All Entries Tagged With: "gaza"

Full: Israel admits kidnapping operations manager of Gaza’s only power plant

Israel admitted this week that it was behind the abduction of the operations manager of Gaza’s only power plant, who disappeared more than a month ago while travelling on a train in Ukraine.

Israeli officials confirmed in a statement that Mr Dirar Abu Sisi, 42, was being held in Israel’s Shikma prison, near Ashkelon, after a judge partially lifted reporting restrictions late on Sunday. However, the explanation for Mr Abu Sisi’s abduction and detention are still covered by the gag order, which has been extended by a judge for 30 days.

The whereabouts of Mr Abu Sisi, an engineer, had been the subject of intense speculation since he disappeared on February 18 travelling on a train to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.

Full Story Here: Full: Israel admits kidnapping operations manager of Gaza’s only power plant – The National.

Ripple effect: Now Gaza Begins to Shake

Ripple effects of the Egyptian uprising are now spreading to Gaza, where some groups are planning a new rally next week. Moves by some Gazans to mimic protesters in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen by taking to the streets are making the Hamas government nervous.

Government officials sponsored an official rally in solidarity with the Egyptian protesters earlier, but when a small group of journalists and bloggers organized their own, six women and eight men were arrested. Two of the women, known for their outspoken criticism of the regime, were beaten up.

“I found out about the rally through Facebook, and it said the sit-in was in support of the Egyptian people in their revolution. I wanted to be part of something, to help the Egyptian people somehow,” recalls Mahmoud, afraid to give his full name.

Full Story Here: Now Gaza Begins to Shake | CommonDreams.org.

Jewish activists to sail to Gaza to break blockade

An organization of European Jews has announced that it wants to sail an aid ship to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. The organization refused to disclose its port of departure.

Kate Katzenstein-Leiterer, a leader of the German Jewish Voice organization, said the trip was being managed by the British Group Jews for Justice for Palestinians (JfJfP), Haaretz daily reported.

Katzenstein-Leiterer also said that the boat was ready to depart and Jewish activists were “on board”.

Full Story: Jewish activists to sail to Gaza to break blockade – Top News.

Gaza’s Poisoned Water

This article follows an August 6 one discussing Palestinians Denied Access to Water, found through the following link:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/08/palestinians-denied-access-to-wate…

It explained how Israel exploits Palestinian water resources, using most of it, forcing them to find ways to get by. Water, of course, is essential to life, rights to it natural and usufructuary. Belonging to everyone as part of the commons, it must be used, not owned or abused, an essential truth Israel corrupts.

On August 5, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) published the latest in its “Narratives Under Siege” series, titled “There’s Something in the Water: The Poisoning of Life in the Gaza Strip.”

“THIS BEACH IS POLLUTED” signs dot Gaza City beaches, posing serious health hazards because of daily raw sewage dumped into the Mediterranean Sea through 16 discharge sites along the coast. Yet thousands fill them despite the dangers, including children, taking advantage of one of their few sources of respite – available, convenient, and free, but not safe.

For Gazans, the sea is part of their lives – to fish, gather with family, swim, and for children, play in the sun on hot days, a joy this writer recalls growing up on America’s Atlantic coast. Summers were always the best time. The memories remain.

Full Story: Gaza’s Poisoned Water | War Is A Crime .org.

Brazil donates $14 million for Gaza reconstruction

Ramallah – Ma’an – Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a decision granting $14 million for Gaza reconstruction efforts, Palestinian officials announced.

During a visit to Brazil, a Fatah delegation headed by Central Committee member Nabil Sha’ath met with da Silva, who applauded President da Silva’s positions toward Palestine.

“The question of Palestine runs in the blood vessels of every Brazilian. I will continue to fight for a just peace leading to establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital,” the president was quoted as saying.

Sha’ath said in a statement that da Silva would be willing to join international efforts to support the Palestinian stance, and would willingly participate in the peace process.

Full Story: Maan News Agency: Brazil donates $14 million for Gaza reconstruction.

