- It's not the first time and won't be the last.
-
- On December 27, AP reported that:
-
- "Israeli aircraft struck Hamas security compounds
across Gaza on Saturday in unprecedented waves of simultaneous attacks,
and Hamas and medics reported dozens of people were killed."
-
- Haaretz headlined:
-
- "Israel launched (Operation Case Lead) Saturday
morning (at around 11:30AM with no warning) the start of a massive offensive
against Qassam rocket and mortar fire on its southern communities, targeting
dozens of buildings belonging to the ruling Hamas militant group."
-
- AlJazeera.net reported that "Israeli missiles target
Gaza," and continued:
-
- "Israel has launched air strikes on Hamas installations
across the Gaza Strip, killing at least 155 people and causing heavy damage,
according to officials and witnesses."
-
- "At least 30 missiles (later over 100 reported)
were fired at targets on Saturday (morning), with the head of emergency
services in Gaza saying at least 200 people were also wounded." By
Sunday afternoon, Ma'an News reported much higher numbers - at least 285
known dead, more expected, and over 900 injured, many seriously.
-
- Among the dead was Gaza's police chief, Tawfiq Jabber,
after a missile struck a police graduation ceremony in Gaza City. Other
"casualties" (presumed killed) were governor of the Al-Wusta
(central) Districts, Ahmad Abu Aashur, and commander of Security and
Protection Services (in the government police), Ismail Al-Ja'bari.
-
- The Strip's interior ministry reported that all Gaza
security compounds were destroyed. According to Hamas' deputy leader,
Mousa Abu Marzook: So far "the aggression (hasn't) stop(ped)....they
are targeting all the police headquarters and offices. We will defend
our people, we will retaliate against this aggression....our military
will retaliate."
-
- Marzook asked the international community to condemn
Israel's wanton state terrorism. "Nobody in this world can accept
what happened....the international community (must) stand against this
and say that it is not acceptable." Former Palestinian information
minister, Mustafa Barghauthi, said: Israel didn't attack Hamas, it attacked
"the whole population and the free will of the people of Gaza. (Israel
is guilty of) war crimes." Hamas' leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said "Palestine
has never witnessed an uglier massacre."
-
- In Damascus, Khled Meshal, Hamas' political leader in
exile, said Hamas pursued "all peaceful options without results"
in calling for new Intifada resistance. The Arab League was tepid in its
response. It called an "emergency" Sunday meeting in Cairo,
then postponed it until Wednesday, December 31.
-
- Meanwhile, the raids continue; the death and injury toll
mounts; vast amounts of despair, anger, and destruction as well; and Fatah
leader and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas (from Cairo) blamed Hamas
for the violence. That provoked outrage from Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.
He accused Abbas of "downplay(ing) the sufferings of our people in
Gaza, belittl(ing) their pains, (and) providing justification of the holocaust
and war waged by Israel."
-
- As always, most of the dead and wounded are civilian
men, women and children. No matter, according to Israeli military spokesman
Avi Benayahu saying: Saturday's attack is "only the beginning. The
operation was launched following the violation of the terms of the lull
by Hamas and the unceasing attacks by Hamas authorities on Israeli civilians
in the south of the country."
-
- In fact, "attacks" were the pretext, not the
cause of Israel's aggression. Since Hamas won a majority in the Palestinian
Legislative Council (PLC) in January 2006, Israel, Washington and the
West withheld recognition and more. All outside aid was cut off, an economic
embargo and sanctions were imposed, and the legitimate government was
isolated and vilified.
-
- The leading candidate to become Israel's next prime minister,
Tzipi Livni, vows as a "strategic objective" to overthrow Hamas
by military, economic and diplomatic means. Her main opponent, Benjamin
Netanyahu, pledges to "topple the Hamas regime" and end its
effective resistance against an oppressive occupation.
