15th January 2009: Interview with Sharon Locke of the International Solidarity Movement from within Al Quds Hospital, Tel al Huwa neighbourhood
Tag: Gaza
Israeli military shell UNRWA school
17th January 2009, Beit Lahiya, Gaza: An UNRWA school in Beit Lahiya is being shelled by the Israeli Army. International Human Rights Activists are at the scene, assisting in the evacuation of families to neighboring buildings.
Irish Human Rights Activist Caoimhe Butterly said;
One UNWRA school was hit this morning. Two young children, ages 4 and 8, were killed. We don’t yet have an accurate count of the injured but there is at least one person with leg amputations as a result of the air-strike. There is an exodus of families now who are leaving, terrified, with possessions in hand, trying to get to safety. But there is no safe space in Gaza and I believe that has been made very clear to people.
British citizen Ewa Jasiewicz added;
It looks like a missile initially hit the UNRWA school around 6.30 this morning. The building was surrounded by black smoke and we saw them drop white phosphorous. As we were assisting in evacuating people from the building, it was hit with phosphorous again. We picked up a 5 year old girl who was injured by shrapnel on the way out from the school, and saw another phosphorous bomb hitting the school. There were no fighters in the area, according to the UN shelter manager, only civilians. This is a war crime.
Medics from the area have also reported that due to the severe fuel shortages in the Gaza Strip, there are some ambulances that cannot assist in the evacuation.
Israeli forces kill seventeen year old as Hebron demonstrates in solidarity with Gaza
The Israeli soldiers opened fire on the crowd assembling near the Wasaya Rasol mosque before the demonstration had even begun. A large barrage of tear gas dispersed some of the people nearest the soldiers, but the demonstrators quickly reassembled. The soldiers retreated up the street as protesters advanced throwing stones.
The death and several injuries occurred in the first half hour of the protest as the soldiers fired rubber coated steel bullets and live ammunition in addition to the tear gas. Soldiers fired on the demonstrators from various locations including rooftops.
The funeral began at Al Hussein mosque with the body then transferred to the Cemetery of the Martyrs in the Haret Al Sheikh neighborhood in Hebron.
This Friday’s demonstration was the second major demonstration in the Abu Sneineh neighborhood following a turnout of 5,000 – 7,000 on the previous Friday. Many other demonstrations and protests occurred in Hebron this Friday including the entrance to the Old City near the Bab Al-Zawiye neighborhood. There also, stone throwing youths were attacked with tear gas and rubber coated bullets.
7 Minutes
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’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