Christopher Walker analyses mainstream media coverage as a result of Israel’s ban of foreign journalists during its attack on the people of Gaza, and refers to the insidious hasbara used by Israeli spokespersons. Israel calculates that it wins the war of words against Palestinians but can’t win the war of images – thus the decision to keep foreign journalists out of Gaza during the butchery is calculated to prevent imagery adverse to Israel escaping
Khuza’a Village & More Israeli War Crimes
From the Guardian, another Israeli war crime:
In testimony collected from residents of the village of Khuza’a by the Observer, it is claimed that Israeli soldiers entering the village:
• attempted to bulldoze houses with civilians inside;
• killed civilians trying to escape under the protection of white flags;
• opened fire on an ambulance attempting to reach the wounded;
• used indiscriminate force in a civilian area and fired white phosphorus shells.
If the allegations are upheld, all the incidents would constitute breaches of the Geneva conventions.
Previous war crimes are hotly denied by the hasbara machine:
The Israeli army announced yesterday that it was investigating “at the highest level” five other attacks against civilians in Gaza, involving two UN facilities and a hospital. It added that in all cases initial investigations suggested soldiers were responding to fire. “These claims of war crimes are not supported by the slightest piece of evidence,” said Yigal Palmor, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman.
More evidence of white phosphorus illegally used on civilians:
Al Nasser ICU
January 16, 2009
Missiles believed to contain white phosphor were deployed by the Israeli military during this attack. International volunteers photographed a fist-sized lump of flaming material found on the ground next to a burnt-out home. It was still burning from the previous day.
The only way to extinguish it was to bury it, but it would instantly re-ignite if uncovered. It was giving off a thick grey smoke with a foul stench. Doctors at the Al Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, which received 50 casualties that day from Khoza’a, described serious chemical burns and victims being covered in a white powder which continued to burn them. Many people were also suffering from serious breathing difficulties after inhaling smoke emitted by this weapon.
Dr. Ahmed Almi, a member of the delegation of Egyptian doctors who finally gained entry to the strip to support Gazan hospitals during the crisis, outlined some of the most serious cases. Four of them died in the hospital after doctors battled to save them. He commented that some of the injuries were so horrific they must have been inflicted by abnormal munitions. He gave the example of a man who had been shot and sustained a small entry wound but massive exit wound, 40-50 cm wide. 13 people were killed overall during this incursion according to medical sources.
Before the Israeli war on Gaza began, volunteers here had been working with the farming community in Khoza’a, accompanying local farmers as they succeeded to access their land to plant winter wheat. The IOF had prevented them from reaching their fields, in some cases for over five years. Israeli soldiers shot at them, even during the ceasefire. The same ceasefire which Israel claims was broken by Palestinians. . – Photo & text courtesy of Rafahkid
Pictures taken by photographer Bruno Stevens in the aftermath show heavy damage – and still burning phosphorus. “What I can tell you is that many, many houses were shelled and that they used white phosphorus,” said Stevens yesterday, one of the first western journalists to get into Gaza. “It appears to have been indiscriminate.” Stevens added that homes near the village that had not been hit by shell fire had been set on fire.
The village of Khuza’a is around 500 metres from the border with Israel. According to B’Tselem, its field researcher in Gaza was contacted last Tuesday by resident Munir Shafik al-Najar, who said that Israeli bulldozers had begun destroying homes at 2.30am.
The stuff of nightmares – terror incarnate:
Marwan Abu Raeda, 40, a paramedic working for the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, said: “At 8am we received a phone call from Khuza’a. They told us about the injured woman. I went immediately. I was 60 or 70 metres away from the injured woman when the Israeli forces started to shoot at me.” As he drove into another street, he came under fire again. Twelve hours later, when Rawhiya was finally reached, she was dead.
Iman said she ended up in an area of rubble where a large group of people had sought cover in a deep hole among the debris of demolished houses. It is then, she says, that bulldozers began to push the rubble from each side. “They wanted to bury us alive,” she said.
