[GazaFriends] Israeli Navy attacks and wounds Dignity in International Waters
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- Written by Ewa Jasiewicz Ewa Jasiewicz
- Published: 30 December 2008 30 December 2008
- Hits: 3300 3300
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(Larnaca, Cyprus, 10:00 am) On Tuesday, December 30, at 5 a.m., several Israeli gunboats intercepted the Dignity as she was heading on a mission of mercy to Gaza. One gunboat rammed into the boat on the port bow side, heavily damaging her. The reports from the passengers and journalists on board is that she is taking on water and appears to have engine problems. When attacked, the Dignity was clearly in international waters, 90 miles off the coast of Gaza.
The gunboats also fired their machine guns into the water in an attempt to stop the mercy ship from getting to Gaza.
As the boat limps toward Lebanon, passengers have been in contact with the Lebanese government who have said the captain has permission to dock and are willing lend assistance if needed. Cyprus sea rescue has also been in touch, and has offered assistance as well. The Dignity clearly flies the flag of Gibraltar, is piloted by an English captain and has a passenger manifest that includes Representative Cynthia McKinney from the U.S. The attack was filmed by the journalists, and the crew and passengers will report on Israel's crime at sea once they arrive in Lebanon.
On board the boat are doctors traveling to this impoverished slice of the Mediterranean to provide badly-needed relief at the hospitals there. The crew and passengers were also hoping to take wounded out for treatment, since the hospitals are not coping. In addition, the Dignity was carrying 3 tons of medical supplies at the request of the doctors in Gaza.
The three physicans on board who were sailing to Gaza are: Dr. Halpin (UK), an experienced orthopaedic surgeon, medical professor, and ship's captain. He has organized humanitarian relief efforts in Gaza on several occasions with the Dove and Dolphin. He is traveling to Gaza to volunteer in hospitals and clinics. Dr. Mohamed Issa (Germany), a pediatric surgeon from Germany is traveling to Gaza to volunteer in hospitals and clinics. Dr. Elena Theoharous (Cyprus), MP Dr. Theoharous is a surgeon and a Member of the Cypriot Parliament. She is traveling to Gaza to assess the ongoing conflict, assist with humanitarian relief efforts, and volunteer in hospitals.
Yet Israel thumbs its nose in the face of maritime law by attacking a human rights boat in international waters and has put all of these human rights observers at risk. At no time was the Dignity ever close to Israeli waters. They clearly identified themselves and the Israeli attack was willful and criminal.
The Dignity is still in international waters, 40 miles off Haifa. Everybody on board is safe at the moment as the boat slowly makes its way to safety in Lebanon.
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World rallies around Palestinians amid Gaza offensive
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- Written by CNN CNN
- Published: 29 December 2008 29 December 2008
- Hits: 3239 3239
* Story Highlights
* Protests reported in Denmark, France, Italy, Spain, Britain and Venezuela
* In Iraq, demonstrators set fire to Israeli flag, photo of President Bush
* Hezbollah leader speaks via satellite to protesters in Beirut, Lebanon
* Greek protesters hurl stones outside Israeli Embassy; police fire tear gas
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Israeli attacks on suspected Hamas strongholds in Gaza have triggered protests in more than a dozen countries.
The attacks entered their third day Monday, with more than 300 people in Gaza reported killed and hundreds more wounded. Israel says the military assault is in response to ongoing rocket strikes on Israel, which have killed two Israelis.
In London, England, dozens of protesters gathered outside the Israeli Embassy, waving flags and trying to push their way closer to the building, as police tried to hold them back and erect a barricade.
Police in Germany said about 2,000 protesters marched peacefully down Berlin's Kurfuerstendamm Boulevard and dispersed after about three hours. VideoWatch protesters push toward embassy »
Protesters also have taken to the streets in Denmark, France, Italy and Spain, according to news reports. There also were reports of demonstrations in Caracas, Venezuela.
Iranian media reported that thousands took part in anti-Israel demonstrations in Tehran on Monday, which the government declared a day of mourning for the Palestinians in Gaza.
Photographs of the rallies posted by Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency showed black-shrouded women and men holding shoes in the air -- widely considered an insult in the Middle East -- while others held Palestinian flags and signs that said "Down with U.S.A." in English and Farsi.
Greek riot police clashed with protesters in Athens during a demonstration outside the Israeli Embassy, according to police and images broadcast on state television.
Protesters hurled stones in an attempt to break through the police cordon around the heavily secured embassy. Police responded with tear gas.
In Iraq, hundreds of supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr demonstrated in al-Mustansiriya Square in eastern Baghdad. The demonstrators carried Iraqi and Palestinian flags, banners and pictures of al-Sadr and his father.
The demonstrators threw an Israeli flag on the ground, put President Bush's picture on top of it and set both on fire.
