January 7, 2009 - No. 5

Halt the Massacres in the Gaza Strip!
Canada Must Demand an Immediate UN Investigation into Israeli War Crimes

Jabaliya refugee camp, Gaza, January 7, 2009: Funeral procession for the more than 40 people killed while taking shelter in a UN school bombed by the Israeli Air Force on January 6. News agencies report this is the fourth UN facility to be targeted by the Israeli military and the second school hit that day, despite their being provided with GPS co-ordinates for all UN facilities. More than 15,000 Palestinians have sought refuge in the UN's 23 Gaza schools, according to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon.

• Halt the Massacres in the Gaza Strip! Canada Must Demand an Immediate UN Investigation into Israeli War Crimes - Petition, Palestine House, January 6, 2009

Gaza, We Are with You!
• Calendar of Events
• Demonstrations in Lebanon, India, Pakistan and Thailand

Update on Gaza
• This Brutality Will Never Break Our Will to Be Free - Khalid Mish'al, Head of Hamas Political Bureau
• Palestinians Killed and Wounded in Gaza Holocaust - Palestinian Information Center
• Even Gaza Hospitals Are Not Safe - Ola Attallah, IslamOnline.net
• Israel Rains Fire on Gaza With Phosphorus Shells - Sheera Frenkel and Michael Evans
• Israel's Propangada War: Reporters Banned From Gaza - Arthur Max, Associated Press

SUPPLEMENT
• Views and Comment

Halt the Massacres in the Gaza Strip!
Canada Must Demand an Immediate UN Investigation into Israeli War Crimes

- Petition, Palestine House, January 6, 2009 -

We, the undersigned, are outraged by the horrific massacre that occurred today in the Gaza Strip.

Over 40 Palestinian civilians were killed after Israel bombed the United Nations Al Fahoura school in Northern Gaza. According to reports, Israel bombed this UN-operated school, located in the Jabaliya refugee camp, killing many civilians who had sought shelter from Israel's continued bombardment and blockade of the Gaza Strip. The tactics of the Israeli Army, using heavy artillery, helicopter fire and massive bombs from fighter jets on the Gaza Strip has caused more than 640 deaths and 3,000 injuries, some people being maimed for life.

The residents of the Gaza Strip are living in one of the most densely populated places on earth. For 19 months, Israel has blockaded the residents of Gaza from access to water, electricity, food, and medicine. Hospitals are relying on backup generators for electricity and rolling electricity cuts leave patients in jeopardy. The lack of resources has led to patient deaths as they wait for medical attention. Even before Israel began its military assault ten days ago there was a massive humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

We emphasize that the victims of this latest bombing join a long list of Palestinians killed in pre-meditated massacres by Zionist and Israeli forces over the last six decades. The names of these massacres -- Deir Yassin, Kufr Qassem, Qana, Jenin to name a few -- are etched in our collective memories as testimony to a people who have long endured the inaction of world powers to halt Israeli war crimes.

This inaction must stop.

Israel cannot be allowed to bomb with impunity a United Nations school in which men, women and children have sought sanctuary. The bombing of civilian populations is a violation of international humanitarian law and the laws of war including the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949. Israel must be held to account for this and other war crimes.

We call on the Canadian government to demand that the UN begin an investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Canadian government cannot remain silent any longer.

Palestine House
www.palestinehouse.com
info[at]palestinehouse.com
(905) 270-4011

Gaza, We Are with You!
Calendar of Events

Demonstrations in Lebanon, India,
Pakistan and Thailand

Palestinian flags during the climax of Ashura religious ceremony in southern Beirut, January 7, 2009.  In a speech to the gathering,  Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned that "all possibilities" were open against Israel. Ashura, a 10-day-long event, commemorates the death of Prophet Mohammad's grandson Imam Hussein in battle in 680AD.



Lebanese demonstrators torch three puppets representing the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak and Saudi King Abdallah as they demonstrate in front of the Egyptian embassy in Beirut against Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip on January 7, 2009.


Left: Mumbai, India, January 7, 2009. Right: "Protest against Israel who attacks with the support of America," reads the banner held by members of Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) at demonstration in Ahmedabad, India January 7, 2009.



Islamic University students in Islamabad, January 7, 2009. Left: banner reads, "The land of Palestine will prove a graveyard for Zionism."