-
- All along, Hamas has been conciliatory to no avail. Earlier
in the year, its leaders agreed to a ceasefire and observed months of
it unilaterally, despite repeated Israeli violations and Gaza being under
siege. On November 4, it ended after the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)
entered the Strip (without cause) and killed six Hamas officers supposedly
to close off tunnels close to the Kisufim roadblock. Thereafter, in spite
of both sides calling for peace, IDF hostilities continued.
-
- Israel is a serial aggressor. Hamas responds in self-defense
as international law allows. Article 51 of the UN Charter permits the
"right of individual or collective self-defense (against an armed
attack) until the Security Council has taken measures to maintain international
peace and security."
-
- On December 21, 1965, the UN General Assembly adopted
Res. 2131 titled: "Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention
in the Domestic Affairs of States and the Protection of Their Independence
and Sovereignty." It called armed intervention, subversion, and all
forms of indirect intervention synonymous with aggression and, for the
first time, recognized "the legitimacy of struggle by the people
under colonial rules (including occupation) to exercise their rights to
self-determination and independence."
-
- On November 22, 1974, the General Assembly passed Res.
3236 recognizing that Palestinians have the same right to self- determination
as other sovereign states.
-
- On June 8, 1977, Protocol 1 to the August 1949 Geneva
Conventions was passed - "relating to the Protection of Victims of
International Armed Conflicts." It declared the legitimacy of armed
struggle (or resistance) to achieve self-determination as long as no
proscribed methods are used. Further, "all states (are urged) to
provide material and moral assistance to the national liberation movements
in colonial territories (including occupied people seeking freedom)."
-
- Rarely do Palestinians get any, and, since 1967, have
been some of the most isolated people in the world. For Gazans, no outside
aid gets in, except for what Israel occasionally lets UN and humanitarian
agencies supply and the little coming through tunnels on Egypt's border.
It's never enough and falls woefully short of minimum amounts needed to
survive. The result is a growing humanitarian crisis, an entire people
on the verge of breakdown, compounded by mass slaughter, destruction,
and it's "only beginning" according to the IDF spokesman.
-
- The world community is silent and lets Israel do as it
pleases - despite repeated international law violations, willful acts
of aggression, grievous harm to four million people under occupation,
including 1.5 million under a medieval Gaza siege, now under attack.
-
- Reports were that EU nations and Russia called for (but
didn't demand) an end to hostilities. According to Reuters, Washington
urged Israel to avoid civilian casualties but stopped short of calling
for an end to the attacks. White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe blamed
Palestinians in saying "Hamas' continued rocket attacks into Israel
must cease if the violence is to stop." Unsaid was that they respond
to IDF violence or that until December 27 no Israeli was killed or injured.
-
- Blame the Victim, Not the Aggressor
-
- On Saturday, Condoleeza Rice accused Hamas for the violence.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon could only express "deep alarm,"
and where was Barack Obama? An AP photo showed him on vacation "working
out" at the Semper Fit Center at the Marine Corp Base Hawaii in
Kailua, Hawaii on Saturday, and CBS News reported that he's "closely
monitoring global events, including the situation in Gaza, but there is
one president at a time," according to Brooke Anderson, his chief
national security spokesperson.
-
- In a July 2008 interview, The New York Times asked Obama
if Israel should negotiate with Hamas in Gaza. He replied that "I
don't think any country would find it acceptable to have missiles raining
down on the heads of their citizens....I expect Israelis to do (all they
can to stop them)....In terms of negotiating with Hamas, it is very hard
to negotiate with a group that is not representative of a nation state,
does not recognize your right to exist, (and) has consistently used terror
as a weapon. Hamas is a terrorist organization....it's hard for Israel
to negotiate with a country like that."
-
- Hamas was democratically elected. It's the legitimate
Palestinian government. It's falsely called a terrorist organization,
and it has every right to resist an illegal occupation under international
law. It observed a unilateral ceasefire for months and extended peace
overtures numerous times in the past. Israel spurned them by dividing
Gaza and the West Bank, co-opting Mamoud Abbas, inciting Fatah against
Hamas, isolating Gaza, and pursuing a policy of aggression, killings,
targeted assassinations, mass incarcerations, and torture with full support
from Washington, the West, and (from his comments above) the incoming
Obama administration.