In the Muslim world, demonstrations also were held in Jordan, Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia, Libya and Bahrain, the BBC and other news outlets reported. See world leaders' reactions to offensive »
Also, thousands of Lebanese demonstrators packed the streets of Beirut as part of a rally called by the militant group Hezbollah. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah addressed the crowd via satellite from an undisclosed location.
Protests were also held in Israel, where students at universities in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem demonstrated against the Israeli military operation, ynetnews.com reported.
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http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/12/29/world.protests.gaza/index.html
US tacitly backs Israel offensive
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- Written by Kim Ghattas, BBC News, Washington Kim Ghattas, BBC News, Washington
- Published: 29 December 2008 29 December 2008
- Hits: 3276 3276
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By Kim Ghattas
BBC News, Washington |
The White House has given its tacit backing to Israel's military operation against Hamas and the Gaza Strip, a flare-up that is threatening to seriously complicate any peace efforts envisaged by the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama.
"The United States understands that Israel needs to take actions to defend itself," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
"In order for the violence to stop, Hamas must stop firing rockets into Israel and agree to respect a sustainable and durable ceasefire."
It is an attitude that is very similar to the one adopted by the Bush administration during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon - calling for a sustainable cease-fire and a lasting peace rather than pressuring Israel to immediately halt a military operation that was killing civilians.
Short of a dramatic development, observers expect no shift in this position - or the administration's support for Israel - during the remaining three weeks of President George W Bush's term in office.
Mr Bush has not made any public comments so far, and neither has his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice. But the state department has been keen to stress diplomatic efforts are underway to bring the crisis under control.
"We are encouraging all the nations in the region to take an active part in rebuilding the cease-fire so that we can return to the relative calm that was enjoyed in the region over the past six months," said state department spokesman Gordon Duguid.
He listed all the foreign leaders that Ms Rice had spoken to, from Tzipi Livni, her Israeli counterpart, to Saudi Foreign Minister Saud el-Faisal.
"We are working for a cease-fire now where Hamas must stop its rocket attacks on Israel," said Mr Duguid. "All sides then need to respect the ceasefire."
Bush failure
This is also in line with the approach taken by the Bush administration during its second term, according to Dan Senor, a former Bush administration official now working with the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) - with the White House making strong statements in support of Israel while Condoleezza Rice leans a bit more strongly on Israel.
The flare-up also highlights the failure of Mr Bush to bring about a peace agreement between Palestinians and Israelis.
After he launched his ambition Annapolis peace initiative in 2007, few believed anything concrete would come out of it, but some argued that at least Mr Bush was leaving behind a work-in-progress, with relative calm on the ground.
Instead, the last few weeks of his presidency will be mired in yet another crisis - the biggest Israeli offensive against Gaza in decades.
While the escalation was pegged to a date - the end of a six-month cease-fire on 19 December - both the Israelis and Hamas seem to be using the political calendar in Israel and the US to reshuffle the cards before the next administration comes in.
Israeli officials know they can count on the Bush administration's support but are less sure about how an Obama administration would have reacted were they to have launched this operation after 20 January.
Mr Senor also argued that Israel did not want a flare-up in Gaza to be the first issue that Mr Obama would have to contend with when he moved into the White House.
"There was a sense in Israel that action was needed as the cease-fire was set to expire and they had to either move quickly or wait a long time - four or six months - and that was not something Israel could deal with," he said.
No details
But the developments are on such a scale that even if calm returns in a few days, the crisis will have an impact, possibly even regional, that will last beyond 20 January, so the Middle East is forcing itself high onto the agenda of the incoming administration.
Mr Obama has often said he would tackle the challenge of Middle East peace from day one, but has not given many details on how he plans to reach the peace deal that has eluded the Clinton and Bush administrations.
Israel's military operation in Gaza is also likely to limit his room for manoeuvre and diplomacy, at least in the beginning.
Mr Obama's team, stressing that there is only one president at a time, has kept its statements about the crisis to a minimum, but has provided assurances of its support for Israel.
"He's going to work closely with the Israelis," said David Axelrod, a senior advisor to Mr Obama. "They're a great ally of ours, the most important ally in the region."
"But he will do so in a way that will promote the cause of peace and work closely with the Israelis and the Palestinians on that, towards that objective," Mr Axelrod told the CBS Sunday talk show Face the Nation.
Steve Coll, a senior CFR fellow on Middle Eastern studies, said the Israelis were trying to do everything they could to get political cover from the incoming administration by highlighting statements by the president-elect, such as the one he made in August in Sderot, the Israeli town targeted by Hamas rocket attacks.
"If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that," said Mr Obama during the visit. "And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing."
Gaza may well be that first international crisis that Vice President-elect Joe Biden predicted Mr Obama would have to face when he came into office, with both Israel and Hamas testing the incoming leader.
