November 16, 2012 - No. 145

Oppose the Zionist "Operation Pillar of Defence"

Occupation Forces Continue Criminal Assault
on Gaza

Palestine, November 16, 2012

Oppose the Zionist "Operation Pillar of Defence"
• Occupation Forces Continue Criminal Assault on Gaza
• Israel Blocks Medical Supplies
• Ramallah Youth Succeed in Entering Occupation Army Camp
to Raise Palestinian Flags
• Eyewitness Reports
• World-wide Emergency Actions

Oppose the Zionist "Operation Pillar of Defence"

Occupation Forces Continue Criminal Assault
on Gaza

Emergency Demonstrations Continue
Click here

Demonstration in Ramallah, November 15

Since Israel launched its criminal operation Pillar of Defence, the Israeli army is widening its assault against the civilians in Gaza, bombarding their homes and lands.

Bil'in, November 15

Israel bombed Gaza City over 40 times overnight Thursday. Rafah, Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah and Bureij refugee camp were also hit, injuring at least 12 people.

Israel's military said in a statement that it had targeted 150 rocket launching sites and ammunition storage facilities overnight.

The Khan Younis home of al-Qassam Brigades commander Mohammad Sanour was hit at dawn, injuring two people. Sanour was not home at the time, local sources said.

The Israeli military said its aircraft targeted "a central terror activity site in the southern Gaza strip in order to harm the command and control posts of the Hamas terror organization."

Ashraf al-Qodra, spokesperson of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, reported that Israeli war jets fired a missile at a civilian car in Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza, killing three children. The slain children were identified as Fares al-Basyouni, 9, and brothers Odai Jamal Nasser and Tareq Jamal Nasser, 16 and 14 respectively, raising the death toll in Gaza to 19.

The aerial bombardment set off earth-shaking thuds and fireballs in the dark sky and were met with screeches of Palestinian rocket fire launched from the outskirts of Gaza City towards southern Israel, witnesses say.

One of the sites targeted by Israel was an electricity generator that supplied the house of Hamas's Prime Minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh. It was unclear whether he was at home at the time.

Witnesses told Ma'an News Agency that violent explosions across Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood set a high-rise building ablaze, with flames lighting Gaza's sky. Several injured, including women, were brought to Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital, a Ma'an correspondent said.

Israeli planes hit the marine police headquarters in Deir al-Balah, which has been destroyed repeatedly in Israeli airstrikes, witnesses said.

Night march in Nablus, November 15

On Friday morning, more than 30 air strikes were reported against different areas of Gaza in less than 30 minutes. "Israeli war planes carried out the 30 attacks, targeting civilian areas, resistance centers and buildings that belong to the Ministry of Interior leading to extensive damage including to a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza. Palestinian security centers were bombed in addition to the missile which hit the Civilian Branch of the Ministry of Interior, west of Gaza City.

In Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, the army bombarded another UNRWA school also causing extensive damage. The Ahrar Center for Detainees' Studies, reported that the Israeli army also bombarded a church under construction in Gaza City causing damage.

Ministry of Interior Bombed

When Israel bombed the civil affairs department of the Ministry of Interior in Gaza City, Ma'an News Agency reported: "Emergency crews extinguished a huge blaze at the ministry in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood as ambulances transferred wounded Palestinians from residential buildings in the area. Ministry officials reassured citizens that more than 90 per cent of personal files and papers were saved electronically and could still be accessed. The building contained 70 years of records of the Palestinian civil registry, the ministry said. Israeli shelling of security and civil headquarters will not discourage the government from working, the ministry added.

Israel says it has targeted 450 "terror activity sites" in the Gaza Strip since it launched its operation on November 14, after assassinating the head of the al-Qassam Brigades Ahmad al-Jabari in Gaza City.

Responding to the Israeli military escalation, Palestinian armed groups in Gaza claimed responsibility for firing dozens of shells into Israel, including shells that hit Tel Aviv, Ashdod, and several other areas. The resistance said that it will continue to defend its people who are, living under constant Israeli attacks and violations, and as long as Israel continues to kill and injure civilians, including children. Three Israelis were killed by Palestinian shells, and several others were injured.

