Israel Bombs Gaza - Hundreds Dead

[orion]

Gaza Children Found With Mothers’ Corpses


PARIS — The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday it had discovered “shocking” scenes — including small children next to their mothers’ corpses — when its representatives gained access for the first time to parts of Gaza battered by Israeli shelling. It accused Israel of failing to meet obligations to care for the wounded in areas of combat.
In response, the Israeli military did not comment directly on the allegation. In a statement, it accused Hamas, its foe in Gaza, of deliberately using “Palestinian civilians as human shields” and said the Israeli Army “works in close cooperation with international aid organizations during the fighting so that civilians can be provided with assistance.”

The Israeli military “in no way intentionally targets civilians and has demonstrated its willingness to abort operations to save civilian lives and to risk injury in order to assist innocent civilians,” the statement said, promising that “any serious allegation” would “need to be investigated properly, once such a complaint is received formally, within the constraints of the current military operation.”
In an unusually blunt criticism, the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross said it had been seeking access to shell-damaged areas in Zeitoun in the east of Gaza City since Saturday but the Israeli authorities granted permission only on Wednesday — the first day that Israel allowed a three-hour lull in the attacks on Gaza on humanitarian grounds.

The statement said a team of four Palestine Red Crescent ambulances accompanied by Red Cross representatives made its way to Zeitoun Wednesday where it “found four small children next to their dead mothers in one of the houses. They were too weak to stand up on their own. One man was also found alive, too weak to stand up. In all, there were at least 12 corpses lying on mattresses.”

In another house, the statement said, the rescue team “found 15 other survivors of this attack including several wounded. In yet another house, they found an additional three corpses. Israeli soldiers posted at a military position some 80 meters away from this house ordered the rescue team to leave the area which they refused to do. There were several other positions of the Israeli Defense Forces nearby as well as two tanks.”Because of berms built by Israeli forces, the ambulances could not enter the area so “the children and the wounded had to be taken to the ambulances on a donkey cart,” the statement said.

The statement quoted Pierre Wettach, an International Red Cross representative for Israel and the Palestinian areas, as calling the incident “shocking.”

“The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded. Neither did they make it possible for us or the Palestine Red Crescent to assist the wounded,” he was quoted as saying.
The statement said the international Red Cross “believes that in this instance the Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded. It considers the delay in allowing rescue services access unacceptable.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/world/middleeast/09redcross.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

I posted this article not becoz of the gruesome piece of news,definately there is much worse happening there,but to point out yet again the height of lies and hypocrisy that Israel has been demonstrating through out this massacre.To justify Israel's action is a gross insult to humanity.

 

[nick]

**** India and Israel.

 

[UnitedPak]

Israel has no motive for peace. UN has stopped aid efforts after their staff were fired upon and a few killed. By the latest reports it would seem they are actually targeting women and children in an effort to spread terror and discourage Palestinians to ever stand up to Israel again. You could see this after Lebanon allegedly fired missiles, and Israel responded with the heaviest bombing of Gaza since the conflict began.

This is an obvious attempt to terrorise a population into submission. Palestinians have nobody to come to their defences, so basically any leadership like Hamas which shows defiance and no fear gains popularity.

I am afraid Israel wont stop this massacre as they planned it very carefully and well in advance. Their initial attempt at silently suffocate Gaza with the blockade caused Hamas to break the treaty, and they simply proceeded to loudly kill Gaza. For whatever purpose they are doing this, (elections, power, future agenda), they wont stop until the existence of Israel can be threatened, and prevent them from using Palestinian lives as a cheap political tool.

 

[batmannow]

Militants Strike Israel From Lebanon
January 08, 2009
Associated Press

JERUSALEM - Lebanese militants fired barrages of rockets into northern Israel early today, striking a nursing home and threatening to open a second front for the Jewish state as it pushed forward with its offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Two people were injured, and the rockets on Israel's north raised the specter of renewed hostilities with Hezbollah, just 2 1/2 years after Israel battled the guerrilla group to a 34-day stalemate. Hezbollah started the 2006 war as Israel was battling Palestinian militants in Gaza.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the rocket attacks. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora condemned both the rockets fired from southern Lebanon and Israel's retaliatory fire, and said the attackers were trying to undermine stability.

