1/7: Latest Updates from Israel Invade Gaza, Over 600 Killed, Israel Bombed Schools
1/7: Latest Updates from Israel Invade Gaza, Over 600 Killed, Israel Bombed Schools, Now They are Agreeing"Temporary Truce"
National Day of Emergency Mass Action: Saturday, January 10
Mass March in Washington, D.C. White House (north side) @ 1:00 pm
There will be a major regional demonstration on Saturday, January 10. Gather at the White House (north side, Lafayette Park) at 1:00 PM. The protest will be located between the Bush White House and the Hay Adams Hotel, where President-Elect Obama is now residing, which is located on the north side of Lafayette Park. Calling by: The ANSWER Coalition, Muslim American Society Freedom, Free Palestine Alliance, National Council of Arab Americans, and Al-Awda - International Palestine Right to Return Coalition, for more information, contact: A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition http://www.answercoalition.org/ e-mail: National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
ACTIONS AGAINST MASSACRE! Lists of Upcoming Worldwide Protests Against Israeli Attacks on Gaza! >> Read More
Israeli strike hits outside UN school, 34 dead!
1/7 LATEST! French President Sarkozy says Israel accepts Gaza "truce"
[al Jazeera] Nicolas Sarkozy, France's president, has said that Israel and the Palestinian Authority have accepted a Franco-Egyptian truce plan for Gaza >> Read More
Gaza: Over 600 Palestinians Killed. Humanitarian Crisis Faces 1.6 Million
Gaza Massacre Escalates As Ground Assault Begins
[San Francisco Indy Bay Independent Media Center] On Saturday January 3rd, Israel confirmed its troops have entered the Gaza Strip as attacks on Gaza entered their eighth day. Tanks moved into the besieged Gaza Strip though Beit Hanoun crossing shortly after nightfall on Saturday. Power lines have been cut throughout Gaza, and all of Gaza is now without electricity.
By Tuesday January 6th, at least 600 Palestinians were dead and thousands of Palestinians are wounded and many are dying due to hospitals being cutoff from the outside world. On Tuesday, as many as 40 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a United Nations-run school which many Palestinians were using as a shelter after having been ordered to leave their homes by the Israeli army.
In the days before the ground assault, Israel intensified air and artillery attacks. At least 13 people were killed when a missile struck a crowded mosque in Beit Lahiya; more than 200 people had been inside the Ibrahim al-Maqadna mosque for evening prayers when it was struck and at least 50 were wounded in the attack. On Friday, January 2nd, Israel allowed between 350 and 450 foreigners to leave Gaza, but for most Palestinians the borders are closed and 1.6 million people are unable to escape the increasingly deadly Israeli attacks.
As protests occur around the world and many world leaders denounce the massacre, the US has blocked even a basic UN statement condemning civilian deaths and US politicians like NY mayor Bloomberg and Democratic Congressman Gary Ackerman have flown to Israel to show their support for Israel's actions. While polls show that the US public is divided in their views on Israel's attack, US politicians in both major parties are almost all united behind Israel. President-elect Obama is refusing to talk about world events until he gets elected but statements from his advisers suggest his stance will be very similar to that of Bush.
In San Francisco, an emergency protest took place Saturday January 3rd at Powell and Market. Photos: 1 | 2 | Annoucements 1 | 2 In San Jose there was a protest on Sunday January 4th. Over 1,000 people gathered to protest Israel's actions in Gaza. Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 In San Francisco, on Monday January 5th, a thousand protesters marched from Market and Montgomery to the Federal Building, demanding that Israel halt its invasion of Gaza. A small delegation attempted to enter the Federal Building to deliver a message asking the US government to stop supporting the Israeli military. Video | Photos: 1 | 2 | 3
More Videos from Israel Invade Gaza at ActivistVideo.org >> View
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Israeli F-16 Attack Kills Father of Palestinian Journalist; Israel Bombs UN School, Killing Three
(1/6) The UN says around a quarter of the dead are civilians, but that figure only counts women and children, excluding adult males. Today, we will look at one of those men killed. I am joined by Fares Akram. He is the Gaza correspondent for The Independent of London. His father was killed in an Israeli F-16 attack on Saturday. His wife is nine months pregnant. We also speak with UNRWA's Christopher Gunness on the Israeli bombing of an UN school that killed three people.
By IBRAHIM BARZAK and STEVE WEIZMAN, Associated Press Writers Ibrahim Barzak And Steve Weizman, Associated Press
1/6/2009
GAZA CITY, Gaza – An Israeli bombardment hit outside a U.N. school where hundreds of Palestinians had sought refuge on Tuesday, and Palestinian medics said at least 34 people died — many of them children — as international outrage grew over civilian deaths.
It was the second fatal strike in the vicinity of a U.N. school in hours, and the deadliest assault since Israel sent ground forces into Gaza last weekend. The ground operation is part of a larger offensive against the ruling Hamas militant group that has killed nearly 600 Palestinians, including dozens of civilians, according to U.N. and Palestinian officials.
Ignoring international calls for a cease-fire, Israeli soldiers edged closer to Gaza's major population centers. A total of 58 Palestinians were killed Tuesday in fighting — with just two confirmed as militants, health officials in Gaza said.
"There's nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized, " John Ging, the top U.N. official in Gaza, said after the first strike on the compound of a U.N. school killed three people.
A Palestinian rocket — one of two dozen fired from Gaza on Tuesday — wounded an Israeli infant.
The United Nations said three civilians were killed in the first airstrike late Monday on the courtyard of its school, where hundreds of people from a Gaza City refugee camp had sought shelter from Israel's blistering 11-day offensive.
A second Israeli strike about 10 yards (meters) outside a U.N. school in the northern Gaza town of Jebaliya.
Wit nesses reported several explosions, and it was not immediately clear whether they were caused by Israeli airstrikes or tank shells.
Dr. Bassam Abu Warda, director of Kamal Radwan Hospital, said 34 people were killed.
"I saw a lot of women and children wheeled in," said Fares Ghanem, another hospital official. "A lot of the wounded were missing limbs and a lot of the dead were in pieces."
Majed Hamdan, an AP photographer, said he rushed to the scene shortly after the attacks. He said many children were among the dead.
"I saw women and men — parents — slapping their faces in grief, screaming, some of them collapsed to the floor. They knew their children were dead," he said. "In the morgue, most of the killed appeared to be children. In the hospital, there wasn't enough space for the wounded."
He said there were marks of five separate explosions, all in the same area outside the school.
U.N. officials say they provided their location coordinates to Israel's army to ensure that their buildings in Gaza are not targeted.
The army declined comment, but said Hamas often uses schools, mosques and civilian areas for cover. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev also refused to react, saying he was waiting for the military to comment.
The international Red Cross said an ambulance post was hit as well on Tuesday, injuring one medical worker.
Israel launched its offensive on Dec. 27 to halt repeated Palestinian rocket attacks on its southern towns. After a weeklong air campaign, Israeli ground forces invaded Gaza over the weekend.
Nearly 600 Palestinians have been killed, including more than 100 civilians, according to United Nations and the latest Palestinian figures. Ten Israelis have died since the operation began, including a soldier who was shot on Tuesday.
"I am appealing to political leaders here and in the region and the world to get their act together and stop this," Ging said, speaking at Gaza's largest hospital. "They are responsible for these deaths."
United Nations staff estimate around 15,000 people have fled to 23 U.N.-run schools they have turned into makeshift refuges. U.N. food aid has halted in the northern Gaza Strip because officials fear residents would risk their lives to reach distribution centers.
Tanks rumbled closer to the towns of Khan Younis and Dir el Balah in south and central Gaza but were still several kilometers (miles) outside, witnesses said, adding that the sounds of fighting could be heard from around the new Israeli positions. Israel already has encircled Gaza City, the area's biggest city.