There’s also evidence of other new weaponry being tested against Gazans including the GPS-guided mortar, GBU-39 [aka DIME] and the Spike, a weapons jointly developed by the U.S. Navy with Rafael, the Israel Armament Development Authority.
“It was the hardest day of our lives”
7th January 2009
7th January 2009
Update for Wednesday 14th January, 2009
In an escalation of the ground offensive in the south of the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces terrorised the population of Khoza’a, a small rural community east of Khan Younis. They entered the area at about 3.00am on the morning of Tuesday 13th January in an incursion lasting until Tuesday evening. This follows heavy missile strikes on Khoza’a in recent days, notably on Saturday 10th January.
According to a local municipality official, approximately 50 homes were bulldozed along with farmland, olive and citrus groves. The scent of lemons could faintly be determined whilst navigating the wreckage, emanating from so many mangled trees. A family explained how their home was demolished with them inside it. They sheltered in the basement as the upper storeys were destroyed. Later they realised the basement itself was being attacked and narrowly missed being crushed to death by escaping through a small hole in the debris.
Iman Al-Najar was with her family in their home when military D-9 bulldozers began to demolish it. They managed to escape and Iman then encouraged some of her neighbours to try to leave the vicinity. The group of women were instructed by Israeli soldiers to leave by a particular street. They had children with them and carried white flags, yet when they reached the street Israeli special forces concealed in a building opened fire on them and shot 50 year-old Rowhiya Al-Najar. The other women desperately tried to rescue her but the gunfire was too heavy and they had to flee for their lives. An ambulance was also prevented from reaching her and she bled to death in the street.
Meanwhile Iman and about 200 other residents whose homes had been destroyed had gathered near her uncle’s house which was protecting them to some degree from the shooting. However, this area in turn was also attacked. Iman described how the bulldozers began piling debris up around them, effectively creating a giant hole that they were standing in. They were literally about to be buried alive. By some miracle they managed to also escape from this situation by crawling on their hands and knees for about 150 metres. It was extremely difficult for them to move, especially with the injured and the elderly.
The terrified residents then sought sanctuary at a local UNRWA school. But when they got there missiles were being fired around it and they had to retreat. Finally they managed to leave the area entirely and walked several kilometres to where friends were able to pick them up. Iman’s 14 year-old brother Mohammed was missing for 12 hours and she feared he was dead. He had been detained by soldiers in a house along with a neighbour who had begged to be let out to find her children but was not allowed to do so. When the soldiers had shot Rowhiya Al-Najar, Mohammed said they had been singing and dancing and forced him to do the same. When he refused, they threatened to shoot him too.
“It was the hardest day of our lives,” repeated Iman over and over again. She had nothing left in the world but the clothes she was standing up in, but under the circumstances she was lucky to escape with her life. As in so many other parts of the Gaza Strip, the atrocities committed against civilians in Khoza’a amount to war crimes. – Photo & text courtesy of Rafahkid
While Israeli shill, Mark Regev bleats shallow, pernicious hasbara about Hamas being responsible for child deaths, ruling out any negotations with Hamas, Rabanovich attempts to pass off the carnage in Gaza as a defeat of Iran (Sunnis and Shias must be getting on better these days) and a flock of other hasbaraniks whine about Hamas using human shields, a vacuous canard given the population density in Gaza, Paul Canning points out:
It’s worth noting the following: the Israeli Supreme Court has ruled against the use of Human Shields by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) in 2005. This ruling was appealed.
And it’s still happening: Israel Uses Gazans as Human Shields.
Hamas has decided to offer its own unilateral truce – for a week.
The group said the ceasefire would be temporary unless Israel also stopped military action, ended its blockade of the Gaza Strip and opened border crossings between Gaza and Israel.
Other armed Palestinian factions have concurred.
“During this period, the resistance is ready to respond to all efforts by the Egyptians, Turks, Syrians and Arabs that will allow for a total withdrawal of Israeli soldiers and the total opening of border crossings.”
Israel has indicated it will maintain a military presence until there are no rockets fired from Gaza, meaning troops could be a fixture at Israel’s leisure.