In new Gaza fighting, Israel killed at five people, including four militants, raising the death toll from its 13-day offensive to nearly 700, according to Palestinian medical officials. With roughly half the dead believed to be civilians, international efforts to broker a cease-fire have been gaining steam.

One of the Lebanese rockets went through the roof of a Nahariya retirement home and exploded in the kitchen as about 25 elderly residents were eating breakfast in the adjacent dining hall. One resident suffered a broken leg, another bruises, apparently from slipping on the floor after emergency sprinklers came on.
"The rocket entered through the roof, hurling the water heaters into the air. It went through bedrooms upstairs and then into the kitchen. There was a serious blast," said Henry Carmelli, the home's manager.
A second rocket barrage later struck northern Israel, though no injuries were immediately reported, Israeli radio and television stations reported.

Israel has repeatedly said it was prepared for a possible attack on the north since it launched its bruising campaign against Hamas militants in Gaza on Dec. 27. Israel has mobilized thousands of reserve troops for such a scenario, and leaders have warned Hezbollah of dire consequences if it enters the fighting.
A Lebanese government official said that his country was trying to determine who was responsible and that Lebanon is committed to a U.N.-brokered truce that ended the 2006 war.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations.

Israeli Cabinet minister Meir Sheetrit said the government had no interest in renewing hostilities with Hezbollah and suggested that small Islamic groups, not Hezbollah, were behind the attack.

"Even though we have the ability to respond with great force, the response needs to be carefully considered and responsible," Sheetrit told Army Radio. "We don't need to play into their hands."

Shortly after the rockets fell around the town of Nahariya, five miles south of the Lebanese border, Lebanese TV stations reported Israeli mortar fire on open areas in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military confirmed it carried out "pinpoint fire" in response without elaborating.

Israeli defense commentators said they expected the incident to be a one-time show of solidarity with the Palestinians, not a declaration of war. Still, police said public bomb shelters throughout the north were opened.

Earlier, Palestinians reported some two dozen airstrikes around Gaza City before dawn today. One militant was killed and 10 wounded.

An airstrike in northern Gaza killed three members of a rocket-launching cell, Palestinian medical officials said. The attack took place about 150 yards from a hospital and wounded 12 bystanders. The Israeli army has repeatedly said militants use civilian areas for cover.

Also, there were clashes between Israeli armored forces and Hamas militants in southern Gaza.

Israel had resumed its Gaza offensive Wednesday after a three-hour lull to allow in humanitarian aid, bombing heavily around suspected smuggling tunnels near the border with Egypt after Hamas responded with a rocket barrage. Israeli planes destroyed at least 16 empty houses.

"I feel like the ground is shaking when we hear the shelling. People are terrified," said Fida Kishta, a resident of the Gaza-Egypt border area.

The tunnels are Hamas' lifeline, used to bring in arms, money and basic goods. Israel says local homes are used to conceal the tunnels.

Israeli warplanes bombed the border area after leaflets were dropped warning residents to leave.

"Because Hamas uses your houses to hide and smuggle military weapons, the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) will attack the area," the leaflet said, according a local U.N. official. More than 5,000 people fled to two U.N. schools turned into temporary shelters.

Despite the heavy fighting, strides appeared to being made on the diplomatic front with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying the U.S. supported a deal being brokered by France and Egypt.

While the U.N. Security Council failed to reach agreement on a cease-fire resolution, Egypt's U.N. Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz said representatives of Israel, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority agreed to meet separately with Egyptian officials in Cairo.

Israeli defense officials said senior envoy Amos Gilad would fly to Egypt today.