Leaked Luntz Poll: Majority of Americans don’t support Israeli flotilla raid.

Via Didi Remez (whose Coteret blog has become an indispensable resource for progressives on Israel-Palestine issues), Israel’s Channel Ten TV News was leaked a memo on a Frank Luntz poll commissioned by the right-wing propaganda outfit The Israel Project analyzing the effectiveness of the Israeli government’s public diplomacy efforts around the Gaza flotilla raid.

A summary of the findings:

1. 56% of Americans agree with the claim that there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza;

2. 43% of Americans agree with the claim that people in Gaza are starving;

3. 34% of Americans support the Israeli operation against the Flotilla;

4. 20% of Americans “felt support” for Israel following announcement of easing of Gaza closure.

Full Story: Think Progress » Leaked Luntz Poll: Majority of Americans don’t support Israeli flotilla raid..

Israel Eases Gaza Blockade, Will Allow In All Goods Except For Weapons

Israel’s government decided Sunday to draw up a list of items banned from Gaza limited to weapons and materials deemed to have military uses and said the easing of the three-year-old blockade of the Palestinian territory would be implemented immediately.

The list of banned goods replaces an old list of allowed items that permitted only basic humanitarian supplies for the 1.5 million Gazans. Under the new system, the government said practically all non-military items can enter Gaza freely.

“From now on, there is a green light of approval for all goods to enter Gaza except for military items and materials that can strengthen Hamas’ military machine,” Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said.

Full Story: Israel Eases Gaza Blockade, Will Allow In All Goods Except For Weapons.

Obama welcomes ease of Gaza blockade, urges Israel to expand goods inflow

The international community has welcomed Israel's decision to ease its land blockade of the Gaza Strip, a decision made Thursday after weeks of pressure from its allies in the United States and the European Union.

The White House welcomed the announcement on Thursday as a “step in the right direction.” U.S. President Barack Obama a few weeks called the three-year embargo unsustainable, and urged Israel to scale it back dramatically.

The new product list approved by Israel’s security cabinet on Thursday includes all food items, toys, stationery, kitchen utensils, mattresses and towels.

Israel will also allow in more construction materials to repair damage from the December 2008-January 2009 war in the Gaza Strip, provided they are used for civilian projects carried out under international supervision, government and military officials said.

Full Story: Obama welcomes ease of Gaza blockade, urges Israel to expand goods inflow – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

New Approach Sought as Pressure Grows to End Gaza Embargo

Three years after Israel and Egypt imposed an embargo on this tormented Palestinian strip, shutting down its economy, a consensus has emerged that the attempt to weaken the governing party, Hamas, and drive it from power has failed.

In the days since an Israeli naval takeover of a flotilla trying to break the siege turned deadly, that consensus has taken on added urgency, with world powers, anti-Hamas Palestinians in Gaza and some senior Israeli officials advocating a shift.

In its three years in power, Hamas has taken control not only of security, education and the justice system but also the economy, by regulating and taxing an extensive smuggling tunnel system from Egypt. In the process, the traditional and largely pro-Western business community has been sidelined.

This may be about to change.

Full Story: New Approach Sought as Pressure Grows to End Gaza Embargo – NYTimes.com.

US backs international role in flotilla probe

The United States backed calls Tuesday for international participation in Israel’s probe into its deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla saying it was “essential” to ensure credibility.

“We understand that the international participation in investigating these matters will be important to the credibility everybody wants to see,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said.

“We recognize that international participation… would be an essential element to putting this tragedy behind us and then hopefully creating some additional trust and momentum to get us to our ultimate destination, which is an agreement that ends the conflict once and for all.”

Full Story: US backs international role in flotilla probe – Yahoo! News.

Israeli Ambassador To U.S., Michael Oren, Rejects International Investigation Of Flotilla Deaths

One of the few ways the Obama administration has attempted to show it’s displeasure with Israel following the death of pro-Palestinian activists aboard a flotilla was by stressing its support for an international investigation into the incident.

On Sunday, however, Israel’s ambassador to the United States stated firmly that the country wouldn’t go along with that type or probe and even threw a subtle dig at U.S. officials who felt it was a necessary course of action.