The rising civilian death toll has drawn international condemnations and raised concerns of a looming humanitarian disaster. Many Gazans are without electricity or running water, thousands have been displaced from their homes and residents say that without distribution disrupted, food supplies are running thin.
"This is not a crisis, it's a disaster," said water utility official Munzir Shiblak. "We are not even able to respond to the cry of the people." He said about 800,000 residents in Gaza City and northern parts of the territory had no access to running water from Tuesday.
Israel says it won't stop the assault until its southern towns are freed of the threat of Palestinian rocket fire and it receives international guarantees that Hamas, a militant group backed by Iran and Syria, will not restock its weapons stockpile. It blames Hamas for the civilian casualties, saying the group intentionally seeks cover in crowded residential areas.
"The battle is bitter but unavoidable. We set out on this operation in order to deal Hamas a heavy blow and to alter living conditions in the south of the country and to block smuggling into the Gaza Strip," Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
The army says it has dealt=2 0a harsh blow to Hamas, killing 130 militants in the past two days and greatly reducing the rocket fire. At least 15 rockets were fired Tuesday and one landed in the town of Gadera, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the Gaza border, lightly wounding a 3-month-old infant, police said. At the outset of the fighting, militants launched dozens of rockets each day.
Hamas is believed to have 20,000 fighters.
Israeli forces have seized the main Gaza highway in several places, cutting the strip into northern, southern and central sectors and preventing movement between them. Israel also has taken over high-rise buildings in Gaza City and destroyed dozens of smuggling tunnels — Hamas' main lifeline — along the Egyptian border.
Late Monday, a paratroop officer and three Israeli infantrymen were killed in two separate friendly fire incidents, the military said. Heavy Israeli casualties could threaten to undermine what so far has been wide public support for the operation.
A high-level European Union delegation met with President Shimon Peres on Tuesday in a futile bid to end the violence. Commissioner Benita Ferraro-Waldner acknowledged Israel's right to self-defense, but said its response was disproportionate.
"We have come to Israel in order to advance the initiative for a humanitarian cease-fire and I will tell you, Mr. President, that you have a serious problem with international advocacy, and that Israel's image is being destroyed," she said, according to a statement from Peres' office.
In Geneva, the international Red Cross said Gaza was in a "full-blown" humanitarian crisis. Its head of operations, Pierre Kraehenbuehl, said the few remaining power supplies could collapse at any moment.
Israeli leaders say there is no humanitarian crisis and that they have allowed the delivery of vital supplies.
The EU delegation was one of a flurry of diplomatic efforts to forge a cease-fire. French President Nicolas Sarkozy left Israel after a day of meetings with leaders.
Europe "wants a cease-fire as quickly as possible," Sarkozy said Monday, urging Israel to halt the offensive, while blaming Hamas for acting "irresponsibly and unpardonably. "
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stressed to Sarkozy that any agreement "must contain at its foundation the total cessation of all arms transfers to Hamas," said Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev.
Regev noted that Hamas used a previous six-month truce to double the range of its rockets. About one-eighth of Israel's 7 million citizens now live in rocket range.
International Mideast envoy Tony Blair said ensuring weapons smuggling to Hamas is halted would be a key step to restoring calm.
Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, Blair said that stopping Hamas' rocket supply would be a "very significant advance in terms of Israel's security," which would allow Israel to halt its offensive and relieve the suffering of Gaza's civilians.
He would not give details of an international proposal to stop the flow of weapons into Gaza from Egypt.
In New York, Arab delegates met with the U.N. Security Council, urging members to adopt a resolution calling for an immediate end to the attacks and a permanent cease-fire. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a Hamas rival who runs a separate government from the West Bank, was expected Tuesday morning to press his case.
Before Tuesday's deaths, U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said the overall Palestinian toll since the opening of the Gaza campaign on Dec. 27 stood at about 500, with about 125 of them civilians.
Israeli forces detained 80 Palestinians — some of them suspected Hamas members — and transferred several to Israel for interrogation, said military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to release the information.
I srael's operation has angered many across the Arab world and has drawn criticism from countries such as Turkey, Egypt and Jordan, which have ties with Israel and have been intimately involved in Mideast peacemaking.
Barzak reported from Gaza City, Weizman from Jerusalem.
“Unfortunately, this unimaginable carnage is being carried out with the political support of our own government,” said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper. “Elected officials must stand up for justice and demand an end to Israeli war crimes.”
Hooper noted that President-elect Barack Obama today broke his silence on the Gaza crisis to express deep concern about civilian deaths and vowed to push for Middle East peace.
Earlier today, CAIR demanded that the Bush administration condemn the “massacre” of more than 40 Palestinian civilians who sought shelter from Israeli attacks at a United Nations school in the Gaza Strip.
More than 600 Palestinians, including whole families, have already been killed in Israeli attacks.
Israel has barred journalists from entering Gaza to report on the results of its attacks or on the humanitarian crisis caused by its blockade of food, medicine and other essential supplies.
Yesterday, CAIR outlined 10 positive, pro-active steps American Muslims and other people of conscience can take to help end Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, restore the cease-fire and the flow of humanitarian aid and promote a more balanced U.S. policy in the Middle East.
CAIR’s “10 Steps to Help Gaza” included taking part in the upcoming “Let Gaza Live” National March on Washington this Saturday in Lafayette Park outside the White House (http://www.answercoalition.org) and signing CAIR’s online petition urging American leaders to speak "in favor of peace and justice for all parties in the current humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Gaza Strip” (http://petition.cair.com/).
CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 35 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.
CONTACT: CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail:
; CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787, E-Mail:
ADC Demands Immediate Investigation into Israeli Massacre at UN School
PRESS RELEASE
Washington, DC | January 6, 2009 | www.adc.org | The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) calls on the United Nations (UN), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and the International Community to investigate Israel's bombing of a UN-operated school in Gaza, killing over 40 Palestinians. ADC also called on the Bush Administration and President-elect Obama to publicly address and repudiate today's tragedy and the ongoing violence and humanitarian crisis. The bombing of civilian populations is a violation of international humanitarian law and the laws of war including the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.
According to reports, Israel bombed this UN-operated school, located in the Jabaliya refugee camp, killing many civilians who had sought shelter from Israel's continued bombardment and blockade of the Gaza Strip. The tactics of the Israeli Army, using heavy artillery, helicopter fire and massive bombs from fighter jets on the dense and overwhelmingly civilian Gaza Strip has caused more than 640 civilian deaths and 3,000 injuries, some people being maimed for life. The Israeli army said four of its soldiers had been killed in two separate friendly-fire incidents on Tuesday, when errant Israeli tank shells hit their positions and 60 Israelis have been injured by rocket attacks launched from Gaza into southern Israel.
The residents of Gaza, one of the most densely populated areas in the World, are surrounded by Israel's military occupation and they have no place to take refuge from the ongoing onslaught. More than 18 months ago, Israel began to blockade Gaza, leaving the residents of Gaza with limited to no access to water, electricity, food, and medicine. Even before Israel began its military assault ten days ago there was a growing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, now the situation is even more dire and desperate.
Food is hard to come by because of Israel's ongoing blockade of Gaza and now it's even more expensive for those who can actually afford to buy food. Gaza's water authorities indicated wells in Gaza are not working due to lack of power and damage to the pipes, while others are operating only partially.
Hospitals are overwhelmed and lack basic necessities, if people can even get to the hospitals. Emergency aid workers have been unable to reach the wounded and supplies for hospitals are being held up and not reaching their destinations. Hospitals are relying on backup generators for electricity and rolling electricity cuts leave patients in jeopardy.
Report from Gaza:
Day 11 of Israeli War On Gaza Palestinians flee their houses but Israeli rockets kill them in schools
By: Sameh A. Habeeb
Dear Editors, Journalists and Friends,
The ground military operation started 72 hours ago. Below is a new report for the 11th day of Gaza War and the outcomes of Israeli invasion. For more reporting, breaking news, interviews and accounts in Gaza, you could reach me on my contact info below. Please try both numbers below because there is a big problem in communication resulted in Israeli power cuts.
