World watches with disbelief

March 7, 2008 - photos after Israeli attack on Gaza: BRACE YOURSELF

http://rafah.virtualactivism.net/news/todaymain.htm

It is some of the only live journalism coming from Gaza.

===

Nowhere To Run To
March 7, 2008
rafahtoday.org

JABALYIA, Gaza- An ambulance races through Jabalyia refugee camp to
pick up the critically injured – and the body parts strewn across
the street. A normal day's job these days.

Families crouch in makeshift shelters around handheld radios,
listening out for some word that their agony will end. There is no
electricity, clean water is at a premium.

No sign yet of an end to the 'hot winter' that Israel has determined
for Gaza residents. Israel is determined to finish the elected Hamas
government and leadership.

If there is activity around Jabaliya camp, it is at the Kamal Adwan
hospital. The wounded are brought in one after another. Frantic
family members struggle to grab the attention of exhausted emergency
room orderlies, doctors and nurses.

An ambulance arrives, but with no injured persons in it. The staff
bring out body parts wrapped in blankets -- the remains of ten
children and three women. Minutes later another ambulance arrives. A
man is brought in, much of his skin seems to be missing. Mercifully,
he arrives unconscious.

With just two operating rooms to work in, Kamal Adwan's surgeons
struggle to attend to everyone brought in. Blood stains their
uniforms, at times pieces of flesh and brain matter can be seen
stuck to their collars and sleeves. The doctors are determined to
save everyone they can.

An orderly wheels in another victim. A young man in coma is brought
in, bleeding profusely from multiple shrapnel wounds from an air-to-
ground missile.

Suddenly, all eyes are raised towards the ceiling. The thwop-thwop
of a helicopter gunship draws nearer. Moments later there are sounds
of explosion. The Israelis are bombing again, quite close. Some of
those waiting at the hospital scream. Others sit looking blank.

A young man is lying down for treatment in a shared room. Both his
legs, and one arm, are gone. He is trying to say something but he
cannot.

"He was feeding the sheep at our home when an Israeli F-16 bombed
our house," says his father by his side. "His legs were blown out
from under him."

"Wake up Samah...please!" a girl is screaming. The girl she is
calling out to is still, her torso burnt black. So is what is left
of the body of another young woman in the hospital room. They were
her sisters Samah 17 and Salwa Asalyia 23.

Her family members remember the moment the ambulance arrived. "Where
is the rest of the body?" the ambulance driver asked. Out on the
street the killings continue. This IPS correspondent saw a girl,
about 17, screaming. A younger boy was lying motionless on the
street. She stepped out towards him. As she approached the body, an
Israeli sniper shot her dead. She was Jaclyn Abu Shbak, 17, and her
brother was Eyad, 14.

The carnage continues, in what Israelis call self-defence. On Feb.
29, Israeli deputy defence minister Matan Vilnai threatened "Shoah"
(holocaust) on Gaza in response to home-made Qassam rocket fire
directed at the Israeli colony Sedrot, which resulted in the death
of three Israelis.

The Israeli siege of Gaza through border closures, and withholding
of food, water, and medical supplies enters its 25th month this
March. But now the attacks on top of the siege get bloodier by the
day.

For the first eight months after Israel removed its illegal colonies
from Gaza in September 2005, Hamas and the Palestinian resistance
observed an eight-month hunda (ceasefire) despite continued random
shelling by Israel, kidnapping of officials and targeted
assassinations.

This ended in June 2006 when an Israeli ship bombed a beach in Gaza,
killing 13 people, 11 of them from one family. Hamas and the
Palestinian Authority in Ramallah repeatedly approached Israel to
negotiate a ceasefire. Israel has rejected each overture, and
intensified its assaults.

The United Nations defines 'massacre' as the death of 50 or more
civilians. Operation Hot Winter claimed 60 lives on its first day,
and so far at least 126 killed, among them 39 children and babies,
and 12 women, and 380 injured. Hundreds of houses have been
destroyed.

===

Workers' building is down
rafahtoday.org

GAZA CITY - Two F-16 missiles were all it took to bring down the
five-storey headquarters of the Palestinian General Federation of
Trade Unions (PGFTU).

