Genocide in Gaza

[ktlight]

FYI:

Israeli warplanes have once again bombarded the Gaza Strip in line with Tel Aviv's policy of targeting the enclave with overnight strikes, witnesses say.


The fighter jets attacked several targets in Gaza City early Thursday, Xinhua reported.

The Israeli military frequently bombs the Gaza Strip, saying the actions are being conducted for defensive purposes.

However, disproportionate force is always used, in violation of international law, and civilians are often killed or injured.

Israel launched an all-out war on the Gaza Strip three days before the turn of 2009. The three-week war killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, including many women and children.

Gaza has been blockaded since 2007, a situation which has caused a decline in the standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.

source
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/192242.html

[sirac]

indeed a pity about all of this. one knows that islamist extremists suicide bomb their pawns (& for this transliteration of the message to a useless domain may they truely be judged by one they regard as the creator king) in isreali territory. Isreal holds back from small persistent attacks, and launches conventional attacks regardless of collateral (images of these inflictions are truely the worst to view, damage to innocents from pressure devices terrible).
I've only read one systemized arguement of what to do, or what should have been done. : http://samsonblinded.org/
but me thinks the major limitation of such an organizational plan came in as soon as one country within the islamic middle east world became a nuclear power (Iran, maybe this thing is still in flux)
..unless all talk. the plan as given by that isrealian machiavellian guy Shoher, posits that nobody cares about the Palestinian fate, not even the surrounding arab countries. it is merely an expedience they want in the pot to agitate the situation with the invader as they see it (being Isreal) in the region. sacrifice the lowest pawn or one of lowest Islamic,or Arab cultural stock rank, is a way of rationalizing this. However can we as new worldians accept such a blight on a human brother? one held within poverty (last line of the FYI); no. but it is hard from any standpoint to do anything, as one immediately entangles in a very complex situation. What should be perfected though, one time, in time and place maybe somebody else's are that ,& this is dangerous, for who can say who has more right to a piece of land/(unless grief negates, an illegal flow of a fighting people), is that the Palestinians should have a completely separate space, perhaps being imported into extended border regions between Isreal and neighbouring Arab states {robbing both so to speak}. why i often wonder does isreal surround itself, here having a potentially hostile area in Gaza, then other borders elsewhere. a single outer border would be more useful. governments are these funny political animals, never exposing themselves completely to the regulation of a single imperative. if the military reason was clearly cited, they would have moved in a direction which would have been more easy to control today. yes governments seem to prefer this supramolecular thing or international intergovernment. now i know why avalonians can hate my voice, for sometimes i process project to another thing, but i think they merely see the skin (but with all such things, i point, and 3 fingers point back at me). right now we need government interchecking to prevent over atrocity. there is a school of thought, which found its way within the OT, and a bit in the NT,..that of luke-warm water being spitted out..if only the process rational was that it was either first hot or cold, but with luke-warm...very hard to decifer, i'd actually prefer a process force to spit them out

[ktlight]

State Department announcement comes in light of Hamas demands to audit the books of U.S. charities, New York Times reports, which would violate U.S. policy against direct contacts with Hamas.

FYI:

The United States threatened Thursday to halt humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, after Hamas demanded to audit the books of U.S.-financed NGOs in Gaza, the New York Times reported.

According to the report, the U.S. State Department said it would stop delivering to Gaza some $100 million in aid for health care, agriculture, and water infrastructure if Hamas does not stop insisting on auditing the books of U.S. charities in the Gaza Strip.

The threat comes after Hamas officials took over the offices of the International Medical Corps on Sunday after the NGO refused to be audited by Hamas.

Hamas has been trying to tighten their grip on the NGOs in Gaza, first demanding they register with the central government, pay a fee and submit financial reports, the New York Times reported, but when they demanded in June that the groups must allow officials to audit their books, the charities began objecting.

Moreover, the report said that while Hamas did not explain the reason for its demand to audit the charities' books, there are fears that money could be diverted for political or intelligence-gathering purposes.

The United States forbids American organizations from having direct contact with Hamas, who it labels as a terrorist group, and therefore on-site audits by Hamas officials would lead to the suspension of aid, the NYT quoted the U.S. State Department as saying.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomac...-gaza-1.378317

[Lost Soul]

If the Federal Government decides to halt it, it should do it on the basis that it is and has been broke and likely to be broke for twenty plus years and not because of politics.