I'm available 24 hours for media coverage in occupied Gaza. You could reach me any time in my house. welcome to call me on this number in the night:
Please, make sure you forward this email to those who you feel are interested in this matter.
Day 11 of Israeli War On Gaza Death toll 620, injured 3000 and most of them Civilians
By Sameh A. Habeeb, A Photojournalist, Humanitarian & Peace Activist in Gaza Strip.
*Numbers and Figures of Israeli War on Gaza:
*Total death toll: 620 while Wounded: 3000.
*Civilians: 220 children and 130 women killed since the start of this War. Many old men and young people were killed and the number is estimated of 80 and this is all according to the Medical sources.
*Thus, we could say so far: Around 430 civilians killed and 190 are policemen and militants.
* More than 1 thousand child among the wounded!
*11 Ambulances bombed and 4 vans for civil defense hit.
*30 paramedics wounded and 7 killed.
Deadly Outcomes of Israeli Ground Military Operation:
1-Bombings in Jabalia Refugee Camps, 5 killed and several wounded. Many houses were damaged in the camp while hundreds of people leave their houses into some schools and safer places.
2-Israeli F16s bombarded two adjacent houses for Al Shorafa family in Toffah area. The houses were hit without previous notification. Many people killed and several wounded.
3-A massare against house of Al Daya family southern east of Gaza City. The father was killed, the mother, his son Fayez, his daughter in law Rawans, infant 6-month-baby Muhammad, 5-year-old Sharf Al Din, Ala' aged 8 years, Rania aged 12 and Doha 3 years. Other 5 people were killed in the same house while many still under the rubbles of the 4-floor-house.
4- Marzouq Family hit in Al Toffah area. Many wounded and no news if there are victims or not!
5-Israeli drone killed 3 young guys refugee to one of the schools in Al Shati' Refugee Camp. They were hit by a rocket while they were drinking water inside the school.
6-Medical sources: 13 palestinian women and children arrived to Al Shifa' hospital due to Israeli shelling in Al Toffah quarter.
7-Gaza Local Radios: Thousands of Palestinians shelter to UNRWA schools mid of Gaza as Israeli army threatened of a genocide against them. Some of theose at schools are wounded and unable to reach hospitals.
8-F16s rebombarded Al Saraya security compound last night. The place totally turned rubbles.
9-Bombings target Al Baurej centeral market. Many wounded and 2 killed.
10-Bombings targeted Abu Ghanima family in Al Zaytoun area. The house includes around 12 people. Some injured, some killed and some others under rubbles.
11-A horrendous massacare: 45 civilians! Killed due to heavy Israeli bombings targeted them at Al Fakhora school in Jabalia town. The families and victims took this school a shelter from Israeli strikes. Around 100 wounded and many in critical conditions now!
12-A house for shamalkh family bombed to rubbles due bombings targeted a mosque in the area. Two palestinains killed, 10 wounded and 5 in critical conditions.
13-A house destroyed due to air raid in Khan Yonis town of Abasan.
14-Bombings in Al Shati' camp claimed the life of one civilian and many wounded in the place.
15-Israeli rockets hit Qlaibo area north of Gaza and no wounded to be reported in the raid.
16-A house for Isi family hit in Al Toffah area.
17-A house hit near Mus'ab Bin omair Mosque and many houses burnt due to the shelling north of Gaza.
18- One Palestinian killed and 6 wounded in the Israeli air raids in Absan town in Khan Yonis.
19-Al Samouni Family: around 20 members of our family killed and another 25 under the rubbles of the house.
20-Power Transistors destroyed in the northern area.
21-Artillary shell kills a child, Merwan Ubaid, in Abasan town east of Kgan yonis.
22-Around 25 houses damaged due to artillery shells in Rafah City.
23-A house for Al alool family destroyed at Bait Lahia twon.
24-Five wounded in a rocket hit Khoza'a family.
25-Heavy bombings in the agricultural and farms in the northern areas.
26-A woman from Ghomaida family killed and her husband wounded in the northern areas of Gaza.
27-Mass bombings in Al shijaya area and many wounded and arrived at Al Shifa' hospital.
28-Rockets targeted a house in Al Sheikh Ridwan and 5 wounded, one in critical conditions.
29-Pycatcrics: thousands of children turned traumatized due to the ongoing bombings.
30-Palestinian militants fire 30 rockets into the Israeli settlements.
31-Rockets hit the main Market of Gaza with heavy F116s rockets.
Day 10 of Israeli War On Gaza
Death toll 600, injured 2800, New "Nakba" & Refugees
By Sameh A. Habeeb, A Photojournalist, Humanitarian & Peace Activist in Gaza Strip.
Gaza Strip,5, January, 2oo9- Israeli War on Gaza still rise up in various points through the occupied Gaza Strip. More civilians killed in opposition of Israeli announced aim of hitting the Hamas militants. Monday morning a massacre happened in Al Zaytoun Quarter as Israeli army gathered around 30 persons in one house and then bombed them. Medical sources said that 14 killed and 60 injured. Around 10 of them children some are women and some other youth old people.
The heaviest ongoing bombing of Air forces and artillery shells pushed thousands of civilians to internally I migrate to the western areas of the Strip. Ironically, the western areas are not safer to be taken a shelter by those new refugees as Israeli naval gunboats await for them. Many bombs were fired from these vessels killing family in Al Shati' camp and injured sveral other in Al Nusairat Refugee Camp.
In the north of Gaza, thousands of Bait Hanon residents of and eastern Jabalia are leaving their homes into the western areas.
Humanitarian conditions severely exacerbated. Civilians don't have drinking water nor any kind of water for daily use. Add to that, basics of food like bread, cocking oil, rice, beans and sugar are no longer available in the markets.
Meanwhile, medical sector is totally paralyzed due to lack of human resources from cadre and doctors and a severe shortage in medicines and medical tools. The amount of victims is obviously huger than the abilities of the already arduous hospitals which suffer a siege of 18 months.
Deadly Outcomes of Israeli Ground Military Operation:
1- Israeli air force bombarded many houses at Al shati' Refugee Camp. Medical sources said that 35 Palestinians wounded.
2-Israeli Air strike from Apache helicopters targeted a 3-floor-house for Al Ghandour family in Al Daraj area. An Atmosphere of fear and panic through put residents of the area.
3-Air strike on Omar Bin Abd Al ziz mosque and many people injured in the area.
4-Two Palestinians wounded as Israeli air raid targeted a house in Al Zaytoun area. Another air raid hit a workshop in Al daraj area and many people injured.
5-A number of casualties and wounded as Israeli air force targeted a house near a mosque in Al Zaytoun quarter.
6-Many houses burned and destroyed in a heavy bombing in Al Zaytoun Area.
7-Israeli airforce retargeted Al Uma College in Al Nasir Quarter west north of Gaza Strip.
8-One Palestinian killed and 5 wounded in an air raid on civilian car in Al Shati' Refugee Camp.
9-A rocket destroyed to rubble "Light society" which is a charity working in support of orphans and needy Palestinians. The society includes a physical therapy section for the poorest. The society is linked to Al Jihad Islamist movement.
10-Three Palestinians killed, 9 wounded in an Israeli air raid due to a bomb turned a house to rubbles in Al Nusairat Refugee Camp.
11-A house for the Popular Front key leader, Jameel Mizhar, partially destroyed in Al Nusairat Refugee Camp.
12-A group of civilians bombed in Al Nusairat Refugee Camp. Many injured but mostly with light wounds.
13-Israeli soldiers occupied most of civilians houses in Juhr El Dik.
12-Three Palestinians died due to their injuries in Egypt. They were lately wounded in Gaza and referred to Egypt.
13-Two civilians wounded due to an air raid targeted a house for Al Samoni family in Al Zaytoun Quarter.