The latest casualties brought the total Palestinian death toll during Israel's assault to 692 - including some 350 civilians, among them 130 children - according to Palestinian health officials, and drove home the complexities of finding a diplomatic solution for Israel's Gaza invasion. Ten Israelis have been killed, including three civilians, since the offensive began.

In Turkey, a Mideast diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly said that country would be asked to put together an international force that could help keep the peace. And diplomats in New York worked on a U.N. Security Council statement backing the cease-fire initiative but failed to reach agreement on action to end the violence.

For Israel to accept a proposed cease-fire deal, "there has to be a total and complete cessation of all hostile fire from Gaza into Israel, and ... we have to see an arms embargo on Hamas that will receive international support," said government spokesman Mark Regev.

For its part, Hamas said it would not accept a truce deal unless it includes an end to the Israeli blockade of Gaza - something Israel says it is not willing to do. Israel and Egypt have maintained a stiff economic embargo on Gaza since the Hamas takeover.

The Palestinian Authority controls the West Bank while Hamas rules Gaza - two territories on opposite sides of Israel that are supposed to make up a future Palestinian state. Hamas took control of Gaza from forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in June 2007.

Growing international outrage over the human toll of Israel's offensive, which includes 3,000 Palestinians wounded - could work against continued fighting. So could President Bush's departure from office this month and a Feb. 10 election in Israel.

But Israel has a big interest in inflicting as much damage as possible on Hamas, both to stop militant rocket fire on southern Israeli towns and to diminish the group's ability to play a spoiler role in peace talks with Palestinian moderates.

The Israeli Cabinet formally decided on Wednesday to push ahead with the offensive while at the same time pursuing the cease-fire.

The military has called up thousands of reserve troops that it could use to expand the Gaza offensive. Defense officials said the troops could be ready for action by Friday.

Still, Israel briefly suspended its offensive Wednesday to allow humanitarian supplies to reach Gaza, and Israeli officials said such lulls would be declared on a regular basis.

The announcement came among growing warnings by the World Bank and aid groups of a humanitarian crisis. The World Bank pointed to a severe shortage of drinking water and said the sewage system is under growing strain.

In Geneva, the international Red Cross said it found four small children alive next to their mothers' bodies in the rubble of a Gaza home hit by Israeli shelling. The neutral aid group says a total of 15 dead were recovered from two houses in the Zaytun neighborhood of Gaza City on Wednesday.

A Red Cross spokesman said rescuers had been refused permission by Israeli forces to reach the site for four days. It said the delay in allowing rescue services access was "unacceptable."

The Palestinian Red Crescent said in a statement that one of its ambulance drivers was shot by Israeli soldiers during the lull. The Israeli military said it had no knowledge of the incident.

Also Wednesday, Israel released footage of suspected Hamas militants captured by Israeli troops. Israel's chief army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Avi Benayahu, said 120 suspected militants have been captured. He also said soldiers conducting searches have uncovered many explosive devices and tunnels.

 

[RescueRanger]

Iran takes advantage of Gaza crisis

Iran's official media paint a picture of a country in ferment, outraged by the Israeli attack on Gaza.

There are daily reports of demonstrations across the country by students and members of the Basij - the militia arm of the Revolutionary Guards.

Iranian MPs have volunteered to travel to Gaza to fight alongside Hamas.

One group of students occupied part of one of the British embassy compounds, unfurling pro-Palestinian banners.

Another group staged a sit-in at one of Tehran's airports, waiting, perhaps slightly optimistically, for a flight to the Gaza Strip.

Politicians and religious leaders have lined up to condemn Israel.

The parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani, said Israel's actions were worse than the Nazis during World War II.

The United States and Britain receive daily tirades, as do Arab countries, accused of not going to the aid of the Palestinians.

The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman has said Iran's hospitals are ready to care for Palestinian wounded.

It all fits in with the pattern of vehement anti-Zionism that has been one of the defining features of the Islamic Republic for 30 years.

Pressure on Israel

But even as Hamas comes under intense pressure from Israeli forces, the Iranian government's response so far has been carefully calibrated.