“Israel is a democracy,” said Michael Oren, during an appearance on Fox News Sunday. “Israel has the ability and the right to investigate itself, not to be investigated by any international board. I don’t think the United States would want an international inquiry into its military activities in Afghanistan, for example.”

Asked flatly if he was rejecting the very idea of an international commission, Oren confirmed he was.

Full Story: Israeli Ambassador To U.S., Michael Oren, Rejects International Investigation Of Flotilla Deaths.

Gaza flotilla activists were shot in head at close range

Exclusive: Nine Turkish men on board Mavi Marmara were shot a total of 30 times, autopsy results reveal

Israel was tonight under pressure to allow an independent inquiry into its assault on the Gaza aid flotilla after autopsy results on the bodies of those killed, obtained by the Guardian, revealed they were peppered with 9mm bullets, many fired at close range.

Nine Turkish men on board the Mavi Marmara were shot a total of 30 times and five were killed by gunshot wounds to the head, according to the vice-chairman of the Turkish council of forensic medicine, which carried out the autopsies for the Turkish ministry of justice today.

The results revealed that a 60-year-old man, Ibrahim Bilgen, was shot four times in the temple, chest, hip and back. A 19-year-old, named as Fulkan Dogan, who also has US citizenship, was shot five times from less that 45cm, in the face, in the back of the head, twice in the leg and once in the back. Two other men were shot four times, and five of the victims were shot either in the back of the head or in the back, said Yalcin Buyuk, vice-chairman of the council of forensic medicine.

Full Story: Gaza flotilla activists were shot in head at close range | World news | The Guardian.

US citizen killed on flotilla was reportedly shot four times in head

“One of the nine people killed in the Israeli raid on an aid flotilla Monday was a 19-year-old man with dual U.S.-Turkish citizenship, a U.S. State Department official said,” CBS News reports.

The official identified the victim as Furkan Dogan, who was believed to have been residing in Turkey.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter has not been officially confirmed by the U.S. government.

The official said the victim had been shot but it was not clear who shot him. He was among eight of the dead being mourned at a funeral in Istanbul Thursday.

Full Story: US citizen killed on flotilla was reportedly shot four times in head | Raw Story.

NATO Wants Probe Of Israeli Raid

Pro-Palestinian activists sent another boat to challenge Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday and Egypt declared it was temporarily opening a crossing into the Palestinian territory after a raid on an aid flotilla that ended with Israeli soldiers killing nine activists.

The raid provoked ferocious international condemnation of Israel, raised questions at home, and appeared likely to increase pressure to end the blockade that has deepened the poverty of the 1.5 million Palestinians in the strip.

NATO on Tuesday joined calls for a “prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation” into the raid. “As a matter of urgency, I also request the immediate release of the detained civilians and ships held by Israel,” said NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in a statement after representatives of the alliance’s 28 nations had met.

Full Story: NATO Wants Probe Of Israeli Raid.

Israeli Officials And American Conservatives Claim ‘There Is No Humanitarian Crisis In Gaza’

On Sunday, Israeli forces raided an aid flotilla trying to break a blockade of Gaza to deliver much-needed humanitarian supplies, killing nine activists, including four Turkish citizens. The incident has received “widespread condemnation” from the international community. Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan called the raid a “bloody massacre by Israel.”

In a damage control effort, Israeli officials and their right-wing American supporters are now trying to deflect blame onto the activists, saying that there was no reason for them to be trying to breach the blockade to deliver supplies because there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza:

ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN: “There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. … The flotilla is an attempt at violent propaganda against Israel, and Israel will not allow the violation of its sovereignty at sea, in the air, or on land.”

MICHAEL OREN, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: “Over one hundred trucks, every day, laden with food and medicine go into Gaza. There’s no shortage of food. There is no shortage of medicine.”

NEWT GINGRICH: “There was no humanitarian crisis; this was a deliberate political effort on the part of people who want to try to undermine the survival of Israel.”