-
- The UN Refugee Works Relief Agency's (UNWRA) operations
head for Palestinian refugees, John Ging, expressed outraged on what's
happening. Earlier he said: Gazans got nothing from the months of ceasefire.
There was no "restoration of a dignified existence. We had our supplies
restricted (during the period) to the point where we were left in a very
vulnerable and precarious position" with very little food left until
it ran out.
-
- The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) campaigns for
Palestinian justice in areas of civil, human and political rights according
to international law. Along with the Palestine Return Centre (PRC), the
Palestinian Forum of Britain (PFB), the British Muslim Initiative (BMI),
Stop the War, Friends of al Aqsa, the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB),
and Respect, Islamic Human Rights Commission it organized emergency protests
opposite Israel's London Embassy on December 28 and 29 to demand an end
of the Gaza siege and ongoing aggression. The urgency was highlighted
by saying: Israel's Cynicism (Is) Supported by the West's Complicity"
as it called for public solidarity to end it.
-
- For her part, Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni ordered
the Ministry to "take emergency measures (to) open an aggressive
and diplomatic international public relations campaign," according
to Haaretz. In other words, Israel will spin its wanton aggression into
justifiable self-defense and get dominant media help to sell it.
-
- On December 27, The New York Times took the lead. It
reported that "Israeli airstrikes hit Hamas security facilities in
Gaza on Saturday in a crushing response to the group's rocket fire....Israeli
military officials (called the attack) an effort to force Hamas to end
its rocket barrages into southern Israel. Thousands of Israelis hurried
into bomb shelters amid the hail of rockets," making it seem like
Israel resembled London during the blitz when, in fact, Hamas attacks
are mere pin pricks and only respond to first-strike Israeli attacks.
-
- The Times and dominant media are silent on this. They
continue spreading spurious lies about Hamas being "officially committed
to Israel's destruction, and when it won Palestinian legislative elections
in 2006 and then 'forcibly' took over Gaza in 2007, it said it would not
recognize Israel, honor previous Palestinian Authority commitments to
it, or end its violence against Israelis."
-
- All of the above is untrue. The Times continues to report
falsely. Hamas wants peace, has repeatedly been conciliatory, and its
founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, said earlier that armed struggle would
end "if the Zionists ended (their) occupation of Palestinian territories
and stopped killing Palestinian women, children and innocent civilians."
-
- Israel rejects all overtures. More recently, Hamas offered
peace and Israeli recognition in return for a Palestinian state inside
pre-1967 borders - its Occupied Territories that it's entitled to under
international law.
-
- As early as 1988, the PLO under Yasser Arafat accepted
a two-state solution with Palestinians willing to settle for only 22%
of their pre-1948 homeland - a generous offer that, if accepted, would
have had two sovereign states living peacefully alongside each other as
neighbors.
-
- Israel rejects this out of hand. It chooses dominance
over peace, violence over reconciliation, and imperial conquest above
the rule of law. It's colonizing the West Bank, ethnically cleansing the
population, and continues to terrorize Gaza. "The newspaper of record"
is selective about "fit news to print," so uncomfortable truths
are suppressed. It reported that one Israeli was killed Saturday and another
four wounded, one seriously, but didn't explain that previous rocket attacks
caused no deaths or injuries.
-
- After many months of siege compounded by ongoing attacks,
Gaza is gravely affected, but so is the West Bank. Under the Fatah government,
no rockets are launched, yet Israel maintains a violent occupation, continues
to seize Palestinian land, expand its illegal settlements, and lets its
residents terrorize Palestinians with impunity, even in cases of wanton
killings and destruction of property.
