Some Palestinian families have handed some leaflets over to us, which had fallen down from the sky in the last few days, courtesy of the Israeli Air Force instead of the customary bombs. Leaflet n. 1, translated from Arabic, said: " To all the people living in this area. Due to the terrorist acts that the terrorists in your area attacking Israel, the Israeli Defense Forces were forced to take immediate action in your area. We thus urge you, for your own safety, to immediately evacuate the area. Israeli Defense Forces". In short, the Israeli are sticking "Work in progress signs door to door, before razing whole neighbourhoods to the ground, and forever dashing the hopes of a life for the present and future. They want to bury those who haven't got anywhere to go under tons of rubble. A little while ago they had warned us they intended to throw more leaflets, intimating that "the third phase of war of terror is about to start". The Israeli military summits are indeed polite – they ask the population of Gaza to cooperate before crushing them like insects. If the leaflets aren't persuasive enough, it's up to the Air Force to gently knock onto the roofs of the Gazan houses. It's a newly adopted procedure – slightly less powerful are bombs dropped down, powerful enough to tear off the roofs in the houses and "gently" persuade their inhabitants to evacuate them. After two or three minutes the planes drift past again, and nothing remains of the buildings. Evacuation: but where should they go? There are no safe shelters in the whole of the Strip, and personally I fear for my life a lot more when walking past a mosque or a school, than in front of the government buildings still standing intact. Last night, 20 metres from my home, the Israeli jet fighters tore down the fire station.
This morning, on the street parallel to the port I discovered some craters several metres deep, as if meteors had rained down from the sky as you'd see in a sci-fi movie. The difference here is that the special effects are pretty damn painful. Visiting the wards of the Al Shifa hospital, crowded with injured patients awaiting treatment, you can bump into a doctor who doesn't look very Arabic. Mads Gilbert is a Norwegian doctor from the ONG Norwac. Gilbert, an anaesthetist, confirms our suspicion regarding the use of forbidden weapons by Israel on Gaza's civilians: "Many injured arrive with extreme amputations, with both their legs reduced to a pulp, which I suspect is an effect of Dime weapons." This is happening while Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, reports that "extremely serious violations possibly constituting war crimes" are taking place.
The last instance of one such crime happened a few hours ago, East of Jabalia, where a family on the point of evacuating their house was stocking up on some food products in a small shop, which was promptly bombed. There were eight killed, all belonging to the same family, the Abed Rabbu family, in addition to two severely injured. People I speak to in the street are under the impression that Israel is taking its time, while the bombs are being dropped non-stop and the land artillery are slowly advancing. The soldiers have no problems stocking up on "k rations", the military food rations, unlike many people in Gaza who can no longer get any bread. The bakers, having run out of flour, have resorted to mixing it up with animal flour to make the buns. It's moldy bread, week-old left-overs green with mold. You cook it over a small fire lit from a couple of pieces of wood and I can assure you that it's not exactly a delicacy.
Especially on the internet, Israel continues to spread bird's eye-view filmed images, allegedly showing how precise its bombings are against the "terrorists" or against hypothetical warehouses stocking weapons and explosives. The dizzying count of civilian casualties are enough to discredit these videos. I wonder how Israel can call itself civilised and democratic, when its army, in trying to drive out and kill an enemy, doesn't hesitate to knock down an entire crowded building, burying innumerable innocents alive in the process. Think about it: it's as if the Italian army hunting down a dangerous mafia criminal started heavily bombing the centre of Palermo. As I write there are 821 Palestinians dead, 93 being women, and 235 children. 12 paramedics were killed fulfilling their duty, and 3 journalists were killed with a camera hanging round their necks. A good 3,350 are among the injured, with more than half being under 18 years of age. According to the Mezan centre for human rights, renowned for its reliability, they make up 85% of the Palestinian civilian casualties massacred in the last two weeks. The death toll on the Israeli side has thankfully stopped at 4.
If the United Nations won't manage to protect the Palestinian civilian population from the massive Israeli violations of their international humanitarian duties, my friends from the Free Gaza Movement will try for in their place, ready as they are to sail to Gaza in a few days. Among them there are doctors, nurses and activists for human rights, who consider it their precise moral duty to do whatever's humanly possible to provide some measures of protection. They had already tried to get here on 31st December, on board the Dignity. But the Israeli Navy had rammed into our boat in international waters, trying to sink it, and had subsequently spoken of "an accident". I will wait for my friends with their load of humanitarian aids among the ruins of what's left of the port, and I would like to hope more "accidents" will reoccur off shore this time.
The second leaflet raining down from the sky that we've translated is a scream (you can find photos of both leaflets on the website: http://guerrillaradio.iobloggo.com/): "Citizens of Gaza, take responsibility for your destiny! In Gaza the terrorists and those who launch rockets against Israel represent a threat to your lives and to those of your families. If you wish to help your families and brothers in Gaza, all you will have to do is call the number below and give us information on the whereabouts of those responsible for launching rockets and on the terrorist militia who turn you into the first victims of their actions. Avoiding more atrocities being committed is now your responsibility! Don't hesitate! Complete discretion is guaranteed. You can contact us at the following number: 02-5839749. Otherwise write to us at the following email to give us any information you may have on terrorist activities: helpgaza2008@gmail.com."
Many write to me from Italy, filled with frustration at not being able to do anything against the genocide currently taking place. I would urge you to continue showing your indignation and supporting human rights. If you then have 5 minutes to spare and a phone card, the details contained in the last leaflet could come in useful in communicating your disdain to those who cynically gamble with the lives of a million and a half people via the air, sea and land. Never would a phone card have been better spent. Those 235 massacred children are asking for it.