Iran is one of the strongest supporters of Hamas.

It is regularly accused by Israel of providing the group with arms, training, and money, something Tehran never admits to, but makes little effort to deny.

But until now there has been little evidence of pressure from Tehran on its Lebanese allies, Hezbollah, to break the ceasefire on Israel's northern border.

GAZA CRISIS BACKGROUND



Who are Hamas?
Points of view on Gaza
Middle East conflict: History in maps

So there is intense interest in whether the rockets fired from southern Lebanon early on Thursday came from Hezbollah.

If Hezbollah was responsible, the finger will quickly be pointed back to Tehran.

There is certainly a logic to Iran stepping up the pressure on Israel now.

The Iranian government does not want to see any deal in Gaza that restricts Iran's ability to send weapons and money to Hamas.

That would undermine a key plank of its regional strategy. There are already plenty of signs that Iran is working with its allies to prevent a ceasefire on such terms.

The influential Mr Larijani was in the Syrian capital Damascus on Wednesday, for talks with Iran's allies in Hamas, Hezbollah and the Syrian government.

On the same day, the Syrian foreign minister gave a tough interview to the Hezbollah TV station, al Manar, where he urged Hamas to stand firm.

The Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, also hardened his position in a speech on Wednesday.

The meaning of this will only become clear once it is found out who fired the rockets from southern Lebanon into Israel.

Proxy battle

Already, for President Ahmadinejad of Iran, the crisis has been a godsend.

At home he can mobilise hardliners in favour of his campaign to be re-elected in June, and distract attention from Iran's ever-increasing economic problems.

At the same time he can further his aim of promoting Iran as a leader of popular Arab, Muslim, and anti-American feeling, just as he did during the Lebanon war in 2006.


There have been frequent protests denouncing Israel's Gaza attacks

Just for good measure, the Iranian authorities have taken the opportunity for a crackdown on government opponents.

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights lawyer, Shirin Ebadi, has had to flee her home in Tehran, after a mob gathered outside accusing her of supporting the Israeli military action.

She has made it clear she opposes the Israeli attack. The protest could not have happened without Iranian government support and probably encouragement.

Hardliners have also ransacked a Tehran branch of Benetton, an Italian-based clothing chain, that rather bizarrely has been accused of supporting Zionism.

So once again, Iran's government is taking advantage of another regional crisis, just as it did in 2006.

Israel already sees its battle with Hamas as a proxy battle against Iran.

The question now is whether the confrontation between Israel and Iran moves centre stage, to become an all-out battle for supremacy in the Middle East.

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Iran takes advantage of Gaza crisis

 

[thorosius]

 

[Neo]

Venezuela calls it Israeli state terrorism​

CARACAS, Jan 7: Venezuela on Tuesday ordered the expulsion of Israel’s ambassador to Caracas as calls mounted in Latin America for an end to the Jewish state’s deadly military assault on the Gaza Strip.

Israel retaliated by expelling Venezuela’s charge d’affaires, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

Lawmakers in Ecuador accused Israel of crimes against humanity, while Colombia and Guatemala urged an immediate ceasefire after 12 days of air strikes and ground offensive that have killed hundreds of Palestinians.

“Venezuela has decided to expel Israel’s Ambassador” Shlomo Cohen, “and some of the staff at the Israeli Embassy, restating its call for peace and respect for international law,” the Venezuelan foreign ministry said in a statement.

Venezuela accused Israel of “flagrant violations of international law” and having “planned to use state terrorism” against the Palestinian people.

“In this tragic and outrageous hour, the people of Venezuela show their unlimited solidarity with the heroic Palestinian people,” the statement said.

The Venezuelan mission at the United Nations would seek to pressure the Security Council to apply “urgent and necessary measures to stop this invasion by the state of Israel against Palestinian territory,” it said.

Venezuela had already condemned Israel’s attacks and President Hugo Chavez on Monday referred to them as ‘genocide.’ Chavez also accused the US government of supporting the offensive.

