Alla inlägg den 14 januari 2009

Av K - 14 januari 2009 21:27

Gaza death toll passes 1,000



More than 80,000 Gazans have been forced to flee their homes because of the fighting [EPA]
 

More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel's 19-day war in Gaza, Palestinian medical officials have said, as clashes continue throughout the Strip.

Civilians make up about 40 per cent of casualities with children accounting for a third of the dead, aid agencies and Palestinian medics said.

At least 4,630 people have been injured, Hasanein Myawaya, the head of Palestinian emergency services, said.

Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza, said while fewer Palestinians had been killed on Wednesday than during previous days, the situation for Gazans remained one of "complete fear and terror".

"For those who venture out [for food]... they know that anytime they leave their house it could be the last time.

"More than 80,000 Palestinians have now fled their homes because of the fighting around them ... there is a sense of overcrowding ... UN schools have taken in 35,000 refugees.

'Desperation and fear'

"There is real desperation and fear among the people," he said.

Mohyeldin also said that the so-called "humanitarian corridor" - the Israeli three-hour daily lull in fighting to allow food and medical supplies into Gaza - is "simply not producing a cessation of hostilities".

IN DEPTH

Analysis and features from Gaza and Israel

Al Jazeera Labs: Report on and track the war

Send us your views and eyewitness videos


Watch our coverage of the war on Gaza

Shelling could still be heard in parts of Gaza City during the three-hour armistice, he reported.

Mads Gilbert, a surgeon with the Norwegian Aid Committee, told Al Jazeera: "This is a man-made situation that affects mainly the civilian population of Gaza who are without protection."

Thirteen Israelis have been killed in the conflict, including three civilians and 10 soldiers.

Alan Fisher, reporting for Al Jazeera from Israel close to the Gaza border, said around 15 rockets had been fired from the Strip into Israeli territory.

As the death toll continued to rise, diplomatic efforts to bring about a ceasefire appeared to make little progress.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, arrived in Cairo earlier on Wednesday in a bid to kick-start ceasefire negotiations between Hamas - the Palestinian faction that controls the Gaza Strip - and Israel.

Ban met Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, on arrival and is expected to hold talks with the leaders of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey.

The UN chief has not said whether he will have direct contact with Hamas leaders.

Ban has repeatedly called for both sides to immediately end hostilities, so far to no avail.

Diplomacy doomed?

Robert Fisk, a journalist and Middle East expert, said neither the current Gaza war nor the broader 60-year regional conflict would end without resolving the Palestinian issue.

"Unless we deal with... [Palestinian refugees], there will not be an end to this war"

Robert Fisk, journalist and Middle East expert

"Why are they [Palestinians] dispossessed? Why are settlements - colonies for Jews and Jews only - being built on Arab land illegally? And still it continues," he told Al Jazeera.

"Unless we deal with this [Palestinian refugees], there will not be an end to this war. There might be a ceasefire in Gaza, a ceasefire in the West Bank, but there will not be an end to the war. That is the problem."

Earlier this week, the United Nations Security Council agreed a binding resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Strip.

However, both Israel and Hamas have ignored it and continued fighting.

Fisk said that Israel will be able to flout the UN ceasefire demand as long as the US - the only country to abstain from the 15-member security council vote on the resolution - continues to back Israel.

"It's quite clear from Hillary Clinton [incoming US secretary of state] most recent comments that it [the US backing of Israel] will continue under Barack Obama.

"I see no change, I see no hope at all in the future," Fisk said.

 Source:Al Jazeera and agencies

Av K - 14 januari 2009 09:12

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Av K - 14 januari 2009 09:06

Islamic Reliefs hjälparbetare Hatem Shurrab rapporterar direkt från Gaza


www.islamic-relief.se/sv/content/view/88/1/

Av K - 14 januari 2009 08:54

Israel intensifies Gaza City push



Gunfire and explosions continued in the early hours of Wednesday [AFP]

Israeli troops are pushing deeper into Gaza City and the surrounding areas of Jabaliya and Beit Hanoun as their offensive enters its 19th day.

Sameh Akram Habeeb, a journalist and blogger, told Al Jazeera by phone from inside Gaza City in the early hours of Wednesday that periodic gunfire between Palestinian fighters and Israeli forces could be heard throughout the night.

Israeli helicopters could be heard firing and at least two big explosions were heard from the western and northern parts of the city, he added.

The Israeli onslaught continues as diplomatic manoeuvres by various parties - from this week's UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire to Egyptian attempts to broker a truce - have failed to stop the violence.

Al Jazeera has learnt that the UN General Assembly plans to hold an emergency session, but not until Thursday.

Public support

IN DEPTH

Analysis and features from Gaza and Israel

Al Jazeera Labs: Report on and track the war

Send us your views and eyewitness videos

Watch our coverage of the war on GazaA

l Jazeera's Zeina Awad, reporting from the Israeli side of the Gaza border, said the Israeli public was still largely supportive of the military campaign as the general feeling was that it was going very much in Israel's favour.

The view is that the longer the offensive goes on, the better for Israel as it creates "facts on the ground", weakening Hamas's infrastructure and very likely weakening its negotiating position for any ceasefire agreement, our correspondent said.