14- A Massacre: Samuni family says: Israeli soldiers gather 30 persons from Al Samoni family in one house. Ten families were in the house from the same clan. Many civilians were killed as artillery shells bombed the house. The number of victims around 14, most of them are children and women. Some are in critical conditions!
15-Two wounded due to a rocket hit the house of Othman Ghaleb in Al Nusairat Refugee Camp.
16-A house of Sayed Baroud in the Al Nusairat Refugee Camp hit. The house was damaged and many neighboring houses too. The houses based in a densely populated Refugee camp.
17-Three Palestinians killed from Abd Al Dayim family due to a bombing in Bait Hanon town north of Gaza Strip.
18- Airstrike from drones near AL huda mosque in Yibna in Rafah town.
19-Israeli tanks and after launching new bases; its soldiers open fire and artillery shells on buildings of Al Zahra' City. Many buildings partially damaged and burnt.
20-A body of a woman killed three days ago still unreachable due to Israeli heavy fire on Bait lahia town. The killed woman from Abu Samaha family.
21-A new sky rocket destroyed the house of Ibrhaim Abu Al Naja in Rafah City.
22-Israeli soldiers stormed into Abu Khosa house and many people wounded due to Israeli gunfire.
23-A fire ignited in a cement factory near Zimo Crossings east of Jabalia City. The fire resulted in Israeli artillery shells.
24-Israeli soldiers took a school shelter and many civilians in the same school.
25- Air raid targeted a shop of money exchange in Remal quarter mid of Gaza City. Shrapnel hit many shops around and some lightly injured.
26-Doctors in Al Shifa' hospital: Many burnt bodied arrived to Al Shifa' hospital and some bodies torn to pieces.
27-Medical statistics: 90 civilians mostly women and children killed with the start of military operation 48 hours ago.
28-Rockets hit some farming and populated spaces in Khan Yonis City. Several trauma cases arrived to Nasir hospital in the city.
29-Two houses bombarded in Al amal quarter. One of the houses belongs to Yasir Hamadan and the other one belongs to Nedal Kollab.
30- A house belongs to Khail family destroyed by an Aritliary shell in Al Zaytoun area. Residents of the house were directky injured in the bombings.
31-Four families trapped in their houses in Jabal El Kashif area north of the occupied Gaza strip.
32-50 people wounded on the ongoing deadly shelling from the Israeli tanks east of Gaza City, Jabal al rayis area. The shelling targeted Mahalh family and many children are being wounded.
32- A five-year-old girl and her grandfather from Al Helu family killed in Israeli shell. The Some of family members are in critical conditions including the mother.
33- A number of tunnels hit in Rafah City south of Gaza Strip.
34-Israeli army destroyed a house to rubbles into Jabalia town near Al salam mosque.
35-Israeli army gets closer and closer to the densely populated area in al zayoutn area east south.
36-Three Palestinian militants killed due to Israeli rockets targeted them in Gaza City.
37-Three children and their mother killed during a shell hit their house in Al shija'ya area east of Gaza. The victims were in their house during the shelling. Their bodies were torn to pieces.
38-A Palestinian bleeds near Al zayotun quarter and paramedics not able to reach him. No news of he is still alive or he died.
39-Abd Al salam hilis, wounded near Jabalia, he is still in the same place and unreachable due to the Israeli heavy fire.
40-A number of civilians wounded and maybe injured due to a bombing targeted their house in Al Zaytoun area. Victims still unreachable due to the flaming situation in that Quarter.
41-A rocket targeted house of Al harzaeen family in Sika area between Al Shij'ya and Zaytoun Quarter.
42-A Palestinian woman killed in her house in Al Moghraqa quarter mid of Gaza City. Three civilians wounded in his area which is out of resistance as Israel occupied it yesterday.
43-Naval gunboats raided on Al Nusairat Refugee Camp and many people wounded in the action.
44-Two Palestinians killed 2 days ago in Bait Hanon, paramedics unable to reach them till now.
45-Two Palestinian women from Hajaj family killed in Juhr El Dik town east sout of Gaza City.
46-Fuel stockpile runs out from Al Awda hospital northern Gaza Strip. Medical Paramedics of the hospital were targeted many times by Israeli fire.
43-Palestinian killed while driving his motorcycle in Gaza due to an Israeli rocket fire by a drone.
44-Bloody clashes between Palestinian factions and Israeli organized army east of Gaza City. Israeli army is firing back using Apache and heavy artillery shells. Many people wounded and no upcoming news if militants are being targeted.
45-Israeli air force targeted many houses in Gaza Strip.
(Compiled by: Citizens for Legitimate Government, information clearinghouse, Peace NO War Network Information Service, Palestine Watch, The Electronic Intifada and others)
Gates estimates 2009 war costs at $136 billion 06 Jan 2009 Defense Secretary Robert Gates says [illegal] military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan would cost almost $136 billion for the 2009 budget year that began Oct. 1 if they continue at their current pace. Gates told top lawmakers in a New Year's Eve letter that the Pentagon would need nearly $70 billion more to supplement the $66 billion approved last year.
Israeli 'eyes' fixed on Lebanon 06 Jan 2009 Tel Aviv has warned Hezbollah against intervening in the war on Gaza after Israeli fighter jets conducted overflights into Lebanon. In a veiled reference to Hezbollah on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tel Aviv is on high alert to respond to any threat coming from its northern fronts. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak also issued a strong warning to Hezbollah.
Israel shells houses, schools in 11th day of offensive 07 Jan 2009 Israel pressed on with its airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on Tuesday by shelling houses and a school run by the United Nations, killing 82 Palestinians, the majority women and children, in the eleventh day of violence. An Israeli air and ground strike on al-Fakhoura school run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Jabalia refugee camp on Tuesday evening killed 46 people and wounded 150 others, medics said.
Israel hits UN-run Gaza schools --Palestinian death toll hits 635 as Israel keeps pounding Gaza Strip indiscriminately. 06 Jan 2009 Israeli tanks and troops surged into towns across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday striking three UN-run schools killed at least 45 people sparking urgent new ceasefire calls. Troops fought Hamas fighters around the back alleys of Gaza's main city in the heaviest fighting of the 11-day-old offensive aimed at halting rocket attacks, but Hamas still made its deepest rocket strike yet into Israel.
U.N. official says Gaza school was clearly marked 06 Jan 2009 A U.N. official in Gaza said a school where dozens of Palestinians were killed by tank shells on Tuesday was clearly marked with a U.N. flag and its location had been reported to Israeli authorities. John Ging, director of operations in Gaza for UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said the death toll in the Israeli artillery strike near the school in Jabalya refugee camp was 30 dead with another 55 people injured. Medical officials on the spot have said more than 40 people were killed.
Israel splits Gaza in three as soldiers battle Hamas [and civilians] 05 Jan 2009 Israeli tanks and infantry battalions swept up to the edges of Gaza City yesterday, battling Hamas fighters and sealing off the bomb-scarred capital city from the rest of the coastal territory. With the civilian death toll rising by the hour and diplomatic efforts to halt the fighting making no headway, the head of the UN refugee agency called the situation a catastrophe. Israel made clear that it was not about to heed calls for a swift ceasefire.
Four Israeli soldiers die in friendly fire incidents 05 Jan 2009 Israel's Golani Brigade 13th Battalion suffered heavy casualties on Monday in the army's Cast Lead offensive. Three soldiers were killed and another 20 were wounded, including brigade commander Colonel Avi Peled when fired on by an Israeli tank.
IDF ban on reporters in Gaza Strip combat zones leading to limited coverage 07 Jan 2009 The Israel Defense Forces' refusal to allow reporters into the combat zones in the Gaza Strip is making it difficult for journalists, including television stations interested in broadcasting video from the field, to cover the fighting in Gaza. The IDF ban is forcing journalists to rely on reports from Israeli soldiers and the IDF spokesman.