Shortly before announcing the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador, Caracas said it would set up joint air support, with Arab and Muslim communities and other Latin American countries, to deliver medicine and food to Palestinians in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the foreign minister of neighbouring Colombia, Jaime Bermudez, called for an end to “all types of military aggression and for a dialogue” between Israelis and Palestinians.

Last week the Colombian government, allied to Israel which has provided military support in its fight against leftist rebels, expressed its “profound sadness and great worry faced with the violence in the Gaza Strip.”

Guatemala demanded an ‘immediate’ end to the military action in Gaza and urged Israel to respect international law and allow humanitarian access.

Guatemala’s foreign ministry also condemned the “dramatic worsening of the situation.”

Ecuador lawmakers condemned Israel’s military offensive and called for a global probe into alleged “crimes against humanity.”

In Jerusalem, Israel announced expelling Venezuela’s charge d’affaires, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

“We obviously will take retaliatory measures and will expel the Venezuelan charge d’affaires in Tel Aviv”, spokesman Yigal Palmor said after Venezuela expelled the Israeli ambassador on Tuesday.

 

[Fennecus]

Truly sad to see what's happening in Gaza right now.

 

[ya'seenhamza]

Truly sad to see what's happening in Gaza right now.

its been happening for the last 60 years

“[They] killed between 80 to 100 Arabs, women and children. To kill the children, they fractured their heads with sticks. There was not one house without corpses. The men and women of the villages were pushed into houses without food or water. Then the saboteurs came to dynamite the houses. One commander ordered a soldier to bring two women into a house he was about to blow up…Another soldier prided himself upon having raped an Arab woman before shooting her to death. Another Arab woman with her newborn baby was made to clean the place for a couple of days, and then they shot her and the baby. Educated and well-mannered commanders who were considered “good guys”…became base murderers, and this not in the storm of battle, but as a method of expulsion and extermination. The fewer the Arabs who remained, the better.”

Testimony of an Israeli soldier who participated in the massacre at al Duwayma Village on October 29, 1948. Published in Davar, June 9, 1979. Quoted in Censored 2005, Peter Phillips & Project Censored.

 

[beetel]

This is horrible...
I dont have any previous knowledge of the conflict..
But it is becoming worst than those terrorist attacks..

Israel is going too far..

 

[thorosius]

These are just a few. Al-Jazeera was showing a father holding up his three young sons one by one towards the camera who were killied in the UN compound that Isreal bombed. It was so sad made me really sick. If something like this had happened to my family I would have made very very sure that Jews could not find any place safe for their children on this earth!

 

[Al-zakir]

One-third of Gaza dead, injured are children: UN

How will all this killing be justify by coward, low life, enemy of humanity???

AP, United Nations

Palestinian children are dying at a heavy rate in the Israeli-Hamas fighting - about one of every three persons killed, according to Gaza statistics.

As of Thursday, 257 children were among the approximately 760 reported dead in Gaza. There were another 1,080 children among the 3,100 injured in the conflict, according to statistics from Gaza's health ministry.

The U.N.'s top humanitarian official, John Holmes, described the numbers as "credible" and deeply disturbing. U.N officials say about half of the casualties were civilians.

Holmes and John Ging, head of Gaza operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, both expressed anger and regret at their decision Thursday to temporarily suspend aid shipments in the Gaza Strip because it was too risky for their aid workers."It's particularly distressing and horrifying that the current casualties seem to be increasingly civilian casualties, with an increasing incidence of whole families being buried in houses which have been hit," Holmes said.

Ann Veneman, executive director of the U.N. children's agency, UNICEF, warned the suspension of aid would put children even more in harm's way.

"This can only deepen an already critical humanitarian situation and put children at even greater risk of death or permanent damage. The distribution of food, water, fuel and medicine should not be impeded," she said.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it cooperates closely with foreign aid groups to help civilians, and said Hamas uses civilians as human shields.

The decision to suspend aid deliveries in Gaza came after Israeli strikes killed two drivers for UNRWA and injured a third in marked vehicles, U.N. officials say.