Stay human
Vittorio Arrigoni
(Translated from italian by Daniela Filippin)
-- Greta Berlin Media Team Free Gaza Movement 310 422 7242
UNRWA emergency shelters and bombed schools, ISM video of Israel troops shooting Palestinian paramedics in Jabaliya
ISM Digest January 12, 2009
1) UNRWA emergency shelters and bombed schools 2) Israel is targeting medics 3) Vittorio Arrigoni: In Gaza Hippocrates is dead 4) Two human rights activists denied entry to Israel on claim they plan to enter Gaza 5) Injured, denied access 6) ISM video of Israel troops shooting Palestinian paramedics in Jabaliya 7) European MEPs enter Gaza
------------------- 1) UNRWA emergency shelters and bombed schools
(Gaza, January 12, 2009) Across the Gaza Strip, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is setting up emergency shelters in its schools. Despite two such shelters being cynically targeted by Israeli shelling in northern Gaza last week, many families still seek refuge in UNRWA schools simply because they have nowhere else to go. The massacre on 6th January at the Al Fakhoura School and a second school in the Jabaliya refugee camp north-east of Gaza City killed nearly 50 and injured dozens more.
Two UNRWA schools in Rafah, the 'A' and 'B' Boys Preparatory Schools close to Rafah city centre, have become temporary homes for nearly 2,000 people. These emergency shelters were set up as thousands of people in Rafah fled their homes following threats by the Israeli Occupation Forces to target entire neighbourhoods lying close to border strip with Egypt. The families in one of the schools were evacuated from communities near the defunct airport on the edge of Rafah city where Israeli ground forces have been basing themselves since invading the Gaza Strip on 3rd January. Members of ISM Gaza Strip visited the schools today and met UN staff and some of the families seeking refuge there, such as the Amsi family who have about 15 members of their extended family were living together in one classroom.
They also visited the UNRWA warehouse in Rafah, where they spoke to the Area Operations Officer. He confirmed that the supplies currently getting in are not nearly enough to cope with the crisis. Approximately 200 tons of aid per day is being allowed in compared to the 2,000 tons usually brought in daily by the UNRWA. He explained that UN stocks were exhausted a while ago and that the only food people now have comes from this trickle of aid entering the strip. Anything that does get in is distributed immediately.
At approximately 3.00am on Sunday 11th January, Israeli F-16 fighter jets bombed the buildings of the Dar al-Fadila Association for Orphans, which included a school, a college, a computer centre and a mosque, on Taha Hussein Street in the Kherbat al-'Adas neighbourhood in the north-east of Rafah. Parts of the buildings were totally destroyed and others were structurally damaged. The school had been assisting about 500 children disadvantaged children. Nearly 20 mosques have now been destroyed or severely damaged by the Israeli military since 27th December. ISM Gaza Strip documented the devastation.
The Rafah Red Crescent ambulance station is now relocating from its base in the Tel Zorob neighbourhood close to the border with Egypt, to Kherbet Al Adas on the other side of the city centre. Tel Zorob is in the area now being targeted so a planned move to the new premises was brought forward ahead of time. Numerous ambulances have been attacked by the Israeli military during the ongoing war on the Gaza Strip and 13 paramedics have been killed.
Photos: http://palsolidarity.org/2009/01/4275
------------------- 2) Israel is targeting medics
By Eva Bartlett
(Gaza, January 12, 2009) On 7 January, as Spanish human rights advocate and documentary filmmaker, Alberto Arce, and I accompanied Palestinian medics to retrieve the body of a man shot earlier by invading Israeli forces, we were also shot at as the medics carried the body towards the ambulance. It was in Dawwar Zimmo, eastern Jabaliya, near the area which has been occupied by Israeli soldiers since the land invasion began. It's an area where tens are thought to have been seriously injured by bombing and shooting by the Israeli army, and where many, many more will lie dead, uncollected for days, or weeks, out of reach of the medics whose duty is to retrieve them.
Hassan al-Attal and Jamal had gotten out of the ambulance, a clearly- marked 101 ambulance, and approached the corpse lying in the middle of the street. They wore their Palestine Red Crescent Society uniforms — Hassan's was bright red with reflective tape, Jamal's bright orange and white, also with reflective tape — and approached slowly, hands empty except a stretcher to take away the body. Arce filmed as the medics picked up the dead man, put him on the stretcher and began the retreat towards the ambulance. Arce was still filming when the shots cracked out, rapidly but evidently a targeted sniper's shot, not a machine gun. Incredibly, Hassan and Jamal continued to try to evacuate the body, running with the dead man, before finally dropping the stretcher and fleeing for their lives.
It was about 1:30 pm, the first day of Israel's self-declared "ceasefire" and the sniper was aiming at the medical personnel. The ambulance's siren was still screaming, the driver had been moving quickly away from the sniper, to avoid further hits on us or himself, and we were frantically scouring to find Hassan and Jamal. In the days prior to this attack, seven medics had been killed since the start of Israel's air and ground assault on Gaza's population. Tens more had been injured, and Hassan was to join their ranks. A sniper's bullet caught his thigh, and as he scrambled into the ambulance, the blood seeping through his pants alerted us to his injury.
These medics are all too aware of, many all too familiar with, the mortal risks of their job in the face of invading Israeli soldiers with, apparently, no regard for the Geneva Conventions which should allow and oblige medics to reach the injured and the dead, without being fired upon by the invading army.
It was frightening. I thought we'd lost them both, and they are both young, wonderful men doing a job worthy of medals. The 10 to 15 seconds it took before Hassan and Jamal could jump into the ambulance and pull down its back door were a painfully long stretch, during which I'd feared the worst. As we pulled away, a final bullet caught the back door of the ambulance.
Medics worked quickly on Hassan's thigh injury: the bullet had penetrated the inside of his upper left thigh, digging into muscle, and exiting a couple of inches from the entry wound. He was impressively brave about it, though obviously in a great deal of pain.
Arce's video footage caught the incident, and is testimony to what we've seen, what medics have told us they've long endured, and what Israeli authorities belligerently continue to deny: Israel is targeting medical personnel, as Israeli forces target journalists, civilians, and these days in Gaza anything that moves. No sanctuary, no safety, no guarantee of medical service.