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: “What exactly is the humanitarian crisis that the flotilla was actually addressing? There is none. No one is starving in Gaza.”

Full Story: Think Progress » Israeli Officials And American Conservatives Claim ‘There Is No Humanitarian Crisis In Gaza’.

Pelosi: ‘I Don’t Want To Go Into A Discussion Of The Blockade Of Gaza’

Today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) held a conference call with bloggers, where she received questions — including from ThinkProgress — about Israel’s raid of the flotilla carrying humanitarian aid and activists bound for Gaza. Pelosi refused to speak directly about whether Israel’s blockade is causing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying that the focus should instead be on solving Middle East peace through a two-state solution:

PELOSI: Well, first of all, this incident, as you mentioned, is very recent. There is very strong interest in getting the facts and a transparent and credible investigation is what people are calling for — that’s what the White House has mentioned, and that’s what I support as well. We have to have the facts on which to make a judgment about how we go forward. I don’t know — I appreciate what you’re saying that people are suffering from different physical challenges because of the blockade. I don’t know that. I know blockades have consequences. … But the fact is, this is a terribly regrettable situation. I regret the loss of life first and foremost, and again, call for a credible and transparent investigation about how this came to be. […]

TP QUESTION: Do you think the blockade of Gaza should be lifted because it’s causing undue suffering on the people in the region?

PELOSI: [...] I don’t want to go into a discussion of the blockade of Gaza. I hope that we can end that by having a resolution in terms of Middle East peace. That’s where we spend our time, not necessarily on one particular tactics of one country or the next, but on the bigger picture, which is we must have peace in the Middle East. It must respect both sides, it must have a two-state solution — and I emphasize the solution part of it, so that both sides feel respected and well-treated and safe as they go forward with the new peace agreement — and I hope that whatever actions are taken on both sides, it’s in furtherance of that peace.

Full Story: Think Progress » Pelosi: ‘I Don’t Want To Go Into A Discussion Of The Blockade Of Gaza’.

10 DEAD ON AID SHIP AFTER BOTCHED ISRAELI RAID

Gaza Flotilla ATTACKED: Israel Storms Aid Ship, At Least 10 Dead

Israeli naval commandos stormed a flotilla of ships carrying aid and hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists to the blockaded Gaza Strip on Monday, killing at least 10 passengers in a predawn raid that set off worldwide condemnation and a diplomatic crisis.

Israel said its commandos were attacked by knives, clubs and live fire from two pistols wrested from soldiers after they rappelled from a helicopter to board one of the vessels.

Dozens of activists and at least 10 Israeli soldiers were wounded in the bloody confrontation in international waters.

Full Story: Gaza Flotilla ATTACKED: Israel Storms Aid Ship, At Least 10 Dead.

‘At least 10 dead’ as Israel storms aid convoy: Israeli TV

At least 10 people were killed as Israeli forces stormed a boat carrying pro-Palestinian activists bound for Gaza, Israeli television and radio stations reported on Monday.

According to Israel’s private channel 10 television, Israeli marine commandos had opened fire after being attacked with axes and knives by a number of the passengers on board the aid ships, the television said, without giving the source of its information.

The station did not say whether the dead and injured were passengers or members of the Israeli navy.

Full Story: ‘At least 10 dead’ as Israel storms aid convoy: Israeli TV | Raw Story.

Protesters bound for Gaza

BREAKING NEWS: Ten people have reportedly been killed and more than 30 injured after Israeli forces attacked a flotilla seeking to break through a naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Contact with Herald journalist Paul McGeough, who is on board one of the flotilla vessels, has been lost.

This is what McGeough filed earlier before contact with the flotilla was lost …

Video at link

Full Story: Protesters bound for Gaza.

Qatar’s offer to help rebuild Gaza is snubbed by Netanyahu

Israel has turned down an offer from Qatar for a reopening of diplomatic contacts between the two countries in return for the Gulf state being allowed to import supplies to Gaza to carry out a series of badly needed reconstruction projects.

