January 11, Ben Gurion Airport — Israel has stopped one Swedish and one Danish human rights activist from entering the country through Ben Gurion Airport.
On Sunday morning, Andreas Kaivarainen and Fie Knutsenwere were taken for questioning. Israeli authorities insisted that the individuals post $5,000 as a guarantee that they would not engage in political activities. When the activists insisted they could not pay the bail, Israeli authorities contacted the Swedish and Danish embassies. The embassies were told by Israel that the activists were trying to get into Gaza.
However impossible it is to enter Gaza due to the ongoing siege, the Israeli government is taking extreme measures to ensure that journalists and activists do not have access to Gaza. Although these two activists have never been to Israel/Palestine, the Israeli authorities are erroneously claiming that they have intentions to enter Gaza. Even though denying the activists entry is unwarranted, Israeli authorities are currently holding the internationals in a detention facility near the airport. They are refusing deportation and insisting that the reason for their denial of entry is misleading.
Israel is so intent on forcefully preventing international observers from entering Gaza that they stopped two internationals with no route to enter Gaza. Due to the ongoing siege, internationals have only been able to enter Gaza with the Free Gaza Movement’s boat, the SS Dignity. The last attempt by the FGM was violently stopped when the Israeli navy rammed into the SS Dignity.
Fie Knutsenwere was deported at 4am on the 12th January.
Friday night, Red Crescent ambulances in Jabaliya collected numerous victims of smoke inhalation: a strange chemical smoke which seizes the lungs and air passage, and suffocates the victims. Many elderly were collected in turns, and a 3 month old baby was brought in held by a sobbing mother.
At least, at least we were able to reach them. A Palestinian Red Crescent dispatcher has received what he says is hundreds of calls from the northern Gaza area alone, which have been left unanswered as the areas are under Israeli military occupation.
A glimpse of some of the cases one ambulance took during a brief 6 hours:
Abu Sheradha was kept trapped within his home in eastern Jabaliya.
Souad was shot in both right and left arms and the left side of her abdomen.
Souad’s injuries
Ahmed and least 4 others were kept locked in their home at gunpoint by Israeli soldiers.
Delivering a pregnant woman to hospital.
Gas inhalation case, Jabaliya
Ahmed with relative Safhia, 60, shot in wrist and shin and punched in the face. Her husband was shot dead by the Israeli army soldiers and his body is still in the house they fled, she said.
Teenager critically wounded in Israeli missile strike, Jabaliya area
Teenager critically wounded in Israeli missile strike, Jabaliya area
This baby, killed in an explosion, was then run over by an Israeli tank, according to aid workers who eventually retrieved the body. Photo: Mohammed from Khan Younis.
A Palestinian medic, traveling with two International Solidarity Movement volunteers, has been shot by Israeli forces in Jabaliya, northern Gaza.
Red Crescent medic, Hassan al-Attal, was shot through the thigh while collecting a civilian killed by Israeli fire from Zemmo, east of Jabaliya refugee camp.
The FGM will sail to Gaza with humanitarian supplies on TuesdayFor Immediate Release:
(Cyprus, 11 January 2009) – The Free Gaza Movement ship, “SPIRIT OF HUMANITY,” will leave Larnaca Port at 12:00 noon, Monday, 12 January,
on an emergency mission to besieged Gaza. The ship will carry desperately needed doctors, journalists, human rights workers, and members of several European parliaments as well as medical supplies. This voyage marks Free Gaza’s second attempt to break through the blockade since Israel began attacking the Gaza Strip on 27 December. Between August and December 2008, the Free Gaza Movement successfully challenged the Israeli blockade five times, landing the first international ships in the port of Gaza since 1967.
The Israeli military violently attacked an earlier attempt by the Free Gaza Movement to send an emergency boat filled with doctors and medical supplies to Gaza. In the early hours of Tuesday, 30 December, the Israeli navy deliberately, repeatedly, and without warning rammed the unarmed ship, the DIGNITY, causing significant structural damage and endangering the lives of its passengers and crew. The ship found safe harbor in Lebanon, and is currently awaiting repairs.
Fouad Ahidar, a member of the Belgian Parliament sailing to Gaza aboard the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, responded to concerns that Israel may attack the unarmed mercy ship by saying, “I have five children that are very worried about me, but I told them, you can sit on your couch and watch these atrocities on the television, or you can choose to take action to make them stop.”
Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have injured thousands of civilians and killed over 800 people, including scores of women and children. This ongoing Israeli massacre severely and massively violates international humanitarian law defined by the Geneva Conventions, especially the obligations of an Occupying Power and the requirements of the laws of war.
The United Nations has failed to protect the Palestinian civilian population from Israel’s massive violations of international humanitarian law. Israel has closed off Gaza from the international community and demanded that all foreigners leave. But Huwaida Arraf, an organizer with the Free Gaza Movement, stated that, “We cannot just sit by and wait for Israel to decide to stop the killing and open the borders for relief workers to pick up the pieces. We are coming in. There is an urgent need for this mission as Palestinian civilians in Gaza are being terrorized and slaughtered by Israel, and access to humanitarian relief denied to them. When states and the international bodies responsible for taking action to stop such atrocities chose to be impotent, then we–the citizens of the world–must act. Our common humanity demands nothing less.”
Israel has been notified that we are coming. A copy of the notification to the Israeli Authorities is attached.
The media is invited to the Larnaca Port at 10:00am to for final preparations and a press conference before departure.
What you can do:
Take Action! CALL the Israeli Government and let them know that the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY is coming to Gaza. DEMAND that Israel immediately STOP slaughtering civilians in Gaza and STOP using violence to prevent human rights and humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people.
CALL Mark Regev in the Prime Minister’s office: +972 2670 5354 or +972 5 0620 3264
mark.regev@it.pmo.gov.ilThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Shlomo Dror in the Ministry of Defence: +972 3697 5339 or +972 50629 8148
mediasar@mod.gov.ilThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Major Liebovitz from the Israeli Navy: + 972 5 781 86248
Official Notification of Intent to Enter
January 11, 2009
To: The Israeli Ministry of Defense, Fax: 972-3-697-6717
To: The Israeli Navy
To: The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Fax 972-2-5303367
From: The Free Gaza Movement
This letter serves as a formal notification to you as the Occupying Power and belligerent force in the Gaza Strip that on Monday, January 12 we are navigating the motor vessel, Spirit of Humanity, from the Port of Larnaca to the port of Gaza City. Our vessel will be flying the Greek flag, and, as such, falls under the jurisdiction of Greece.
We will be sailing from Cypriot waters into international waters, then directly into the territorial waters of the Gaza Strip without entering or nearing Israeli territorial waters. We expect to arrive at the Gaza Port on Tuesday, January 13, 2009.
We will be carrying urgently needed medical supplies in sealed boxes, cleared by customs at the Larnaca International Airport and the Port of Larnaca. There will be a total of 30 passengers and crew on board, among them members of various European Parliaments and several physicians. Our boat and cargo will also have received security clearance from the Port Authorities in Cyprus before we depart.
As it will be confirmed that neither we, the cargo, any of the boat’s contents, nor the boat itself constitute any threat to the security of Israel or its armed forces, we do not expect any interference with our voyage by Israel’s authorities.
On Tuesday, December 30, an Israeli Navy vessel violently, and without warning, attacked our motor vessel Dignity, disabling the vessel and endangering the lives of the 16 civilians on board. This notice serves as clear notification to you of our approach. Any attack on the motor vessel, Spirit of Humanity, will be premeditated and any harm inflicted on the 30 civilians on board will be considered the result of a deliberate attack on unarmed civilians.
European MEPs enter GazaLuisa Morgantini, Vice President of the European Parliament, and the MEPs delegation entered to Gaza Strip, today 11th January 2009, through Rafah border crossing.
The delegation – composed by 8 MEPs belonging to different political groups and by one Member of the Italian Senate – will stay in Gaza from Saturday 10 to Tuesday 13 January, when the MEPs will come back to Strasbourg to report back about the situation to the Plenary session of the EU Parliament and they will hold a press conference.
In Gaza the delegation will be staying with UNRWA and visit refugee camps, hospitals and towns.
The MEPs are grateful to the Egyptian Authority and UNRWA for their cooperation and support.
MEPs Participants:
Luisa Morgantini (Italy)
David Hammerstein Mintz (Spain)
Hélène Flautre (France)
Véronique de Keyser (Belgium)
Miguel Portas (Porturgal)
Feleknas Uca (Germany)
Chris Davies (UK)
Kyriacos Triantaphyllides (Cypre)
Alberto Maritati (Italy) Member of the Italian Senate