Photo: http://palsolidarity.org/2009/01/4186
------------------- 3) Vittorio Arrigoni: In Gaza Hippocrates is dead
Translated from Italian by Daniela Filippin
(Gaza, January 10, 2009) In Gaza, a firing squad put Hippocrates up against a wall, aimed and fired. The absurd declarations of an Israeli secret services' spokesman, according to which the army was given the green light in firing at ambulances because they allegedly carried terrorists, is an illustration of the value that Israel assigns to human life these days – the lives of their enemies, that is. It's worth revisiting what's stated in the Hippocratic Oath, which every doctor swears upon before starting to practice the profession. The following passages are especially worthy of note:
I solemnly pledge myself to consecrate my life to the service of humanity. I will practice my profession with conscience and dignity. The health and life of my patient will be my first consideration. I will cure all patients with the same diligence and commitment. I will not permit considerations of religion, nationality, race, party politics, or social standing to intervene between my duty and my patient.
Seven doctors and voluntary nurses have been killed from the start of the bombing campaign, and about ten ambulances were shot at by the Israeli artillery. The survivors are shaking with fear, but refuse to take a step back. The crimson flashes of the ambulances are the only bursts of light in the dark streets of Gaza, bar the flashes that precede an explosion. Regarding these crimes, the last report comes from Pierre Wettach, chief of the Red Cross in
GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP- DECEMBER 27: A wounded child awaits medical attention at the Shifa hospital on December 27, 2008 in Gaza City, Gaza. Israel's air force fired about 30 missiles at targets along the Gaza Strip on Saturday, destroying several Hamas police compounds, killing more than 200 people and wounding hundreds. (Photo by Abid Katib/Getty Images)
Gaza. His ambulances had access to the spot of a massacre, in Zaiton , East of Gaza City, only 24 hours after the Israeli attack. The rescue- workers state they found themselves faced by a blood-curdling scenario. "In one of the houses four small children were found near the body of their dead mother. They were too weak to stand on their feet. We also found an adult survivor, and he too was also too weak to stand up. About 12 corpses were found lying on the mattresses." The witnesses to this umpteenth massacre describe how the Israeli soldiers, after getting into the neighbourhood, gathered the numerous members of the Al Samouni family in one building and then proceeded to repeatedly bomb it. My ISM partners and I have been driving around in the Half Red Moon ambulances for days, suffering many attacks and losing a dear friend, Arafa, struck by a howitzer shot from a cannon. A further three paramedics, all friends, are presently inpatients at the hospitals they worked in until a few days ago. Our duty on the ambulances is to pick up the injured, not carry guerrilla fighters. When we find a man lying in the street in a pool of his own blood, we don't have the time to check his papers or ask him whether he roots for Hamas or Fatah. Most seriously injured can't talk, much like the dead. A few days ago, while picking up a badly wounded patient, another man with light injuries tried to hop onto the ambulance. We pushed him out, just to make it clear to whoever's watching from up above that we don't serve as a taxi to usher members of the resistance around. We only take on the most fatally wounded – of which there's always a plentiful supply, thanks to Israel.
Last night at Al Qudas hospital in Gaza City, 17-year-old Miriam was carried in, with full-blown labour pains. Her father and sister-in- law, both dead, had passed through the hospital in the morning, both victims of indiscriminate bombing. Miriam gave birth to a gorgeous baby during the night, not aware of the fact that while she lay in the delivery room, her young husband had arrived in the morgue one floor below her.
In the end, even the United Nations realised that here in Gaza, we're all in the same boat, all moving targets for the snipers. The death toll is now at 789 dead, 3,300 wounded (410 in critical conditions), 230 children killed and countless missing. The death toll on the Israeli side has thankfully stopped at 4. John Ging, chief of UNRWA (UN agency for the rights of Palestinian Refugees) has stated that the UN announced they shall suspend their humanitarian activities in the Gaza Strip. I bumped intoGing in the Ramattan press office and saw him shake his finger with disdain at Israel before the cameras. The UN stopped its work in Gaza after two of its operators were killed yesterday, ironically during the three-hour truce that Israel had announced and as usual, had failed to comply with. "The civilians in Gaza have three hours a day at their disposal in which to survive, the Israeli soldiers have the remaining 21 in which to try and exterminate them", I heard Ging state two steps away from me.
Yasmine, the wife of one of the many journalists waiting in line at the Erez pass, wrote to me from Jerusalem. Israel won't grant these journalists a pass to let them in and film or describe the immense unnatural catastrophe that has befallen us in the last thirteen days. These were her words: " The day before yesterday I went to have a look at Gaza from the outside. The world's journalists are all huddled on a small sandy hill a few km from the border. Innumerable cameras are pointed towards us. Planes circle us overhead – you can hear them but you can't see them. They seem like illusions, like something in your head until you see the black smoke rising from the horizon, in Gaza. The hill has also become a tourist site for the Israelis in the area. With their large binoculars and cameras, they come and watch the bombings live."
While I write this piece of correspondence in a mad rush, a bomb is dropped onto the building next to the one I'm in now. The windowpanes shake, my ears ache, I look out the window and see that the building gathering the major Arabic media agencies has been struck. It's one of Gaza City's tallest buildings, the AlJaawhara building. A camera crew is permanently stationed on the roof, I can now see them all bending around on the ground, waving their arms and asking for help as they're covered by a black cloud of smoke.
Paramedics and journalists, the most heroic occupations in this corner of the world. At the Al Shifa hospital yesterday I paid Tamim a visit – he's a journalist who survived an air raid. He explained how he thinks that Israel is adopting the same identical terrorist techniques as Al-Qaeda, bombing a building, waiting for the journalists and ambulances to arrive and then dropping another bomb to finish the latter two off as well. In his view that's why there've been so many casualties among the journalists and paramedics. As he said this, the nurses around his bed all nodded in agreement.Tamim smilingly showed me his two stubs for legs. He was happy he was still around to tell the story, while his colleague, Mohammed, had died with a camera in his hand when the second explosion had proved fatal. In the meantime I asked about the bomb that was just dropped on the building next door, where two journalists, both Palestinian, one from Libyan TV and the other from Dubai TV, were injured. This is a harsh new reminder that this massacre must in no way be described or recorded. All that's left for me to hope is that among the Israeli military summit no one readsIl Manifesto, or habitually visits my blog.