The Union, established in 1965, is one of the forerunners of the
movement calling for an international boycott of Israel, and
imposition of sanctions on it until Israel meets its obligations
over UN resolutions, borders, and the right of Palestinian refugees
to return to their homeland.

Following the bombing last Thursday, Union members have resumed
their work from a tent, gathering what files and paper they could
from under the rubble.

"The occupation doesn't need any justifications to commit crimes
against Palestinians," Nabil al-Mabhouh, acting head of the
Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions in Gaza told IPS. But
the building had apparently been targeted because "we at PGFTU are
supporting the rights of tens of thousands of Palestinian workers."

Mabhouh said theirs is not a militant organisation, but a "rights-
based organisation open to all people from different political
affiliations and locations. We have relations with many
international trade unions." The building, he said, had come up with
Norwegian money.

"Targeting a civil organisation shows how barbaric and outrageous
the Israeli occupation is," he said. "We are not launching rockets;
targeting a labourers union building is not justified."

The building, he said, had been used to offer health services to
tens of thousands of workers and their families, through a workers
union health insurance.

"We strongly condemn this crime which aims to break down the
Palestinian labourers, and call for all trade unions in the world to
stand by us and protect the Palestinian labourers from such criminal
practices."

As always with such bombings, neighbouring houses were damaged as
well in the attack.

Palestinian officials estimate that Israel used two one-tonne
missiles on this densely-populated civilian area, which explains the
extensive damage to hundreds of flats around.

The losses are significant: aside from one dead and 37 injured,
mostly women and children, some of them in critical condition in
Shifa hospital, there has been considerable damage to the structure
of surrounding houses. Countless windows and doors were blown off,
and the damage to weight-bearing structural walls mean that
rebuilding will be necessary -- but impossible, due to the Israeli
siege and lack of building materials.

If the Israeli aim was to also terrorise the civilian population, it
worked.

A young mother said she was asleep when the bombing began; she woke
up to find her entire building shaking. Her five children continued
to scream all night, begging the parents to hide them somewhere
safe.

She said she cannot replace window panes. "We can't even afford to
buy nylon (to cover the windows)," said her husband, adding that he
hadn't worked for the past two years. He can afford nothing but bare
food.

The explosion plunged the entire area into darkness, as electricity
wires were cut off. It also caused water shortage after water tanks
were hit by shrapnel and began to leak. Days later, there is still
no running water in homes.

Abu Eidah's car outside was damaged by falling debris, as was most
of their furniture and assets. But at least the family survived the
strike to tell the story.

Abu Eidah is now searching desperately for another house. Another
air strike in the neighbourhood, and the flats could come down. A
relative has offered Abu Eidah an apartment that he and his family
may now have to move into.

The number of homeless families has increased throughout Gaza, as
has the demand for apartments on rent -- tents from aid agencies can
hardly protect residents from the cold and rain of Gaza's winter.
Meanwhile, people rendered homeless by the bombing continue to haul
in donkey carts to move whatever furniture and belongings survived
the shelling. But only a few can leave; hundreds of other families
have no option but to stay put, amidst the rubble in the cold of
winter.

===

March 2nd
Note from the webmaster: Mohammed is in grave danger today. Please
pray for him.

6 month old Mohammed al Bourai in the morgue

Mourners carrying the body of Tamer Abu Shaar to be buried in Deir
Al Balah cemetery

Mohammed al Bourai body ready to be taken to hospital for final look
by his mom and relatives Nasser al Bourai he father of Mohammed al
Bourai carrying his body during a funeral

GAZA CITY, - Tamer was nine, and no child soldier. He did not live
in the area from where home-made rockets are launched into Israeli
territory. The day he was killed, he was at least two kilometres
from the place Israeli troops had entered Gaza, and met with return
fire by Palestinian resistance.

His tragedy was that the family home was near Deir al-Balah in the
middle of the Gaza Strip, close to the area the Israelis have set up
as their Kussfim base.

"We were all inside the house when shooting started," Tamer's aunt
Etaf tells IPS. "It was right after members of the Palestinian
resistance stopped shooting at Israeli troops," she said, pointing
towards the scene of those clashes a couple of kilometres away. But
the Israelis marched into this area as well, hardly for the first
time.