[loveandgratitude]

DISGRACE
USAID is halting humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip over alleged meddling by the radical Palestinian group Hamas, a US official has said.

"We deeply regret that USAID-funded partner organisations operating in Gaza are forced by Hamas's actions to suspend their assistance work," the official said.

"USAID assistance programmes were put on hold effective August 12," he added.

"Hamas, through a series of measures it has imposed over the past months, has created an environment which jeopardises the ability of non-governmental organisations to provide assistance to Gaza&£8217; s most vulnerable residents," the official said.

He said all US partner organisations would suspend their activities funded by the United States until these are able "to operate without interference or harassment from Hamas."

Another official in Washington said he understood that Hamas has been demanding access to physically search files and records of NGOs, which would be unprecedented.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, insisted on Friday that it should be able to verify the accounts of NGOs financed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in the Palestinian territories.

"The minister of interior of the government of Hamas intends to exercise its legal rights in the surveillance of all institutions operating in Gaza," spokesman Taher al-Nunu said.

He complained that "USAID refuses to recognise the government in Gaza," adding that anyone who "wishes to work in Palestinian territory must obey its laws."

A similar row was under way in Cairo where a notorious Egyptian intelligence apparatus is probing foreign funding of civil society groups sparking tensions between Washington and Egypt's ruling generals, judicial sources said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...aza-Strip.html

[Maia Gabrial]

Let me guess, these Hamas had masks on....? So, how can they be recognized as Hamas?
We all know who opposes everything that has to do with the good of Palestine....

[animalspirits]

Awful, just awful. Where is the compassion?

[Snoweagle]

The crux of the matter is that Hamas is struggling against the very forces that intend to bring down our western economies as well as every other country on the planet and accomplishing most by super secret non disclosure contracts which depend on profit over humanity. The statement makes this very clear:
"Hamas, through a series of measures it has imposed over the past months, has created an environment which jeopardises the ability of non-governmental organisations to provide assistance to Gaza&£8217; s most vulnerable residents," the official said.

In fact, Hamas, and the Arab world, and the rest of the world, in general, loath the prospect of contractual masters over others. Each of us bear witness, this escalating grab every day now, so Hamas are not terrorists in my book, they are doing what every indigenous species has done from year dot; they are trying to protect their homes, families and lively hoods. Masquerading arguments and attrition promoted by, and not limited too, the world media by secular Arab secret services, each imbued with contrary views on humanitarian issues and the future of mankind. All driven by the United Nations. A Corporation, status and peer dependent on profit.

It really isn't to hard to see the con, the lies and the betrayal. Ask Tony Blair, comfortably ensconced in palatial accommodation in the region, away from the current western financial implosion effecting us in the UK. How come every body that counters this betrayal enforcing change always "get dead".

Why do we still allow it?

[Maia Gabrial]

You guys in the UK seem to have a longer list of criminals to prosecute than us!

[ktlight]

FYI:

t least one person has been killed and five others injured after Israeli warplanes launched several airstrikes on the besieged Gaza Strip.


Israeli fighter jets fired several rockets at Zeitoun neighborhood to the east of Gaza City early on Tuesday. At least one person died while three others sustained serious injuries in the aerial attack, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Two other Palestinians were also wounded in two separate raids carried out by Israeli warplanes.

Israeli military aircraft carried out two further airstrikes east of Khan Yunis and against a supply tunnel near the Rafah border with Egypt. However, no one was injured in those attacks.

Israeli forces have carried out large numbers of ground and air attacks on Gaza since the end of Operation Cast Lead against the enclave in 2009.

More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the three-week Israeli land, sea and air offensive in the impoverished coastal sliver during the winter of 2008-2009. The offensive also inflicted $1.6 billion in damages to the Gazan economy.

A United Nations inquiry, led by the former South African judge Richard Goldstone, detailed what investigators have described as Israeli actions "amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity," during its major offensive against the Gaza Strip.

Israel laid an economic siege on the Gaza Strip in June 2007, after Hamas took control of the enclave.

The blockade has had a disastrous impact on the humanitarian and economic situation in the Gaza Strip.

Some 1.5 million people are being denied their basic rights, including freedom of movement, and their rights to appropriate living conditions, work, health and education. Poverty and unemployment rates stand at approximately 80 percent and 60 percent, respectively, in the Gaza Strip.

source
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/194155.html

[ktlight]

FYI:

The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) will impose a hermetic closure on all Palestinian land in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in September, Hebrew media reported on Sunday.