Stay human
Vittorio Arrigoni
Photos: http://palsolidarity.org/2009/01/4169
--------------------- 4) Two human rights activists denied entry to Israel on claim they plan to enter Gaza
(January 11, 2009 Ben Gurion Airport) — Israel has stopped one Swedish and one Danish human rights activist from entering the country through Ben Gurion Airport.
On Sunday morning, Andreas Kaivarainen and Fie Knutsenwere were taken for questioning. Israeli authorities insisted that the individuals post $5,000 as a guarantee that they would not engage in political activities. When the activists insisted they could not pay the bail, Israeli authorities contacted the Swedish and Danish embassies. The embassies were told by Israel that the activists were trying to get into Gaza.
However impossible it is to enter Gaza due to the ongoing siege, the Israeli government is taking extreme measures to ensure that journalists and activists do not have access to Gaza. Although these two activists have never been to Israel/Palestine, the Israeli authorities are erroneously claiming that they have intentions to enter Gaza. Even though denying the activists entry is unwarranted, Israeli authorities are currently holding the internationals in a detention facility near the airport. They are refusing deportation and insisting that the reason for their denial of entry is misleading.
Israel is so intent on forcefully preventing international observers from entering Gaza that they stopped two internationals with no route to enter Gaza. Due to the ongoing siege, internationals have only been able to enter Gaza with the Free Gaza Movement's boat, the SS Dignity. The last attempt by the FGM was violently stopped when the Israeli navy rammed into the SS Dignity.
Fie Knutsenwere was deported at 4am on the 12th January.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/01/4166
----------------------- 5) Injured, denied access
By Eva Bartlett, (see blog: ingaza.wordpress.com)
(Gaza, January 11, 2009) Friday night, Red Crescent ambulances in Jabaliya collected numerous victims of smoke inhalation: a strange chemical smoke which seizes the lungs and air passage, and suffocates the victims. Many elderly were collected in turns, and a 3 month old baby was brought in held by a sobbing mother.
At least, at least we were able to reach them. A Palestinian Red Crescent dispatcher has received what he says is hundreds of calls from the northern Gaza area alone, which have been left unanswered as the areas are under Israeli military occupation.
Photos: http://palsolidarity.org/2009/01/4128
------------------- 6) ISM video of Israel troops shooting Palestinian paramedics in Jabaliya
(Gaza, January 11, 2009)
A Palestinian medic, traveling with two International Solidarity Movement volunteers, has been shot by Israeli forces in Jabaliya, northern Gaza.
Red Crescent medic, Hassan al-Attal, was shot through the thigh while collecting a civilian killed by Israeli fire from Zemmo, east of Jabaliya refugee camp.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/01/4148
---------------------- 7) European MEPs enter Gaza
(Gaza, January 11, 2009) Luisa Morgantini, Vice President of the European Parliament, and the MEPs delegation entered to Gaza Strip, today 11th January 2009, through Rafah border crossing.
The delegation – composed by 8 MEPs belonging to different political groups and by one Member of the Italian Senate - will stay in Gaza from Saturday 10 to Tuesday 13 January, when the MEPs will come back to Strasbourg to report back about the situation to the Plenary session of the EU Parliament and they will hold a press conference.
In Gaza the delegation will be staying with UNRWA and visit refugee camps, hospitals and towns.
The MEPs are grateful to the Egyptian Authority and UNRWA for their cooperation and support.
MEPs Participants: Luisa Morgantini (Italy) David Hammerstein Mintz (Spain) Hélène Flautre (France) Véronique de Keyser (Belgium) Miguel Portas (Porturgal) Feleknas Uca (Germany) Chris Davies (UK) Kyriacos Triantaphyllides (Cypre) Alberto Maritati (Italy) Member of the Italian Senate
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Please consider a financial donation to help continue the important work of the ISM. You may donate securely online at our website: http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/donations
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ISM Digest 12/01/2009 - Free Gaza to Israel: "We are coming in on Tuesday"
1) Free Gaza to Israel: "We are coming in on Tuesday" 2) Gaza: A delegation of MEP's call for an immediate cease-fire and for the protection of civilian population 3) Six members of the same family killed by Israeli shell in Jabaliya 4) ISM video of Israel troops shooting Palestinian paramedics in Jabaliya 5) Israeli bombardment devastates Rafah 6) Israeli military threatens to expand attacks on Gaza 7) The Gazan Holocaust: Bil'in demonstrates in solidarity with Gaza 8) Too much to mourn in Gaza 9) Working with Red Cross evacuation team in Gaza _______
1) Free Gaza to Israel: "We are coming in on Tuesday" (Cyprus, 11 January 2009)
The Free Gaza Movement ship, "SPIRIT OF HUMANITY," will leave Larnaca Port at 12:00 noon, Monday, 12 January, on an emergency mission to besieged Gaza. The ship will carry desperately needed doctors, journalists, human rights workers, and members of several European parliaments as well as medical supplies. This voyage marks Free Gaza's second attempt to break through the blockade since Israel began attacking the Gaza Strip on 27 December. Between August and December 2008, the Free Gaza Movement successfully challenged the Israeli blockade five times, landing the first international ships in the port of Gaza since 1967.
The Israeli military violently attacked an earlier attempt by the Free Gaza Movement to send an emergency boat filled with doctors and medical supplies to Gaza. In the early hours of Tuesday, 30 December, the Israeli navy deliberately, repeatedly, and without warning rammed the unarmed ship, the DIGNITY, causing significant structural damage and endangering the lives of its passengers and crew. The ship found safe harbor in Lebanon, and is currently awaiting repairs.
Fouad Ahidar, a member of the Belgian Parliament sailing to Gaza aboard the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, responded to concerns that Israel may attack the unarmed mercy ship by saying, "I have five children that are very worried about me, but I told them, you can sit on your couch and watch these atrocities on the television, or you can choose to take action to make them stop."
Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have injured thousands of civilians and killed over 800 people, including scores of women and children. This ongoing Israeli massacre severely and massively violates international humanitarian law defined by the Geneva Conventions, especially the obligations of an Occupying Power and the requirements of the laws of war.
The United Nations has failed to protect the Palestinian civilian population from Israel's massive violations of international humanitarian law. Israel has closed off Gaza from the international community and demanded that all foreigners leave. But Huwaida Arraf, an organizer with the Free Gaza Movement, stated that, "We cannot just sit by and wait for Israel to decide to stop the killing and open the borders for relief workers to pick up the pieces. We are coming in. There is an urgent need for this mission as Palestinian civilians in Gaza are being terrorized and slaughtered by Israel, and access to humanitarian relief denied to them. When states and the international bodies responsible for taking action to stop such atrocities chose to be impotent, then we -the citizens of the world- must act. Our common humanity demands nothing less."
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/01/4138 _______
2) Gaza: A delegation of MEP's call for an immediate cease-fire and for the protection of civilian population (January 10, 2009)
Press release from Luisa Morgantini - Vice President of the European Parliament (GUE/NGL)
A MEPs' delegation organized by Luisa Morgantini, Vice President of the European Parliament, will leave tomorrow 10th January and go to Gaza Strip passing through Rafah, the Border Crossing with Egypt, calling for an immediate cease-fire, for the protection of the civil population and UNRWA, (United Nations Relief and Works Agency). "No one can simply look on the daily killing of children, women, man and to the destruction of houses, infrastructures, schools, mosques, churches. No one can stand anymore the siege imposed on the Palestinian population of Gaza. Our message is total cease fire, no bombs, no troops, no rockets. And then real concrete actions to end the occupation on the Palestinian territories of 1967," declared VP Luisa Morgantini.
The delegation - that is composed by 8 MEPs belonging to different political groups and by one Member of the Italian Senate- will stay in Gaza Strip from Saturday 10 to Tuesday 13 January, when the MEPs will come back to Strasbourg to report back about the situation to the Plenary session of the EU Parliament and they will hold a press conference.
In Gaza the delegation will be staying with UNRWA and visit refugee camps, hospitals and towns.
The MEP are grateful to the Egyptian Authority and UNRWA for their cooperation and support.
MEPs Participants: Luisa Morgantini (Italy) David Hammerstein Mintz (Spain) Helene Flautre (France) Veronique de Keyser (Belgium) Miguel Portas (Porturgal) Feleknas Uca (Germany) Chris Davies (UK) Kyriacos Triantaphyllides (Cyprus) Alberto Maritati (Italy) Member of the Italian Senate
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/01/3867 _______
3) Six members of the same family killed by Israeli shell in Jabaliya (Jabaliya, Gaza, 10th January 2009)
An international Human Rights Activist, working with medical teams in northern Gaza, today assisted in the collection of six members of the same family killed by an Israeli shell. British citizen Ewa Jasiewicz, a co-ordinator for the Free Gaza Movement, said, "This morning at 11:40 at Mahmat Street in West Jabaliya. I accompanied an ambulance to pick up members of the Abu Rabu family after six of them had been killed by an Israeli tank shell. Many others had been injured. While we were picking up the family and injured I saw a donkey cart full of dead bodies. Everyone we meet has lost someone., whether it be a family member, friend or neighbour. It's getting closer." Ewa Jasiewicz (Britain/Poland) - Free Gaza Movement
Those of the Abu Rabu family killed were: Yusri Abu Rabu (30), Sufian Abu Rabu (22), Randa Abu Rabu (38), Sameed Abu Rabu (20), Sami Abu Rabu (25), and Ramz Abu Rabu (30).
"In the past few days the horrors I have seen include a hospital being shelled, a medic being shot and visiting schools housing refugees after these were shelled. What I see here is nothing short of a massacre. By agreeing to upgrade relations with Israel despite its genocidal policies European governments have given Israel a green light for this mass murder." Alberto Arce (Spain) - International Solidarity Movement
International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activists have also been active with Red Cross evacuation teams.
"I was working from Al-Quds hospital during the 'ceasefire'. We traveled a few hundred metres into a known 'no-go' zone because of the ceasefire. We called for people to come out and over forty did while we collected three dead bodies. Immediately as the ceasefire ended the Israelis fired a shell directly over our heads. People started to panic. We only managed to evacuate four houses as the Israelis have not allowed us to access more people." Sharon Lock (Australia) - International Solidarity Movement
"They massacred two year old Amal, four year old Suad and and six year old Samer with their tanks during what they call a ceasefire. We do not believe them and their ceasefire" Natalie Abu Shakra (Lebanon) - International Solidarity Movement
South African citizen, Dr. Haidar Eid, Professor of Social and Cultural Studies at Al Aqsa University Gaza, commented on the failed UN Security Council resolution; "What was needed from the UN Security Council was a demand that Israel abide by international law and international humanitarian law, with a demand for the withdrawal of Israeli troops at least to the 1967 borders. Instead the resolution ignored the occupation and siege, which are the true root of the problem, and treated the resistance to the occupation as the root of the problem. The resolution equates the victim and the victimiser, the oppressor and the oppressed. "In March 2008 Matan Vilnai, the Israeli minister of war, threatened the people of Gaza with a holocaust. Because there was no outcry from the international community at the time this is now what is taking place. However I believe from the reaction of the people around the world, this atrocity will in fact lead to the end of the despotic regimes in the Arab world, the end of Israeli apartheid and the creation of one secular, democratic, multi-national state." Dr Haidar Eid (South Africa/Palestine).
ISM and Free Gaza Movement activists are currently working night shifts with Palestinian medics.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/01/3971 _______
4) ISM video of Israel troops shooting Palestinian paramedics in (Jabaliya, January 11, 2009)
A Palestinian medic, traveling with two International Solidarity Movement volunteers, has been shot by Israeli forces in Jabaliya, northern Gaza.
Red Crescent medic, Hassan al-Attal, was shot through the thigh while collecting a civilian killed by Israeli fire from Zemmo, east of Jabaliya refugee camp.