Doctors are concerned about injuries in the wounded which have not been seen before.
Dr Fosse said he had seen a number of patients with extensive injuries to their lower bodies. “It was as if they had stepped on a mine, but there was no shrapnel in the wounds,” he said. “Some had lost their legs. It looked as though they had been sliced off. I have been to war zones for 30 years, but I have never seen such injuries before.” However, the injuries matched photographs and descriptions in medical literature of the effects of Dime bombs.
….
While the loudest controversy has been over accusations that white phosphorus was illegally used, other foreign doctors working in Gaza have reported injuries they cannot explain. Professor Mohammed Sayed Khalifa, a cardiac consultant from Sudan, said that two of his patients had had uncontrollable bleeding. “One had a chest operation, and continued bleeding even after having been given large quantities of plasma,” he said. “The other had what seemed to be a minor leg injury, but collapsed with profuse bleeding. Something was interfering with the clotting process. I have never seen such a thing before.”
Dr Ahmed Almi, an Egyptian cardio-thoracic consultant at al-Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, said he had seen a number of patients with inexplicable injuries. A boy of 14 had a small puncture wound in his head, but extensive damage to his brain, making it impossible to save his life. “I don’t know the nature or type of these weapons that make a very small [entry wound] and go on and make massive destruction in the tissues,” he said.
Israeli military representatives have refused to confirm or deny using specific weapons, but insist that all Israel’s weapons comply with international law. Neither white phosphorus nor Dime bombs are illegal, but campaigners say the way they have been used, especially in Gaza’s densely packed urban areas, could constitute a war crime.
Maxwell Gaylard, former Australian diplomat and UN representative issues a helpful description, rejected naturally by the Israelis, of the treachery of Israel under last year’s truce.
“The Israelis would not let us facilitate a regular and sufficient flow of supplies into the strip,” Mr Gaylard, the most senior representative of the UN office that deals with the peace process, told The Age.
…
When Israel launched its surprise attack on Gaza, Mr Gaylard said the UN’s massive warehouses there were nearly empty, with all food and equipment sitting in nearby port facilities.
“The food was in Israel, but we couldn’t get it in,” Mr Gaylard said. “This is before. The blockade was very tight.”
The Age appears to have a case of hasbara plague as it states:
According to Hamas, in return for stopping the rocket fire Israel had promised to ease its blockade of Gaza and allow the passage of more food and commercial supplies.
Had the journalist done his homework, he would have known the terms of the truce specifically stated Israel *would* remove its disgraceful blockade constituting collective punishment of 1.5 million Gazan residents, if the rockets stopped. During the final three months of the truce there were barely any rockets fired, so one can understand Hamas’ unwillingness to back down at this juncture.
Hamas of course was not to know of Israel’s determination to prosecute a carefully timed massacre regardless, in a fiendish plan formulated prior to the commencement of the truce.
Israeli leaders disliked the ceasefire from the start, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the IDF to begin preparing for the present war while the ceasefire was being negotiated in June 2008. Furthermore, Dan Gillerman, Israel’s former ambassador to the UN, reports that Jerusalem began to prepare the propaganda campaign to sell the present war months before the conflict began. For its part, Hamas drastically reduced the number of missile attacks during the first five months of the ceasefire. A total of two rockets were fired into Israel during September and October, none by Hamas.
“The expectation on the Gazan side … was that more supplies would be allowed in, and it didn’t happen,” Mr Gaylard said.
“In fact, we noticed, I think from June 19 for the next four or five months, or up to even December 19, less of our supplies and spare parts and items of equipment, less got in than before June 19.”
Mr Gaylard slammed Israel’s siege policy towards Gaza, saying it had strengthened Hamas.
“It’s difficult to understand the mentality of firing these rockets … it is equally hard to understand why the Israelis are strangling this place.
“It is to cause Hamas to fall, but my experience of the last year of going in and out of Gaza and staying there was that it had exactly the opposite effect.”
Gaylard also criticises the Israelis’ disingenuous accusation of Hamas using civilians as human shields:
“Everyone is packed in there. So if you attack militants or installations in that area, you are going to cause collateral damage.
