Tag: Cast Lead - Page 42 - International Solidarity Movement

7 Minutes

Palestinian exploring a bomb crater in Gaza

Eva Bartlett | In Gaza

15th January 2009

When I’d met the extended Abed Rabbo family, before the ground invasion began, they had just had their house bombed by an F-16. Their area has been occupied by Israeli tanks and soldiers since the ground invasion began. Medical workers cannot reach the injured there, and those who have managed to escape testify to imprisonment in their houses, abuse, point-blank shooting (to death), and a number of dead not yet known. It’s an area Israel views as strategic, lying just hundreds of metres from the eastern border to Israel, a key entry point for invading troops. Past invasions have meant entire families and neighbours being locked into a room of a house for a day, days. Supposition among journalists and those with 2 cents here is that Israel’s intense bombardment of, and destruction of houses in, the area is to both decimate any resistance and to create an alternate ‘road’ for tanks and troops to roll in on, meaning houses in their path are leveled to the ground.

That day, Abu Mahmoud Abed Rabbo had related the events of his house demolition. “A person called me saying he was a spokesperson for the Israeli army and that we had 7 minutes to leave the house before it was bombed. I begged for 10, told him 7 wasn’t enough to collect possessions and get our children out safely. He said 7,” Abed Rabbo explained. His family made it out in time, avoiding the death sentence that has been given so many here, without warning. He said he’d just stood away from the house and watched as it was bombed, watched 20 years of his life be erased, with everything inside it. “I’m just a working man, not Fatah, not Hamas. Just a man. Why did they bomb my house?” he’d asked. “There were 4 families in here, at least 25 children,” he’d added.

We stepped over and around rubble and the bits of house interiors that get melded together in blasts like these, going across the street to a relatives who was then sheltering the family. An elderly woman sat by a wood fire, simmering something in a pot for their meal, no gas to cook over.

We’d continued visiting sites of missile strikes around the Ezbet Abed Rabbo area. A yard with 2 massive craters in it, one from that morning and one from the night before. Looking from a room at the back of a 2 story house, I noticed the damage the F-16 bombs had done not only to the land but also to the houses around. Glass shatered, window frames blown in, safety to the wind…

And on to the next house demolished, in our paths at least, that of Ziad Abud Foul, whose new home was demolished at 2 am January 2nd. The blast, of course, damaged the surrounding buildings, cutting chunks out of walls and sending rubble and shrapnel flying dangerously.

This family is very likely now among the dead.

Five injured during Bil’in demonstration

Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Apartheid Wall and Settlements

Friday 16th January 2009

Residents of Bil’in demonstrate against the Israeli’s rejection of the international efforts for ceasefire.

The residents of Bil’in today gathered after the Friday prayer in an act of solidarity with the people of Gaza. They were joined by international activists and the Israeli Anarchists Against the Wall, all opposing the war on Gaza. The protesters carried Palestinian, Venezuelan, and Bolivian flags, in a show of support for the two South American countries who, this week, cut diplomatic ties with Israel due to the war on Gaza.

The demonstration was symbolically silent, as the protesters wore the UN, EU, and the Arab League flags on their chests and carried shoes bearing Israeli and American flags in their mouths, to symbolize the power the two countries have to gag that rest of the world. Other demonstrators wearing the three flags covered their mouths with tape to show the world’s silence presented by the UN, EU and the Arab League against the Israeli massacres in Gaza.

The values of human rights and respect that the international law protect are being violated by the Israeli and the American government, all these rights and decisions are denied by Israel.

The protest marched towards the wall which is built on Bil’in’s land, the Israeli army was behind concrete blocks and fired tear gas canisters as soon as the crowed got closer. The army chased the protest back to the village using rubber coated steel bullets and tear gas. Dozens suffered tear gas inhalation and four were shot with live bullets: Their names are Abdullah Ahmad Yasen, Yasen Mohammed Yasen, Wajdi Abu Rahme and Mohammed Shukat Al- Khatib.

