The Demolition of Rafah

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Written by ISM ISM

Published: 09 January 2009 09 January 2009

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The Demolition of Rafah

(Gaza, 7th January 2009) Jenny Linnel a British ISM volunteer in
Rafah said following escalated Israeli attacks in Rafah, "Shortly
before midnight on the 6th of January, missiles began raining down on
Rafah in one of the heaviest Israeli air strikes since the current
atrocities began. Continuous sorties pounded the southern Gaza city
for over 12 hours. Many homes were destroyed or severely damaged,
especially in the neighbourhoods along the border with Egypt."

According to Fida Qishta Rafah resident and ISM activist, "Papers
dropped from planes in Rafah neighborhood ordered people to leave
their homes in the areas stretching from the borderline all the way
back to Sea Street, the main street running through the heart of
Rafah, parallel to the border. This area is hundreds of metres deep
and the site of thousands of homes. Most of these areas are refugee
camps, where residents are being made refugees yet again, some for the
third or fourth time following the mass home demolitions of 2003 and
2004 by Israeli military D-9 bulldozers.
People are told to leave their homes but even if they leave they are
attacked. Nowhere is safe in the Gaza strip. Where will these families
go? They are afraid to seek sanctuary in local UNRWA schools following
yesterday's massacres in Jabaliya. They are afraid to drive somewhere
and be shot down on the road like the Sinwar family was. They are
being temporarily absorbed by the rest of Rafah's population
friends, neighbours, relatives."
Jenny added, "We have a friend in Yibna, directly on the border, who
refuses to leave his home. We spoke to one woman in Al Barazil who has
a family of 12 and simply doesn't know where to go and another woman
in Block J who is literally in the street tonight. Her father is in
his nineties. The family home where ISM volunteers are staying is on
the other side of the city centre and has become a refuge for three
other families tonight. The house is filled with excited chatter and
lots of children. Palestinians have a long-learned talent of making-
do, but there is no escaping the deep sense of uncertainty.."
Referring to hundreds of homes that were demolished in Rafah along the
Egyptian border in 2002 former Israeli OC Southern Command, Yom Tov
Samiah, contended in an interview to the "Voice of Israel" on the 16
January 2002.January 2002 that, "These houses should have been
demolished and evacuated a long time ago, because the Rafah border is
not a natural border, it cannot be defended. Three hundred meters of
the Strip along the two sides of the border must be evacuated. Three
hundred meters, no matter how many houses, period."
The six hundred meter buffer zone that the former OC Southern Command
of the Israeli Occupation Forces referred to seven years ago seems to
be Israel's goal in the latest wave of demolitions.
ISM media coordinator Adam Taylor stated, "Israel wants a buffer zone
in Rafah in order to besiege Gaza more effectively. The tunnels that
ran under the border with Egypt have become Gaza's life line during
the prolonged Israeli siege and served as the only source for basic
necessities such as fuel and medicine that Israel did not allow into
the Gaza strip. This recent wide scale destruction of private property
of the occupied people of Rafah is not a military necessity. One war
crime is being committed in order to reinforce another - that of
collective punishment." Adam Taylor - International Solidarity
Movement

Photos: http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2009/01/07/the-demolition-of-rafah

US Marine find IDF warfare "brutal and dishonorable"

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Written by JDS, Retired Marine JDS, Retired Marine

Published: 09 January 2009 09 January 2009

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I recently retired from the US Marine Corps, but I saw service in Iraq. I do know something of military matters that are relevant to the situation now in Gaza.

I am dismayed by the rhetoric from US politicians and pundits to the effect that "if the US were under rocket attack from Mexico or Canada, we would respond like the Israelis". This a gross insult to US servicemen; I can assure you that we would NOT respond like the Israelis. In fact, US armed forces and adjunct civilians are under attack constantly in Iraq and Afghanistan by people who are much better armed, much better trained and far deadlier than Hamas (I'll ignore for now that the politicians seem to be oblivious to this fact). Israel has indeed taken a small number of casualties from Hamas rocket fire (about 20 killed since 2001), but we have taken thousands of casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, including many civilian personnel. Hundreds of American casualties have occurred due to indirect fire, often from mortars. This is particularly true in or near the Green Zone in Baghdad. This fire often originates from densely populated urban areas.