Palestinians Protest in the West Bank

Huwwara (left) andBil'in, November 15

It is reported that thousands of Palestinians also held protests in different parts of the occupied West Bank to denounce the ongoing Israeli military aggression against Gaza. The army fired rounds of live ammunition, gas bombs, concussion grenades and rubber-coated metal bullets at demonstrators in theWest Bank City of Ramallah leading to a number of injuries.

A sit-in in solidarity with the Gaza Strip was also held in the Manara roundabout in downtown Ramallah.

The protestors called on the resistance factions in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to escalate the resistance against the Israeli occupation in response to the aggression against the Palestinian people in the Strip. They denounced the assassination of Qassam Brigades' leader Ahmed al-Jabari on Wednesday afternoon in Gaza City by Israeli forces.

The cities of Ramallah and Al-Bireh witnessed many rallies condemning the occupation aggression.

Hebron, November 15

Clashes were reported in different parts of the Hebron district, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank, and the soldiers kidnapped three Palestinians.

Injuries were reported in Jenin and Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank during clashes with the army and a number of residents were kidnapped.

The army also occupied a school in Jenin and turned it into a military base.

Soldiers also invaded Beit Sahour and Beit Jala in the West Bank district of Bethlehem and clashed with local residents who hurled stones at the invading forces.

Egyptian Prime Minister Visits Gaza Strip

In other news, a senior Israeli government official said Israel will stop its offensive action in the Gaza Strip during a three-hour visit by Egypt's Prime Minister Hisham Kandil who is expected to visit the Gaza Strip on November 16 "in an unprecedented display of solidarity with Palestinians embroiled in a new escalation of conflict with Israel."

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to an Egyptian request to cease all offensive operations in Gaza during the visit of the Egyptian prime minister there this morning, which is supposed to last for about three hours," the official said.

"In the answer that has been forwarded to Egyptians, we've said that the (Israeli military) will cease fire on the condition that there won't be fire from Gaza into Israel during that period," the official said.

Israel Blocks Medical Supplies

Ma'an News Agency said that the Palestinian Authority reported that Israel has held up medical supplies for the Gaza Strip at a checkpoint since Thursday morning.

Palestinian Authority Health Minister Hani Abdeen told Ma'an the Ramallah-based government had sent 15 trucks with 200 boxes of medicine and medical supplies to the Gaza Strip.

"We sent the first batch of medications this morning and it's now waiting at Israeli checkpoints for permission to pass to Gaza," Abdeen said.

The minister said international organizations had promised to help the Palestinian Authority get Israeli permission to deliver medicine to the Gaza Strip.

Activists point out that Articles 55 and 56 of the Fourth Geneva Convention clearly establish that Israel, as the occupying power, not only has a duty to ensure medical supplies reach hospitals in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, but to ensure and maintain the services of the hospitals too. As High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions, other states not only have a moral duty but also a legal obligation to ensure Israel abides by its commitments to the protected population of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

As a States Party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Israel is obliged under Article 24 of the treaty to recognize the right of every child under its effective jurisdiction "to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and to facilities for the treatment of illness and rehabilitation of health. States Parties shall strive to ensure that no child is deprived of his or her right of access to such health care services."

(IMEMC, Ma'an News Agency, Palestine Information Center)

Ramallah Youth Succeed in Entering Occupation Army Camp to Raise Palestinian Flags

News reports inform that scores of Palestinian youth succeeded in storming the biggest military camp of the occupation army in Beit El settlement, east of Ramallah on the West Bank on the afternoon of November 15 where they raised Palestinian flags. They held the action to denounce the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, noting that the occupation forces declared a state of alert inside the camp and closed the streets leading up to it.

The sources said that the Israeli occupation forces transferred heavy military equipment from inside the camps near the city of Jerusalem to an unknown destination, amid reports of Israeli expectations of the deterioration of the situation in the West Bank and the outbreak of a third popular Intifada (uprising) similar to the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000.

Meanwhile, confrontations took place between hundreds of youth and Israeli soldiers near the Ofer prison, south of the occupied city of Ramallah, in solidarity with the Gaza Strip.