And while there is a good amount of good will awaiting Mr Obama in the Arab world, how he handles similar flare-ups during his presidency will determine how long the honeymoon lasts.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7804001.stm
Published: 2008/12/29 23:05:40 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
Five daughters killed 'I didn't see any of my girls, just a pile of bricks'
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- Written by Hazem Balousha in Jabaliya, Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem Hazem Balousha in Jabaliya, Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem
- Published: 29 December 2008 29 December 2008
- Hits: 3153 3153
The family house was small: three rooms, a tiny kitchen and bathroom, built of poor-quality concrete bricks with a corrugated asbestos roof, in block four of the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza. There are hundreds of similar homes crammed into the narrow streets, filled with some of the poorest and most vulnerable families in the overcrowded Gaza Strip. But it was this house, where Anwar and Samira Balousha lived with their nine young children, that had the misfortune to be built next to what became late on Sunday night another target in Israel's devastating bombing campaign of Gaza.
An Israeli bomb struck the refugee camp's Imad Aqil mosque around midnight, destroying the building and collapsing several shops and a pharmacy nearby. The force of the blast was so massive it also brought down the Baloushas' house, which yesterday lay in ruins. The seven eldest girls were asleep together on mattresses in one bedroom and they bore the brunt of the explosion. Five were killed where they lay: Tahrir, 17, Ikram 15, Samer, 13, Dina, eight and Jawahar, four.
They were the latest in a growing number of civilian casualties in Israel's bombing campaign. At least 315 Palestinians have been killed and as many as 1,400 injured. On the Israeli side, two people have been killed by Palestinian rockets. Israel's military offensive continues and may yet intensify.
Imam, 16, lay in the room with her sisters but by chance survived with only injuries to her legs. She was eventually pulled free and rushed to hospital. "I was asleep. I didn't hear anything of the explosion," she said yesterday as she sat comforting her mother. "I just woke when the bricks fell on me. I saw all my sisters around me and I couldn't move. No one could see me from above. The neighbours and ambulance men couldn't see us. They were walking on the bricks above us. I started to scream and told my sisters we would die. We all screamed: 'Baba, Mama. Come to help us.'"
Her parents had been sleeping in the room next door with their two youngest children, Muhammad, aged one, and Bara'a, a baby girl just 12 days old. Their room was damaged and all were hurt, but they survived and were taken straight to hospital even before any of the older girls were found.
Imam eventually recognised her uncle's voice among the rescuers and she shouted again for help. "He found me and started to remove the bricks and the rubble from me. They started to pull me by my hands, the bricks were still lying on my legs."
Her mother, Samira, 36, had seen the pile of bricks in the girls' bedroom and was stricken with grief, convinced they were all dead. Like all the family, she too was asleep when the bomb struck. "I opened my eyes and saw bricks all over my body," she said. "My face was covered with the concrete blocks."
She checked on her two youngest children and then looked in the room next door. "I didn't see any of my daughters, just a pile of bricks and parts of the roof. Everyone told me my daughters were alive, but I knew they were gone." She sat on a sofa surrounded by other women at a neighbour's house further along the street and struggled to speak, pausing for long moments and still overcome with shock. "I hope the Palestinian military wings retaliate and take revenge with operations inside Israel. I ask God to take revenge on them," she said.
Her husband, Anwar, 40, sat in another house where a mourning tent had been set up. He was pale and still suffering from serious injuries to his head, his shoulder and his hands. But like many other patients in Gaza he had been made to leave an overcrowded hospital to make way for the dying. Yesterday his house was a pile of rubble: collapsed walls and the occasional piece of furniture exposed to the sky.
He spoke bitterly of his daughters' deaths. "We are civilians. I don't belong to any faction, I don't support Fatah or Hamas, I'm just a Palestinian. They are punishing us all, civilians and militants. What is the guilt of the civilian?"
Like many men in Gaza, Anwar has no job, and like all in the refugee camp he relies on food handouts from the UN and other charity support to survive.
"If the dead here were Israelis, you would see the whole world condemning and responding. But why is no one condemning this action? Aren't we human beings?" he said. "We are living in our land, we didn't take it from the Israelis. We are fighting for our rights. One day we will get them back."
Six months of secret planning - then Israel moves against Hamas
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- Written by Ian Black, middle east editor Ian Black, middle east editor
- Published: 29 December 2008 29 December 2008
- Hits: 3668 3668
Six months of secret planning - then Israel moves against Hamas
'Patience ran out' over repeated missile attacks in south of country but strategy risks creating fresh motives for revenge and hatred
[NOTE: See ICAHD's statement concerning Israel's attack and Israel's use of "conflict management."]
Even as Israel's F16s were aiming their first deadly salvoes at Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, questions were being asked at home and abroad, about what this "shock and awe" campaign was intended to achieve - and what Israel's exit strategy would be.