On Tuesday, Ismail Haniya, the depose Palestinian prime minister and Hamas leader, called for a ceasefire without mentioning the group's long-held demand that Israel lift its blockade of the territory, although it remained unclear if this was a softening of Hamas's stance, our correspondent added.

Israel says 10 Israeli soldiers and three civilians hit by Hamas rockets have been killed so far in the campaign, a casualty rate that the Israeli public seems willing to accept, our correspondent said.

Around 970 Palestinians have been killed, including some 400 women and children, and 4,300 have been wounded.

'Test of our humanity'

The senior UN aid official for Gaza appealed to the international community to protect Gaza's civilians, saying nowhere in the territory of 1.5 million people was safe any longer with the conflict becoming "a test of our humanity".

"All the people, the first thing they say to me and the last thing they say to me is 'Please, we need protection, nowhere is safe'," John Ging, the director of operations for the UN Relief and Works Agency, told reporters.

IN VIDEO



Gazans speak of life under Israeli fire

His plea came as the town of Rafah near the Egyptian border suffered extensive Israeli bombardment causing several thousand residents to flee their homes on Tuesday.

Israel is using "bunker-busting" bombs in an attempt to destroy underground tunnels it says have been used to smuggle weapons and goods into the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza, said tens of thousands of Palestinians had fled their homes after the Israeli military dropped leaflets warning them of intensive air strikes.

"A large part of Rafah has been completely reduced to rubble... it has been described as hell on earth by some of the witnesses we have met," he said.

 Source:Al Jazeera and agencies

Av K - 14 januari 2009 08:45

 www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EAmtgfPz-k&feature=channel_page 

The Palestinian Exile, also known as Al Nakba (Arabic for "The Catastrophe"), refers to the ethnic cleansing of native Palestinian peoples ... all » during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

From December 1947 until November 1948, Zionist forces (namely the Irgun, Lehi, Haganah terrorist gangs) expelled approximately 750, 000 indigenous Palestinians--almost 2/3 of the population--from their homes.

Hundreds of Palestinians were also murdered for refusing to leave their homes. The most notable massacre is the Deir Yassin Massacre, in which an estimated 120 Palestinian civilians were brutally murdered by an Irgun-Lehi force. Other massacres include the ones at Sahila (70-80 killed), Lod (250 killed), and Abu Shusha (70 killed). About 40 other massacres were carried out by Zionist forces in just the summer of 1948.

Not only did Zionist forces conduct massacres of Palestinian civilians, rape occured as well. According to Israeli historian Benny Morris, "In Acre four soldiers raped a girl and murdered her and her father. In Jaffa, soldiers of the Kiryati Brigade raped one girl and tried to rape several more. At Hunin, which is in the Galilee, two girls were raped and then murdered. There were one or two cases of rape at Tantura, south of Haifa. There was one case of rape at Qula, in the center of the country. At the village of Abu Shusha, near Kibbutz Gezer [in the Ramle area] there were four female prisoners, one of whom was raped a number of times. And there were other cases. Usually more than one soldier was involved. Usually there were one or two Palestinian girls. In a large proportion of the cases the event ended with murder. Because neither the victims nor the rapists liked to report these events, we have to assume that the dozen cases of rape that were reported, which I found, are not the whole story. They are just the tip of the iceberg."

During Al Nakba, Palestinians were murdered, raped, and ethnically cleansed from their villages. According to Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe, "In a matter of seven months, 531 villages were destroyed and 11 urban neighborhoods emptied."

Palestinians were forced into were forced out of Palestine and into neighboring countries (i.e. Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan), where they lived in refugee camps. Many were also sent to camps in West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Most Palestinian towns were demolished and taken by the newly established Israeli government to make room for new Jewish immigrants. Old Palestinian infrastructures, as well as many ruins dating back from the Canaanites, Romans, Greeks, Crusaders, Arabs, and Ottoman Turks were completely destroyed. This signified the end of historical Palestine and the birth of modern-day Israel.

Al Nakba marked the beginning of the Palestinian refugee crisis. Al Nakba destroyed a thriving and diverse Palestinian society and scattered them into diaspora. According to the UNRWA, the number of registered Palestinian refugees today is approximately 4.5 million. These refugees are dispersed throughout the world, many of which are still living in poverty-stricken refugee camps. Today, the situation keeps worsening and thousands die from malnutrition, contaminated water, or scarce medical supply.

Israel has since refused to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, and has refused to pay them compensation as required by UN Resolution 194, which was passed on December 11, 1948.

Historically, the Israeli government, Israeli schools, and Israeli historians have denied that Al Nakba has occured. However, The New Historians, a loosely-defined group of Israeli historians, have recently published information recognizing the Al Nakba tragedy and controversial views of matters concerning Israel, particularly events concerning its birth in 1948. Much of their material comes from recently declassified Israeli government papers. Leading scholars in this school include Benny Morris, Ilan Pappe, Avi Shlaim, and Tom Segev. Many of their conclusions have been attacked by other scholars and Israeli historians, who continue deny Al Nakba even occured.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EAmtgfPz-k&feature=channel_page

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