Qatar had proposed a major thawing of relations between the two countries in which Israel would have been allowed to reopen its official interests office, shut down on the orders of the emirate during the military onslaught on Gaza in January 2009.

But in return it wanted an easing of the three-year blockade of Gaza to allow a major increase in imports of cement and construction materials to start rebuilding war-ravaged sectors of the besieged territory.

Full Story: Qatar’s offer to help rebuild Gaza is snubbed by Netanyahu – Middle East, World – The Independent.

Thirteen Israeli air strikes hit Gaza Strip

Israeli planes have carried out 13 air strikes on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources have told the BBC.

Four of the strikes took place near the town of Khan Younis, where two Israeli soldiers were killed in clashes with Palestinian fighters last week.

Israel says the operation was targeting four weapons factories. Reports say three children were injured.

The latest violence is the most serious since the end of Israel’s assault on Gaza in January 2009.

Palestinians and rights groups say more than 1,400 Gazans died in the conflict, while Israel puts the figure at 1,166. Thirteen Israelis, including three civilians, were killed.

Full Story: BBC News – Thirteen Israeli air strikes hit Gaza Strip.

Israeli armor moves into Gaza, digging trenches

Israeli forces have crossed into the Gaza Strip while tensions remain high following Tel Aviv’s Friday incursion into the Hamas-run Palestinian coastal enclave.

Israeli soldiers moved around 500 meters (yards) inside Gaza on Sunday in several armored vehicles including bulldozers.

Witnesses said the troops were predominantly targeting olive groves and almond fields in the Abasan al-Jadida area east of Khan Yunis.

They dug large trenches and fired warning shots to keep farmers away, but there were no reports of casualties.

Sunday’s incursion was close to the site where Israeli tanks, bulldozers and jeeps, backed by helicopters, carried out a strike late Friday damaging two houses and killing a Palestinian. Seven people were also wounded in the attack.

Full Story: Israeli armor moves into Gaza, digging trenches.

Israeli tanks ‘enter Gaza’ after deadly clashes

Israeli tanks advanced briefly into the Gaza Strip following clashes with Palestinians in which two Israeli soldiers died, reports say.

Witnesses in Gaza said tanks and bulldozers moved towards the southern town of Khan Younis before withdrawing.

They also said there had been firing from the Israeli navy along the Gaza coastline.

It is the first time Israeli soldiers have died in Gaza since Israel’s 22-day offensive there more than a year ago.

Reports say at least two Palestinians have also been killed.

Israel says the fighting started when its troops crossed into Gaza after spotting militants planting explosives along the border.

Reports from inside Gaza say the militants then tried to capture an Israeli soldier.

Full Story: BBC News – Israeli tanks ‘enter Gaza’ after deadly clashes.

Israeli warplanes bomb Gaza over night

Israeli warplanes struck the southern part of the Gaza Strip in an overnight raid following Palestinian rocket fire, Palestinian witnesses and the Israeli military said Monday.

The aircraft attacked a tunnel on the Rafah sector on the border with Egypt, but no one was injured, said witnesses.

A military spokesman confirmed the raid, saying they had hit a tunnel used for arms smuggling and in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian side.

One rocket was fired into southern Israel late Sunday from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip though it landed without causing any injuries or damage, the Israeli army said earlier.

Full Story: Israeli warplanes bomb Gaza: officials – Yahoo! News.

The 1,000 Day Siege of Gaza

This week marked 1,000 days of an Israeli and international siege on Gaza – 1,000 days of an open air prison where “inmates,” the civilian Palestinian population of 1.5 million, cannot leave or enter at will – by land, sea or air, the tiny area known as the Gaza Strip.

60 years after the World War II Nazi military siege of Leningrad that lasted for 900 days and caused the greatest destruction and largest loss of life ever known in a modern city, the Israeli military has imprisoned Gaza for 1,000 days. The blockade has caused incredible physical and emotional suffering those crowded into an incredibly small space-25 miles long and 5 miles wide-one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

The siege means that the Israeli government controls the entry of food, medicines, and gasoline and construction materials for the Palestinians. The purpose of the blockade is to force by blatantly violating international law, a change in the government represented by Hamas, the political organization the people elected. The siege began in June, 2007, following Hamas’ takeover of governmental functions in Gaza.

