon be stranded in the streets of Gaza, without food, water and shelter if attacks on these areas continue."

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it was investigating the incident at the UN school. Initial inquiries showed that "Hamas militants fired mortar shells from the vicinity of the school, and [Israeli] soldiers responded by firing towards the origins of the fire", a spokeswoman said.

A UN source said there was no evidence of militant activity inside the school.

The US, which has been at odds with Isarael's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over efforts to secure a ceasefire, condemned the school shelling but did not specifically blame Israel.

The incident comes after an explosion at another UN school in Beit Hanoun last week as the playground was filled with families awaiting evacuation. Israel denied responsibility for the deaths, saying a single "errant" shell fired by its forces hit the school playground, which was empty at the time.

UNRWA has rejected the IDF's account, saying an initial shell was followed by several others within minutes. Reporters who visited the school shortly afterwards said damage and debris was consistent with mortar rounds. UNRWA has found rockets at three of its schools in Gaza in the past three weeks, which it has swiftly condemned as "flagrant violation[s] of the neutrality of our premises".

Israel says militants from Hamas and other organisations launch rockets from the vicinity of UNRWA properties.

The Israeli military said it had targeted more than 4,100 sites in Gaza since the start of the conflict on 8 July. The death toll in Gaza rose above 1,300 on Wednesday.

Three soldiers were killed in fighting around Khan Younis, bringing the total IDF death toll to 56. Three civilians have died in rocket attacks on Israel.

In an emotional statement, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said the "destructive cycle of violence has caused untold suffering".

He said: "You can't look at the pictures coming from Gaza and Israel without your heart breaking. We must cry to God and beat down the doors of heaven and pray for peace and justice and security. Only a costly and open-hearted seeking of peace between Israeli and Palestinian can protect innocent people, their children and grandchildren, from ever worse violence."

He called for a renewed "commitment to political dialogue in the wider search for peace and security for both Israeli and Palestinians".

Support for the military operation among the Israeli public remained solid. A poll published by Tel Aviv university this week found 95% of Israeli Jews felt the offensive was justified. Only 4% believed too much force had been used.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/30/world-disgrace-gaza-un-shelter-school-israel

   /

  No Comments

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)