Bangkok, Thailand, January 7, 2009

Update on Gaza

This Brutality Will Never Break Our Will to Be Free

- Khalid Mish'al, Head of Hamas Political Bureau, January 6, 2009 -

For six months we in Hamas observed the ceasefire. Israel broke it repeatedly from the start.

For 18 months my people in Gaza have been under siege, incarcerated inside the world's biggest prison, sealed off from land, air and sea, caged and starved, denied even medication for our sick. After the slow death policy came the bombardment. In this most densely populated of places, nothing has been spared Israel's warplanes, from government buildings to homes, mosques, hospitals, schools and markets. More than 540 have been killed and thousands permanently maimed. A third are women and children. Whole families have been massacred, some while they slept.

This river of blood is being shed under lies and false pretexts. For six months we in Hamas observed the ceasefire. Israel broke it repeatedly from the start. Israel was required to open crossings to Gaza, and extend the truce to the West Bank. It proceeded to tighten its deadly siege of Gaza, repeatedly cutting electricity and water supplies. The collective punishment did not halt, but accelerated -- as did the assassinations and killings. Thirty Gazans were killed by Israeli fire and hundreds of patients died as a direct effect of the siege during the so-called ceasefire. Israel enjoyed a period of calm. Our people did not.

When this broken truce neared its end, we expressed our readiness for a new comprehensive truce in return for lifting the blockade and opening all Gaza border crossings, including Rafah. Our calls fell on deaf ears. Yet still we would be willing to begin a new truce on these terms following the complete withdrawal of the invading forces from Gaza.

No rockets have ever been fired from the West Bank. But 50 died and hundreds more were injured there last year at Israel's hands, while its expansionism proceeded relentlessly. We are meant to be content with shrinking scraps of territory, a handful of cantons at Israel's mercy, enclosed by it from all sides.The truth is Israel seeks a one-sided ceasefire, observed by my people alone, in return for siege, starvation, bombardment, assassinations, incursions and colonial settlement. What Israel wants is a gratuitous ceasefire.

The logic of those who demand that we stop our resistance is absurd. They absolve the aggressor and occupier -- armed with the deadliest weapons of death and destruction -- of responsibility, while blaming the victim, prisoner and occupied. Our modest, home-made rockets are our cry of protest to the world. Israel and its American and European sponsors want us to be killed in silence. But die in silence we will not.

What is being visited on Gaza today was visited on Yasser Arafat before. When he refused to bow to Israel's dictates, he was imprisoned in his Ramallah headquarters, surrounded by tanks for two years. When this failed to break his resolve, he was murdered by poisoning.

Gaza enters 2009 just as it did 2008: under Israeli fire. Between January and February of last year 140 Gazans died in air strikes. And just before it embarked on its failed military assault on Lebanon in July 2006, Israel rained thousands of shells on Gaza, killing 240. From Deir Yassin in 1948 to Gaza today, the list of Israel's crimes is long. The justifications change, but the reality is the same: colonial occupation, oppression, and never-ending injustice. If this is the "free world" whose "values" Israel is defending, as its foreign minister Tzipi Livni alleges, then we want nothing to do with it.

Israel's leaders remain in the grip of confusion, unable to set clear goals for the attacks - from ousting the legitimately elected Hamas government and destroying its infrastructure, to stopping the rockets. As they fail to break Gaza's resistance the benchmark has been lowered. Now they speak of weakening Hamas and limiting the resistance. But they will achieve neither. Gaza's people are more united than ever, determined not to be terrorised into submission. Our fighters, armed with the justice of their cause, have already caused many casualties among the occupation army and will fight on to defend their land and people. Nothing can defeat our will to be free.

Once again, Washington and Europe have opted to aid and abet the jailer, occupier and aggressor, and to condemn its victims. We hoped Barack Obama would break with George Bush's disastrous legacy but his start is not encouraging. While he swiftly moved to denounce the Mumbai attacks, he remains tongue-tied after 10 days of slaughter in Gaza. But my people are not alone. Millions of freedom-loving men and women stand by its struggle for justice and liberation -- witness daily protests against Israeli aggression, not only in the Arab and Islamic region, but worldwide.

Israel will no doubt wreak untold destruction, death and suffering in Gaza. But it will meet the same fate in Gaza as it did in Lebanon. We will not be broken by siege and bombardment, and will never surrender to occupation.