-
- Early Reports on the Ground and from Israel
-
- On Saturday, Haaretz reported that 60 warplanes hit 50
targets simultaneously, then 20 more "struck 50 Palestinian rocket
launchers in an effort to minimize Hamas' retaliatory strikes." The
attack hit civilians with the IDF stating that those near targeted sites
were "liable to get hurt." Some were children leaving school
when the strikes were launched.
-
- Haaretz writer Amos Harel called them "the harshest
IDF assault on Gaza since the territory was captured during the Six-Day
War in 1967." Palestinian sources described a massive attack, like
"shock and awe," destroying about 40 targets in three to five
minutes. The IDF spent months picking sites, and dozens more may "come
under attack in the coming days. Little to no weight was apparently devoted
to the question of harming innocent civilians. From Israel's standpoint,
Hamas" brought this on itself. In Pentagon- speak, civilians are "collateral
damage," but pictures of the slaughter show otherwise - stark evidence
of crimes of war and against humanity that no authority will punish.
-
- Also at issue is whether IDF ground forces will follow
the air attacks, and if so, it won't be the first time. The right-wing
Jerusalem Post quoted president Shimon Peres saying: "Israel will
take all steps demanded of it to stop the rocket fire (but) we will not
go into Gaza. There are other ways - we didn't leave Gaza in order to
go back."
-
- The Ma'an News Agency reported (through Monday AM) at
least 310 killed and over 1000 wounded with medical sources saying arrivals
at Gaza City hospitals are in "pieces." In addition, the Head
of Emergency and ambulance department, Muawiya Hassanain, confirmed that
medical crews continued pulling dozens from under rubble.
-
- Things are desperate as he asked all Arab states for
aid in the form of medications and operating supplies for those too badly
injured to be moved. Hospital corridors are filled with bodies and gurneys,
and local morgues are out of space.
-
- Israeli defense minister and former prime minister, Ehud
Barak, declared Gaza's 20 square kilometers a "special military zone"
- a classification just short of a declaration of war. It already is
for its people, and here's how Al-Azhar University professor Said Abdelwahed
described conditions late Saturday:
-
- "It is horrible outside! Minutes ago I heard the
hissing of a Palestinian Qassam rocket, then another one accompanied by
an explosion. It seems that the second one was hit by an Israeli aircraft
that may have been targeting the Palestinian group. The news now is saying
that an Israeli Apache helicopter has targeted a recreation ground with
fish ponds."
-
- "Al-Shifa hospital said that there are more than
195 dead and over 570 injured there. Every minute the number of casualties
goes up. These are the figures in Gaza, but there are still no official
statements from other towns and villages and refugee camps. Near our
apartment, my youngest son was waiting for his school bus when the preventive
security department was hit 50 meters from where he was standing. Two
men and two young girls died immediately."
-
- "It is utterly dark now. I am operating a small
generator to contact the world via internet. Tonight everyone in Gaza
is scared. It's totally dark (there's no power); children cry from fear;
(at least) 206 people are dead. They (and the injured) line the floor
at Al-Shifa hospital, but (it's) poorly equipped. (Its) administration
called on people to donate blood. The teachers' syndicate declared a three
days strike in protest...."
-
- "Just in, Israeli aircraft (Saturday night) hit
places east of Gaza City where a number of people were killed and injured.
Casualties are rising. People remain under rubble. One mother lost two
young daughters and a son as they were heading to school."
-
- "Tonight is cold mainly for those whose windows
(were) shattered by explosions." With Gaza under siege, "there
is no glass available" to replace them. "In the apartment building
where I live, 7 apartments witness freezing cold nights. They use blankets
to cover in the place of the broken windows. Hundreds of homes" are
in the same condition. Hamas' leader Ismail Haniyeh "gave a televised
speech....to raise morale and to reconfirm that Hamas will not surrender.
The death toll reached 210" and number of seriously injured is now
up to 200. Another air raid" is now in progress north of Gaza City.
-
- UNRWA Expresses "Horror"
-
- The UN Relief and Works Agency commissioner Karen AbuZayd
was outraged over Israel's attack, the mass killings and destruction,
and expressed her "deep sadness at the terrible loss in human life."