Video Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb1rmLAuvM8 _______
5) Israeli bombardment devastates Rafah (Rafah, January 8, 2009)
The Israeli bombing campaign in Gaza has been severe and targeted mainly at civilian areas, leaving scores of people homeless. ISM volunteers filmed this video in Rafah showing the aftermath of the bombing. The translation was done by The Guardian
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/01/3979 _______
6) Israeli military threatens to expand attacks on Gaza (Gaza, January 10, 2009)
The Israeli military dropped leaflets over Gaza warning of an imminent expansion of the attacks which have already killed over 800 Palestinians and wounded over 3000. This is a translation of the leaflet provided by ISM Volunteers in Gaza.
"To the citizens of the Gaza Strip, The Israeli Defence Force distributed leaflets in Rafah a few days ago, warning citizens of an imminent operation and telling them to evacuate their houses immediately for their own safety. Following the Israeli Defence Force directions and instructions has prevented hurting citizens who are not part of the fighting. During the upcoming period, the Israeli Defence Forces will escalate their direct operations against the tunnels, the weapons and ammunition stores and the terrorists in all parts of the Gaza Strip. For your safety and your family's safety, you are asked not to be near the terrorists and the stores of weapons and the places of fighting and other places used by them. The Israeli Defence Force asks to continue in this way by following the instructions which are communicated to you by all means.
The leadership of the Israeli Defence Force"
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/01/3980 _______
7) The Gazan Holocaust: Bil'in demonstrates in solidarity with Gaza January 9, 2009
As a gesture of solidarity, residents in the West Bank village of Bil'in demonstrated against the current holocaust on Gaza in outfits symbolic of the clothing worn by victims of the Nazi holocaust. The Israeli army used several new weapons, one of which is a bullet filled with an unknown chemical substance, against the demonstrators. Five individuals, including a member of Bil'in's popular committee, were arrested and later released.
"Stop the holocaust," chanted the residents of Bil'in during today's protest, held in solidarity with the Gazan people. After the Friday prayer, Palestinian, international and Israeli activists gathered to voice their opposition to the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza.Wearing clothing similar to prisoners in Nazi camps, protestors traded the Star of David badge for a Gaza Strip badge. "The outfits and insignia are a visual remembrance to the parallel conditions of the Jewish holocaust and the Gazan holocaust. Indiscriminate killing of members belonging to an ethnic group that was put and is trapped in a ghetto: Gaza is the present day concentration camp," stated Abdallah Abu Rahmah, a member of Bil'in's popular committee. Protesters hoped to send a message to the world: the international community is ignoring another holocaust.
The demonstrators marched through the streets of the village, towards the Apartheid Wall. An effort to condemn Israeli war crimes against the population of Gaza was met with tear gas, new bullets containing an unknown chemical substance and new bullets termed "0.2", from Israeli soldiers. The new bullets that contain an unknown chemical substance are round and green and explode upon impact. Several protesters were injured including Muhammad Nabil Abu Rahmeh who had to be taken to Ramallah Hospital for treatment after he was shot at with the new 0.2 bullet. The small bullet went through his leg, causing great damage to muscle. Also injured by rubber bullets were a photographer from Al Jazeera International, Yase Ashal Mahmud Yasen and a child named Nashmi Aburahma.
Soldiers also entered through a road gate into Bil'in and arrested Muhammed Khatib, a member of Bil'in's Popular Committee, Ashraf Abu Rahma, Samer Ataya and two Israeli activists. They were released later in the day.
The ongoing siege on Gaza, illegal under international law, was intensified when Israeli occupation forces began attacking Gaza with air strikes, shelling from the navy and a ground invasion. The military incursion on Gaza has already led to the death of over 781 people and injury of another 3,300. Israel continues to indiscriminately attack on the densely populated Gaza Strip: a 40km by 7km remnant of historical Palestine with 1.5 million residents. Even Israeli officials are drawing comparisons to the Nazi inflicted holocaust.
Speaking to Israeli army radio, the Deputy Defense Minister, Matan Vilnai said, "the more Qassam [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, [the Palestinians] will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves." Shoah is the Hebrew term for the Jewish holocaust.
Today's action was a reminder to the international world about the consequences of letting Gazan massacres go unnoticed. As proven by a history that was constructed because of willful ignorance during the Nazi inflicted holocaust, ignoring the Israeli inflicted holocaust on the Palestinians of Gaza is not an option.
8) Too much to mourn in Gaza By Eva Bartlett (Gaza, January 10, 2009)
After finishing a shift with the Palestine Red Crescent Society yesterday morning, we went to the United Nations-administered al- Fakhoura school in Jabaliya, which was bombed by Israeli forces, killing at least 40 displaced people who were taking shelter there. When we arrived, prayers were happening in the street in front of the school. I'd seen prayers in open, outdoor places in Palestine and Egypt. But these days, when I see a mass of people praying, in front of al-Shifa hospital, in the streets of Jabaliya, I think of the mosques that have been bombed, and of the loss of lives and sanctuaries. And yesterday I thought of the loss of another safe haven. The Deeb family was preparing bread when they were killed in their home by Israeli shelling. The grief was very evident, as was the indignation: "Where are we supposed to stay," one man demanded. "How many deaths is enough? How many?" It's the question that has resounded in my mind since the attacks on 27 December.
Across Fakhoura street from the school, about 15 meters down a drive, a gaping hole in the Deeb family house revealed what had been happening when it was hit by a shell. Rounds of bread dough lay where they'd been rolled out to bake. Amal Deeb was in her 30s, a surviving family member told us. When the missile struck, it killed her and nine others in the extended family's house, including two boys and three girls. Another four were injured, one having both legs amputated.
Approaching the house, the stench of blood was still strong, and was visible in patches and pools amid the rubble of the room. Later, in Jabaliya's Kamal Adwan hospital, 19-year-old Ahlam lay conscious but unsmiling, unresponsive. The woman at her side explained her injuries: shrapnel lacerations all over her body, and deeper shrapnel injuries in her stomach. Ahlam didn't know nine of her family members were killed. Returning to the street in front of the Fakoura school, mourners had gathered, ready to march, to carry the dead and their pieces to their overcrowded resting place. Flags of all colors mixed in this funeral march: no one party dominated, it was collective grief under collective punishment.