The Israeli army kidnapped Rashad Abed Dar-Aldeik yesterday (15th January) when he was near the Apartheid Wall. He was taken to Ofer prison

‘Israeli produce boycotted’

Yair Hason | Ynet

Farmers claim UK, Jordan boycotting Israeli fruit: Fruit growers disappointed by canceled orders from abroad, leaving produce to rot in warehouses

Fruit growers in Israel have reported delays and reductions in orders from abroad since the military operation in Gaza was launched, due to various boycotts against Israeli produce.

Farmers say much of their produce is being held in warehouses due to canceled orders, and fear a sharp decrease in fruit exports to countries such as Jordan, Britain, and the Scandinavian countries.

“We export persimmons, and because of the fighting a number of countries and distributors are canceling orders,” Giora Almagor, of the southern town of Bitzaron, told Ynet. He said some of the produce had already been shipped while some was awaiting shipment in warehouses.

Almagor said a large number of cancellations came from Jordan. “The produce stays packed in warehouses, and this is causing us massive losses,” he said.

“The longer the fruit waits in storage after sorting, the more its quality decreases. We also have to pay for cooling the merchandise that should have already left, and the cost in considerable,” he added.

Ilan Eshel, director of the Organization of Fruit Growers in Israel, said Scandinavian countries have also been canceling orders. “It’s mostly Sweden, Norway, and Denmark,” he said. “In Scandinavia the tendency is general, and it may come to include all of the chains.”

Eshel says the boycott did not exist before the Gaza offensive was launched. “It’s getting worse, and more voices can be heard calling to boycott Israeli merchandise,” he said. “Until the operation began we had excellent business, though the economic recession in Europe was causing a slight fall in the market.”

He added that winter was an especially difficult season to be unable to export fruit, because the avocado, persimmon, and citrus markets are at their height.

Eyewitness from Al Quds Hospital attack

Sharon Lock | The Independent

View from Gaza: The ambulance driver
Sharon Lock, an Australian from the International Solidarity Movement, was working as an ambulance driver for the Palestinian Red Crescent when its Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City came under Israeli attack yesterday.

One shell landed outside the building about 10 yards from the incubators for new babies. We were putting fires out with buckets of water. The shrapnel seems to burn for a long time and it starts fires if it is not put out. We were just dealing with that when we heard shooting from the front steps of the hospital and my colleague Mohammed came to me covered with blood. ‘Israelis are shooting at people who are leaving their houses,’ he said. What happened was that a father and mother and two daughters had left their home, one of the daughters had gone missing and the other was shot. The bullet went through one cheek and out the other. As the father was coming up the steps he fell, shot as well. They didn’t know where the other daughter was. Mohammed and I decided to go out and find her. We found her hiding in a house. I would say she was about nine. She was very frightened.

Patients and refugees evacuated as Al-Quds hospital burns

1am, 16th January 2009, Gaza City

Al-Quds hospital has been evacuated after the central building of the hospital was set ablaze. Patients and those seeking refuge in the hospital have been transferred to Al-Shifa hospital.

Al-Quds hospital has been surrounded by Israeli forces since 1:30am, 15th January. The fire is spreading too fast to be dealt with and the surrounding Israeli forces would not allow fire services access so as to combat the blaze.

Australian Human Rights Activist Sharon Lock was at al-Shifa hospital as the last evacuees were brought in;

The hospital is unbelievably crowded. After around 600 people had gone to Al-Quds hospital, they then had to leave again. They thought they had found somewhere safe, but nowhere is safe here.

Spanish Human Rights Activist Alberto Arce is also at Al-Shifa hospital,

It is chaos here. There are so many people. One doctor is having to operate on four people at the same time. People are being treated out in the corridors. People are outside and cannot get in.

Al-Quds hospital has been repeatedly shelled by the Israeli military. The storage facility has been ablaze throughout the day.

Families seeking refuge within the Al-Quds hospital were earlier fired upon by Israeli snipers. A nine year old girl is in critical condition in al-Shifa hospital after being shot in the face and abdomen. her father was also shot in the leg as they attempted to make it to the hospital.