They said that the measure was taken in anticipation of solidarity marches to coincide with the Palestinian Authority bid to win UN recognition of a Palestine state.

The reports noted that all Israeli security apparatuses were put on high alert, expecting clashes with army forces deployed at checkpoints in the West Bank and at border crossings and barricades near Gaza and Jerusalem.

They said that firm orders were given to the armed forces to deal violently with any demonstration attempting to reach the areas between Palestinian land and Jewish settlements. They said that those forces would use firearms, tear gas, stun grenades, and waste water against Palestinian marchers.

source
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/d...gizjZ%2bKA8%3d

[ktlight]

FYI:

On Tuesday evening, 16 August 2011, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) killed a Palestinian child from al-Nussairat refugee camp, who was 400 meters from the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, east of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. The victim's family told a PCHR field worker that their child had a mental disability. The victim was in an area that had not been explicitly declared as prohibited.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 18:00 on Tuesday, 16 August 2011, Israeli soldiers stationed at the border northeast of Deir al-Balah opened fire at a Palestinian, who was nearly 400 meters from the border. As a result, he was wounded by 10 bullets in his head and chest. He was left wounded without being offered any first aid. After coordination was made with IOF, at approximately 19:20, medical crews were able to retrieve the body, which was then transferred to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. After four hours later, the child was identified as Sa'd Abdul Rahim Mahmoud al-Majdalwai, 17, from al-Nussairat refugee camp. He was hit by 10 live bullets mostly to the head. In his testimony to PCHR, the victim's father said that his son had been suffering from a mental disability and a speech impairment.

The Israeli radio reported that IOF observed a person approaching the security fence, and shot him. This version of events confirms that IOF could have arrested or used less than lethal force against him, especially as he was wearing civilian clothes and there was nothing to indicate that he was a non-civilian.

It should be noted that on Tuesday morning, the Gaza Strip witnessed several shooting and shelling attacks on civilian areas and military training sites. As a result of this shelling and shooting, a Palestinian resistance man was killed and two others were seriously wounded in Gaza City. A child and another person were wounded in Khan Yunis and Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip.

PCHR condemns and expresses concerned over this crime, and:

1. Asserts that these crimes are part of a series of war crimes committed by IOF in the oPt, which reflect total disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians.

2. Calls upon the international community to take immediate action in order to put an end to such crimes. PCHR further renews its demand for the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their obligation under Article 1, which stipulates "the High Contracting Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances," as well as their obligations under Article 146 which requires that the Contracting Parties prosecute persons alleged to commit grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention. These grave breaches constitute war crimes under Article 147 of the same Convention and under Protocol I Additional to Geneva Conventions.

source
http://uruknet.info/?p=m80570&hd=&size=1&l=e

[ktlight]

FYI:

Israeli fighter jets have targeted a building in the city of Rafah in the south of Gaza Strip, killing at least seven Palestinians.


The Palestinian fatalities caused on Thursday include a nine-year-old boy and a young girl, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Tel Aviv claims it launched the strikes in response to attacks near the Red Sea resort of Eilat in southern Israel, which left at least eight Israelis dead and dozens others injured.

Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak has accused Gaza of organizing the attacks and vowed a 'full force' response against the Palestinians in the Tel Aviv-besieged territory.

The democratically-elected government of the Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas in Gaza strongly rejected the allegations and warned against any act of aggression against the enclave.

Meanwhile, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon raised fears of an 'escalation' in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict following the Eilat attacks and called on both sides to act with restraint.

source
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/194548.html

[ktlight]

FYI:

Israel’s aggressive response to a series of suicide and roadside bomb attacks near the Red Sea resort of Eilat on Thursday has exacerbated tensions with both the Palestinians and its neighbour, Egypt.

The attacks killed eight people, including two Israeli security personnel, and injured dozens more. While Israeli security forces had been warned of an attack from Egypt’s Sinai desert, they appear to have taken no additional precautions. They pursued the attackers, whom eyewitnesses said were wearing Egyptian army uniforms, presumably stolen, on land and by air, killing at least seven people, including several Egyptian policemen.

This has sparked the worst diplomatic crisis between the two countries since the signing of the 1979 Camp David Accords, with Egypt threatening to withdraw its ambassador from Israel.