So many people had joined the procession through the narrow streets that the funeral split, taking different streets, to reach the cemetery. At the entrance to the cemetery, decorated cement slabs mark the older graves, laid at a time when cement and space were available. The most recently buried bodies, instead, show in sandy humps, buried just low enough to be covered but not properly so. Cement blocks mark some graves, leaves and vines on others. And some were just barely visible, by the raise in earth. But it was too packed, too hard to estimate where a grave might be, no possibility of a respectfully- spaced arrangement. "Watch where you step," Mahmoud, a friend, told me, pointing to a barely-noticeable grave of a child.
The enormity of the deaths hit me. After 12 days of killing and psychological warfare, I'd become less shocked at the sight of pieces of bodies, a little numb, like a doctor might, or a person subjected to this time and again. I was and I remain horrified at the ongoing slaughter, at the images of children's bodies being pulled from the rubble astonished it could continue - but adapted to the fact that there would be bodies, maimed, lives ruined. I stood among sandy makeshift graves, watching men digging with their hands, others carrying corpses on any plank long enough - corrugated tin, scraps of wood, stretchers - to be hastily buried. As the drones still flew overhead and tank shelling could be heard 100s of meters beyond, it all become too much again. I wept for all the dead and the wounded psyches of a people who know their blood flows freely and will continue to do so. Hatem, the other day, told me to be strong as Palestinians, for Palestinians. And I try, though each day brings assassinations no one could have imagined. Out of touch with all the other fragmented areas of Gaza, I read of the Samuni family and see photos of a baby girl pulled from the rubble of a house shelled by an Israeli warplane. Mohamed, a photojournalist, has photographed many of those killed in Israel's bombings of houses. And today Hatem crumbled, though he is strong. It's all too much.
Nidal, a Palestine Red Crescent Society medic, told how he was at the Fakhoura school when it was shelled. His aunt and uncle live nearby and he'd been visiting friends at the school. "I was there, talking with friends, only a little away from where two of the missiles hit. The people standing between me and the missiles were like a shield. They were shredded. About 20 of them," he said.
Like many Palestinians I've met, Nidal has a prior history of loss, even before this latest phenomenal assault on civilians. Only 20 years old, Nidal has already had his father and brother killed, martyred it is said here, by sniper's bullets. His right hand testifies his part in the story: "Three years ago, the Israeli army had invaded our region [Jabaliya]. One soldier threw a sound bomb at us and I picked it up to throw away. It went off in my hand before I could throw it away." Sound bombs are used against nonviolent demonstrations against Israel's wall in the occupied West Bank villages of Bilin and Nilin, and many youths learn at a young age how to chuck them away. But Nidal's stubs of fingers show that he wasn't so lucky. However, he is luckier than his father and brother. And luckier than two of his cousins, his aunt's sons, who were in the area where missiles were dropped at the UN school. They, 12 and 27 years old, were killed.
Osama gave his testimony as a medic at the scene after the multiple missile shelling. "When we arrived, I saw dead bodies everywhere. More than 30. Dead children, grandparents - Pieces of flesh all over. And blood. It was very crowded, and difficult to carry out the injured and martyred. There were also dead animals among the humans. I helped carry 15 dead. I had to change my clothes three times. These people thought they were safe in the UN school, but the Israeli army killed them, in cold blood," he said.
Mohammed K., a volunteer with the Palestine Red Crescent Society, was elsewhere when the UN safe haven was shelled. "We were in Jabaliya, at the UN G school, to interview the displaced people taking shelter there. We wanted to find out how many people were staying there, where they'd left from and why exactly, and how safe they felt in the school. While we were there, we heard the explosions, saw the smoke, and wondered what had been hit. It was Fakhoura."
Eva Bartlett is a Canadian human rights advocate and freelancer who spent eight months in 2007 living in West Bank communities and four months in Cairo and at the Rafah crossing. She is currently based in the Gaza Strip after having arrived with the 3rd Free Gaza Movement boat in November. She has been working with the International Solidarity Movement in Gaza, accompanying ambulances while witnessing and documenting the ongoing Israeli air strikes and ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.
9) Working with Red Cross evacuation team in Gaza By Sharon (see blog: talestotell.wordpress.com) (Gaza, January 10, 2009)
So, Thursday, the Red Cross coordinated evacuation into Zaytoun. Doctor Said would look good on a Red Cross poster - black sweater, shaved head, muscles enough to keep that Red Cross flag held above his head for the two hours we were behind army lines. You'd definitely invite him in for coffee to ask for his opinion on the state of the world.
His colleague has more of an accountant look about him, but his job is to keep us alive - he is armed with a walkie-talkie and is negotiating our path constantly with the army as we move. With May, a small, quick woman who is the Engineer for the Red Crescent, supervising all the vehicles etc, I carry a stretcher and water. About 8 intrepid Red Crescent paramedics join us, wearing weighty bullet proof vests or not, dependent on their preference for possible death or certain backache.
What startles me first of all is how close the IOF have come. I have heard that they are 2km from the hospital but I guess I didn't quite absorb that; when we all jump in the ambulances to drive there, we jump out again almost immediately. The Israeli Occupation Force is pretty much just round the corner. I haven't seen them in person since 2005. They ain't changed much. Just as I occasionally forget that the planes in the sky are killing machines and assume for a moment they're just jetting folks off on climate damaging holidays, my brain firstly registers the sound of tanks as some sort of roadworks nearby. Which they are in a way, they are unmaking the road. As-Saladiin is the main north-south road and they're doing their best to turn it impassible, with earth mounds and barriers and blockades made of bombed cars. Soldiers point guns at us from behind the earth mounds. Snipers cover us from occupied houses. We all hope Mr Walkie Talkie is saying the right things. He's very polite, and isn't in fact saying any of the things I would be saying if I was on the phone to the IOF right now. I guess that's why he has his job and I don't.