Israel bombs Gaza media installations; two journalists killed 06 Jan 2009 Israel deliberately targeted Hamas-run media installations in its bombing campaign on Gaza and is practising media censorship, a journalist rights group said Monday. The installations in question include Al-Aqsa television, Al-Resalah newspaper and Sawt Al-Aqsa radio, which the Israeli army bombed on December 28 and over the weekend respectively, the Geneva-based Press Emblem Campaign said in a statement, citing a Palestinian media non-governmental group. The press group also condemned the recent deaths of two journalists as a result of Israeli attacks.
Egypt bars doctors from entering Gaza Strip 06 Jan 2009 Frustration is mounting at Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip, where many local and foreign doctors are stuck after Egyptian authorities denied them entry into the coastal area now under an Israeli ground invasion. Anesthesiologist Dimitrios Mognie from Greece idles his time at a cafe near the border, drinking tea and chatting with other doctors, aid workers and curious Egyptians. "This is a shame," said Mognie, who decided to use his vacation time to try help Gazans.
MAP: On the Ground in Gaza --The Injured Out of Reach 06 Jan 2009 MAP [Medical Aid for Palestinians] staff in Gaza report that over 70 Palestinians have been killed so far today including 40 in a UN school. Heavy Israeli fire continues to hit buildings across Gaza although it seems that the brunt of the actual fighting occurs at night. Although medical aid has been able to reach the central stores in Gaza city at present Israeli internal military checkpoints have prevented it reaching parts of the middle area and the south.
Wounded Gaza family lay bleeding for 20 hours 05 Jan 2009 Three hours after the Israel Defense Forces began their ground operation in the Gaza Strip, at about 10:30 P.M. Saturday night, a shell or missile hit the house owned by Hussein al A'aiedy and his brothers. Twenty-one people live in the isolated house, located in an agricultural area east of Gaza City's Zeitoun neighborhood. Five of them were wounded in the strike: Two women in their eighties (his mother and aunt), his 14-year-old son, his 13-year-old niece and his 10-year-old nephew. Twenty hours later, the wounded were still bleeding in a shed in the courtyard of the house. There was no electricity, no heat, no water. Their relatives were with them, but every time they tried to leave the courtyard to fetch water, the army shot at them.
Peres: Israel not worried by international image [Obviously.] 06 Jan 2009 Israeli President Shimon Peres on Tuesday blasted European efforts to seek a halt to the Gaza conflict insisting that Israel was not worried about its international image, his office said. "Europe must open its eyes. We are not in the business of public relations or improving our image. We are fighting against terror, and we have every right to defend our citizens," the Nobel Peace Prize winning leader told an EU ministerial delegation.
Top 5 Lies About Israel's Assault on Gaza By Jeremy R. Hammond 03 Jan 2009 Lie #1 Israel is only targeting legitimate military sites and is seeking to protect innocent lives. Israel never targets civilians. The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated pieces of property in the world. The presence of militants within a civilian population does not, under international law, deprive that population of their protected status, and hence any assault upon that population under the guise of targeting militants is, in fact, a war crime.
Iran bans companies with suspect Israel ties 06 Jan 2009 Iran announced on Tuesday that it would ban international companies in which Israelis may have shares from work in the country. The move was meant as a gesture of support for Hamas - a top Iran ally which is under an Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip. The official IRNA news agency reported that Industry Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian issued the order in response to Israel's assault on Gaza.
Israel Kills 40 Palestinian At UN School By Aljazeera: Earlier in the day, two people were killed when an artillery shell hit a school in the southern town of Khan Yunis and three people were killed in an air strike on a school in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, medics said. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21650.htm
Uncensored Video Report From Dr. In Gaza Hospital "This is an all-out war against the civilian Palestinian population" Dr . Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor in Gaza, tells Sky News that the number of civilians injured and killed in Gaza proves that Israel is deliberately attacking the population. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21654.htm
Israel rains fire on Gaza with phosphorus shells 05 Jan 2009 Israel is believed to be using controversial white phosphorus shells to screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip yesterday. The weapon, used by British and US forces in Iraq, can cause horrific burns but is not illegal if used as a smokescreen. As the Israeli army stormed to the edges of Gaza City and the Palestinian death toll topped 500, the tell-tale shells could be seen spreading tentacles of thick white smoke to cover the troops’ advance. Burning blobs of phosphorus would cause severe injuries to anyone caught beneath them and force would-be snipers or operators of remote-controlled booby traps to take cover. Israel admitted using white phosphorus during its 2006 war with Lebanon.
Israel Stocks Rise With Global Equities as Investors Ignore War 05 Jan 2009 Investors in Israeli stocks are disregarding a war less than 60 kilometers (37 miles) away from the commercial center in Tel Aviv, helping the TA-25 index rebound from its worst year since 1983... The benchmark TA-25 index has climbed 7.4 percent since Dec. 27 when Israel started its campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, tracking a rise in global equities.
Israel drives deeper into Gaza, rebuffing diplomatic efforts 06 Jan 2009 Israeli troops commandeered high-rise buildings in three eastern districts of Gaza City on Monday, expelling residents and shooting militants civilians in the streets in its furious effort to break Hamas's fighting ability as European diplomats poured into the region seeking a cease-fire. The 10th day of Israel's war on the Islamist rulers of Gaza also killed more civilians, including about 12 children, pushing the total death toll to 550, and severely strained fuel and water supplies for hundreds of thousands.
Olmert rebuffs Sarkozy call for Gaza ceasefire 05 Jan 2009 French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged Israel on Monday to halt its war in Gaza, but was rebuffed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who rejected any truce that fails to end the Islamist group's rocket attacks on Israel. Sarkozy met Olmert after talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the architect of a six-month truce whose expiry on December 19 unleashed a series of events that resulted in the Israeli invasion of Gaza.
Israeli army moves on Gaza City as war toll passes 510 05 Jan 2009 Israeli troops and Hamas fighters battled at dawn in Gaza on Monday amid tank, artillery and air strikes, as the death toll from the offensive to end rocket attacks passed 510. Israeli forces moved into the fringes of Gaza City as families fled or remained hidden after a second night of combat.
Israel intensifies violations of Lebanon's airspace 06 Jan 2009 Israel's air force stepped up reconnaissance flights over Beirut on Monday after a senior Israeli intelligence chief warned politicians that Hizbullah could launch an attack across the Lebanese border. Several Israeli warplanes violated Lebanese airspace on Monday, flying over Hizbullah's political strongholds in Beirut's southern suburbs.
Israeli killings 'state terrorism,' Brown told by advisory group 06 Jan 2009 The Young Muslim Advisory Group (YMAG) has raised concerns in a letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown about the failure by the Government to condemn Israel’s killing of more than 500 Palestinians in Gaza as an 'act of state terrorism.'
70,000 Iranian suicide bombers ready to fight Israel --Tens of thousands of Iranian students said to respond to hardliners' call to avenge Israeli offensive in Gaza 05 Jan 2009 More than 70,000 Iranian student volunteers have registered to carry out suicide bombings against Israel because of Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip. According to the official IRNA news agency, hard-line student leader Esmaeil Ahmadi said the students want to fight Israel in support of Hamas – Gaza's Islamic militant rulers.
Keeping out the cameras and reporters simply doesn't work By Robert Fisk 05 Jan 2009 What is Israel afraid of? Using the old "enclosed military area" excuse to prevent coverage of its occupation of Palestinian land has been going on for years. ...[T]he Israelis are so ruthless that the reasons for the ban on journalism may be quite easily explained: that so many Israeli soldiers are going to kill so many innocents – more than three score by last night, and that's only the ones we know about – that images of the slaughter would be too much to tolerate. Not that the Palestinians have done much to help.
Hands off Gaza! (WSWS) 05 Jan 2009 The International Committee of the Fourth International and the World Socialist Web Site denounce the Israeli military's murderous assault on the Palestinian population of Gaza. The combined air and ground attack on the densely populated and virtually defenseless enclave is a war crime.