She reminded Israel that it's a signatory to "international conventions
that protect non-combatants in times of conflict (and added that) these
conventions are worthless if they are not upheld." A statement said
that UNRWA will "exert all efforts to respond as quickly as possible
to relieve suffering and pain (and added that today's attacks follow)
weeks of a tight blockade that prevented UNRWA and other humanitarian
agencies from assisting the population (that's) unable to (meet) their
basic needs, and now" they're under attack.
-
- The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD)
Expresses Outrage in Calling for An Immediate End of the Attacks.
-
- It blamed the suffering in Israel and Gaza "squarely
with successive Israeli governments" in citing 41 years of "increasingly
oppressive Israeli Occupation without a hint that a sovereign and viable
Palestinian state will ever emerge."
-
- Why so? Because Israel and Washington won't tolerate
one beyond the fiction of isolated, surrounded, impoverished, and impotent
bantustan outposts that IDF forces can enter at will and wreak havoc
on a helpless population.
-
- Hamas and Islamic Jihad Response
-
- After the air strikes, Hamas ordered its Al-Qassam Brigades
to respond "by any means necessary." Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum
called for a "massive response" and for renewal of others inside
Israel. Islamic Jihad leader Khaled Al-Batsh called Israel's attack "open
war." He also condemned the world community and Arab states for
their "silence on such massacres" and vowed that Israel "would
never make the resistance factions surrender."
-
- West Bank Protests
-
- Demonstrations erupted across the West Bank, including
in Bethlehem, Ramallah city center, the Ad-Duheisha refugee camp, Hebron,
Tulkarem, and East Jerusalem. Violent clashes broke out between Palestinian
youths and IDF forces in Shufat refugee camp on the northern outskirts
of East Jerusalem. Also in Qalandia, Ar-Ram and Al-Isawiya. Dozens of
injuries and arrests were reported. Black flags were hung around the city
and a commercial strike was declared.
-
- Tulkarem governor Talal Duweikat and Palestinian Legislative
Council (PLC) member Hasan Khriesah joined hundreds of others in the
streets. The city declared a day of mourning in response.
-
- In Hebron, hundreds of university students protested
for an end to violence. They chanted anti-occupation slogans and called
for Fatah and Hamas to unify for a common purpose. The group marched to
the Bab Az-Zawiyah neighborhood where confrontations erupted with IDF
forces, and they, in turn fired suffocating amounts of tear gas.
-
- In Ramallah, Fatah organized a rally for hundreds and
called for a general strike to close all city shops for the day. Demonstrators
and international community institutions raised banners with slogans
saying "one blood, one nation, Gaza and we are with you." Ministry
of Prisoners Affairs, Ziyad Abu Ein, called on all Palestinians to unite
in dark days. PLC member Mustafa Barghouthi called Israeli violence "their
harshest crimes against Palestinians" and condemned world and Arab
leaders for their silence.
-
- In Bethlehem, protests erupted in the Ad-Duheisha refugee
camp (south of the city) and a larger crowd assembled in the city.
-
- A December 27 Palestinian press release read:
-
- "A demonstration to condemn the massacres being
committed in Gaza."
-
- "Palestinian Civil Society organizations in the
Bethlehem area, people of various political affiliations, Christians,
and Muslims, and all people of conscience in the Bethlehem area are gathering
at 5PM (Saturday) in front of the Church of Nativity and Omar's mosque
in Bethlehem."
-
- Through Sunday afternoon, around 300 people were massacred
by bombing besieged Gaza. Over 1000 were reported injured as well. The
victims include men, women, and children, and the numbers keeps rising.
"Join us today as we call for ending the massacres, ending the siege
on Gaza, for reconciliation between all Palestinians, and for freedom."