“One of the fundamental points about the strip … is that it’s probably the only place in the world that I can think of where you cannot as a civilian flee the conflict.”
Significantly, Gaylard highlights realities on the ground – that a two state solution is becoming less popular as a ‘solution’ to conflict. We agree with his assessment – a pluralistic democracy with mixed ethnicity and equal rights for all would increase societal health and decrease regional animosity.
As for the long-term goal of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mr Gaylard said that while the international community remained in favour of a two-state solution to the conflict, a growing number of Palestinians now preferred the idea of one democratic state including the land’s Jews and Arabs.
He urged the international community to put more pressure on Israel to stop the growth of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, which he said Israel had pledged to do several times, most recently at the Annapolis Middle East peace conference in 2007.
“Palestinians are trying to meet their part of it … security has improved in these key West Bank towns. Meanwhile, (in) the settlements, I don’t see any change,” Mr Gaylard said.
The Israelis are unlikely to move on settlements or other issues before testing their considerable malign influence on the incoming US executive.
Mr Palmor said it was unhelpful to single out the problem of settlements.
“We are trying to conclude a global solution to the conflict, one that will resolve all the issues, including security, refugees, land and settlements.”
Global solution sounds ominous – what on earth is he talking about?
The Boycott Israeli Apartheid movement is kicking off, with Hertz insisting on withdrawal of offers of free car hire in conjunction with El Al flights. Additionally –
Several companies who do business with Israel are facing boycotts. “Emails are being circulated alerting people about which companies to boycott,” said Inayat Bunglawala, from the British Muslim organisation ENGAGE.
In South Africa, MPs cornered the Israeli ambassador with
a severe tongue-lashing, accusing his government of perpetrating “racist” abuses against the Palestinian people “that make apartheid look like a Sunday school picnic”.
And as the war in Gaza rages for its fourth week, Cosatu has called for the Israeli ambassador to be “kicked out” of South Africa, for the embassy to be “shut down,” for a “total boycott of Israeli goods” and for the “savage rule of Zionism over the Palestinian territories to come to and end”.
A red-faced and clearly agitated Segev-Steinberg dismissed apartheid comparisons as “rubbish,” but the National Assembly’s foreign affairs committee chairperson, Job Sithole, was unrelenting in his condemnation of the Israeli government and its armed forces.
“When Palestinians have to go through checkpoints like cattle through a dip, this is apartheid. When they cannot drive on the roads by virtue of the fact that they are Palestinian, this is apartheid,” the chairperson insisted.
He was supported by ANC MP Patrick Sibande, who, in an angry tirade against the ambassador, accused the Israeli government of an “ethnic cleansing” programme against Palestinians.
…
ANC MP Albertinah Luthuli, granddaughter of the late ANC leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Albert Luthuli, also slammed the ambassador for his government’s refusal to allow international journalists into the Gaza Strip.
Why do They Hate the US? Duh!
Condi really has no idea at all. Gaza is trivialised, reduced to a kindergarten slave state, its democratically elected government defined as a coup. The clinical ignorance of this woman is appalling.
Surely she can’t be this thick – do the Israelis feed their US accomplices something that blinds them from reality?
Israel and the US have concluded a unilateral cease fire which is meaningless without agreement from Hamas, no matter how much they might like to think they have marginalised them.
Basically this ‘cease fire’ means that Israel can swoop down from its Mordor like country and bomb, assassinate and the rest of its tricks at its leisure. Same old scenario as before the carnage – low intensity terrorism.
There can be only ONE Pharaoh. And when were Pharaohs ever dragged up to answer for their misdeeds at a war crimes trial?
RECOMMENDED READING:
John J. Mearsheimer “Another War, Another Defeat” in The American Conservative – excellent, succinct historical analysis:
The actual purpose [of Operation Cast Lead] is connected to Israel’s long-term vision of how it intends to live with millions of Palestinians in its midst. It is part of a broader strategic goal: the creation of a “Greater Israel.” Specifically, Israel’s leaders remain determined to control all of what used to be known as Mandate Palestine, which includes Gaza and the West Bank. The Palestinians would have limited autonomy in a handful of disconnected and economically crippled enclaves, one of which is Gaza. Israel would control the borders around them, movement between them, the air above and the water below them.