Israel sought to get the United Nations Security Council to condemn the attacks as acts of terrorism, but this was knocked back by Lebanon, which currently has a seat on the Security Council.

No group has taken responsibility for Thursday’s attacks, the deadliest in several years. Hamas, the Islamist party that controls the Gaza Strip, denied responsibility for the attacks, which appear to have taken it by surprise. It accused Israel of using the attacks to justify aggression against Gaza.

Shin Bet, Israel’s intelligence agency, claimed the attacks were launched by the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), a splinter from Fatah which has launched several attacks in recent years and was involved with the Islamic Army in the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006. Nevertheless, the Israeli government still blamed Hamas, saying that at the very least it played an indirect role in aiding militants who travelled from Gaza through the Sinai to attack Israel’s southern border. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman blamed the Palestinian Authority for the attacks.

Without having provided any evidence linking the attack to either Hamas or the PRC, Israel’s security forces carried out bombing raids on Gaza, killing seven people, including two senior PRC members, a three-year-old child and a 13-year-old boy. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called this “swift justice.”

Abu Mujahed, the spokesman for the PRC, while denying involvement in Thursday’s attacks, praised them and opposed any ceasefire with Israel—an implicit attack on Hamas, which has, since Israel’s 2008-09 military offensive, largely observed a ceasefire and has reached a deal with the Palestinian Authority, which controls the West Bank and works closely with Israel.

Israel’s targeted assassinations prompted militants, including the PRC, to fire dozens of rockets on southern Israeli towns and cities over the weekend, killing one person in Be’er Sheba. Hamas’ military wing also fired rockets into Israel.

This provoked a further military response from Israel. All told, at least 14 Palestinians have been killed since Thursday.

There are signs that Israel is preparing a major military escalation. Kadima, the main opposition party, is calling for a military campaign against Gaza.

source to read more
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26124

[ktlight]

FYI:

He looks at the camera with bright eyes and the beginning of a smile, wearing a miniature dark blue zipper sweatshirt, the cuffs folded up a bit to make it fit.

I can imagine his mother dressing him that morning, making sure he would be warm enough. I wonder if she’s the one who took the picture. Someone has written on the photo “kisses.”

It’s not a formal picture. He’s outside on a sunny day. It looks like he was probably moving when the picture was snapped; his arms seem to be swinging a little. As with most almost two-year-olds, I suspect it was hard to get him to stay still long enough for a photo.

It’s a happy picture, the kind that makes you smile; perhaps it reminds you of funny, energetic little children you know or remember.

Until you see the next picture. It was taken on his second birthday. His name was Islam Quraiqe.

Death from a drone strike is not pretty. The small body is charred, ripped apart; internal organs are pouring out.

He had been riding with his father and uncle on a motorcycle in Gaza when the missile hit them. His 29-year-old father, a member of the Palestinian resistance, and 32-year-old uncle physician were also killed. Five bystanders, including a woman, were injured.

The missile was fired remotely by an Israeli sitting in front of a video screen and operating one of the many drones that periodically fly over Gaza and shoot Palestinians like fish in a fishbowl. The operators are usually female, the preferred group for this kind of desk job.

The drones, which look like small, pilotless jets, are equipped with precision-guided missiles.

Those operating them receive real-time video feeds from sensors located on the drone: a color nose camera, a TV lens, an infrared camera for low light and night, and a synthetic radar for looking through smoke, clouds, or haze. The cameras produce full-motion video as well as still-frame radar images.

Numerous articles extol the virtues of Israeli drones. An Aug. 17 article by David Rodman reports: “The Israel Air Force (IAF) has a rich history of employing unmanned aerial vehicles in battle with excellent results.” Rodman crows that, with the possible exception of the United States, “Israel is the country most closely identified with [drone] operations in the post-World War II period.”

Islam was the second 2-year-old to be killed by Israeli forces in two days.

The first was killed by an Israeli “precision” rocket the day before. The boy’s name was Malek Sha’at. His father was also killed. The only picture available online is of a small shrouded body.

An article at WorldNetDaily.com by reporter Aaron Klein proclaims that Israeli weapons are “capable of taking out stationary and moving targets with minimal collateral damage.”