Read more: US Marine find IDF warfare "brutal and dishonorable"

UN levels war crimes warning at Israel

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Written by # Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem and Jo Adetunji # Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem and Jo Adetunji

Published: 09 January 2009 09 January 2009

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Killing of 30 people in Gaza when army shelled house full of evacuees 'has all hallmarks of war crime', says high commissioner for human rights

 

The Israeli military may have committed war crimes in Gaza, the UN's most senior human rights official said tonight, as Israeli troops pressed on with their increasingly deadly offensive in defiance of a UN security council resolution demanding a ceasefire.

Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, singled out the killing this week of up to 30 Palestinians in Zeitoun, south-east of Gaza City, when Israel shelled a house where its troops had told about 110 civilians to take shelter.

Pillay, a former international criminal court judge from South Africa, told the BBC the incident "appears to have all the elements of war crimes". She called for "credible, independent and transparent" investigations into possible violations of humanitarian law.

The accusation came as Israel kept up its two-week-old air and ground offensive in Gaza and dismissed as "unworkable" the UN security council resolution calling for "an immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire". Protests against the offensive were held across the world today as diplomacy to halt the conflict appeared to falter.

With the Palestinian casualty toll rising to around 780 dead and more than 3,100 injured, fresh evidence emerged today of the Zeitoun killings.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said in a report it was "one of the gravest incidents since the beginning of operations" against Hamas militants in Gaza by the Israeli military on 27 December.

OCHA said the incident took place on 4 January, a day after Israel began its ground offensive in Gaza. According to testimonies gathered by the UN, Israeli soldiers evacuated about 110 Palestinians to a single-storey house in Zeitoun. The evacuees were instructed to stay indoors for their safety but 24 hours later the Israeli army shelled the house. About half the Palestinians sheltering in the house were children, OCHA said. The report also complains that the Israeli Defence Force prevented medical teams from entering the area to evacuate the wounded.

The OCHA report does not accuse Israel of a deliberate act but calls for an investigation. Responding to the report, an Israeli military spokeswoman, Avital Leibovich, told AFP news agency: "From initial checking, we don't have knowledge of this incident. We started an inquiry but we still don't know about it."

Among the dead were nine members of the Samouni family; a picture of three of the family's children in blood-stained clothing laid on a morgue floor and in front of their grieving father was shown in the Guardian on Tuesday. The father, Wael Samouni, said dozens of people had been sheltering in the house after Israeli troops ordered them and neighbours to stay inside.

"Those who survived, and were able, walked two kilometres to Salah Ed Din road before being transported to the hospital in civilian vehicles," the UN said.

Rescuers from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said they were able to reach the area on Wednesday only after being allowed safe passage by Israel.

The ICRC issued a statement on the incident yesterday, accusing the Israeli military of "unacceptable" delays in allowing medics safe access to injured Gazans.

More than 40 Palestinians were killed in another incident on Tuesday after missiles exploded outside a UN school that had been sheltering hundreds of people in the Jabaliya refugee camp, despite the UN saying the school was clearly marked with a UN flag and its position reported to Israeli military.

More than 750 Palestinians have died since the start of the Israeli military operation. More than half of Gaza's population are children, and the Palestinian ministry of health said about 42% of the casualties have been children.

Unicef said at least 100 children and minors were killed in the first 10 days of fighting. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, which posts staff at hospitals to track casualties, put this number at more than 160.

Abdel-Rahman Ghandour, the Jordan-based spokesman for Unicef in the Middle East and North Africa, said: "We are talking about urban war. The density of the population is so high, it's bound to hurt children … This is a unique conflict, where there is nowhere to go."

Israel has accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields and has said militants have fired rockets from rooftops of homes and mosques.

Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman, said: "Israel wants to see no harm to the children of Gaza. On the contrary, we would like to see their children and our children grow up without the fear of violence. Until now, Hamas has deliberately prevented that from becoming reality."

Fighting in Gaza has continued despite yesterday's UN security council resolution calling for an "immediate" and "durable" ceasefire and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. The resolution was passed with 14 out of 15 members in support of the resolution. The US abstained from the vote.

 

We have choked the Gaza Strip

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Written by GUSH SHALOM GUSH SHALOM

Published: 09 January 2009 09 January 2009

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