30 December, 2008

It happened at 9am this morning. We were speaking to Sabrine Naim at the time, standing and talking in the Naim family home which had been wrecked this morning. Chunks of debris – one a meter long and a foot wide – glass, and sharp slices of their own broken roof, had smashed onto beds, chairs, their kitchen and living room. Only two of their family of 12 had been home at the time. They were expecting an attack. And it came at 4am – a missile strike by an F16 on the local police station and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine offices. Smouldering rubble and rocks and dust were strewn across the heart of Beit Hanoon – the market, taxi rank and main street littered with debris.

Sabrine had been hit in the face with small chunks of her neighbour’s home. One side of her right cheek was covered with a thick white dressing. She looked watery eyed and exhausted. Debris had also struck her in her heavily pregnant stomach. With only a month to go until giving birth, she spent two hours in the local hospital before being discharged.
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30 December, 2008, Time: 12:00

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have continued their offensive on the Gaza Strip for the fourth consecutive day. They have increasingly bombarded civilian facilities, mosques and houses, without paying attention to the lives and safety of Palestinian civilians. Israel claims that such civilian facilities, mosques and houses were related to Hamas, but investigations conducted by PCHR indicate that IOF have used excessive lethal force and that the majority of the facilities that have been targeted are public and private property located in densely populated areas, making Palestinian civilians pay a heavy price from their lives and property. All of the victims of recent attacks are civilians, and dozens of houses have been heavily damaged. Due to the current siege imposed on the Gaza Strip, the reconstruction or reparation of the houses that have been destroyed or damaged is extremely difficult.
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Palestinian Centre for Human Rights LTD (non profit)
Press Release

Ref: 118/2008
Date: 29 December 2008
Time: 14:15

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have continued to launch an open war against the Gaza Strip for the third consecutive day. IOF have continued to attack children, women and old people in disregard to their lives, humanitarian appeals and international humanitarian law and human rights law. PCHR’s investigations indicate that IOF have used excessive lethal force throughout the Gaza Strip, which is the most densely populated area in the world. They have launched dozens of heavy missiles from the air and the sea on houses, civilian facilities and mosques in densely populated areas. In a very horrible crime, last night and this morning, 22 Palestinian children were killed or wounded while they were sleeping at homes. Five sisters were killed in Jabalya refugee camp; 3 brothers were killed in Rafah refugee camp; and a 9th child was killed in Gaza City. Thus, the number of children killed in the past three days of the IOF offensive against the Gaza Strip has mounted to 31 out of 280 Palestinians who have been killed so far. The victims also include 9 women. Additionally, at least 140 children have been wounded.
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The US-backed attempt to bring Hamas to heel by overwhelming force is in fact more likely to boost the movement’s appeal

Israel’s decision to launch its devastating attack on Gaza on a Saturday was a “stroke of brilliance”, the country’s biggest selling paper Yediot Aharonot crowed: “the element of surprise increased the number of people who were killed”. The daily Ma’ariv agreed: “We left them in shock and awe”.

Of the ferocity of the assault on one of the most overcrowded and destitute corners of the earth, there is at least no question. In the bloodiest onslaught on blockaded Gaza since it was captured and occupied by Israel 41 years ago, at least 310 people were killed and more than a thousand reported injured in the first 48 hours alone.
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When George Bush, the US president, first entered the White House as the commander-in-chief in 2001, Palestinians were being killed in the al-Aqsa intifada.

Eight years later, as Bush prepares to leave office, Israel is carrying out one of the largest massacres in its 60-year occupation of Palestine.

The US, then and now, strongly backs Israel’s offensive, justifying it as being, in fact, defensive.

An Israeli general recently threatened to use military force to set Gaza back decades in much the same language used before the invasion of Lebanon in 2006.
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30 December, 2008

Defense Minister Ehud Barak (the Hebrew surname means “lightning,” German “Blitz”) did it again: a historic record of over 200 Palestinians killed in a single Sabbath’s blitz (Dec. 27). Polls now predict five additional Knesset seats for his Labor Party in the coming February general election. That’s 40 Palestinian corpses per seat. No wonder he promises it’s just the beginning: at this pace, it will take Labor just about two thousand additional corpses to go from rags to riches, from a dead political party to an absolute majority in parliament like in the good old days.
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PSC thanks the thousands of people who came out to demonstrate outside the Israeli embassy in London and across the UK, to call for an end to the killing and an end to the siege of the people of Gaza.

Please join the protests and demonstrations over the next few days (please check our website www.palestinecampaign.org for latest events)

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29 December, 2008 03:56 PM CST

The Israeli campaign of ‘death from above’ began around 11 am, on Saturday morning, the 27th of December, and stretched straight through the night into this morning. The massacre continues Sunday as I write these words.

The bloodiest single day in Palestine since the War of 1967 is far from over following on Israel’s promised that this is ‘only the beginning’ of their campaign of state terror. At least 290 people have been murdered thus far, but the body count continues to rise at a dramatic pace as more mutilated bodies are pulled from the rubble, previous victims succumb to their wounds and new casualties are created by the minute.
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Gaza massacre points to urgent need for viable sanctions

There is every reason to be outraged. But despite the severity of Israeli atrocities in Gaza, we have little right to act surprised. Whatever else can be said, Israel has made it abundantly clear that until its actions are met with credible international sanctions, it will subject Palestinians (and very likely others in the region) to massive, recurring waves of violence.

This was clear when the Obama-Biden campaign helped to lay the political foundation for this assault. It was clear when, amidst threats of such an operation and ongoing colonization in the West Bank, the European Union voted to upgrade relations with Israel earlier this month. For those of us in Canada, it has been clear as the Harper government has sharpened its alignment with Israel in the absence of any sustained parliamentary opposition.

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