-
- Signed:
-
- Khalid AlAzza
- Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh
- Dr. Abdelfattah Abusrour
-
- The Union of Health Work Committees - Gaza - Late Saturday
Press Release - from Executive Director Yousef Momeusa
-
- After two waves of Israeli air attacks, "television
footage showed dead bodies scattered on a road and wounded and dead being
carried away by distraught rescuers. There was widespread damage to buildings."
The number of dead exceed 200 and is rising. At "least 750 were wounded,
125 with critical injuries." Updated numbers are much higher and
continue climbing.
-
- "The military operation makes the Palestinian blood
fall like rain. As a consequence, the civilian population in the cities
of Rafah, Khan-Younis, middle camps, Gaza City, Beit-Hanoun and Beit-Lahiya
and in the refugee camp of Jabalia are suffering from the most horrible
onslaught of Israeli military power....The number of dead and injured
are increasing by the minute."
-
- "The infrastructure is being destroyed leaving many
areas without power and water. Medical supplies in the hospital are largely
exhausted (and) food supplies are dwindling." A real health crisis
looms. UHWC is working "around the clock at the risk to themselves
to deal with the crisis....The entire world is witnessing these scandalous
and outrageous acts, and yet no concrete steps have been taken!!"
-
- "UHWC asks you to issue a strong Last Appeal Statement
condemning Israel's human rights violations against the Palestinian people
and to demand a cessation of this military offensive....There are no
political considerations which can justify the silence of the international
community any longer."
-
- Signed,
-
- Dr. Yousef Momeusa
- Executive Director
-
- Professor Said Abdelwahed of Al-Azhar University, Gaza
- on the End of the Six-Month Ceasefire
-
- Prior to Israel's December 27 attack, he feared the worst
and said it "means escalation; bombardment, air raids. It means military
activities on the border. The last six months brought big pressures on
our social life, on resources, all due to the Israeli siege." With
it were high prices on goods able to enter from Egypt through tunnels
that for the most part Israel allows given the dire situation on the ground.
-
- "I can't see any progress being made towards a united
Palestinian government. I think both sides" lose out as a result,
"but Israel takes (full) advantage....The students (at my university)
are deprived of many things. They are disappointed young people with no
hope or future in front of them, so they are in bad shape."
-
- Abdelwahed mentions a Gaza City health worker "expect(ing)
the situation to deteriorate (further): more incursions and more military
operations in border areas. While the world is busy with Christmas, Israel
can take action. (Already) we have 16 hours of power cuts a day. Hospitals
have to run generators for hours at a stretch, which they weren't designed
for. So they break down - and because of the closure we have no spare
parts....I cannot see the internal situation improving soon. We're short
of everything. Eighty per cent of people in Gaza (rely) on food assistance.
It's a big problem." It's now much bigger.
-
- At 11PM on Saturday, Abdelwahed reported new air raids
were in progress concentrating on the "eastern parts of the city
of Gaza. One woman lost 10 of her family. Only she and a daughter remain
alive. The daughter couldn't speak to the media because she didn't (understand)
what happened. Panic is everywhere in the city and we anticipate (worse
still) to come. Demonstrations erupted in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon."
The death toll keeps climbing. "An Israeli caller just rang us up.
My youngest son answered. The caller threatened that if I have any weapons
they will hit my place!!!"
-
- There have been "five air raids in 10 minutes. Targets
are societies and groups of social works in thickly populated areas.
One mosque was hit as well. I am without electricity for 30 hours so far.
I am still operating a small generator to contact the world via internet."
-
- Abdelwahed sent this email on Sunday. "My family
and I are okay but stressed....the building adjacent to (ours) was hit
by a small rocket from a helicopter. (The) situation is horrible and people
are really panicked."
-
- "Last night, F16s targeted Al-Aqsa satellite channel
and leveled it to the ground." Surrounding buildings are impossible
to live in. "One small mosque across the street from Al-Shifa Hospital
was (demolished)." Homes were badly damaged as well, one "belong(ing)
to a friend of mine; he told me that what he witnessed was hard to describe
in words....Also his sister was severely injured."