The key to achieving this is to inflict massive pain on the Palestinians so that they come to accept the fact that they are a defeated people and that Israel will be largely responsible for controlling their future. This strategy, which was first articulated by Ze’ev Jabotinsky in the 1920s and has heavily influenced Israeli policy since 1948, is commonly referred to as the “Iron Wall.”
What has been happening in Gaza is fully consistent with this strategy.
Even before Hamas came to power, the Israelis intended to create an open-air prison for the Palestinians in Gaza and inflict great pain on them until they complied with Israel’s wishes. Dov Weisglass, Ariel Sharon’s closest adviser at the time, candidly stated that the disengagement from Gaza was aimed at halting the peace process, not encouraging it. He described the disengagement as “formaldehyde that’s necessary so that there will not be a political process with the Palestinians.” Moreover, he emphasized that the withdrawal “places the Palestinians under tremendous pressure. It forces them into a corner where they hate to be.”
Arnon Soffer, a prominent Israeli demographer who also advised Sharon, elaborated on what that pressure would look like. “When 2.5 million people live in a closed-off Gaza, it’s going to be a human catastrophe. Those people will become even bigger animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam. The pressure at the border will be awful. It’s going to be a terrible war. So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every day.”
In January 2006, five months after the Israelis pulled their settlers out of Gaza, Hamas won a decisive victory over Fatah in the Palestinian legislative elections. This meant trouble for Israel’s strategy because Hamas was democratically elected, well organized, not corrupt like Fatah, and unwilling to accept Israel’s existence. Israel responded by ratcheting up economic pressure on the Palestinians, but it did not work. In fact, the situation took another turn for the worse in March 2007, when Fatah and Hamas came together to form a national unity government. Hamas’s stature and political power were growing, and Israel’s divide-and-conquer strategy was unraveling.
To make matters worse, the national unity government began pushing for a long-term ceasefire. The Palestinians would end all missile attacks on Israel if the Israelis would stop arresting and assassinating Palestinians and end their economic stranglehold, opening the border crossings into Gaza.
Israel rejected that offer and with American backing set out to foment a civil war between Fatah and Hamas that would wreck the national unity government and put Fatah in charge. The plan backfired when Hamas drove Fatah out of Gaza, leaving Hamas in charge there and the more pliant Fatah in control of the West Bank. Israel then tightened the screws on the blockade around Gaza, causing even greater hardship and suffering among the Palestinians living there.
Maximilian Forte “Obama as Intermission for Gaza: Mass Murder Hits the Pause Button” in Open Anthropology
The unilateral Israeli truce is merely a temporary respite, much like reloading a weapon also offers a momentary respite. It is, more than anything listed above, a break, breather, intermission, interval, letup, lull, pause, rest, stay, or suspension.
The reasoning behind it is utterly cynical: Israel claims it has achieved its objectives — then go home; there are too many wars of occupation already by imperialists claiming to have reached their objectives, but who nonetheless “linger.” Others interpret this as a pause to allow Americans and their intended world audience to party for the arrival of this plastic messiah called Barack Obama. As we have already seen on numerous occasions, nothing and nobody can take the attention away from Obama, during Obama’s time to celebrate himself, during a party for Obama, when Obama is supposed to be the object of fixation.
Under these circumstances, and with more insults added to already grievous injuries, the last thing Hamas can or should do, is stop fighting back.
From John Ging, UNRWA head in Gaza
Israel-OPT: “Today is a better day than yesterday,”
Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs – Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)
Date: 18 Jan 2009
GAZA CITY/RAMALLAH, 18 January 2009 (IRIN) – The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is the lead UN agency working for Palestinian refugees. Its compound and schools, sheltering displaced Gazans, have come under Israeli attack during Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, which began on 27 December with aerial bombardments and was combined with a ground assault beginning on 3 January.
Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire on 18 January. John Ging, head of UNRWA operations in Gaza, spoke with IRIN by phone from Gaza City on 17 and 18 January.
IRIN: Is UNRWA able to deliver assistance to Gaza residents under the current conditions? What type of assistance is being delivered and to how many recipients?
JG: The warehouse and all its contents were destroyed [in the 15 January Israeli attack on the UNRWA compound], and we could not deliver that day.
Gaza is now cut in two, so we are supporting the northern area and Gaza City from the [UNRWA] compound. The following day [16 January] we resupplied the compound from our warehouses in the south. We are continuing with our operations. Trucks are moving, but not safely.
There are 50,000 people are in our temporary shelters in our schools – they have to be fed every day. Some 80 percent of the [Gaza] population is food dependent on us.
IRIN: Did UNRWA trucks only move during the daily three-hour lull to deliver humanitarian assistance?
JG: We would not be able to support our operation effectively if we were limited to three hours. People were working around the clock in our installations to provide assistance.
The three-hour lull was for the people to feel safer to come out to get the assistance.
Bringing in goods from Kerem Shalom [border crossing] is a day’s effort, at least 16 hours, then the supplies have to be unloaded and the goods prepared for distribution.
Today [17 January] 50 trucks entered via Kerem Shalom, but we need hundreds of trucks. The needs are growing exponentially and the pipeline for humanitarian supplies is very narrow. Even those, such as Palestinian Authority employees, who were not dependent [on UNRWA assistance], have become dependent. There is nothing on the market and there is no cash.
Aid – emergency supplies, food and medical – is coming in through Rafah.
Food distribution is operating at almost full capacity – it is interrupted in certain places day to day when the place becomes the scene of fighting. We do all we can on a daily basis that is within the margins of safety for our staff to keep the operations running.
Seven of 10 food distribution centres are fully operational and 16 out of 20 health centres are fully operational.
UNRWA health staff are volunteering in the Ministry of Health hospitals and on ambulances teams – it’s all hands on deck here!
IRIN: If the border crossings are not opened consistently to bring in goods, will this increase demands on UNRWA?
JG: We cannot contemplate that the crossings will remain closed; there must be a better future. The ordinary people here during this siege have paid the price of this conflict and this operation. For them, their singular priority is access to restore dignity to their existence.
The closures have driven thousands into aid dependency against their will – that has to end. A solution that prioritises the needs of the ordinary people must be found.
IRIN: You have headed UNRWA’s operations in Gaza since January 2006, before Hamas won elections to govern the enclave. Will Israel’s military operation bring peace and stability to the region?
JG: No – it is counter-productive to that objective. The scale of death and destruction is most definitely counter-productive. Throughout this conflict so many experts and global leaders have highlighted there is no military solution to this conflict – an effective political solution is needed.
Now there are additional problems: so many people have been killed and [there has been widespread] destruction of infrastructure. There is no finance ministry or foreign affairs ministry. The American School, the presidential compound and the presidential residences have been destroyed – in addition to the massive destruction of housing. It will be very costly to restore Gaza. This money should have been invested in development not reconstruction.
IRIN: What do you say about Israel’s unilateral ceasefire?
JG: Today [18 January] is a better day than yesterday and we hope there will continue to be positive developments every day until we can restore a dignified existence for the people in Gaza.
es/ar/ed
No safe place in Gaza
UNRWA said that two children who had taken refuge in its school in Bet Lahiya, north of Jabaliya in the Gaza Strip, were killed by Israeli shells on 17 January.
“There is no safe place in Gaza. We carry on distributing food wherever we can in coordination with the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces],” UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness told IRIN on 17 January, hours after the attack on the school. On 15 January a UNRWA warehouse in Gaza City burned down completely after a direct hit from the Israeli army.
The Israel defence ministry said its army retaliated after militants opened fire from there.
A warehouse belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society was also shelled by the Israelis on 15 January and was reduced to ashes, according to a 17 January update on Gaza by the ICRC. The ICRC said that “very substantial stocks of relief goods were destroyed” in the fire.