(This item was published in the Guardian (UK).)

Palestinians Killed and Wounded in Gaza Holocaust

- Palestinian Information Center, January 7, 2009 -

The ongoing Israeli occupation holocaust in the Gaza Strip has so far claimed the lives of 660 Palestinians, including 215 children and 89 women in addition to 2950 wounded.

The Israeli occupation bombardment of Palestinian homes and three UNRWA schools have risen to more than 135 Palestinians killed and 400 wounded.

Israeli occupation forces committed new massacres today when they targeted schools provided by UNRWA to house civilians who fled the Israeli bombardment in eastern Jablaya.

The bombing of the Fakhoura school in east Jabalya resulted in the killing of 45 Palestinians and wounding more than 50, 5 others were killed earlier in the bombing of two other UNRWA schools.

Adnan Abu Hasna, UNRWA spokesman in Gaza, said in a press statement that the Israeli side was informed of the location of those schools and that they were opened for refugees in addition to the fact that UNRWA flags fly over those schools.

Medical sources also confirmed the recovery of 12 bodies of the Daya family from under the rubble of their house in the Zaitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, which was bombed Tuesday morning by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF).

Eyewitnesses said that some copses are still under the rubble of the four-storey building, and that some of the corpses recovered were badly mutilated.

The eyewitnesses added that 7 of the corpses recovered were those of children under 12 years of age and three women.

Medical sources also said that 23 more corpses of people who died in Monday night's bombing in various areas of Gaza city.

Even Gaza Hospitals Are Not Safe

- Ola Attallah, IslamOnline.net, January 5, 2009 -

Abu Khaled could not believe his ears when he heard the thundering of Israeli warplanes. Helplessly, the panicked father put his arms around his three wounded children who laid at one of Al-Shifa hospital's rooms.

"I was petrified," he said recalling last night's nightmare.

Israeli aircraft flew over al-Shifa, the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, leaving hundreds of injured and their family members fearful of a possible strike.

Abu Khaled tried desperately to calm his terrified children as they saw the jets flowing overhead and unleashing tens of light and stun bombs over the hospital's facilities.

"We could not sleep for the rest of the night."

The Israeli military claimed on Monday that a number of senior Hamas leaders were hiding in the hospital.

Many fear the Israeli claims will be used as pretext to target the hospital, which has been overwhelmed with the influx of people injured since Israel unleashed its military juggernaut against Gaza on December 27.

"The hospital is neither a military barrack nor a resistance headquarter," Basem Na'eem, the minister of health in the Gaza government, told IOL.

"Al-Shifa is the only hope left for thousands of victims of the savage Israeli massacre."

Israel has used similar claims as a pretext to bomb out scores of mosques and schools during its onslaught, which has killed more than 550 people so far.

Israeli tanks, artillery and warplanes pounded the impoverished enclave of 1.6 million on Monday, January 5, for the tenth straight day, killing more than 40 people.

Madness

Just like Abu Khaled, Om-Said could not believe it when she was told that the hospital sheltering her injured child could be the next target on Israel's hit list.

"This can not be true! Not hospitals too," Om-Said told her neighbor, Om-Ammar Yasin, shaking her head in disbelief.

"My husband heard it on the Israeli radio," Om-Ammar asserted.

"Beside, they did not respect the houses of God why should hospitals be any safer."

Just as they speak, Israeli warplanes fired tens of light and stun bombs over the hospital.

"The Israelis have gone completely mad," a terrified Om-Said said, holding her son tight.

"Have not they spilled enough blood already?"

Like other doctors in al-Shifa, Raed Harara desperately tried to soothe his horrified patients and their families.

"They started to scream in panic. We tried to calm them but we were panicking ourselves," said Dr. Harara.

"We were telling them 'no way they would hit a hospital,' but deep down we were thinking 'there is nothing the Israelis would not do,'" he added. "They already hit mosques and schools so why not hospitals."

Al-Shifa is not the first Gaza medical facility fearful of a possible Israeli bombardment.

Al-Wafaa Hospital for Disabled has already received a warning from the Israeli military to evacuate before an imminent air strike.

"They warned us to evacuate but where would we go with all the patients, and why?" asked Mohamed Abu-Ryiala, the director of the hospital's boarding facility.