Preparations
Unlike the confused and improvised Israeli response as the war against Hizbullah in Lebanon unfolded in 2006, Operation Cast Lead appears to have been carefully prepared over a long period.
Israeli media reports, by usually well-informed correspondents and analysts, alluded yesterday to six months of intelligence-gathering to pinpoint Hamas targets including bases, weapon silos, training camps and the homes of senior officials. The cabinet spent five hours discussing the plan in detail on December 19 and left the timing up to Ehud Olmert, the caretaker prime minister, and his defence minister Ehud Barak. Preparations involved disinformation and deception which kept Israel's media in the dark. According to Ha'aretz, that also lulled Hamas into a sense of false security and allowed the initial aerial onslaught to achieve tactical surprise - and kill many of the 290 victims counted so far.
Friday's decision to allow food, fuel and humanitarian supplies into besieged Gaza - ostensibly a gesture in the face of international pressure to relieve the ongoing blockade - was part of this. So was Thursday's visit to Cairo by Tzipi Livni, Israel's foreign minister, to brief Egyptian officials. The final decision was reportedly made on Friday morning.
Why now?
Barak said yesterday the timing of the operation was dictated by Israel's patience simply "having running out" in the face of renewed rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza into Israel when the shaky six-month ceasefire expired 10 days ago. "Any other sovereign nation would do the same," is the official Israeli refrain. Amid the storm of international criticism of Israel's hugely disproportionate response, it is easy to overlook the domestic pressure faced by the Israeli government over its handling of "Hamastan".
Homemade Qassam rockets and mortars rarely kill but they do terrify and have undermined Israel's deterrent power as well as keeping 250,000 residents of the south of the country in permanent danger.
But the context now is February's Israeli elections. The contest that matters is between Livni's centrist Kadima party and the rightwing Likud under Binyamin Netanyahu, who talks only of "economic peace" with the Palestinians and does not want an independent Palestinian state, as Livni does. Opinion polls show that it pays to talk tough: Livni's standing has improved in recent days. The US political timetable may be as significant. The three weeks before Barack Obama's inauguration were Israel's last chance to assume automatic diplomatic support from Washington, as it got from George Bush over both West Bank settlements and the Lebanon war.
It is hard to imagine an Israeli government testing Obama, whom it views with foreboding because of a sense he has more sympathy for the Palestinians, with a crisis of these dimensions during his first days or weeks in office.
Game plan
Livni and other Israeli officials have spoken openly of wishing to topple Hamas since the Islamist movement took over from the western-backed, Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority (PA) in June 2007. But this may be something less ambitious. "The realistic objective of any military operation is not the ousting of Hamas, but rather ... undermining its military effectiveness and weakening its rule," is the view of Yediot Aharonot analyst Alex Fishman. Ron Ben-Yishai, another military expert, called it an attempt to "change the rules of the game." This appears to be a case of "asymmetric warfare" in which the weaker party commands disproportionate force - by repeatedly firing crude rockets or using suicide bombers - and the more powerful one responds with a massive, disproportionate blow. "The objective of an Israeli military operation in Gaza must be to undermine Hamas' desire to keep fighting, and at that point agree on a ceasefire," said Fishman.
Israel is well-informed about what happens in Gaza. Its premise is that Hamas is unpopular and that by targeting its personnel it can encourage that trend. But not all the victims are from Hamas. Some are civilians and there are security officers who belong to Fatah. And nor, crucially, has the PA been able to deliver a peace agreement with Israel, or even end its settlement activity. Most significantly, the scale of the bloodshed - ranking in Palestinian history alongside the 1948 Deir Yassin killings or the Sabra and Shatila massacres (by Israel's Christian Lebanese allies) in 1982 means renewed motives for hatred and revenge.
What next?
Israel said yesterday that it is calling up thousands of reservists. There can be little doubt that it could reoccupy and hold the coastal strip - as it did from 1967 to 2005 - but tanks and infantry would be vulnerable in guerrilla warfare against lightly-armed but highly-motivated Hamas or Islamic Jihad fighters. Civilian casualties would grow with international pressure. The only reason to deploy ground forces would be to achieve something air power could not - searching for rocket production and storage facilities that have not yet been identified.
Israeli commentators suggest the army has no appetite for a ground war, making comparisons with Lebanon in 2006, and pointing to the impending elections. Another key question for the military must be the fate of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli corporal held in Gaza since he was captured in 2006. It is hard to see negotiations on his release, and of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, continuing in these circumstances.
Repercussions
The Gaza offensive has already fuelled anti-Israeli and anti-American feeling across the Arab world. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, faces demands for an end to any talks with Israel. Hamas, calling for a "third intifada," accused Egypt and Jordan of colluding with the Gaza plan. If there is a silver lining in this dark cloud it is to have shown that working to achieve a lasting peace in the Middle East is still a desperately urgent task.