Full Story: The 1,000 Day Siege of Gaza | CommonDreams.org.

Gaza’s defiant tunnellers head deeper underground

They are threatened with drowning by the Egyptians and punitively taxed by Hamas. Our correspondent meets the Palestinian smugglers bringing oranges, car batteries and bottle tops to a territory under siege

They are the real resistance. They are the lung through which Gaza breathes. True, missiles must pass along their subterranean tracks, Qassam rockets, too, Kalashnikov ammunition, explosives. But by far the greatest burden of the tunnellers of Gaza is the very life-blood of this besieged little pseudo-Islamic statelet: fresh meat, oranges, chocolate, shirts, trousers, toys, cigarettes, wedding dresses, paper, entire motor-cars in four bits, car batteries, even plastic bottle tops. The tunnellers of Gaza are bombed by the Israelis, they die in their own collapsing tunnels – and now they face a new Egyptian wall, even the fear of drowning. Terrorists they may be to the Israelis – the promiscuous use of this word makes it fairly meaningless these days – but heroes they are to the Palestinians of Gaza. Rich ones, too, perhaps.

But right now, Abdul-Halim al-Mohsen is worried about the Egyptians. He sits by the spitting log fire near the shaft of his tunnel, turning his hands to the flames, breathing in the thick blue smoke, a vast white tent above him casting his fellow-tunnellers into Rembrandt-like shadow, half-faces, thick pullovers, bright flames amid the gloom, the generator purring in the corner.

“Of course I’m afraid of the Egyptian wall,” al-Mohsen says. “They will pour water down. How can we defeat this? We may drown.” He holds out the palms of his hands towards me in that familiar “what-can-we-do?” gesture of so many Palestinians – but he is speaking in a matter-of-fact voice. The tunnels beneath the Gaza-Egyptian frontier are a business, a professional’s game, Israel’s bombs a challenge rather than a problem. There’s even a four-truck miniature railway down one of the shafts. Money makes the wheels go round.

via Robert Fisk: Gaza’s defiant tunnellers head deeper underground – Robert Fisk, Commentators – The Independent.

Israel Tightens Vice on Gaza Strip, UN Reports

The ability to bring essential commodities into Gaza, already under an Israeli blockade that is undermining health care, the economy and rehabilitation after last year’s devastating Israeli offensive, was further cut in January by more crossing closures, according to the latest United Nations update.

The UN and other humanitarian organizations have repeatedly called on Israel to immediately open all border crossings not only for basic necessities, which it allows in limited amounts, but for the reconstruction material needed to rebuild the scores of buildings destroyed by the offensive, which Israel says it launched to halt rocket attacks by Palestinian militants in Gaza.

Full Story Scoop: Israel Tightens Vice on Gaza Strip, UN Reports.

HRW says Israel ‘failed’ to probe Gaza war crimes

Human Rights Watch said on Sunday that Israel has failed to properly investigate alleged crimes committed during last winter’s devastating Gaza war as demanded by the United Nations.

“Israel claims it is conducting credible and impartial investigations, but it has so far failed to make that case,” said Joe Stork, HRW’s New York-based group’s deputy director for the Middle East.

“An independent investigation is crucial to understand why so many civilians died and to bring justice for the victims of unlawful attacks,” Stork said in a statement.

About 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the 22-day onslaught launched by Israel on December 27, 2008, aimed at halting rocket attacks from the Islamist Hamas-ruled enclave. Thirteen Israelis were killed in the fighting.

Full Story AFP: HRW says Israel ‘failed’ to probe Gaza war crimes.

Prof. Francis Boyle: Israel Is Committing Genocide

`What we’re seeing in Gaza now, is pretty much slow-motion genocide against the 1.5 million Palestinians who live in Gaza…. If you read the 1948 Genocide Convention, it clearly says that one instance of genocide is the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of a people in whole or in part,” stated Francis A. Boyle, professor of International Law at the University of Illinois in Champaign. “And that’s exactly what has been done to Gaza, since the imposition of the blockade by Israel; then the massacre of 1,400 Palestinians, two-thirds of whom were civilians, in Operation Cast Lead. And that also raises the element in the Genocide Convention, of murder, torture, and things of that nature.”