Members of the family decided to crawl out into the rain after a
bullet hit a gas cylinder, Etaf said. "But Israeli soldiers
continued to fire on us from a tank and Hummer military jeep." After
some time, seeing that the gas cylinder had not exploded, Etaf said
she crawled back into the house. Tamer followed, but never made
it. "I saw Tamer shot, with a bullet in his head."

"He wanted to become a doctor when he grew up," says his mother
Sabah Abu Shaar.

Like Tamer, other children are dying, and their mothers' dreams with
them. A six-month infant named Mohammed al-Bourai was killed when an
Israeli missile crashed into the house Wednesday this week, moments
after he'd been fed. The family house happens to be close to the
offices of Gaza's ministry of interior, and to the house of de facto
Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Hanyieh.

The same day, three other Palestinian children were killed in an air
strike. The following day, four Palestinian children were killed
near the Jabaliya refugee camp while playing soccer. Two of the
boys, all aged 7 to 14, were from the same family. A child's body
was found in eastern Gaza, a victim of Israeli shelling.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs says
in a Gaza fact sheet that 80 Palestinians were killed in January of
this year, and 82 were injured. The January deaths included four
children and five women. The Israeli casualties through the month
were nine injuries from home-made rockets.

Just over the past three days, Israeli air strikes have killed at
least 35 Palestinians, among them nine children. Many more are
injured, and some are in critical condition.

Following Friday prayers, tens of thousands of Gazans came out on
the streets in protest against the Israeli air strikes. Matan
Vilnai, Israeli deputy defence minister, has said that Gaza faces
a "holocaust" if the home-made rockets do not stop. Since May 2007,
these rockets have killed one Israeli.

Emergency medical care is now threatened. The head of the ambulance
department at Shifa hospital says he has just 20 litres of fuel left
in stock for the ambulances. Once this runs out, little help will be
available to victims of the next Israeli attacks.

Israeli attacks and firing are now so continuous that many in Deir
al-Balah say they cannot sleep. "We can't feel safe here," says
Tashaeel, one of Tamer's elder sisters. "If we'd also left with
Tamer, their bullets would have made a harvest of us all."

The family has tried in vain for UN help in moving to another
area. "Bullets chase us day and night," says mother Sabah. "We can't
go out, and we have nowhere else to go. No money to move to a safer
place where I could save the lives of my children.

"Last week Israeli soldiers had attacked out house, and ordered my
seven daughters, two sons and myself into the rain, with their
dangerous dogs scaring us away," Sabah said. "Then they ransacked
our house for several hours, leaving it in total chaos before we
were allowed back in." Such raids are common, she said.

Tamer was killed in the next one. The grieving family is now without
water after bullets punctured the overhead tank. The walls of the
house are pock-marked with bullet holes. And all the time they fear
that Israeli bulldozers will bring down this too.

As Palestinians in Gaza wait for more Israeli attacks, UN secretary-
general Ban Ki-moon has expressed strong concern. "These events
underscore the urgent need for a calming of violence, and must not
be allowed to deter the continuation of the political process," he
said. But such statements mean little on the ground, and people in
Gaza see no international action to stop Israel.

"Gaza today faces a real war, a crazy war," Haniyeh said during
Friday prayers near the Shati refugee camp. He also criticised the
U.S. for accepting Israeli claims of 'legitimate self-defence'.
Despite Israel's best attempts at ostracising Haniyeh, his
popularity seems only to have increased.

March 1st
Dear Friends,
I had a long day, an awful day, taking photos and writing from on
the ground in Gaza City and northern Gaza. I met with two children
who survived Wednesday's Jabalyia soccer bombing: the other 4 kids
were, as you likely know, killed. One of the children I saw had no
flesh on their legs, had burns all over their bodies from the tank's
shelling. This was one of the scariest things I have seen yet, and
I have seen a lot more than that.

I asked one boy to give me details of what happened that Thursday
afternoon. The 9 year old boy cried while he told that he'd seen
the decapitated head of his cousin strewn far from his body, arms
and legs, far away from where they were all playing soccer. His
mother added that there wasn't any electricity when her son was
admitted to the hospital.