WITNESSES TO ISRAEL'S WAR CRIMES By Rami Almeghari, Live from Palestine, 6 January 2009 Israel claims to have attacked 1,000 of what it calls "Hamas targets." Independent media, UN aid officials and human rights organizations have documented that most of these attacks struck private homes, mosques, universities, schools, government buildings, police stations and charities. As of 6 January, the death toll from the Israeli attack approached 600 with thousands more injured. The Electronic Intifada correspondent Rami Almeghari reports from the besieged Gaza Strip.
ISRAEL'S FABRICATED ROCKET CRISIS By Jim Holstun and Joanna Tinker, The Electronic Intifada, 6 January 2009 We have heard, and we will continue to hear, a droning litany of "Qassams! Qassams! Qassams!" The repetition will be difficult to resist, but for all of us who remember the reiterated US lies about Iraq of 2002-2003, whether with pride for our skepticism or shame for our credulity, a good first step might be for us to think "WMDs!" every time they say "Qassams!" Like the US Coalition of the Willing, Israel's Operation Cast Lead has not let the absence of actual provocation get in the way of a good bloodbath. Jim Holstun and Joanna Tinker analyze for The Electronic Intifada.
EGYPT GOVERNMENT FEELS ITS PEOPLE'S IRE By Per Bjoerklund, The Electronic Intifada, 5 January 2009 Thousands of Egyptians have taken to the streets to protest the continuing Israeli aggression against Gaza and the participation of the Egyptian regime in the isolation of its population. Last Wednesday, the state responded with a major crackdown in which tens of protestors and journalists were assaulted and arrested. Per Bjoerklund reports from Cairo.
'As I Ran I Saw Three Of My Children. All Dead' By Hazem Balousha in Gaza City and Rory McCarthy The small dead bodies were laid next to one another on the tiled floor of the morgue corridor, the blood drained from their cheeks. One had a bandage still wrapped around his head, another lay with his mouth half-open in his oversized, bloodstained clothes. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21652.htm
Israel Censors the Media "Not the conduct of a democratic state" A report on the restrictions faced by the Media on the reporting of Israeli actions inside the Gaza Strip. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21659.htm
The Bloodbath In Gaza Separating the Truth from the Hype By Mike Whitney: It wouldn't make a bit of difference if Hamas surrendered tomorrow and handed-over all its weapons to Israel, because the problem isn't Hamas; it's Zionism, the deeply-flawed ideology which leads to bombing children in their homes while clinging to victim-hood. Ideas have consequences. Gaza proves it. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21663.htm
The Real Real Reason Behind The Attack On Gaza ANALYSIS / The Unspoken Goal of Bringing Down Hamas in Gaza By Amir Oren: Hamas must agree to a coexistence in Gaza - of the Hamas government, stripped of its rockets; the forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas along the Philadelphi Route ?(the two battalions trained in Jordan by the United States?); and perhaps also an inter-Arab or international force at the border crossings. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21651.htm
The Real Estate War in Gaza The History and "Morals" of Ethnic Cleansing
By Victoria Buch: I arrived in Israel 40 years ago. It took me many years to understand that the very existence of my country, as it is today, is based on an ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21660.htm
Ann Frank Alive In Gaza Genocide in the Gaza Ghetto By Michael: Inside this tiny enclave i have heard that Ann Frank is alive and well Ann is hiding from the bombs and the door-to-door search looking for her and her kind As they blast holes in the walls from house to house They shoot at anything that moves or anyone with a rock in their hand. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21662.htm
What Silence Says Gaza is Still Waiting on Obama By Tami Sarfatti and Yonatan Mendel: Your silence Mr. President Elect Obama is ringing very loud in the ears of the people of this region. It creates despair in those who had the audacity to hope for change. And despair is a dangerous engine. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21661.htm
Where's Osama? By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich: It seems that the outgoing Christian President and his gang of neocon thugs were so busy giving the green light to the Israelis to commit genocide that they forgot a minor detail: OBL. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21657.htm
Have Bush and the Neocons Ruined it for the Israelis? By Juan Cole: The Israeli propaganda blitz around their attack on Gaza has been greeted with uncharacteristic skepticism by the American public and even by some of the mainstream US press. - If it is true that Americans are greeting Israeli talking points with more criticism this time, is it because we have been intensively exposed for the past 8 years to precisely this sort of mental manipulation by Bush-Cheney and their stable of Neoconservatives? http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21653.htm
In-depth Reports:
Inside Gaza
By Ewa Jasiewicz
http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2479079.0.inside_gaza.php WHEN I got there, the gates of Beit Hanoun hospital were shut, with teenage men hanging off them. The mass of people striving to get inside was a sign that there had been an attack. Inside the gates, the hospital was full. Parents, wives, cousins, emotionally frayed and overwhelmed, were leaning over injured loved ones.
The Israeli Apache helicopter had attacked at 3.15pm. Witnesses said that two missiles had been fired into the street in Hay al Amel, east Beit Hanoun, close to the border with Israel. With rumours of an imminent invasion this empty scrubland is rapidly becoming a no-man's land which people cross quickly, fearing attack by Israeli jets.
But the narrow, busy streets of the Boura area rarely escape the intensifying airstrikes.
Eyewitnesses said children had been playing and waiting in the streets there for their parents to finish praying at the nearby mosque. "We could see it so clearly, it was so close, we looked up and everyone ran. Those that couldn't were soon flat on the ground," said Khalil Abu Naseer, who was lucky to have escaped the incoming missile.
"Look at this, take it," insisted men in the street, handing me pieces of the missile the size of a fist, all with jagged edges.
"All the windows were blown out, our doors were blown in, there was glass everywhere," explained a neighbour. It was these lumps of missile, rock and flying glass that smashed into the legs, arms, stomachs, heads and backs of 16 people, two of them children, who had been brought to Beit Hanoun Hospital on Thursday afternoon.
Fadi Chabat, 24, was working in his shop, a small tin shack that was a community hub selling sweets, cigarettes and chewing gum. When the missile exploded, he suffered multiple injuries. He died on Friday morning in Kamal Adwahn Hospital in Jabaliya. As women attended the grieving room at Fadi Chabat's home yesterday to pay their respects, Israeli F16 fighter jets tore through the skies overhead and blasted four more bombs into the empty areas on the border. Two elderly women in traditional embroidered red and black dresses carrying small black plastic shopping bags moved as quickly as they could; others disappeared behind the walls of their homes, into courtyards and off the streets.
At Fadi's house the grief was still fresh. Nearly all the women were crying, a collective outpouring of grief and raw pain with free-flowing tears.
"He prayed five times a day, he was a good Muslim, he wasn't part of any group, not Fatah, not Hamas, not one, none of them, he was a good student, and he was different," said one of his sisters. She took me to see Fadi's younger brother, who had been wounded in the same airstrike. Omar, eight, was sitting on his own in a darkened bedroom on a foam mattress with gauze on his back covering his wounds.
"He witnessed everything, he saw it all," the sisters explained. "He kept saying, I saw the missile, I saw it, Fadi's been hit by a missile'."
The memory sets Omar off into more tears, his sisters, mother and aunts breaking down along with him.
Nine-year-old Ismaeel, who had been on the street with his sisters Leema, four, and Haya, 12, had been taking out rubbish when they were struck by the missiles.
Ismaeel had been brought into the hospital still breathing and doctors at first though he would pull through, but in the end he died of internal injuries.
Within the past six days in Beit Hanoun alone, according to hospital records seven people have been killed, among them three children and a mother of ten other youngsters. Another 75 people have been injured, including 29 children and 17 women.
As well as the fatalities and wounded, hundreds of homes have had their windows blown out and been damaged by flying debris and shrapnel. Two homes have been totally destroyed. Nearby the premises of two organisations have been reduced to rubble. One of them, the Sons of the City Charity, associated with Hamas, was blasted with two Apache-fired missiles, gutting a neighbouring apartment in the process and breaking windows at Beit Hanoun Hospital. The Cultural Development Association and the offices of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, were levelled by bombs dropped from F16 jets.