Local sources reported that hundreds of youth carrying Palestinian flags clashed with occupation soldiers in the vicinity of the prison after a spontaneous march was launched from there down to the checkpoint.

(IMEMC, Ma'an News Agency, Palestine Information Center)

Eyewitness Reports

- November 16, 2012 -

The Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip have entered their third day. We write this report amid the sound of incessant bombings which continued all day yesterday and throughout the night.

The military escalation carried out by the Israeli Army continues all over the Gaza Strip. From Gaza City, we hear the incessant noise of drones and F-16 fighter jets crashing through the sky above our heads. Bombs repeatedly fall in our surroundings, in densely populated civilian areas. At this point, Israeli air forces have conducted nearly 200 airstrikes, bringing the death toll to 19. Among the casualties are ten civilians, including six children and one woman. More than 180 people have been injured by the attacks, the vast majority civilians. The areas targeted included Beit Hanoun, Jabalia refugee camp, Sheikh Radwan and al-Nasser neighbourhoods in Gaza City, Maghazi, Deir El Balah, Khan Younis, and the tunnel area in Rafah.

Yesterday we visited Al Shifa hospital, where most of the injured are brought. There we spoke with doctors, patients, their relatives, and witnesses about what they are going through in the current escalation in the Gaza Strip. We wish to share some of the stories of the people we met.

Salem Waqef, a 40-year old man, was severely injured when his home was destroyed in an attack during the early morning of November 15. His doctors say Salem suffered a brain injury when he was deprived of oxygen. He was brought into the International Care Unit of Al Shifa hospital at 5 am where he was placed on a ventilator. He remains in a coma and the doctors say he was in serious condition.

At approximately 1:10 pm, as we were leaving the ICU, a 10-month old girl, Haneen Tafesh, was brought into the ward. She was unconscious and her tiny body was grey. She had suffered a skull fracture and brain haemorrhage, which resulted from an attack that took place at around 11am yesterday in Gaza's Sabra neighbourhood. She was in a coma and on mechanical ventilation. Later in the afternoon, we checked how Haneen was doing and doctors said her condition had deteriorated. After returning home in the evening, we learned that she had died.

Ahmed Durghmush is in his early twenties and was brought to Al Shifa ICU at around 9 pm Wednesday night, 14 November, after he was injured by an airstrike carried out on the Tel al Hawa neighbourhood in Gaza City. He had suffered a severe brain trauma, caused by shrapnel from an explosion. Dr Fauzi Nablusia, a doctor in the ICU, explained that, when Ahmed arrived, some of his brain matter was protruding from his head wound. He suffered a brain haemorrhage and was operated on. When we asked doctors about Ahmed's condition later today, they said it had deteriorated. A relative was standing over Ahmed's bed, expressing his feelings of powerlessness and fear for Ahmed's fate.

The emergency room was dealing with spikes in victim arrivals throughout the day. One of those brought in was 5-year old Basma Mahmoud el Tourouq from Rimal neighbourhood, Gaza City. She was injured in an airstrike near her home around 2:30 pm today. The shockwave of the explosion threw her across her bedroom, causing her lower arm to be fractured as she fell on the floor.

We later listened to the stories of some of the injured children, women and men and their relatives who had been moved up to the different wards of Al Shifa hospital.

Mohammed Abu Amsha, a two and half year old boy, was injured while he was sitting in front of his grandfather's house in Beit Hanoun. An F16 fired a missile nearby, and scattering rubble struck him in the head. As we were about to leave, Mohammed's father mentioned that Mohammed's uncle had also been injured.

Zuhdiye Samour, a mother and grandmother from Beach refugee camp in western Gaza City, was still visibly shaken by what had happened when she shared her story: "We were sitting together in our house. It was around 8:30 in the evening and we were watching TV, playing films so that the children would be less afraid. Then, we heard the sound of 12 shells being fired from gunboats in the sea." Zuhdiye and three other civilians were injured as shells dropped in her neighbourhood, a residential area in the north of Gaza City.