He was crying as he told the story, his tears hurting him even more
than his psychological pain, as he has burns in his eyes. His
mother uncovered his wounded leg where I could only see bones
without flesh in places. I could not understand how he managed to
lay down conscious, but knew it was a consciousness full of pain and
anguish. I felt this pain in my own heart and head.

As I talked this child's mother, she said that she'd had to evacuate
her children, as it's no longer safe to be in that area where the
children had been playing. The kids ranged from 6 to 14 years old.
The two ones who survived said they had all been playing soccer in
front of the door of their house in Jabalyia when the Israeli
missile hit them.

I finally came back home some hours ago, after waiting a long time
to find transportation. But, eventually managing to make it back to
Rafah, I collapsed for a nap for an hour. My sleep was disrupted: I
awoke scared by the bombing of F-16s (I learned later on). I ran
from my bed through our dark house, and seeing no one from my family
inside, I ran without shoes into the street. People were out in the
street, young men running. I didn't understand, didn't know what I
was doing other than that I was running but didn't know to where.
Most people's windows were down, shutters closed, as it is freezing
cold at moment.

I was glad not to be injured by shattered glass and debris on the
streets. I made it back home to write this on my laptop. But I've
decided going back to sleep is not a good idea, no matter how
exhausted I am. If I have to die (not my wish) , I want to be
awake, so I know I'm dying, and by whom. Not asleep.

===

While the siege continues and the world watches with disbelief
From Gaza With Love, Mona Elfarra

http://whtt.org/index.php?news=2&id=1889

While the siege continues and the world watches with disbelief

From Gaza I write to let you know that , , at least 7 patients
reported to die while waiting permit to leave Gaza ,for treatment
inside Israeli hospital , many patients die slowly while waiting for
referral for further treatment outside Gaza , we don't have good
reporting system to report the actual number of patients , who
eventually will die due to lack of their treatment in Gaza ,if we
have this proper reporting facilities ,the patients will die , good
reporting will not end the cruel siege against Gaza .

The referral process of patient indeed for treatment is long, time
consuming, demoralising and distressing for the patients and their
families, many died while waiting for referral, I remember the death
of my friend MrMansour. Thabet ,who was helped by Physicians for
human rights Israel, to get the referral to one of the Israeli
hospitals, mansour suffered of cancer , he waited long 59 days
before he was allowed to enter Israel for treatment , on his second
trial to enter Israel to continue his treatment , his health
condition deteriorated, he has passed away, before getting the
permit, to travel for treatment inside one of the Israeli
hospitals , the list is too long , to count ,at the moment the
health situation inside Gaza is disastrous .. Especially after
Israel declared Gaza hostile territory, tens of essential
medications are lacking, few weeks ago

===

Hospitals throughout Gaza Strip have shut down their operating
Rooms due to a lack of essential anaesthetic drugs, lives of
thousands of patient's inneed for emergency operations were
threatened.

we live inside our home ,while unsafe ,under home arrest lack most
of our basic needs , from Gaza with love

posted by Mona_Elfarra

http://fromgaza.blogspot.com/

===

Israeli Soldiers Shoot Peaceful Protestor in Head at Weekly Bil'in
Demonstration

5 years on from Rachel Corrie's killing, internationals still
targets of Israeli military violence

Palestine Monitor
15 March 2008
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article348

The shooting of a European activist participating in the weekly non-
violent protest in Bil'in village yesterday, just two days before
the fifth anniversary of the killing of Rachel Corrie, has once
again underlined that international solidarity activists remain the
targets of Israeli military violence.

[http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/local/cache-
vignettes/L399xH264/toon_shot-e1b2c.jpg]

A peaceful protestor receiving first aid after he was shot in the
head by the Israeli military.
Photo: Reuters.

The man, a volunteer with the Palestine Monitor, was hit in the head
by a rubber-coated bullet after Israeli soldiers began firing
directly at demonstrators from positions behind the fence. An
Israeli activist was also hit in the leg, and both casualties were
taken to hospitals Ramallah and Tel Aviv respectively for treatment.
A further four people were injured during the protest.