Boyle spoke to {EIR} on Jan. 15, 2010, giving his assessment of Gaza, one year after the Israeli attacks. He stressed that he was speaking only for himself.

While the Israelis stopped the artillery bombardment and air strikes just before the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009, the deaths of Palestinians continue–from lack of medicines, infrastructure, clean water, and everything else that the world community–as shown in emergency aid to Haiti–{knows} is necessary to sustain human life.

Full Story Scoop: Prof. Francis Boyle: Israel Is Committing Genocide.

Israeli commander: ‘We rewrote the rules of war for Gaza’

Civilians ‘put at greater risk to save military lives’ in winter attack – revelations that will pile pressure on Netanyahu to set up full inquiry

A high-ranking officer has acknowledged for the first time that the Israeli army went beyond its previous rules of engagement on the protection of civilian lives in order to minimise military casualties during last year’s Gaza war, The Independent can reveal.

The officer, who served as a commander during Operation Cast Lead, made it clear that he did not regard the longstanding principle of military conduct known as “means and intentions” – whereby a targeted suspect must have a weapon and show signs of intending to use it before being fired upon – as being applicable before calling in fire from drones and helicopters in Gaza last winter. A more junior officer who served at a brigade headquarters during the operation described the new policy – devised in part to avoid the heavy military casualties of the 2006 Lebanon war – as one of “literally zero risk to the soldiers”.

Full Story Israeli commander: ‘We rewrote the rules of war for Gaza’ – Middle East, World – The Independent.

Gaza must be rebuilt now

Jimmy Carter

We can wait no longer to restart the peace process. The human suffering demands urgent relief

It is generally recognised that the Middle East peace process is in the doldrums, almost moribund. Israeli settlement expansion within Palestine continues, and PLO leaders refuse to join in renewed peace talks without a settlement freeze, knowing that no Arab or Islamic nation will accept any comprehensive agreement while Israel retains control of East Jerusalem.

US objections have impeded Egyptian efforts to resolve differences between Hamas and Fatah that could lead to 2010 elections. With this stalemate, PLO leaders have decided that President Mahmoud Abbas will continue in power until elections can be held – a decision condemned by many Palestinians.

Even though Syria and Israel under the Olmert government had almost reached an agreement with Turkey’s help, the current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, rejects Turkey as a mediator on the Golan Heights. No apparent alternative is in the offing.

Full Story Gaza must be rebuilt now | Jimmy Carter | Comment is free | The Guardian.

UN endorses Gaza war crimes report

The United Nations General Assembly has voted in favour of resolution endorsing a UN-sponsored report into war crimes committed during Israel’s war on Gaza.

The Goldstone report, which accuses both Israel and Hamas of war crimes, was endorsed by the assembly on Thursday by a margin of 114 to 18, after two days of debate.

Forty-four member-nations abstained from voting.

The report, which was compiled by a panel led by Richard Goldstone, a South African judge, had already been endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council, which sponsored the fact-finding commission.

Full Story Al Jazeera English – Americas – UN endorses Gaza war crimes report.

Israel planning mass expansion of West Bank settlement bloc

Israel planning mass expansion of West Bank settlement bloc

By Akiva Eldar

- Haaretz -

Despite the state’s formal commitment not to expand West Bank settlements, a government agency has been promoting plans over the past two years to construct thousands of housing units east of the Green Line, Haaretz has learned.

The plans, which have not yet been approved by the government, were drawn up by the Civil Administration, the government agency responsible for nonmilitary matters in the West Bank. Details of the plans appear in the minutes of the agency’s environmental subcommittee, which were obtained by the B’Tselem organization under the Freedom of Information Act.

via Israel planning mass expansion of West Bank settlement bloc – Haaretz – Israel News.