"This is insane. Do the disabled pose a threat to Israel now?"

* Ola Attallah is a correspondent for IslamOnline.net.

Israel Rains Fire on Gaza With Phosphorus Shells

- Sheera Frenkel and Michael Evans, January 5, 2009 -

Israeli Occupation Forces drop white phosphorus during attack on Gaza.

Israel is believed to be using controversial white phosphorus shells to screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip yesterday. The weapon, used by British and US forces in Iraq, can cause horrific burns but is not illegal if used as a smokescreen.

As the Israeli army stormed to the edges of Gaza City and the Palestinian death toll topped 500, the tell-tale shells could be seen spreading tentacles of thick white smoke to cover the troops' advance. "These explosions are fantastic looking, and produce a great deal of smoke that blinds the enemy so that our forces can move in," said one Israeli security expert. Burning blobs of phosphorus would cause severe injuries to anyone caught beneath them and force would-be snipers or operators of remote-controlled booby traps to take cover. Israel admitted using white phosphorus during its 2006 war with Lebanon.

The use of the weapon in the Gaza Strip, one of the world's mostly densely population areas, is likely to ignite yet more controversy over Israel's offensive, in which more than 2,300 Palestinians have been wounded.

The Geneva Treaty of 1980 stipulates that white phosphorus should not be used as a weapon of war in civilian areas, but there is no blanket ban under international law on its use as a smokescreen or for illumination. However, Charles Heyman, a military expert and former major in the British Army, said: "If white phosphorus was deliberately fired at a crowd of people someone would end up in The Hague. White phosphorus is also a terror weapon. The descending blobs of phosphorus will burn when in contact with skin."

The Israeli military last night denied using phosphorus, but refused to say what had been deployed. "Israel uses munitions that are allowed for under international law," said Captain Ishai David, spokesman for the Israel Defence Forces. "We are pressing ahead with the second stage of operations, entering troops in the Gaza Strip to seize areas from which rockets are being launched into Israel."

The civilian toll in the first 24 hours of the ground offensive -- launched after a week of bombardment from air, land and sea- was at least 64 dead. Among those killed were five members of a family who died when an Israeli tank shell hit their car and a paramedic who died when a tank blasted his ambulance. Doctors at Gaza City's main hospital said many women and children were among the dead and wounded.

The Israeli army also suffered its first fatality of the offensive when one of its soldiers was killed by mortar fire. More than 30 soldiers were wounded by mortars, mines and sniper fire.

Israel has brushed aside calls for a ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into the besieged territory, where medical supplies are running short.

With increasingly angry anti-Israeli protests spreading around the world, Gordon Brown described the violence in Gaza as "a dangerous moment."

White Phosphorus: The Smoke-Screen Chemical that Can Burn to the Bone

- White phosphorus bursts into a deep-yellow flame when it is exposed to oxygen, producing a thick white smoke

- It is used as a smokescreen or for incendiary devices, but can also be deployed as an anti-personnel flame compound capable of causing potentially fatal burns

- Phosphorus burns are almost always second or third-degree because the particles do not stop burning on contact with skin until they have entirely disappeared - it is not unknown for them to reach the bone

- Geneva conventions ban the use of phosphorus as an offensive weapon against civilians, but its use as a smokescreen is not prohibited by international law

- Israel previously used white phosphorus during its war with Lebanon in 2006

- It has been used frequently by British and US forces in recent wars, notably during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Its use was criticised widely

- White phosphorus has the slang name "Willy Pete", which dates from the First World War. It was commonly used in the Vietnam era.

(This item was published in the Times Online (UK).)

Israel's Propangada War: Reporters Banned From Gaza

- Arthur Max, Associated Press, January 5, 2009

Israel scrapped arrangements Monday to allow the first foreign reporters into the Gaza Strip since the military launched its offensive against Palestinian militants, adding to mounting media frustration at being locked out of the war zone.

The ban on foreign media, which has been appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court, drew criticism from journalists that Israel is trying to manage the story.

Israel asserts that opening border crossings for journalists would endanger staff at the terminals, which have often been targeted by militants.

The Associated Press and some other news organizations have Palestinian reporters, photographers and cameramen based in Gaza. Many media have no reliable source of independent information.