After dispersing the crowd by shooting teargas grenades and rubber-
coated bullets, several Israeli soldiers crossed the fence and
violently kidnapped one of the international protestors. Video
footage of the incident shows several Israeli soldiers using
excessive aggression against the peaceful demonstrator before
kidnapping him. He was later deported.

Bil'in's weekly non-violent demonstrations have become the scene of
increasing Israeli military violence against Palestinian, Israeli,
and international activists, resulting in several injuries each week.

Since the demonstrations began more than three years ago, hundreds
of activists have been injured in such aggressions by the Israeli
military while peacefully protesting against the confiscation of
Palestinian land and the building of the illegal Apartheid Wall.

The phenomenon of Israeli violence against international activists
is not new however. On March 16, 2003, American peace activist
Rachel Corrie was deliberately crushed to death by an Israeli
military bulldozer whilst peacefully trying to prevent the
demolition of the home of a Palestinian doctor, his wife, and three
children in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government later released a
report on Rachel's killing, stating that nobody connected with the
Israeli military was culpable and that further investigation was not
required.

Following her killing, Rachel became a symbol of international
solidarity with Palestine and of the non-violence movement. Now,
exactly five years later, internationals are still being wilfully
targeted and frequently injured by the Israeli military.

Clearly, the Israeli government does want internationals to bear
witness to the daily violations committed by its military in the
Occupied Palestinian Territories, and the Israeli military has
proved that it is prepared to resort to deadly violence in order to
prevent them from doing so.

Video footage of the violence at yesterday's protest in Bil'in can
be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzIAYQmIDRU

===

More than one-third of settlements built on private Palestinian land
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/17/africa/ME-GEN-Israel-
Settlements.php

JERUSALEM: More than one-third of Israel's 122 West Bank settlements
were built on land confiscated from private Palestinian owners on
security grounds, including some erected after the Israeli Supreme
Court outlawed such seizures three decades ago, the Haaretz
newspaper reported on Monday.

Israel's settlements, built on land captured in the 1967 Middle East
war, have been a contentious enterprise throughout the decades, and
a major source of friction with the Palestinians and the
international community.

Setlement critics maintain that international law allows the seizure
of occupied territory, but only for military needs. In 1979 Israel's
Supreme Court banned the military's widespread practice of seizing
privately owned West Bank land on security grounds, then turning it
over to settlers.

The 44 settlements that Haaretz identified as being built on private
Palestinian land are home to tens of thousands of Israelis. At least
19 were built after 1979, the newspaper said.

Haaretz said it based its report on an Israeli military database
whose publication the Defense Ministry is fighting. The Israeli
military was not immediately available for comment.

The data "prove that systematic land theft for the purpose of
establishing settlements was carried out via a fictitious and
completely illegal use of the term 'military necessity,'" Haaretz
cited attorney Michael Sfard as saying. Sfard represents several
Palestinians whose property has been taken over by settlers.
The Haaretz article confirmed a report last year by the anti-
settlement watchdog group, Peace Now, that about one-third of the
land on which settlements stand was seized from private Palestinian
owners, much of it after the Supreme Court ban. That report was
based on information leaked from the Civil Administration, the
Israeli military department responsible for administering civil
affairs in the West Bank.

Both reports challenge the government's claims that it stopped the
land seizures after the ban was enacted.

The Defense Ministry has refused to publish its data on settlements,
but Peace Now and other organizations have gone to court to have it
released under freedom of information laws. A month ago, the Defense
Ministry told the court that releasing the information might "damage
the state's security and foreign relations."

An Israeli government official familiar with the case said at the
time that Israel doesn't want the international community to know
the true extent of the country's West Bank settlement
activity. "Israel won't release the list because it doesn't want to
be embarrassed diplomatically," he said.

Israel declared an official freeze on new settlement construction as
part of peace agreements with the Palestinians in the early 1990s
but reserved the right to expand existing communities in line with
population growth. It also has taken little action on its oft-
repeated pledge to dismantle about two dozen of the more than 100
settlement outposts that have sprung up across the West Bank since
the 1990s with tacit government approval, but no official
authorization.

Some 270,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank.

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