In all, four of UNRWA's Gaza staff have been killed since Israel launched a major attack on Hamas 13 days ago, according to the U.N. UNRWA said its deliveries of food have served as a "lifeline" for 750,000 Palestinian refugees in Gaza.

Holmes cited another incident in which a U.N. convoy of two armored vehicles and an ambulance were "targeted by small-arms fire during its passage" Thursday, even though its movement was "agreed in advance" by the Israeli authorities.

The World Health Organization said Gaza's health services were "on the point of collapse" - the hospitals overwhelmed, health care workers exhausted. It said the dead included 21 medical personnel, 30 more were injured and 11 ambulances have been struck by attacks.

The Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross, or ICRC, accused Israel Thursday of "unacceptable" delays in letting rescue workers reach three Gaza City homes hit by shelling where they found 15 dead and 18 wounded.

The wounded included young children too weak to stand, but the ICRC said the Israeli army refused to give permission for rescuers to reach the site in the Zeitoun neighborhood for four days and ambulances could not reach the neighborhood because the Israeli army erected large earthen barriers that blocked access.

Israel blamed the delay on fighting in the area.

The New Nation - Internet Edition

 

[Al-zakir]

40 killed in fresh Israeli strikes, death toll reaches 801

Updated at: 0810 PST, Saturday, January 10, 2009

GAZA CITY: Israeli airstrikes and tanks shells continued on Gaza on Friday night, killing forty more people, which rose the death toll to 801 since the beginning of the Israeli military offensive on Dec. 27, a senior Gaza official said.

Gaza emergency chief Mo'aweya Hassanein released the figures to reporters, saying that now 801 Palestinians were killed and 3300 were injured.

The dead included 230 children and 92 women, he added.

Earlier on Friday, Israeli army warplanes and tanks launched a series of air and ground strikes on houses in central and northern Gaza Strip, killing at least 21 people and wounded 60 others, according to Hassanein.

The Israeli army has been carrying out continuous military air and ground operations for 14 days, during which hundreds of buildings, including homes, mosques and security installations were destroyed by missiles and bombs.

 

[Al-zakir]

Libya's Gaddafi wants Arabs to join in Gaza war


Fri, Jan 9 05:20 PM

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who has accused Arab leaders of a "cowardly" response to Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, urged them to let their citizens join Palestinian fighters as volunteers, state media said on Friday.

"I call on Arabs to open the door for volunteers to fight alongside the Palestinians," said Gaddafi in a one-line statement carried by state news agency Jana.

The maverick Libyan leader did not say whether he would specifically ask Egypt, the only country with a border with Gaza, to let would-be Arab combatants into the Palestinian enclave, which is under an Israeli-led blockade.

A day after Israeli offensive on Gaza began on Dec. 27, Gaddafi assailed Arab leaders for failing to back the Palestinians living there beyond offering humanitarian aid or discussing a possible Arab summit.

Israel says its 14-day-old offensive on Gaza, where Islamist Hamas leaders say more than 750 Palestinians have been killed, is designed to stop cross-border attacks by Hamas.

Libya's Gaddafi wants Arabs to join in Gaza war - Yahoo! India News

 

[ju87]

Libya's Gaddafi wants Arabs to join in Gaza war

"I call on Arabs to open the door for volunteers to fight alongside the Palestinians," said Gaddafi in a one-line statement carried by state news agency Jana.

The maverick Libyan leader did not say whether he would specifically ask Egypt, the only country with a border with Gaza, to let would-be Arab combatants into the Palestinian enclave, which is under an Israeli-led blockade.

Libya's Gaddafi wants Arabs to join in Gaza war - Yahoo! India News

Maverick my hairy ***. The Arab world hopefully has more sense than listening to a senile dictator. This is a man who'll bend over backwards to please whoever has Libya by the ***s. Rest assured, he'll try to send the Libyan army in another misadventure. If he can't defeat Chad, what hope does he have against Israel?