It is hard to imagine what the Israeli pilots of these aircraft see from so far up in the sky. Do they see people walking; standing around and talking in the street; kids with sticks chasing each other in play? Or are the figures digitised, micro-people, perhaps just blips on a screen?
Whatever is seen from the air, the victims are often ordinary people. Last Thursday night saw volunteers from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Beit Hanoun take to the streets in an effort to save lives. Like all emergency medical staff in Gaza, they risk death working in the maelstrom of every Israeli invasion, during curfews and night fighting.
In one of the ambulances during an evening of total darkness caused by nightly power cuts, I meet Yusri, a veteran of more than 14 years of Israeli incursions into the Beit Hanoun district of Gaza. Moustachioed, energetic, and gregarious, Yusri is in his 40s and a local hero. Seen by people within the community as a man who rarely sleeps, he is a front-line paramedic who zooms through Gaza's streets to reach casualties, ambulance horn blaring as he shouts through a loudhailer for onlookers and the dazed to get out of the way.
"Where's the strike?" Yusri asks locals, as we pick our way through a gutted charred charity office and the house of the Tarahan family. Their home, on the buffer zone, has been reduced to a concrete sandwich. There are six casualties, but miraculously none of them are serious.
Beit Hanoun Hospital is a simple, 48-bed local facility with no intensive care unit, decrepit metal stretchers and rickety beds. I drink tea in a simple office with a garrulous crowd of ear, nose and throat specialists, surgeons and paediatricians. The talk is all about politics: how the plan for Gaza is to merge it with Egypt; how Israel doesn't want to liquidate Hamas as it serves their goal of a divided Palestine to have a weak Hamas alienated from the West Bank.
The chat is interrupted by lulls of intent listening as news crackles through on Sawt Al Shab ("The Voice Of The People"), Gaza's grassroots news station. Almost everyone here is tuned in. It is listened to by taxi drivers, families in their homes huddled around wood stoves or under blankets and groups of men on street corners crouched beside transistor radio sets.
It feeds live news on the latest resistance attacks, interspersed with political speeches from various leaders, and fighter music - thoaty, deep male voices united in buoyant battle songs about standing up, reclaiming al-Quds (Jerusalem) avenging fresh martyrs, and staying steadfast.
News is fed through on operations by armed wings of every political group active in Gaza; the Qasam (Hamas), the Abu Ali Mustapha Martyrs Brigade (PFLP), the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade (which is affiliated with Fatah) and Saraya al-Quds (Islamic Jihad). One thing is widely recognised - the attack on Gaza has brought all armed resistance groups together. However, everybody adds wryly that "once this is all over, they'll all break apart again".
One of the surgeons asks me about whether I'm scared, and whether I really think I have protection as a foreigner here. I talk in detail about Israel's responsibility to protect emergency services; to cease fire; to facilitate movement;, to respect the Geneva Conventions, including protection of civilians and injured combatants.
The surgeon talking to me is an intelligent man, highly respected in the community, in his late 40s. He takes his time, explaining to me in detail that all the evidence from everything Gazans have experienced points to Israel operating above the law - that there is no protection, that these laws, these conventions, do not seem to apply to Israel, nor does it abide by them, and that I should be afraid, very afraid, because Gazans are afraid.
He recounts a story from the November 2006 invasion which saw more than 60 people killed, one entire family in one day alone. About 100 tanks invaded Beit Hanoun, with one blocking each entrance for six days. He remembers how the Red Cross brought water and food and took away the refuse. All co-ordination was cut off with the Palestinian Authority. The same will happen this time, he insists. He remembers too how one ambulance driver, Yusri, a maverick, a hero, loved by all the staff and community, faced down the tanks to evacuate the injured. Yusri, the surgeon says, just drove up to the tank and started shouting through his loudhailer, telling them to move for the love of God because we had a casualty, then just swerved round them and made off.
Yusri has carried the injured and dead in every invasion in the past 14 years. He shows me a leg injury sustained when a tank rammed into his ambulance. The event was caught on camera by journalists, and a case brought against the Israel Occupation Forces, but they ruled the army had acted appropriately in self defence.
"Look in the back of the ambulance here, how many people do you think can fit in here? I was carrying 10 corpses at a time after the invasion, there was a man cut in two here in the back, it was horrific. But you carry on. I want to serve my country," he says.
During a prolonged power cut in that six-day invasion there was no electricity to power a ventilator, and doctors took turns hand pumping oxygen to keep one casualty alive for four hours before they could be transferred. Roads were bulldozed, ambulances were banned from moving, dead people lay in their homes for days, and when permission was finally given for the corpses' collection, medics had to carry them on stretchers along the main street. Today in Gaza everyone is terrified that such events are now repeating themselves, only worse. Gazans now feel collectively abandoned. The past week's massacres, indiscriminate attacks and overflowing hospitals, and the fact that anyone can be hit at any time in any place, has left people utterly terrorised. No-one dares think of what might become of them in these difficult and unpredictable days. As they say in Gaza, "Bein Allah" - "It's up to God".
Ewa Jasiewicz is a journalist and activist. She is currently the co-ordinator for the Free Gaza movement and one of the only international journalists on the ground in Gaza
As Europe calls for a ceasefire, Israel is accused of cruel tactics and use of deadly white phosphorous in its blood-soaked assault on Gaza.
A week ago, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced that "Operation Cast Lead," as the current bombing of Gaza has been dubbed, "will continue until all its goals are met."
Whatever those goals are, exactly, they are clearly incomplete; Barak told Israel's Army Radio, the strikes would intensify "as much as needed to meet the goals we set for ourselves, to bring quiet to the south."
Over a week after the start of this blood-soaked chapter in the Israel/Palestine saga, there is no quiet but the silence of the dead -- over 530, and counting. On Sunday, Israeli ground troops entered Gaza, escalating the violence. "At least 75 Palestinians have been killed since Saturday," the AFP reported on Monday, "when Israel upped a weeklong bombardment of Hamas targets in Gaza by pouring in ground troops into the densely populated territory."
More recently, it has been reported in the UK Times Online that the Israel Defense Forces is using white phosphorus in its attacks, a controversial substance that can cause excruciating burns, but nevertheless is not illegal if it is only used as a smokescreen. Banned by the Geneva conventions, white phosphorus has been used by the U.S. military in Iraq:
"...[T]he tell-tale shells could be seen spreading tentacles of thick white smoke to cover the troops' advance. "These explosions are fantastic looking, and produce a great deal of smoke that blinds the enemy so that our forces can move in," said one Israeli security expert. Burning blobs of phosphorus would cause severe injuries to anyone caught beneath them and force would-be snipers or operators of remote-controlled booby traps to take cover. Israel admitted using white phosphorus during its 2006 war with Lebanon."
After a week of doing pretty much nothing, Western leaders have started to respond to the crisis, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and (otherwise MIA) Middle East special envoy Tony Blair arriving in the region on Monday.
"We in Europe want a cease-fire as quickly as possible," Sarkozy said. " & The guns must fall silent, there must be a humanitarian truce. Everyone must understand that what is at stake here is not just an issue of Israel and Palestinians, it is a global issue, and it is the whole world which will help you find a solution."
Israeli officials continue to deny that there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. "There is no humanitarian crisis in the Strip, and therefore there is no need for a humanitarian truce," Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said during a visit to Paris on New Year's Day.
Reports out of Gaza prove otherwise. As of Sunday, local hospitals were relying on generators for electricity. "The U.N. has warned that power networks were down in large parts of the Gaza Strip on 4 January, with hospitals relying on generators," reported the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "Without power for pumps, 70 percent of Gazans are estimated to be without tap water."