"The barring of outside news organizations from Gaza hampers the flow of unbiased information of vital interest to the entire world. Authorities on all sides should work to allow access by journalists in keeping with the aims of press freedom," said John Daniszewski, the AP's managing editor for international news.

The Israeli government has long banned Israeli journalists from entering Gaza because of fears for their safety, but foreign reporters previously were permitted in, even during times of heavy fighting.

Human Rights Watch urged Israel to open Gaza to journalists and human rights monitors to report on the actions of both sides. "Their presence can discourage abuse by warring parties and help save lives," the New York-based organization said.

Some 350 reporters have descended on Israel since Dec. 27, when the military launched an intense air war aimed at halting rocket fire from Gaza. Those journalists bolstered a permanent foreign press corps of some 900 media personnel and hundreds more Israelis working for foreign companies.

"Israel has never restricted media access like this before, and it should be ashamed," said Ethan Bronner, The New York Times bureau chief in Jerusalem. "It's betraying the principles by which it claims to live."

The army initially was set to allow eight reporters to cross into Gaza on Friday, under a compromise engineered by the Supreme Court, then postponed it to Monday. But the plan was abandoned as combat intensified around the Erez checkpoint, the main civilian crossing from Israel into Gaza.

The Red Cross aborted the evacuation of 33 foreign passport holders from Gaza. Its bus turned back just 500 yards from the border because of the fighting and an obstacle in the road, Austrian Ambassador Michael Rendi said. Among the passengers were Austrians, Germans, Canadians and Filipinos, most of them married to Palestinians.

Dozens of trucks carrying food and humanitarian aid entered Gaza through a separate cargo crossing farther south.

Daniel Seaman, director of Israel's Government Press Office, said opening the Erez crossing would endanger its staff. But Seaman also asserted the absence of foreign journalists was good for Israel because the Hamas militants who rule Gaza fabricate coverage to make Israel look bad.

"And they get away with it because of the unprofessional cooperation of the foreign press, which takes questionable reports at face value without checking," he said.

Reginald Dale, director of the Transatlantic Media Network and a senior fellow with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Israel's decision to keep out foreign journalists was both practical and ideological.

Military commanders in democracies such as Israel and the U.S. know they are accountable to the press, but they also know the risk of negative public opinion, he said. "They have to establish some sort of balance and it's not easy."

Dale said Israeli officials probably worried about the impact of a foreign reporter being killed or taken hostage by militants or about Hamas learning military plans and positions through news coverage.

He said he found it unlikely Israel expected to limit coverage of civilian deaths, noting that "the Palestinians are sending out videos of casualties."

Mohamed Abdel Dayem, coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa program of the Committee to Protect Journalists, declined to speculate on Israel's motivation but said it was important to have reporters present during fighting.

"There is a need for journalists to be on the ground to document the news stories, and frankly to monitor the behavior of all belligerent parties, whether it is Hamas or the Israeli army," he said. "The presence of the media in any place where war is raging has helped keep violations under check."

Reporters who cannot enter Gaza devote much of their time reporting on rocket attacks by Palestinian militants and filming the damage caused on the Israeli side of the line, or filming Gaza from distant vantage points inside Israel.

Hesna Al Ghaoui, a correspondent for Hungarian television, was reduced to filming her cameraman change a flat tire on their rented car inside Israel, footage she said she would use in a report on how she covered the war. She said she had applied "many times" to enter Gaza.

"I have been reporting from many wars and conflicts, but I have never met such frustration," she said.

In the buildup to its air assault on Gaza, Israel sealed the border to all but the most vital supplies. The only people allowed in or out were urgent medical cases and a few humanitarian workers. Restrictions were further tightened after the air bombardment began.

The Foreign Press Association appealed the ban to the Supreme Court. Without making a final ruling, the court suggested a compromise of sending in a handful of reporters to act as a "pool," sharing their reports with other foreign media.

"We want to honor that decision," army spokesman Doron Spielman said, but he added it would be done only in a way that would not compromise military operations or endanger journalists.

Hamas officials went into hiding after the bombing campaign began and were unavailable for comment. But Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas spokesman, said before the fighting erupted that the ban on journalists was part of an Israeli policy of isolating Gaza internationally.

"This stops outside parties from seeing the crisis taking place in Gaza," he said.

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