Perhaps Klein is right. Two years of life is decidedly minimal. Intolerably so.

source to read more
http://original.antiwar.com/alison-w...games-in-gaza/

[ktlight]

FYI:

Officials of the Israeli Kadima opposition party, headed by Tzipi Livni, are currently demanding the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu to launch a large-scale military offensive against the Gaza Strip, including a ground invasion.

Party officials attacked Netanyahu after news of a cease fire between Israel and the Hamas movement in Gaza, were published by a number of news outlets.

Livni stated that in 2008 and 2009, Netanyahu opposed a ceasefire with Hamas and demanded a military attack against it.

It is worth mentioning that Livni, and the head of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Shaul Mofaz, in addition to Kadima acting head, Yohanan Pilsner, are strongly pushing for a large-scale military offensive, including a ground invasion, against the Gaza Strip.

On Sunday, Mofaz stated that the Israeli government must decide whether it wants the current situation to continue, or to start effective steps targeting the leadership of Hamas and its infrastructure, to eventually remove it from power in Gaza.

On his part, Pilsner stated that the Knesset Committee will support a comprehensive military attack against the Gaza Strip, and will support all initiatives that aim at striking Hamas and other resistance groups in Gaza.

Pilsner added that Israel cannot coexist with the current situation, and must act firmly against Hamas and other resistance groups in the coastal region.

source
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m80754&hd=&size=1&l=e

[ktlight]

FYI:
"Israel has threatened to launch another all-out war on the Gaza Strip, saying attacking the Palestinian territory is not a matter of choice, but a war of necessity for Tel Aviv.


Marking the third anniversary of Israel's deadly attack on Gaza, the chief of staff of the Israeli military, Lt. General Benny Gantz, said on Tuesday that Tel Aviv will ''sooner or later'' need to launch a large-scale operation against Hamas, the democratically-elected ruler of Gaza because Tel Aviv is losing its grip on the coastal strip.

Gantz said Operation Cast Lead, which Israel launched against Gaza on December 27, 2008 and lasted for three week, had a deterrent effect on Israeli security, in which cracks were starting to show over time, forcing Israel to launch another war.

Gantz also said that Tel Aviv is looking for the right time to launch a military offensive against the Gaza Strip and that the new war ''must be initiated by Israel and must be swift and painful".

The Israeli regime waged a 22-day Christmas war on the densely populated coastal sliver in 2008 left more than 1,400 Palestinians dead including at least 300 children.

The offensive also destroyed 4,000 houses and devastated a large portion of infrastructures in the blockaded strip. Israeli military forces also targeted UN-run schools and centers.

More than 50,000 people were also displaced as a result of the three-week war.

Tel Aviv also used internationally-banned weapons, including white phosphorus bombs, against the Gazans during the three-week war."

Source

[ktlight]

"What happened in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead WAS NOT A WAR BUT A MASSACRE, a massacre of a defenceless, imprisoned and besieged civilian population. The IOF air assault (in the first of 3 weeks) dropped bombs around the clock hitting homes, hospitals, ambulances, UN & Red Cross outposts & compounds, schools, universities & government buildings, with the borders closed & NO WHERE in Gaza to seek refuge, "it was like shooting fish in a barrel". 1400 murdered (358 were children) with kill ratios of 4/5 being civilians + over 5 thousands seriously injured. For every israeli soldier killed (5+5 from friendly fire) 100 Palestinians were killed, for every israeli civilian killed (3) 400 Palestinian civilians were murdered. These are not the statistics of war, it was GENOCIDE PURE & SIMPLE. Those calling it a war are wittingly or unwittingly being agents of proper-gander"

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=_kPe5zcTjH4

[Corncrake]

In the 9 years since Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by a bulldozer in Gaza what has changed?

http://rachelcorriefoundation.org/bl...-stand-in-gaza

[SilentFeathers]

Does any one know if this is starting? Rumor from a source I know says something is going on there on the ground right now (military movement).....

ADDED: I can't find any info about this, perhaps it's just a rumor (for right now).

From earlier today:

The top leader of Hamas dared Israel on Monday to launch a ground invasion of Gaza and dismissed diplomatic efforts to broker a cease-fire in the six-day-old conflict, as the Israeli military conducted a new wave of deadly airstrikes on the besieged Palestinian enclave, including a second hit on a 15-story building that houses media outlets. A volley of rockets fired from Gaza into southern Israel included one that hit a vacant school.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/20/wo...t.html?hp&_r=0