Khalid Hamad, the Director of Public Information for the Ministry of Justice, was one of the other civilians injured in the indiscriminate attack of the residential area. He was at home with his family in Nabarat, Northern Gaza City, when they heard the sound of shelling, targeting a neighbour's home. A number of people in the neighbourhood rushed outside to help and were targeted by a series of six additional shells. Hamad's teenage nephew was lightly injured, and another man received shrapnel wounds. "They targeted civilians deliberately," he said. "The Israeli forces don't make mistakes."

A 13-year old girl, Duaa Hejazi, was coming back to her home in Gaza's Sabra neighbourhood, after a walk with her mother and siblings, when an Israeli missile fired on the road in front of their home around 8 o'clock at night. "I was bleeding a lot. My brother was injured too, in his hand. The neighbours brought me to the hospital." Duaa sustained shrapnel injuries throughout her upper body, with some pieces still imbedded in her chest. She would like to pass on a message to other children, living outside of Gaza:

"I say, we are children. There is nothing that is our fault to have to face this. They are occupying us and I will say, as Abu Omar said, "If you're a mountain, the wind won't shake you." We're not afraid, we'll stay strong."

During our time at al Shifa we also met with Dr Mithad Abbas, the Director General of the hospital. When we asked him about the ways in which Shifa hospital is coping with the incoming patients, he said, "When those cases arrive at our hospital, it is not under normal circumstances. They come on top of the siege, the blockade, which has resulted in a lack of vital medicines and required medical supplies." The hospital lacks essential basic medicines and supplies, such as antibiotics, IV fluid, anesthesia, gloves, catheters, external fixators, Heparin, sutures, detergents and spare parts for medical equipment.

The hospital also relies on a store of fuel, which provides power during the daily electricity cuts. If power cuts reach the level of more than 12 hours per day, Dr Abbas estimates that the hospital only has enough fuel in storage to run for approximately one week.

Hospital staff are encountering chaotic and emotional scenes, as hallways and rooms become overcrowded with people trying to ascertain whether their relatives or friends have been hurt. "People enter the emergency room in panic, looking for their relatives. It is very difficult to deal with," says Abbas.

No one knows where the next missile will hit, no one knows where they can be safe. Parents are unable to keep their children safe, let alone provide them a sense of safety.

These are the names of the martyrs killed in the attacks:

1- Walid Abadlah, 2 1/2 years
2- Marwan Abu Al-Qumsan, 52 years
3- Ramai Hamamd
4- Khalid Abu Al-Nasser
5- Habes Mesbeh, 30 years
6- Wael Al-Ghalban
7- Hisham Al-Ghalban
8- Ahmed Al-Jaabari, 52 years
9- Mohammed Al-Hams
10- Ranan Arafat, 3 years
11- Essam Abu El-Mazzah, 20 years
12- Hani Al-Kaseeh, 18 years
13- Ahmed Al-Masharawi, 11 months
14- Hiba Al-Masharawi, 19 years, pregnant woman
15- Mahmud Sawaween, 65 years old
16- Hanin Tafish, 10 months
17- Tareq Jamal Nasser, 16 years
18- Oday Jamal Nasser, 14 years
19- Fares al-Basyouni

For further information, please contact:
Adie Mormech (British) +972 (0) 592280943
Adriana (Italian, Spanish) +972 (0) 597241318
Gisela Schmidt Martin (Irish) +972 (0) 592778020 blipfoto.com/GiselaClaire
Joe Catron (United States) +972 (0) 595594326 twitter.com/jncatron
Lydia de Leeuw (Dutch) +972 (0) 597478455 asecondglance.wordpress.com
Meri (Italian) +972(0)598563299

We are a group of internationals living in the Gaza Strip, working in the fields of journalism, human rights, education, and agriculture. We seek to defend and advocate for the rights of Palestinians in the context of the Israeli occupation and military operations. Besides being eyewitnesses ourselves, we gather our information from our personal networks across the Gaza Strip, from local media reports, medical staff, and local and international NGOs in Gaza.

We verify the information we send out and hope our reports will contribute to accurate media coverage of the situation in Gaza.