-
- A medical doctor friend "told me that the death
toll climbed to about 500 (though the media reports around 300) and more
than 1000 injured." Israelis are targeting Rafah tunnels. "Hundreds
of Palestinians stormed the Egyptian border with a bulldozer and on foot
but failed to (get across) as the Egyptians shot live at them."
-
- A "new air raid on different targets (reported)
minutes ago. Many died and injured. My window glass (is) shattered. (The)
Customs house and passport department have been demolished minutes ago.
Aircraft are still in the sky operating."
-
- "F16s (just) destroyed the largest security building
in Gaza....Four missiles leveled the building to the ground; also police
stations were hit and totally destroyed today. (We're hearing that many
areas) were targeted by Israeli warplanes. Large numbers of civilians,
including children died and were injured in today's attacks. At Rafah
border, one Palestinian was shot dead (by the Egyptians). The situation
on the border is terribly bad. An Israeli ground attack seems possible."
-
- Ma'an News Agency Updated Timeline Late Saturday Through
Mid-Day Sunday, December 28 and 29
-
- -- 10:15PM - 2 more air strikes; at least 3 killed and
4 injured in Zaitoun neighborhood, Gaza City, and Jabalia in the north;
-
- -- 11:30PM - Israeli air strikes hit the Al-Mansura neighborhood
east of Gaza City; 3 Hamas Al-Qassam Brigades deaths are reported;
-
- -- 11:50PM - air strikes hit Khan Younis in southern
Gaza and several northern areas;
-
- -- 1:01AM Sunday - Israeli jets strike the security room
in front of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City; a close by mosque is hit killing
at least 2 and injuring 7;
-
- -- 6:30AM - a medical storehouse in the Al-Junayna neighborhood
and a fuel storage facility with diesel and benzene in the Tal As- Sultan
area are hit - both near Rafah in the south; buildings and vital civilian
supplies were destroyed; at least 3 deaths were reported;
-
- -- 6:45AM - Gaza City's Shuja'iyya neighborhood is bombed;
several were injured and a police center destroyed;
-
- -- 8:00AM - Hamas police headquarters was attacked in
the evacuated Israeli kfar Darum and Al-Matahin settlements;
-
- -- 10AM - a police station in the Shuja'iyya Gaza City
neighborhood was bombed; also three homes in the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood
west of the city were destroyed;
-
- -- 10:30AM - a jeep in Gaza City's Zaitoun neighborhood
was attacked killing one child; a second strike targeted the Jabalia
area; no casualties were reported so far;
-
- -- 11:00AM - the temporary headquarters of the Rafah
governorate was bombed injuring several people; the original building
was destroyed on Saturday;
-
- -- 11:45AM - the government municipal council offices
were bombed in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza; several injuries were reported;
-
- -- Noon - the As-Saraya government compound was attacked,
killing one child and injuring several others;
-
- -- Monday, December 28 - Israel's assaults continue with
no letup;
- Haaretz reported that the Islamic University and another
government compound in Gaza City were destroyed; other targets hit included
a guest palace and at least some residential homes; "at first light
Monday, strong winds blew black smoke from the bombed sites in Gaza City
over deserted streets," punctuated by new explosions; Ehud Olmert
spokesman Mark Regev said military action would continue until Israel
"no longer (fears) terror (from) rocket barrages."
-
- Throughout the attacks, images and reports on the ground
are horrific and disturbing. All around is death and destruction. Amputated
bodies fill Al-Shifa Hospital hallways. In one corner, a dead seven-year
old boy is in a cardboard box because the hospital ran out of sheets to
cover him.
-
- One man is dazed after watching his son killed during
the police graduation ceremony. Another father stood next to his son as
he was decapitated. He's still screaming. In a hospital waiting room,
a mother is silent after her son was pronounced dead.
-
- Carnage is everywhere, inside and on the streets - body
parts, blood, strewn clothing and other items. Twelve-year old Ayaman
is screaming as his father tries not to let him see the bodies of his
brother and uncle torn to pieces under sheets.