UNRWA distributes food to some 750,000 Palestinian refugees in Gaza. Since Operation Cast Lead began, an estimated 50,000 Gaza residents have taken up refuge in UNRWA schools and compounds.
Gunness has said that all those who have taken up refuge in the schools will be given food regardless of whether they are on UNRWA list or not.
Bombing hospitals & schools – what is in Israeli politicians minds?
While the world’s attention turns toward the Obama inauguration, despite or because of severe censure at the UN Israel continues to punish collectively the hapless citizens and humanitarian workers in Gaza.
Three hospitals are bombed now – such flagrant violations of the Geneva Convention were not, as far as I know even committed by Stalin.
The medical director of al-Quds hospital has not wept since he helped evacuate several hundred people from the blazing Palestinian Red Crescent (PRC) compound on Thursday night, but he says: “My heart is crying.”
He says he is standing next to the smouldering remains of a pharmacy filled with bandages, medicines and other medical supplies, describing the chaos as intensive care patients and premature babies were wheeled onto the street.
The compound was hit twice during heavy fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in the Tel al-Hawa district in the west of Gaza City.
Patients were seen struggling to get out of their hospital beds
In the first incident, in the morning, the administrative building next to the hospital was hit and burst into flames. Patients were evacuated “in panic” to the ground floor, the PRC said.
At about 2200 (2000 GMT), a second building housing offices and a lecture theatre was hit. Fire spread to the roof of the hospital itself, the PRC said.
…
Staff from the hospital say they do not know exactly what hit the building, but the UN has said Israeli tank shells struck three hospitals, including al-Quds, in Thursday’s fighting.
A UN compound and a building housing journalists were also hit.
5 schools which have been acting as shelters for thousands of people have been targeted now.
John Ging, UNRWA operations chief in the Gaza Strip told a news conference held at a school his organization runs in northern Gaza Strip that the world “should consider the international law and Geneva Fourth Convention.”
The school, located in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia, was shelled by Israeli army tanks earlier on Saturday, killing two children and wounded 14 others, including a woman in critical conditions.
Israel has targeted five UNRWA schools during the military offensive on the Gaza Strip, killing more than 60 civilians, who took refuge to 36 schools run by UNRWA allover the Gaza Strip after they fled their homes.
“Is the killing of civilians, mainly children (who took refuge) into these schools a crime of war or not?” asked Ging as he was speaking to reporters, adding “Civilians, mainly women and children who are paying the price of this war.”
He added “today two children were killed in this school, and their mother’s limps were cutoff. 14 civilians suffered from awful wounds, the world has to move and protect the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”
Hundreds of houses were bombarded or shelled by the Israeli army air and ground forces, where 36 thousand Palestinians became homeless after their houses were either destroyed or they fled it due to the Israeli army incursions.
“There is no safe place in Gaza, even my house. Everyone is a subject to the shelling. Those people who are sheltering into these schools are normal people who asked protection and took refuge to these schools.”
He added as he was referring to the Israeli shells “these shells are killing civilians and those who fired these shells should be taken to courts and must be sued by the law.”
Israeli hasbara in The Australian points to why these civilian facilities are targeted. Whilst confabulating phantom resistance in the civilian targets, Israel’s demented terroristic aim is revealed.
Israel was making sure the organisation understood that Hamas had been soundly defeated.
This is Stage Three of Operation Cast Lead, where the Israeli political oligarchy think that they can terrorise and crush their uppity Gazan slaves so completely they will not think of rebelling again. Thus does the fascist mindset miss the mark when assessing the reactions of its victims. Analysis of liberation and resistance movements everywhere shows us that regimes which attempt to defeat populations through terror, as the Israelis are doing by gratuitously targeting civilian infrastructure and homes will inevitably backfire and harden resistance further.
Thus are the avaricious Israeli politicians blinded by the phallic power of their military might – and their vile, inhuman tactics will rebound on them. providing yet another career opportunity to demonise whoever maybe the next leaders and population of an even more radicalised Gaza.