According to IRIN: Israel has been blocking fuel supplies, and stocks are dwindling, the latest (Jan. 4) report by the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator in the occupied Palestinian territories said.
The Israeli Gisha organization, a nongovernmental organization, said seven of the 12 electricity lines in the enclave (the 12 lines normally supply about 70 percent of Gaza's electricity) were down and warned that the lack of power was causing sewage to flood into populated areas and farmland. There continued to be a risk of sustained flooding.
"The water and sewage system in Gaza is collapsing, cutting people off from the water supply and causing sewage to flood the streets," said Maher al-Najjar, deputy director of Gaza's water utility, CMWU. He also said 48 of Gaza's 130 wells were not working at all due to lack of electricity and damage to pipes. "At least 45 other wells are operating only partially and will shut down within days without additional supplies of fuel and electricity," al-Najjar said.
The question of whether there is a humanitarian crisis was further debated on Democracy Now on Monday morning, in a heated debate between Christopher Gunness of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency -- called in from Gaza, where he works to provide aid to some 750,000 refugees -- and Meagan Buren, a spokeswoman for the Israel Project in Washington.
Host Amy Goodman also interviewed Phyllis Bennis from the Institute for Policy Studies, who described the happenings over the weekend at the United Nations:
Bennis: & As we've seen so many times before, we have an instance of the United States preventing the Security Council from taking any action in the crisis in Gaza, whether it would be an actual move to impose a cease-fire, but they even went further than that to prevent even a statement from being issued, the sort of the lowest level of response from the Security Council.
The U.N. diplomats essentially said exactly what Condoleezza Rice said two years ago at the time of the Israeli attack on Lebanon, when she went before the council and said, "We don't want a cease-fire yet," essentially telling the world, there is not enough dead people yet. We want more dead people before we will call for a cease-fire. And that has been the consistent position of the Bush administration, including President Bush himself on his weekly radio address, and it was the same position taken this weekend.
Also on the program was Sameh A. Habeeb, a Palestinian journalist who has a blog, gazatoday.blogspot.com. Habeeb described the dividing of Gaza by the Israeli military:
" Gaza yesterday was being cut into two pieces. The north of Gaza and Gaza City are being cut from the south and the middle areas of the Gaza Strip. No one is allowed to go out or in "
In the area where I live, in the east of Gaza, the artillery shelling is still taking place. And a few minutes ago, around three shells landed in my area. And one guy was killed, and two were injured in hitting two houses. And this was one family.
Meanwhile, Israel's ban on foreign reporters from Gaza is raising protest. "Israel has never restricted media access like this before, and it should be ashamed," said Ethan Bronner, the New York Times bureau chief in Jerusalem. "It's betraying the principles by which it claims to live."
Not that the corporate U.S. media has been particularly balanced in its reporting to begin with. Over at the Huffington Post, Max Blumenthal examines the coverage since the start of the raids: Almost as soon as the first Israeli missile struck the Gaza Strip, a veteran cheering squad suited up to support the home team. "Israel is so scrupulous about civilian life," Charles Krauthammer claimed in the Washington Post. Echoing Krauthammer, Alan Dershowitz called the Israeli attack on Gaza, "Perfectly 'Proportionate.' " And in the New York Times, Israeli historian Benny Morris described his country's airstrikes as "highly efficient."
Despite this, Blumenthal notes that Americans don't seem to be showing the same lockstep support of Israel as the media is:
"So what accounts for the surprising trend in American opinion on Gaza? The proliferation of progressive online media and social networking sites could be a factor, but I have another theory: The same pundits who are cheerleading Israel's assault on Gaza once sold the occupation of Iraq to America, and with a nearly identical set of arguments."
Meanwhile, Barack Obama has been coming under fire for his silence on the Gaza attacks. Chris Hedges recently wrote, the president-elect's "only comment on the one-sided slaughter under way in Gaza was: 'If my daughters were living in a house that was being threatened by rocket attacks, I would do whatever it takes to end that situation.' "
If self-defense applies to Israel, why doesn't it apply to the Rayan family? -- while still-President George W. Bush seems hardly capable of mustering the energy to sound sincere about his hopes for a cease-fire (which he calls a "noble ambition"). "I understand Israel's desire to protect itself," Bush said Monday. "The situation now taking place in Gaza was caused by Hamas."
At the same time, the media is littered with accounts of family members desperately worrying about their loved ones in Gaza (if you know where to look), from Laila al-Arian writing about her grandfather in the Nation to Sousan Hammad's "Phoning Home to Gaza" in Counterpunch. Fares Akram, a correspondent for the Independent lost his father last week.
Of course, not all the victims fall under the category of innocent civilians. Over at Truthdig, Hedges writes about the death of a Palestinian who made no apologies for his support of suicide bombs.
"I often visited Nizar Rayan, who was killed Thursday in a targeted assassination by Israel, at his house in the Jabaliya refugee camp when I was in Gaza. The house is now rubble. It was hit by two missiles fired by Israeli F-16 fighter jets. Rayan, who would meet me in his book-lined study, was decapitated in the blast. His body was thrown into the street by the explosions. His four wives and 11 children also were killed.
Rayan supported tactics, including suicide bombings, which are morally repugnant. His hatred of Israel ran deep. His fundamentalist brand of Islam was distasteful. But as he and I were students of theology, our discussions frequently veered off into the nature of belief, Islam, the Quran, the Bible and the religious life. He was a serious, thoughtful man who had suffered deeply under the occupation and dedicated his life to resistance. He could have fled his home and gone underground with other Hamas leaders. Knowing him, I suspect he could not leave his children.
Many have pointed out the layers of hypocrisy that have surfaced in this conflict. As well as a mosque (reportedly hiding Hamas rockets), among the more shocking targets of Israel's attacks was the Islamic University of Gaza, which was bombed last week, to the condemnation of virtually no one, a least not in U.S. academic circles. As Neve Gordon and Jeff Halper point out:
"Not one of the nearly 450 presidents of American colleges and universities who prominently denounced an effort by British academics to boycott Israeli universities in September 2007 have raised his or her voice in opposition to Israel's bombardment of the Islamic University of Gaza earlier this week. Lee C. Bollinger, president of Columbia University, who organized the petition, has been silent, as have his co-signatories from Princeton, Northwestern and Cornell universities and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Most others who signed similar petitions, like the 11,000 professors from nearly 1,000 universities around the world, have also refrained from expressing their outrage at Israel's attack on the leading university in Gaza. The artfully named Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, which organized the latter appeal, has said nothing about the assault."
As many others are pointing out, Israel's actions are violently shortsighted when it comes to the lasting effects. As Robert Dreyfuss writes for the Nation:
"The outcome of Israel's action is likely to be to strengthen, not weaken, Hamas. It will also have the following collateral effects: it will undermine the moderate wing of the Palestinian movement, perhaps fatally. It will weaken the government of Egypt, boosting the power of the radical-right Muslim Brotherhood there to the point where Egypt's regime could collapse, with incalculable consequences. It will boost radicalism across the region, especially its Islamist variant, in Lebanon and Iraq in particular, and help Iran gain traction among otherwise-unreceptive Arab populations.
Hamas is unlikely to seek a deal now. Having watched Israel blunder into Lebanon two years ago in a futile effort to eradicate Hezbollah, only to see that movement emerge victorious and take control of part of Lebanon's government, Hamas is not going to sue for peace.
Israel's objectives aren't clear. Israeli hawks, including Benjamin Netanyahu -- appearing Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition" -- insist that Israel cannot stop its action until Hamas is utterly defeated, whatever that means.
Despite Israel's intractability, Western diplomats are reportedly seeking a "four-point agenda":
- Stopping arms smuggling into Gaza
- Financial support for Egypt in controlling the border and detecting tunnels
- International monitoring, with the United Nations, European Union and Arab forces assisting Egypt
- Reopening of all crossing points into the Gaza Strip -- a key Hamas demand
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