-
- Yaha Muheisen stops searching for his son's body and
Nawal Al-Lad'a can't find her two sons bodies in the hospital so she searches
through rubble.
-
- Gaza medical personnel confirm that the majority of the
dead are civilians, including men, women and children. Most were torn
to shreds. Bodies continue to be pulled from rubble. Some Palestinians
say images resemble the 1982 (Beirut) Sabra and Shitila massacres of
about 3000 men, women, children and infants during a 62-hour (proxy) Phalange
militia force rampage while the IDF stood by and let it happen.
-
- Ariel Sharon was defense minister at the time. After
Israel invaded Lebanon in 1981, he authorized the operation, and in his
autobiography confirmed that he negotiated it with Lebanon's president-elect
Bashir Gemayel. Afterward, journalist Robert Fisk called it "one
of the most shocking war crimes of the 20th century." Another in
Gaza remains ongoing.
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- Israeli journalist Gideon Levy wrote that "The neighborhood
bully strikes again....Once again, Israel's violent responses....exceed
all proportion and cross every red line of humaneness, morality, international
law and wisdom. What began yesterday in Gaza is a war crime....Once again
the commentators sat in television studios and hailed the combat jets"
that killed the innocent. "Once again, they urged (not) letting up....Once
again, they described" disturbing images as a "difficult scene....When
the bully is on a rampage, nobody can stop him."
-
- Journalist Amira Hass called Gaza "Little Baghdad,
bombs everywhere, smoke, fire, people not knowing where to hide, fear
everywhere, rage and hatred." She wrote painfully of carnage and
death, of the living searching for loved ones, of no electricity, no
gas, no flour, no bread for the past week, just despair and destruction
as Israeli attacks continue.
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- Harold Pinter on Israel
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- On December 24 at age 78, Harold Pinter lost his long
battle with cancer. He was the most influential playwright of his generation,
the 2005 Nobel laureate for literature, a voice of political protest,
and a passionate campaigner against human rights abuses. The Nobel academy
citation called him an author "who in his plays uncovers the precipice
under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed room."
For some, he was a "permanent public nuisance, a questioner of accepted
truths, both in life and art."
-
- Too ill with cancer, he recorded his award ceremony speech
on videotape, voiced strong opposition to the Iraq war, Britain's role
in it, and called the invasion a "bandit act, an act of blatant
state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international
law." Would he say less about Israel's current assault?
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- Pinter was Jewish, a critic of Israel's illegal occupation,
and its brutality inflicted on Gazans. He was one of 105 prominent Jewish
signers of an April 2008 "We're not celebrating Israel's Anniversary"
petition. Its last paragraph read:
-
- "We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state founded
on terrorism, massacres and the dispossession of another people from their
land. We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state that even now engages
in ethnic cleansing, that violates international law, that is inflicting
a monstrous collective punishment on (Gaza) civilians and that continues
to deny to Palestinians their human rights and national aspirations."
Pinter called George Bush a "mass murderer." He felt no different
about merciless Israeli leaders.
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- A Possible Ground Invasion?
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- On Sunday, Haaretz reported that the IDF "will call
6500 reservists to duty, as part of the largest Israeli offensive on (Gaza)
since it" seized the Territory in 1967. Defense officials said that
the call-up is part of military preparations for a possible escalation
of fighting. Meanwhile, IDF infantry and armored troops (including tanks)
man Gaza's border for a possible ground invasion, and Israeli defense
minister Ehud Barak warned that "The operation will be deeper and
expanded as much as necessary."
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- "The Bloodiest Day in the History of Occupation"
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- That's from a Palestinian Centre for Human Rights PCHR)
December 27 press release that "condemn(ed) in the strongest terms
the war waged by" the IDF on Gaza. As it's done many times before,
PCHR calls on the international community and High Contracting Parties
to the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War to intervene immediately, to stop the killings,
and to end the unprecedented devastation and deteriorated humanitarian
conditions in Gaza.
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