Walking past all these weapons is the point where anyone would reasonably get scared; for some reason (I discovered this on my first West Bank trip years ago) this doesn't happen to me. There's clearly a bit of wiring in my head connected wrong, and I think people who are scared and do stuff anyway are much braver than I am. And as you already know from my blog I do get scared sometimes, now (stupidly one might say) just isn't one of those times.
Maybe it's when I've got work to do that it's ok. What I feel in walking this road with these good people is calm, and focused, and glad to be here. As my friends know to their sorrow, what I don't cope with is supermarkets and four-by-fours and plastic. Even more, I don't cope with the dissonance of trying to live in a Western society that pretends this reality, the reality of this road I am walking at this moment, does not exist. In the UK, in front of me is McDonalds, in my head are the tanks. It almost sends me crazy sometimes.
So here, the dissonance is finally gone, and the relief is great. So yes, I acknowledge I have a personal agenda. We all do.
When I was a kid, I was very aware of war zones, but I always understood they happened in places different from my home. I would like to tell you about what I am seeing right now as I walk. I am seeing flowering vines. Bright curtains in windows. Chickens running about. This is your home, you know. This is the garden where your children play. This is your house with obscene holes blown in it, with Israeli snipers lurking in the shadows of its roof, with a dead resistance fighter sitting with his back to your wall.
"Red Cross! It's safe to come out! We can evacuate you!" everyone shouts up at the silent windows of the next house, the one after, the one after that. And eventually a lone elderly man appears from a house holding a white flag. And the a whole collection of faces behind a gate, hands reaching for our bottles of water. A dead teenage boy has been placed outside the gate. "My son," says a man simply to us, in English. We ask them to wait there and continue. After an hour and a half, we have collected about 80 people, at least half children and many elderly. For each turn off the path we make to shout at damaged houses, permission must be asked and granted. And yes, I did the RC poster thing myself and carried a small child. Well, he only had little legs and we were in a hurry.
And strangely, the evacuation has its lighter moments; one of the paramedics has a tendency to attempt to catch any animal that passes him, failing however to get a hold on a chicken, a duck, a cow, or a goat. Actually the goats want to accompany us of their own accord anyway, viewing the whole thing as some sort of pleasure jaunt. Red Cross and Red Crescent alike are smoking heavily as they go, lighting each other's cigarettes. In a straggly convoy we leave the silent houses and walk back towards army lines. 4pm is drawing near. In the Gaza city, Israeli planes continue shelling during the supposed 3 hour ceasefire, but here soldiers have watched us in eerie silence, apart from tank engines.
When the children see the tanks, their faces twist, and they reach for their mothers hands, some having to be forced to continue moving past them. Guns are trained on us. Now we can see the earth mounds we have to climb over that have our vehicles on the other side. But! It's 4pm. Woe betide holding off the day's ceasefire end for another 5 minutes. Whoosh of a rocket, everyone tenses, it explodes just behind the building the ambulances are parked beside. Children stumble on rubble and begin to wail. Nearby gunfire begins. And strangely, the point after we climb over the line and open our vehicles doors is when some of the adults begin to cry anxiously. Perhaps they think there won't be enough space for all - and we do have to shove people in, including into the ambulance carrying the three dead we stretchered out. "Where is Jusef?" "Where is Samir?" Parents lose sight of children and panic. But in the end we get them all in, and drive that oh-so-short distance back to Al Quds hospital, where people tumble out of the vans. And then there is a bright moment, which I watch from a window above; families arriving and claiming their missing people.
I sit down to eat cold rice with the medics on duty, but before I can take a mouthful, get physically hauled up 6 flights of stairs by one of the medics who was on the evacuation, to find that being on today's team apparently merits very tasty scrambled eggs instead. We hear that on another Red Cross evacuation, the army shot at and injured one of the Red Cross workers.
Some moments of Friday 9th Jan: -standing ten floors up in the Ramattan press building (which got struck the other day) watching phosphorous shells falling on the eastern area of Gaza city, again and again, bright white smoke rising. This stuff can burn through to the bone; the doctors say they haven't seen anything like it. Now the thought of being underneath that does frighten me. -discovering our final remaining internet/food cafe has been threatened with bombing and so has closed. We are *hoping* it's temporary. It is incredibly difficult to find ways to get information out now, since movement and electricity are so limited. -while on ambulance shift, visiting Dr Halid of the lovely smile, who is tired and missing his family. Everyone in the hospital seems to have their family on the other side of the army blockade. The 14 year old boy in the ICU bed is gone. In his place is a little one, almost a baby, his chest rising and falling with the ventilator's jerk - Abed, enlarged pupils indicating the usual explosion-caused brain injury. Dr H realises his oxygen levels are low and swiftly begins to try to clear a blockage, asking me to hand him things. "He will die," says Dr H, "but he will not die of suffocation." In the middle of this EB appears to hurry me to the ambulance, I tell him I can't come. Later I hear from him that the call turns out to be to 3 injured people from the same family after an attack on their house, their injuries involve missing limbs and holes in chests he has to try to seal. His face is sad and subdued- no access to his wife and 3 kids, his house demolished, and a damn hard job. I feel extremely bad I wasn't there to help, even just to share the weight of witnessing these terrible things. -one of the medics telling me about a call the Red Crescent received yesterday, from a woman sobbing that she had no flour to make bread and could not feed her children. "What could I do? All I had to offer anyone was an ambulance." he said. -coming home this morning to discover the fire station on the other side of the road is no more. Glad I wasn't home for that. Saturday 3pm: Just posting this now from Ramattan, their Wifi is working today thank goodness and they don't mind us hitching a ride on it. Mo stands at the window watching Israeli tanks shell buildings in the distance. As usual smoke is rising in several locations. There is a press conference going on behind me about the fact that the government body that manages the water here is now unable to guarantee waste water treatment or drinking water. I am hearing of more and more houses with no water at all. I suppose maybe next time I go to fill my water container there maybe nothing to fill it with. What happens then? The FreeGaza boat is trying to reach us again tomorrow!!!! Bless their brave hearts.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/01/3895
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